paulastro

Welcome Dylan.

46 minutes ago, michael8554 said: Today's Test Match play in Pakistan ended, due to poor light, with this shot of the setting sun.The TV cameras often have Canon lenses Michael, I saw this and noticed the sunspots on the setting sun. By the way, it didn't finish because of bad light, but because England bowled Pakistan out and won the test!

Thanks Mark, I have that book and hadn't read that bit 🤔.

Looking forward to it already. But are you really sure you want me to bring Mike along? Have you ever met before? 🤣

Can I come to your party please ? 😊 🥳

Thanks for that Mark, I was going to research when the date of the next similiar event was. Can you tell me where 2052 came from, and is it slso on the actual day of oppostion? This surprises me, as on an intuitive basis, I thought it would be a rarer event. Though I'm clearly no mathemitician 😅.

Thanks Andrew, I was only referring to data updates for new newly discovered objects, or changes to orbitary date for already known objects - rather than new versions of the app. Intetestingly, the fact that there has only been one new version, because of the dobsonians launch, shows how much trouble Celestron went to in ensuring the original app worked as well as it does. The fact that it worked so well when the original 'beginner' StarSense Explorer scopes were launched is very impressive in my view. In terms of its functionality, I don't think Celestron could have done any better. As you say Andrew, it will be interesting to see how Celestron support and develop the system going into the future.

Out of interest, why did you realign it if it was working OK in your previous session? When you aligned it, at the final stage when you aligned the crosshair on the screen with the star, Deneb, that was in the telescope field of view are you sure it was Deneb on the screen? It's not impossible to mistakenly align with the wrong star on the screen. Ive done it myself and it results in a constant pointing error in the distance you are out when you then try and locate an object. I hate to say this, but the Starsense App didn't 'get it all wrong'. I soon found this out when I had mine, if it wasn't locating objects it was my fault, not the app. If you follow the alignment procedure, it will locate objects correctly, accurately and quickly. I enerally don't like RDFs, and use a 30mm optical finder on the rare occassion I need one. I also wear glasses. The app you use is the same one we all use, and there's no reason why it should not work for you, so I can't see it being the moonlight being responsible. As I said in my testing of this, I was quite astonished how well it worked in very bright moonlight. If your phone is an old one, or not compatable it may not work as well as it should. You can check online via Celestro'ns website if you're not sure. If you can't sort it, you're welcome to pm me if you wish. I can talk a lot faster than I can type on my phone. 🙂 I can always pm my number to you. Regards, Paul

Thank you Mark. I never thought to break out the PST yesterday 😏.

Likewise Stu, going out for reappearance shortly, too cold to wait outside, -3 deg C. Frost all over telescope.

As far as I know, Celestron do regular updates to the database

COMET C/2022 E3 (ZTF) NOW ON DATABASE OF STARSENSE EXPLORER TELESCOPE APP. Thus COMET is forecast to be as bright as 5th mag. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/403657-comet-c2022-e3-ztf-now-on-database-of-skysense-explorer-telescope-app/

This comet which is forecast to become as bright as 5th mag has been on SkySafari's database for a little while, and has very recently been added to that of the StarSense Explorer Telescope App. On the latter, search for C/2022 and it will come up amongst a list of comets. http://aerith.net/comet/weekly/current.html

Single frame taken at 11.54am, Altair 80 ED-R and Olympus E-,M5 Mk11.

Here's a test of the StarSense App's ability to find objects in bright moonlight last night. Excellent!!

Last evening I went out to observe Mars and the Moon. After observing these two objects, I thought it was a good opportunity to really test how well the StarSense App finding system on my Celestron 8 inch StarSense Explorer Dob is affected by bright Moonlight. It was a frosty night, -3 deg C, with the Moon at an altitude of 52 degres and 98.7% illuminated when I finished the session at a little after 1am. Mars was 15 deg to the E of the Moon, and the SS located the Moon easily,. I noticed on the phone's screen that the Pleiades were only 5 or so degrres NW of the Moon. I replaced my binoviwer, x275 mag, I had been using with my 17.5mm Morpheus - x68, 1.1 deg field. The SS had no problem pointing me to the Pleiades, which I couldn't even see with the naked eye with the Moon's glare. I then went to several objects to test its accuracy further. From the Pleiades back to Mars. Mars to M42. M42 to HR2764 - my first view of the wonderful 'Winter Albireo' in Canis Major, only 10 degrees above SE horizon. It really is like a fainter version of Albireo, wonderful! HR2764 to Double Cluster. Double Cluster to C13, ET/Owl Cluster. ET Cluster to M44 The Beehive Cluster. M44 to Pleiades. This required the scope to go within less than 5 degrees from the Moon to arrive at its destination. No problem at all. Despite the bright moonlight, the StarSense App successfully navigated all these maneouvers. In fact the sky had thin cloud covering the Cass area and when I located the Double Cluster and the ET Cluster I couldn't see any stars in that area with the naked eye.. When I arrived at the ET cluster, in the scope I could only see two odd stars. I was a bit puzzled until the cloud thinned in patches and ET's eye and then the rest of it came into view!! In summary, the SS had no difficulty finding any object with an 87% illuminated Moon and some hazy patches of cloud as well, even when objects were close to the Moon itself. Significantly, I really couldn't have found some of the objects with a finder, it just wouldn't have been possible. Use your StarSense Explorer telescope when there's Moonlight, you shouldn't have any problems at all - I didn't!

You're welcome Stu, I hope it's clear wherever you are going to.

Sorry, I couldn't resist laughing - I've made the same mistake, more than once 😊.

This is the current Met cloud cover map at the start of the Mars occultation in the early hours of Thursday morning. Honest!

Struggled for a view early on, but I had a clearish break from 10.07 to 10.31 this morning. Took some single frames with the Altair 80 ED -R and Olympus E-M5 Mk11. The first was taken at10.07 and the second at 10.29 as the cloud closed in.

Cheers Dave, you too. Looking good weather wise at the moment 🙂.

It's times like this I'm pleased I come in the elderly category 😄.

Well, I'm choosing to believe the forecast for the Mars occultation in the early hours of Thurdsay morning, and staying at home to observe it 😁.

Just sending this in case it had slipped anyone's mind, it had mine until a few minutes ago! Weather favourable for many. Attachments from AN. Good luck.