Paul M

I look forward to the 18 day breaks but they are fixed and that is when we have our holidays. Sounds like a lot of time off but over the year we are actually on the job for more hours than non-shift workers with their 37.5 hr week. We became foster carers just about a year ago and that in itself is a full time job. When we attend training and so forth it amazes me that I'm the only one that has a full time job out of all the other attendees. So it's a combination of shift work and children that flattens my battery! My best opportunity for stargazing is during my breaks when we get up to our caravan in Cumbria. Time to relax with nice dark skies right outside the door! I keep Ye Olde Fullerscope up there full time just in case I get the urge (although the village pub is often more attractive ).

I work shifts. 2 x 12 hour day shifts then 2 x 12 hour night shifts followed by 3 days off. Every 8 weeks I get 18 days off. The fatigue slowly builds over time to the point that other than on my 18 day breaks I have little energy to even notice the night sky.

We already have a beautiful habitat, perfectly suited to our species. If we were serious about prolonging our existence it would make more sense for us to simply stop destroying it. Then it should last us a few more billion years. It would also be really nice if could learn to live alongside our cohabitants in the animal kingdom. Sadly it looks like we'll continue to destroy them as we carry on regardless If there were any Cosmic Police they'd likely give us prohibition notice regarding any ideas for Mars.

Right I've taken the liberty to do some more processing of the images. It's a special technique of mine...

I had CdC installed on my laptop before I killed it and had to rebuild it. I never reinstalled CdC after the rebuild because I found the interface and controls counterintuitive. I know it's very powerful but I don't need it for scope control or anything too technical so easy to use and pretty star charts are more important to me. No doubt, with some effort on my part, I could have developed some familiarity but launching Stellarium was always an easier option! It should be possible to revert to an older more stable version of Stellarium or if there are specific bugs then Alex Wolf will be able to help, I'm sure.

That's a nice looking set-up. Congratulations. On the negative side, the colour of the sideboard clashes with the scope. It'll have to go! Just how understanding is your wife?

Did the police persons have red filters on their torches?

I like them all but no.2 is my favorite. The human dimension adds something for me. Wide angle shots are always nice to see.

Been working a night shift overnight and it's been clear all night. I've kept half an eye out for Lyrids but had no luck until dawn. Just after 5am I was comparing Jupiter setting in the West and Venus rising in the SE when I spotted a very bright meteor heading down towards the western horizon. Loverly blue white colour, brighter than Jupiter. The track was about right for a Lyrid so I'll claim one for the team!

Full overcast with drizzle here

Which is pretty much in agreement with the track I got from SkySafari after selecting the correct elements from the two sets available, as shown in the second screen dump I posted earlier. So hopefully, we're all in agreement with our tracks and the probability of us having 150% cloud cover on the night!

Yes, it looks like SkySafari has retained an old set of elements along side the current ones, looking at the other screen shots above. I thought it was just me because I downloaded the most recent ones using the solar system editing tool. But anyway, after some conflaberation I found the problem.

It has user selectable skyglow and realistic horizons. No clouds though. just look outside for them! Both SkySafari and Stellarium are brilliant. For a long while the development of SkySafari seemed to be just ahead of Stellarium, in terms of features, appearance and accuracy. But there is little if anything between them now. Both can control a telescope, plot satellites and give realistic sky views. So for home/laptop use it's always stellarium that I use. On my mobile Android devices (phone and tablet) it's SkySafari (which I just upgraded to 5 Pro). On evenings like this it's both as I compare the two and get weird looks off the MD!

Ah! SkySafari has 2 sets of elements for this the ones I used were from January. The other set are from March and agree with everyone else!

JUst about every source I can find is showing JO25 taking the track as shown by Stellarium. So perhaps SkySafari has bombed on this one! But I wouldn't bet on it...just yet