Gfamily

There is the option of finding a local hotel or B&B and buying an 'offsite' ticket. This way you can share in the daytime events and stay at late as you can in the evening. There are places to park nearby on the main road with just a short walk to join us. Not ideal, but it's not uncommon for people to do. But, as people are saying, a tent, an air mattress and a decent sleeping bag are probably the cheapest way to get the most out of the weekend. Do you have anyone you could borrow from? (Ok, maybe get your own sleeping bag 😄 ) Edit: it's usual for people to set up their gear on The Common and just throw a waterproof cover over it when they're done. It's a very safe environment, so very little risk if you do.

As a rule of thumb, I reckon it's better to consider the field of view rather than the 'magnification'. The fov of a camera is similar to that of a Plossl eyepiece with the same focal length as the diagonal of the sensor. So an APS-C with a diagonal of ~28mm will give roughly the same fov as a 28-30mm eyepiece. ETA: and your ASI seems to have a diagonal of about 12.5mm, so should give an idea of the fov to expect. ETA2: of course I should have read all through the reply from @ONIKKINEN first.

Are you a member of an Astro Society (Macc Astro is highly regarded and near you)? If they have observing sessions, you may have a chance to look through other people's scopes and see what they're using. Alternatively, we're looking towards the autumn Star Party season, so if you can free up a weekend, these can be good for meeting a variety of people and see a variety of scopes. We're aiming to be at the Astrocamp Star Party near Crickhowell in September, bookings open next weekend (google Awesome Astrocamp) Personally, I have a 72mm refractor and a 127 Maksutov, both of which work on my AZ GTi - the refractor has a good wide angle field of view and GOTOs are always successful - for the Mak, I sometimes find that GOTOs can be a little off - so I sometimes have to hunt around to confirm the target in the FOV. I think it's the weight is a little more than the mount likes - but once the target is found it works OK. I usually goto a bright star nearby, them SYNC, and then it's only a short hop to the target.

There is a Celestron Barlow that has a T-thread at the top so you can easily attach a camera (mirrorless/DSLR). I have to say I'd not known about the ability to re-purpose the nosepiece lens from the Barlow on the ep or on the diagonal, but it makes sense and is something to try. Thanks @Don Pensack

Here's a suggestion list for Dark Skies camping from the uk campsites website https://www.campsites.co.uk/search/dark-sky-campsites

A sheet of Baader solar film can be used to make a white light filter for solar observing. This can be mounted between two strips of card or similar, with the film held between them so they fit securely to the OTA. The RDF can be replaced by a solar finder, and if you have a 3D printer (or access to one), these can be easily made (or alternatively bodged with an offcut of wood and some plastic or metal strips). Have you downloaded the Pro version of the SynScan App? That allows you to use the Point and Track mode for the Sun For general use I'd also suggest getting a longer focal length eyepiece; the narrow field of view of a Mak is a given, and can make it frustrating if you're trying to find a target that's slightly off centre, ao a longer EP with a wider fov will help. .

Very nice capture. Here's an animation of the eruption from the SDO Satellite

As people may have heard, the deployment of the Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) antenna had been incomplete because a pin hadn't properly been released. RIME is one of the key instruments for Juice, as it will allow radar investigation of the sub surface to a depth of up to 9km. Fortunately, after rotating the craft to allow sunlight to fall on the area with the stuck pin, and by firing a non explosive actuator, they were able to release the pin, and the 16m long antenna arm was released. ETA https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice/Juice_s_RIME_antenna_breaks_free

Are you familiar with the binocularsky.com website - run by Steve Tonkin ( @BinocularSky here ) who writes about binoculars and what's to be seen through them for Astro magazines? If you go to his site, there's a search page designed for binocular use, which suggests about 65 Messier targets available for 10x50s if your limiting magnitude is about 10m. https://binocularsky.com/search.php Lots of great advice across the whole of his site. And there's a monthly newsletter giving suggestions for binocular targets for that time of year.

That's certainly handy were you to want to buy from one of the European astro dealers - arrange delivery to your friends, and pick them up and bring them back to UK as part of your personal allowance.

