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tibbs1972

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Blog Entries posted by tibbs1972

  1. tibbs1972

    14th December Meteors

    By tibbs1972,

    Now I can say I am officially chuffed.
    I've seen seven Meteors in half hour, thats broke my record.
    Thanks 3200 Phaethon
    Its a shame I have to put my head down, I have to be on the road at 6am.
    I hope its this good during Star Gazing Live 2 in January.
  2. tibbs1972

    14th December Meteors

    By tibbs1972,

    I wasn't planning to observe tonight, but I just opened the front upstairs window as its clear tonight. Facing south, I just spotted three amazingly bright meteors falling over Rutland, UK within a couple of minutes. One was across Orion.
    Pretty chuffed not to have to wait around for hours on end for these spectacles. I have to say, I feel really priveleged to observe these meteors this evening.
  3. tibbs1972
    I've been out this morning observing Orion and mars.
    I'm really pleased I made the effort as It's the first time I've seen Mars.
    It was also an added bonus to have Mars, Orion and Jupiter visible together in one session.
    The background shots were taken with my DSLR using the 18-55mm lens.
    The closeups were taken with the camera connected to my telescope. I found the nebula much more difficult to focus than the planets, as it's not visible with the live view function, so a lot of guess work is required with the focus.
  7. tibbs1972
    I got home tonight and just had to grab a quick shot of the Moon and Venus together.
    I was amazed by the sight. I've never seen two bodies so close together.
    I used my Cannon Camera with a 2" Light Pollution filter blue tacked to the lens, as suggested by todd8137.
    I love the result, it almost looks Alien.
  9. tibbs1972

    7th April 2011

    By tibbs1972,

    I didn't get solar film today, maybe tomorrow.
    Anyway, tonight is an excellent night for Star Gazing.
    For the first time, I have managed to get the polar alignment correct.
    I have also managed to get the speed correct on my single axis drive.
    As a result I have managed to take my best shot so far. The picture is of Arcturus in the east tonight about 22:00.
    This was taken with a 30 second exposure, with and ISO of 800. The DSLR camera was mounted directly on the scope.
    I realise there is a lot of light pollution, but besides that problem, I'm really pleased with the image.
  10. tibbs1972
    Tonight, I was really lucky.
    1st I saw a meteorite fall across my line of sight fron north to south.
    Then I spotted a satellite around 21:20.
    I managed to follow this for about 30secs with my spotter scope in hand. That was quite interesting.
    The best thing of all, was through my 20mm eyepiece, as I was moving from East to North, a meteorite shot across the view of the scope. That was incredible. For a second it looked as if it bounced on the atmosphere. It caught me off guard, as through the eyepiece it was really bright.
    Great Night Stargazing.
  12. tibbs1972
    WOW !
    Just caught the ISS going over the UK.
    Wasn't expecting it tonight, but saw it as I was just now watering the garden.
    I ran upstairs and leaned out of the window with my Minocular.
    As it's been such a beautiful clear day, I could see a bright shiny centre, and I believe I could make out the solar panels.
    Another amazing sighting for me.
    It lasted about 3 minutes. :)
    No clouds tonight, looking forward to the best couple of hours observing this month, I hope.
  13. tibbs1972
    It's a clear night tonight over Rutland.
    I've had another crack at Andromeda. Now I know roughly where to aim the scope, its much easier.
    I managed about 15 x 25sec shots with my 130mm scope.
    I managed to stack the image below.
    It's my best image of a deep sky object so far. Amazing to think its 2.5 million light years away and still visible. It certainly puts a different light on my life, when I imagine the scope of such things. It's a shame I won't be around when it gets close to the Milky Way. It certainly would be a sight worth seeing.
    I also managed to get a snap shot of the star Capella in Auriga a bit later on.
    Neil
  14. tibbs1972
    Had a great night viewing tonight, really clear from around 9pm.
    I've spotted a few satellites, one with a flare.
    I've also seen a few meteors falling to earth, while looking north east.
    My main object of concern has been Andromeda tonight.
    I've managed to get a few shots with my small 130mm Mirror and EOS 1000D camera.
    I don't think I'll ever get a better picture unless I upgrade to a larger scope, but this is my best attempt at capturing Andromeda so far.

  15. tibbs1972
    Something I've been trying to do for a while now.
    Thanks to two really clear nights this weekend, I finally managed to find Andromeda in the scope. Just a smudge, but it still feels like an achievement, as its the first Galaxy I've spotted through my scope.
    I realise I also need to be quick off the mark adjusting the focus for my camera, once i've spotted something with my 20mm lens.
    I've now marked the focuser with felt pen, which speeds up camera focusing immensly.
    Neil
  16. tibbs1972

    Arcturus

    By tibbs1972,

    I took some more shots of Arcturus last night. So far, last night was the clearest I've ever seen the night sky, not a cloud in sight.
    Setting up is getting a bit easier, the worst problem is getting the speed correct on the single axis drive, once I'm polar aligned.
    In April, I took a shot, but wasn't sure about stacking, so there was a lot of light pollution.
    I stacked and cleaned up last nights shot using deep sky stacker and some darks and flats I took at the same time.
    I'm pretty pleased with the result.
  17. tibbs1972

    Attempt at a Mosaic

    By tibbs1972,

    I've been playing around with Microsoft ICE.
    It's really easy to make a mosaic with it. I Just had a go at stitching a second image to the origional photo to widen the final image.
  20. tibbs1972

    Big Dipper 3rd Jan

    By tibbs1972,

    30sec Exposure ISO1600, f5.6
    Took this earlier in Jan, just converted it to JPEG.
    Unfortunately, there's a huge 24/7 cement factory North of my house causing a lot of light pollution, so I can't get the best images to the North.
  22. tibbs1972

    Cloudy Tonight

    By tibbs1972,

    Cloudy & a full Moon tonight, what a mix.
    Still, sometimes it looks like the Moons at the end of a tunnel. Definitely worth taking an image.
    This image doesn't do it justice, I'm afraid.
  23. tibbs1972

    Collimating

    By tibbs1972,

    I've had a natural fear of collimating and thus far upto now have not tried.
    Tonight I watched a few videos on youtube and took a crack at it, one of which I've linked below.

    It's quite tricky holding the secondary mirror trying to align it with the focuser.
    The other problem on the secondary mirror, is that celestron have somehow cross-threaded one of the adjustment screws. This caused me no end of trouble.
    I pricked a hole in a black lens cap, which I then used to collimate.
    The main mirror was eaiser to adjust, but I got a bit confused for a start, as on the Celestron Powerseeker, the locking screws are exactly the same as the mirror adjustment screws. This made things more difficult as neither are labelled.
    After about an hour, I managed to get both mirrors dead centre.
    This is one of lifes little tasks that I won't look forward to in the future, as its pretty frustrating adjusting the secondary mirror.
    At least I won't be diving in without a clue in the future.
    Neil
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