tingting44

it really is an amazing book!! im nearly half way through it lol im sure to get through it many many times in the future ahead lol :D

Got mine in the post yesterday (Thanks FLO). Haven't had chance to look at it yet though! Can't afford kit until new year anyway so no hurry:)

ive read it front to back all ready lol i wont have the money for the imaging setup i want for about a year ish :(

not for me, we are Earthlings not martians

I would go.

lol, i dont think i could leave my kids...... it would be so lonely too! and if the internet went down you could not even keep in touch with your loved ones :( dont get me wrong id love to be in the history books for all eternity but dont think i could do it lol

what are you getting stuck on iksose7?

Hi andy no problem at all, ask away when ever you need to andy :)

When it trys to solve it just goes on and on and on. Is it not only supposed to take a few seconds? I uninstalled it the other day because i want to start using it with my new scope. But when i installed it it said something about failing to download something. How do you add catalogs to it, do you know Martin?

mine takes roughly about 100 seconds, im in no rush tho even if it took 5 mins id be happy so 100 seconds is great in my eyes :)

check this tutorial out, i followed this and had no problems, really good tutorial :)

http://lightvortexastronomy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/tutorial-imaging-setting-up-and-using.html

SCOPES out cooling now, MET keeps getting better and better every time i refresh, by the looks of it i should get atleast a couple hours from 10pm to 12am tonight :D ......... going to attempt to get as much data as i can on M101 :)

Mine is out too, although clouds coming in from east. Trying for a long visual session with Mars tonight, trying various magnifications and filters.

yeah not sure if ill be wasting my time getting guiding up and going and trying for some subs DSO subs...... one option could be to do a star test (very boring) or try some planetary imaging on mars with the QHY......just dont know, good luck with viewing tonight tho mate

The 80ed pro frac lmad :)

Tell me about it mitchelln but don't tell my mrs lol

80ED is a fantastic scope!! I used it for both visual and imaging...was happy with both.

ohhhh sounds good lmad, i have not heard one bad word about the 80ED

Nice little scope. Great optics coupled with a nice focuser.

yes ill be imaging, have to wait till next week tho to get the coma corrector :( just got dispatch notice from FLO....item dispatched with fed ex :D

cant wait :D thanks guys

Look forward to seeing your shots ! ;)

i packed up and came home at 9pm as there was to much patchy cloud around, although i did see an incredible meteor that burst into a huge fireball

yeah the cloud did start rolling in quite thick didnt it, i prob got my best data so far of M43 tho :) just need practice on how to tease the detail out :( what object were you capturing photon's from out at TH Jake?

wow nice one on seeing a meteor!

also im going to stay in london tomorrow on a boat, will there be much point taking scope? as im guessing i wont be able to align on a moving boat? it will be parked up bit still moving with the waves and stuff?

bins willbe better for boating. as for torch. just buy ordinarry torch and cover with red nail varnish or red sweet wrappers.

thanks rory, my father in law has got some mega bins, i grab them haha think they got image stabiliser on them too :D

i just got this red torch in the end :D

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230825315881?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_2713wt_1270

Have a good hol mate, where u off to?

only down in ringwood at caravan :) lovely skies last night with hardly any LP but the silly moon was washing every thing out :(

:)

nah jake i was at fishers pond, were u out last night? it was amazing wasnt it!!!

no i didnt go out martin, i went out 3 times last week so theres been 3 very late nights recently, the group did go out to TH and i think there was close to 20 people there

wow 20 people!! i have to go there some time, but i must admit i do like getting away from everyone not a person in sight and just chill lol, i saw too many shooters to count and got some cracking images, cant work on them or the timelapses till i get my pc tho :( dying to show off my images lol

It's something that I'm not certain I've got figured out entirely either, have you started a thread asking for advice?

