tibbs1972

Hi, I managed to recored Jupiter and Mars this morning on my Video Camera.

I've been out since 5pm, clear night tonight in Rutland. Its about time. I Took a couple of wideshots of orion and jupiter with my camera. Back inside now for SGL's second show. How they are going to fit "Everything" in tonight I don't know. Had a crack at the Mars project on Zooniverse, found it difficult working out what objects were and marking them. Managaing to work on 10 photos. Glad to have made the effort and participated in something as big as Zooniverse.

Just got out the car and spotted the ISS go overhead. Checked with heavens above to confirm. Should be another -1.2 pass at about 20:45

Ok, thanks.

Good idea, I hadn't considered using the telescope mount for the camera. Thanks.

Thanks for the advise, I've nether condisered a refractor, I'll look into it.

Thanks for the advise, looks like I need to do some more investigation first.

Hi Everybody, I want to get some shots of the Pleaides. At the moment, I can only see 3 or 4 stars in the cluster with my scope. Could somebody advise a reducer I would need to get the whole cluster in the field of view, if its at all possible. I haven't spent much time messing with lenses so far, I just use my 20mm lens that came with the scope and a 15mm Plossal I bought about a year ago. Thanks in advance.

I'm contemplating getting either a Skywatcher Explorer 130P SynScan AZ GOTO or a Skywatcher Skymax 127 SynScan AZ GOTO as my second scope. The main reason being my Manual Celestron Powerseeker 127 is no good for photography. I can take pictures upto 30secs, but any longer and the single axis drive I bought a year ago doesn't do the job. To get good images stacked, it seems I need subs of about 120secs or longer. I think I'm ready to get a GOTO and concentrate on getting some good subs. Many of the images in the gallery have inspired me and I think its time to move on from my first scope after 2 years of observing. Also, I haven't got a steady hand. Just entering coordinates and not having to touch the scope would be a big bonus. I'm not to worried about getting a bigger mirror at this stage, from what I've seen with good subs, there are some amazing images made with a 130mm mirror. Not sure which of the 2 scopes is better.

The scope ain't the problems its the cocker spaniel. We've had one for a year and I tell you she's absolutely nuts. She loves standing up, when you put her on a lead, she hops down the path rathing than walking on all fours, as I said nuts and embarrasing, I think she escaped from a Circus. The way she leaps around, I think she would either end up sitting on the scope or knocking it over. I would have sent the dog on holiday to the kennels, they are not required on important scientific missions of discovery. We took our dog to scotland this year, big mistake.

Jupiter is just starting to rise in the NE. Venus will rise and be visible from about 0400 until about 0530, again in the NE to the E.

That's really an amazing image. Well worth the time and effort. Looking forward to the day I can produce such a fine piece of work.

I realsed tonight that I've been ignoring the Southern sky and can't navigate it very well. I think this is beacause my house faces the neighbours houses and there are street lights there. Due to the light pollution, I've always concentrated on the Northern skies. Tonight I just tried checking out the south west. For the first time tonight, I learnt how to spot Hercules and the Corona Borealis constellations with the naked eye. I also managed to spot M13, The Great Globular Cluster with my 10x50 monocular. I can just make out the cluster by identifying HIP 81848 and HIP 81673 and then looking between them slightly to the right. If you don't follow, you can see what I mean from the attached image. Another notch from the Messier catalogue. Pretty chuffed I've learnt a few new things tonight, even thought I didn't get the scope out.