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tibbs1972

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Blog Entries posted by tibbs1972

  1. tibbs1972
    I've never had much succes Photographing Jupiter, so tonight, I took the traditional approach of sketching my observation before the clouds rolled in.
    I suppose this sketech would be a good start for a log book, as the only record I have of my observations is this blog and various folders on my computer.
  2. tibbs1972

    Southern sky ignored.

    By tibbs1972,

    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.
  3. 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.
  5. tibbs1972
    Caught another flyby tonight by the ISS.
    The space station was in view for about 2 minutes tonight. Still an amazing sight.
    I took some 0.5 sec exposures.
    I think I could just make out some sort of outline when I used my Minocular.
    Amazing !
    Regards
    Neil
  6. tibbs1972
    Now I'm really happy.
    At 04:49, I spotted the ISS pass over.
    It was brighter than Sirius, moving fast with a luminous glow.
    The ISS passed across the front of my south facing house for abouth 10 seconds.
    Another amazing first for me.
    I used the link below to track the ISS, which was really accurate.
    http://www.n2yo.com/?s=25544
    Definitely worth getting up for. I also used my Minocular to track it and I think I saw some slight detail.
    It would be great if I could track with the telescope, but I think it's too fast for that.
    WOW !
  7. tibbs1972

    Tibbs Blog

    By tibbs1972,

    14th March 2011
    Tried a few images tonight using the prime focus method.
    I am having trouble finding Nebula with the Live View on the new DSLR camera.
    I found the Orion Nebula with my 20mm lens, but lost it when I swapped to the camera lens.
    I think my main problem is the spotter scope. The spotter scope I received with the main telescope from Celestron is useless, I can't align it very easily. It always seems to be a few degrees out.
    I lost Orion below the horizon after numerous attempts, fortunately it will be back another night. Better luck next time.
    It's not gonna get away, I want a Nebula framed on my bedroom wall before the end of the year.
    Anyway, not to be defeated, I ended up going for Betelgeuse, I thought I better get a shot before is goes nova.
    This is the best image I have taken of a star so far, shows more detail than I normally get.
    I also had a go at the moon again, but it was very bright. I think I need to get hold of a moon filter for next time.
    Finally, I had another look at Saturn as well tonight, I think I will need better lenses for Planetary observations.
    Seems like every time I make an observation, I need another accessory.
    Anyway, pleased again to make a few observations on one of the few clear nights we get in the UK.
  8. tibbs1972

    Tibbs Blog

    By tibbs1972,

    21st January 2011
    After checking some videos on the sky at night website, I decided to see if I could find the double stars Mizar & Alcor in Ursa Major (The big dipper).
    To my surprise, I did manage to locate the two stars, which are supposedly
    caught in each others gravitational pull.
    I must admit I am amazed to think the two stars I was looking at are actually caught in a tug of war with each other.
    I also watched a video tonight that explains that each star is also a separate binary system, as well as orbiting each other, so there are
    actally four stars in total.
    Unfortunately, I couldn't spot the smaller stars, and it also clouded over,
    but I hope to get a picture tomorrow.
  10. tibbs1972

    Tibbs Blog

    By tibbs1972,

    15th January 2011
    Telescope setup and alignment
    Using the instruction manual, I setup up the Telescope.
    I also found videos on "YouTube" to aid me in balancing and aligning the Telescope.
    I found these videos invaluable, as the instructions with the
    Telescope can get a bit complicated for the beginner.
    I had a play around with the Telescope the first night for a few hours, but
    had issues finding celestrial objects. I realised the problem was with
    the finder scope. I've aligned this today, with the aid of one of
    the videos I've linked and hopefully, weather petmitting, I'll
    have a better night tomorrow.
  11. tibbs1972
    Glad the nights are drawing in for better Photos, I'm looking forward to getting some more images.
    I Took a few shots of the northern sky tonight.
    I was concerned that a lot of what I could see was noise on the camera, but when I compared the Photo with Sellarium, I was pleased to see the stars in my Photo matched up with the image on the software, something I haven't done before, it helped to assure me I'm getting something right.

  14. 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.
  15. tibbs1972

    Repair Job Complete

    By tibbs1972,

    Somehow, I got a burst of enthusiasm today and decided to repair my EQ2 tripod this evening.
    After an hour and drilling and tapping, I managed to get it balanced.
    As it happened the clouds also cleared.
    I quickly setup the laptop and had another shot at using a Webcam.
    I managed to get about 30secs of footage before the clouds rolled in, so I didn't get a chance to practice focusing with the webcam.
    After downloading and using Virtual dub to splice the video and remove the rubbish frames of the video, and putting the 150 or so frames into registax, I managed to create the image attached.
    I think its the highest power image I've ever managed to get of the moon. All in all, I'm back on a high again. I seem to have made the Tripod a bit more stirdy as well with the fixings I made and have managed to track the moon tonight, which I've never managed to do before.
    A very short, but worth while observing session in the end before the clouds rolled in.
  16. tibbs1972

    Tibbs Blog

    By tibbs1972,

    16th January 2011
    I Managed to get out about 9pm tonight as the weather cleared.
    Finally, I was able to focus the Telescope on The Moon.
    I was really surprised at the detail I could see. e.g. Craters Impact etc.
    I managed to tape the 20mm lens to my webcam.
    After a bit of time adjusting the webcam settings, I managed to
    filter out the suns relection on the Moons surface.
    Unfortunately, the Webcam doesn't show the detail you can see through the eyepiece, but a great result for my second night.
  19. tibbs1972
    I took 66 x 30 sec exposures at ISO 1600 last night, looking at Ursa Major.
    I then stacked them with 3 dark exposures using Deep Sky Stacker.
    I also made a short video of the images and uploaded them to you tube.
    http://youtu.be/5b8aO-LkGQU
  20. 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.
  22. tibbs1972

    Tibbs Blog

    By tibbs1972,

    14th January 2011
    I've been thinking about it for a while now and have finally decided to jump in to Astronomy Feet first.
    I've spent hours reading reviews for the last two weeks to try to decide which telescope to purchase. I finally decided on a
    Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ.
    The reviews seemed pretty positive, and Celestron seems to have a good reputation for beginner Telescopes.
    I suppose this seems to be quite a large scope to purchase for a beginner,
    but after reading all the reviews, I get the impression that a
    Telescope with an aperture less than five inches wouldn't give me good results.
  24. tibbs1972

    Tibbs Blog

    By tibbs1972,

    24th January 2011
    Chuffed tonight, really clear night, managed to spot Jupiter tonight in the south.
    Using my trusty webcam I had a go at getting an image.
    I think I also caught some of Jupiters moons aswell.
  25. tibbs1972

    Tibbs Blog

    By tibbs1972,

    6th March 2011
    Woolsthorpe Manor
    I Visited the home of Sir Isaac Newton today. Amazing to think I stood next to the same Apple Tree as the man himself did over 300 years ago.
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