I tend to follow a couple of tutourials and hope for the best.

have you adjusted the levels? hold down ctl and l to bring up the levels box

hey pibbles, no not started a thread yet, there is a pinned version of it here but all the pics are missing and they are very helpful :( just reading a lot lately to try to learn but its frushtrating.

hey daniel yes ive been using Ctl L and M for levels and curves but i just seem to make the histogram smaller

Looking like a lot of cloud bubbling up in the SE of England from about midnight onward which looks like it is going to obscure the moon completely....:(

Shhhhh!!!!

lol....

well that turned out to be a blinder of a night, totally enjoyed every minute of it, and if i got a half decent pic of it, bonus :D

least you were lucky enough to see a bolt lol i did not see one out of 1500 subs :( sorry to hear it cut your night short tho buddy :(

Had to go in! The rain turned from a light shower to "you cant see your hand in front of your face" type rain... reminds me of the stuff you get in China/SE Asia.

sounds cool! not for imaging tho, it was very odd here is southampton, we has no thunder or rain all night....but the sky was constantly being lit up by what i think was high level sprites

When I use my QHY on my MAK, I do it at F22, this seems to be the sweet spot.

my options will be either at F20 or F30, cant wait to try

my 300 is f4.9 but I have X2 , X3 barlows and a Televue powermate X5 and it's looking good for this evening here hope yours is as promising as mine.

haha nope they are all minez!!! :D thanks mate clear skies to you too :D

Nice and the Met says its going to be clear all night!

oh yes! :D

loool :) it is bigger then it looks in the pics isnt it lol

cant wait to use it if i ever get my scope collimated grhhhhh :(

some might suggest its a bit excessive when you have GOTO ;)

set yourself an afternoon aside for the collimation print this guide http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro babys collimation guide.htm read it then read it again and slowly take your time

yeah it will be so handy simply for alignment when i need to find the stars with the finder/telrad, as when its a dark sky its so hard to make out the star you want through the stock finder, lol so this should just make my life of aligning easier :)

thanks read through AB guide a few times now buddy :( lol

I saw it as well. Managed to track it with my dob. Looked kind of like a very bright tie fighter. No detail though visually, just a lot of light!

i never bore of looking at the ISS, just dying to get a detailed image of it now lol instead of the normal wide field line streak going across the frame lol, will be having a few more goes tonight hopefully if the clouds behave

I caught it as well, I think it was brighter than I ever seen it before.

hopefully got some nice data, going to go over it in a mo...

Nice one, havnt had a clear night round here for ******* ages

i really couldnt believe it either nephilim! it was well weird tho lol last time i was out jupiter was in the SW area and last time it was in the E area, its moved loadssss lol was nice not trying to image jupiter pointing directly past my garden street lamp post lol :)

I think there should definitely be a Cloudspotters thread on this forum.

So many arguements about which is the worst type of cloud: Altocumulus coud, Cirrus clouds, Cumulonibus clouds, Altostratus or the annoying high Cirrostratus ones that seem to appear in the evening.

I like the invisible cloud.

beyond a joke isnt it buddy :( thats why i really need some bino's to make the most of these tiny little gaps of clouds we have :(

I know the feeling mate, we got a break last night but by the time I'd put the mount on the tripod it'd gone........Along with my patience.

Mine was already set up when the clouds broke :P Still, the views were pretty bad.

yeah but im thinking of making them and selling them for say £20 a pop, no way on hell i could afford the astro track for ages, im sure a lot of people are in the same boat as me, sure a £20 barn door will not be no where near as accurate as the astro track but no where near the high price either/....

just a thought tho really....

It would be a great way for people to try AP without breaking the bank. I started out using a barn door tracker. Got me hooked!

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Old! I've got T Shirts older than that :-p

congrats!!

no more trying to align the mount with notebook in one hand, with eye up to the eyepiece trying to click the keys on the notepad loooool :D

Nice! Just remember, it is a telescope and not Halo!

haha :D lovin it :D

What one ?

this one

http://www.romancart.com/cart.asp?storeid=15307&itemname=SPC900 / SPC880 Adapter for Straight Through Finders &price=29&quantity=1

AH i see, paypal do payafter delivery now so doesn't come out your account for 14days. just make sure you have it in your account in 14days

It'll be useful to keep the frost off too?

good idea! :D for those frosty night when im out doing timelapse or star trail shots :D

Id agree, now is a busy time for my dew controller with the damp autumn days and cold nights. I only get about 30mins without dew at the momemt unless I have my secondary heater on. And I agree witht the frost issue, 2 weeks ago at kielder my gloves were sticking to the frost on my scope but I managed all night wih a clear secondary.

cheers