Gfamily

Coming up this weekend,  on a combination of Zoom and internet radio, Solarsphere 2020

The weekend schedule is here.

https://www.solarsphere.events/

Whether Android keeps the App going may depend on the Battery optimisation settings, so if you go into the System settings for the SynScan  app, via the main system menu, you should be able to turn off optimisation and keep it running in the background.

Ah, you've left your lens cap on.

Only joking, but - have you tried shining a flashlight down the aperture? That will give you an indication of whether it's a scope issue or a camera issue.

If shining a light down the aperture produces a response, then look at a bright street light, that should let you get an idea of how far out of focus your are and work out what gain setting is needed

Then, if you know your finder is well aligned with the scope, you could try getting focus on Jupiter, or if you're not sure about the finder alignment wait until the moon  comes up.

On another forum someone in Bristol is seeing lightning that lightningmaps.org is saying is over Coventry.

We're seeing lightning that's well over 30 miles away. 

8 minutes ago, Helen said:

Ok, sorry for confusion for the early adopters!  Would you mind giving it another go - I'd hate to lose your contributions @MarkAR @JeremyS https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wAnIrSwLEKPbyW4KesCWinFfjjlPjqqZ3cMHalKXPJI/viewform?edit_requested=true

Thanks 

Helen

 I suggest you edit your initial post to include the correct URL as people are more likely to click on the first one they see (I know I did ! )

Do you want us to resubmit or can you use our original responses? 

And am I ok to share with my club members (we're a physical group with a Facebook group page)?

There's an interesting discussion to be had on sensitivity to language and how it may impact on different communities - including the dominant community and how it feels when things like this happen. 

But probably not here.

7 hours ago, JamesF said:

Best I can find (though without any references) is that "eskimo" has some history of being used in a racist manner and as a result there are people (perhaps restricted to some groups of Inuit) who object to the word as a result, whilst others (including other Inuit groups) don't have a problem with it and even continue using it.  And I've learned loads that will possibly only ever be useful to me in a pub quiz.

So can we call it the Inuit Nebula or the Yupik Nebula instead?

James

Why the insistence on naming it after them anyway? 

It's a genuine change of approach by NASA. If NGC 2392 was being named now, they wouldn't use the colonialist term 'Eskimo', so it's good that NASA are being sensitive about the origins of the nickname.

2 hours ago, Naveen said:

the two star one seems to work, no north alignment needed - just point to first item and manually centre, it then picks the other item reasonably ok.. not sure whats slipping but this seems to be working better.

 

 

You can do this as a rough and ready 'one star' align if you just want to get a quick tracking set up for looking at the moon or bright planets

Select 2 star align and centre on the first star. Let it go off and look for the second star - but no need to bother checking, just do the 'up / right' to allow you to confirm.

It's very likely to be close enough to be able to find a bright target in the finder, and it should track well enough.

I prefer to start with the 2 star alignment as that lets me manually set position on my own choice of #1 star.

When moving to the #2 star, if all is well it should be close enough to the second star; if it's way off, I'd check whether the app has permission to get the location and time.

Do pass on our appreciation to Chris. We are very lucky to have him give so much of his time to us, but I guess it works both ways, especially for him !

He will be speaking on http://www.astroradio.earth/ as part of the Online Solarsphere Festival next weekend. His talk is at 2:30 on Sunday, but check out the other speakers too, over Saturday and Sunday.

On 08/08/2020 at 16:22, batemantom said:

Forgot to mention before, I also tried using an old XBOX 360 webcam. It worked well... Until i noticed all the dead pixels....😠

C-ex in UK will sell you a second hand Ps3-Eye for £4 (they only used to be 50p!).

With some hacking and a 1.25" nosepiece (and a download of a suitable Windows driver), you can get images on Sharpcap etc

Cheers

So long as your scope doesn't include an electronic compass, it shouldn't make a difference.

The line of text immediately above the link for the zoom meeting says it's on 5th Aug, rather than 9th.

Can you confirm the day? 

Also, is there a limit to how many can attend?

In fact, your point #1 isn't really an issue, moving the scope a few metres in either direction isn't going to make a difference. 

Point #2 is more of a realistic limitation. Yes, in principle, an electronic compass could assist with finding magnetic north, but the system would then have to apply the correction for the magnetic declination, which itself varies by location and over time.

Given #2, #3 is not really relevant, and #4 is more a guiding / tracking issue than an alignment issue.

But enough of the theory, how are you finding things in practice 😀

Although the GPS can easily determine the position of the telescope on the Earth's surface, it needs to know how the telescope is pointing relative to North and also whether there is any tilt to the telescope mount. 

There's no issue with knowing the position of the stars and planets on the sky, but it's the alignment of the telescope here on earth that needs to be confirmed. This is similar to the way the Satnav in your car doesn't know which way you're pointing until you start moving. 

And for astro, ideally, this would be to within a small fraction of a degree. 

For 'where to stargaze' queries, it's worth checking https://gostargazing.co.uk which shows locations and events.

However, with clubs not meeting at the moment, not all clubs are showing up even if they are currently hosting virtual events.

An alternative site for county by county lists is here, showing two clubs in Dorset, at Wimbourne and Weymouth (may not be up to date)

http://www.astronomyclubs.co.uk/Clubs/Default.aspx?CountyId=28

2 hours ago, Starwatcher2001 said:

Don't know what your skies were like when you looked at M13, but ours were poor last night with high whispy clouds. I looked at M15 (another globular cluster) in my 9.25" SCT and it looked pretty poor.

Yes, sky quality makes a huge difference. This is a mock up of the difference between what I saw two weeks apart, first at a dark site in Wales and then my home 'edge of town' view for M13

12 minutes ago, hms_furious said:

Thanks. Is this the one you mean? 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-hyperion-zoom-eyepiece.html

So with the Barlow at 8,12,16 etc this becomes 16,24,32 etc? 

Is this a good catch all combination? 

No, it goes the other way, with a Barlow it goes 4, 6, 8 etc.

With a high f/ ratio, you'll probably not be able to use the higher powers.

Are you using SynScanInit to check what you should be entering for your position and time? 

How is it during the day? Can you set it up so you can confirm that the finder and scope are looking at the same place (centre the scope on a distant tree or streetlight, then adjust the finder so it's centred on the same thing).

Then leave it until you can see the Moon rising, and get that centred in the finder. You should be able to see that and get it into focus.

You can then look for stars, again using the finder to start with.

First off, what mount do you have? 

Also

What type of phone are you on? 

If you have some binoculars, look for The Coathanger cluster in Vulpecula in the summer triangle.

Through the telescope, Epsilon Lyrae is the famous 'double double' and it's worth seeing if you can separate the closer doubles.

Summer can be a good time to look for the Ursa Major galaxies as they aren't too high, so can be easier to view at the eyepiece, though there's only short hours of decent darkness which can make it trickier.