Is it worth having a couple of short breaks to France - dropping it off on the first one, and picking it up a week or two later? You're already very convenient for ferries to Caen or Le Havre. It's about 6 hours from either to Nevers, so doable with 1 overnight stop.

Just to follow up on this - it seems that (according to the Mask Generator at https://satakagi.github.io/tribahtinovWebApps/Bahtinov.html ) the higher the f/ ratio, the larger the slits. f/10 mask on the left f/20 mask on the right

Does your mirrorless camera have a hot shoe bracket? If so - you might be able to fashion a DIY mount to fix a cheap Red Dot finder - something like this one I made up using an old RDF, an L bracket that I turned into a U bracket by hitting with a hammer, and a hot shoe foot from ebay. Obviously, the camera in this image is a dSLR, but if your mirrorless has the mount it might work for you.

You could do that. I think the biggest issue would be the reduction in light coming through, so you wouldn't benefit from shorter exposures for your 'focusing', but it should certainly be able to use it. I don't know for sure, but I get the impression there you would ideally have different thickness slits for different f/ ratios, but you could confirm this by using one of the online mask generator tools and putting different focal lengths for the same aperture, to see if the suggested masks are any different.

So there was no failure - glad to have cleared that up to your satisfaction - at least ! So there were failures, and mistakes after all. But they'll learn from them. There is the question of why the ones that were predicted beforehand (including the ones that were predicted as "we think this may be a mistake") were not catered for in advance? And why that's not a 'failure' EDIT But good to know that I'm the one that's already made up their mind. lol!

Uncontrolled damage to the launch site, ground facilities and the rocket itself. Concrete blocks blown up to half a kilometer from the launch. Poor site control to allow vehicles to be parked within what should be an exclusion zone Damage to what should have been a protected wildlife zone. The apparent ineffectiveness of the Flight Termination System What appears to be a mis-reporting to the FAA of the use of the FTS is something more significant because that is not something that 'just happens in a test flight'

Denying that anything failed is not unusual in fans of SpaceX.

Here's a discussion of the launch and the multiple failures that are evident from the various video feeds available. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErDuVomNd9M About 30 minutes - well worth viewing.

Someone at Astrocamp asked about how I made the animation (from a sequence of camera images) I've prepared a very quick document showing two ways to make an animated gif - one using an online tool, the other using the GIMP (easier if you don't have a good online connection) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VW-8cuKglJuE0ZD6jshSkrQCfgBlrMOI5XGe_ceQecQ/edit?usp=sharing

Thanks again for the loan of the AZ Gti - it meant I could get some white light solar imaging, and views of the Moon and Venus, It was a shame about the rain, but the aurora made it a memorable weekend. Fortunately, this morning was clear and dry for dismantling the meeting area shelters. Can't wait until September.

Hopefully this will show - it's about 6 minutes in realtime, down to a few seconds, showing a trace of auroral activity alongside the setting Moon and more than a little atmospheric nebulosity. A memorable Astrocamp - in part for the aurora, but also (mainly?) for how wet it was. Great to see old friends and make new ones - that's what it's all about really! A great talk from @kev100 about the origins and development of his " A Decade in Stargazing", as well as from the main crew.

Increasing the size of each rocket engine adds more engineering complexity than increasing the number of engines. An interesting overview of rocket engine design from Everyday Astronaut blog from 2019. https://everydayastronaut.com/raptor-engine/

No problem, I have a spare power pack. This is very much appreciated. As we got here yesterday, I can report that we had a lovely early evening, but it clouded over by the time it was dark. I can only hope it's saving the clear nights for the weekend . 😄🤞

Consider a train travelling on a straight line away from you at 40mph. When it's 200 miles away it releases a pigeon that flies back to you at 50mph. It takes 4 hours for the pigeon to get its message you. By which time, the train is 360 miles away. The expansion of the universe is not like this, but it sort of gives an understanding of how something that emitted light 13By ago can be 47Bly away.

That would be very much appreciated. The mount that's sitting at home is the AZ GTi so it'll be perfect. If the Tripod is too much for you to pack I can requisition Mrs G's heavy weight binocular tripod (Manfrotto Triman) so that's not essential. See you there.