paulastro

Thank you very much Stu.  If you want to use the images and do an animation, feel free - I wouldn't have a clue how to do it 😂. 

It's funny you mention it though Stu, I've got a total of about 25 pics and it did cross my mind it would be a nice thing to do.

6 hours ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Very nice Paul. I was lucky as well with only the last 10 minutes with cloud.

Cracking photos with the sunspots visible as well. 

Very well done.

 

Many thanks Mark, I'm very pleased you had some good views too.  I didn't realise the next one in the UK isn't until March 2025 until after the event - I was even more pleased I saw this one when I found out 😱.

The Met cloud cover forecast was accurate up here, so mostly  clear throughout, though a lot of haze and poor seeing, particularly early on. Still very pleased.  Always great to see two shadows, particularly when one of them is Ganymede's, a bonus to have the GRS transit as well.  A nice double with it being clear throughout the partial eclipse yesterday 😊.

I posted some pics of the eclipse on the Imaging- Solar forum.  Link  below.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/401793-october-25th-solar-eclipse-from-oakworth-west-yorkshire/#comment-4306443

That's brilliant Stu, just don't check any other forecasts that might not be as good 😊.

Yesterday it was completely clear here for the solar eclipse.  The new met cloud forecast was spot on, while AccuWeather had it as 94% cloudy for the duration 🤔

Best of luck  for tonight - and to everyone else who is planning to observe.

Post now edited to include the first and last frames I took.

A great opportunity this evening, two satellite transits, two shadow transits and a GRS transit. 

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/401721-october-26th-to-27th-multiple-satellite-and-grs-phenomena-a-visual-guide/#comment-4305898

Thanks Chris, I hope you had good views yourself.

On 24/10/2022 at 13:10, Astro_Dad said:

Thanks @paulastro , I’ll miss the solar eclipse tomorrow but hopeful for the Jupiter phenomena. Scope Nights suggests Wednesday is “fair” , we’ll see.🤞🏻 

Well, at the moment it's looking hopeful for us for tomorrow night.   Clear from dusk up to 10pm, then some cloud from about 11pm.  Hopefully we'll catch some of the action.

Luckily,  clear skies persisted from dawn until after the end of the eclipse, with only varying degrees of very thin cloud. There was never any danger of the sun being hidden from view.

Below are a selection of single frames taken with the Altair 80 ED-R and Olympus E-M5 Mk11 on the Scopetech Zero altaz mount.  All were taken on either 1/200 or 1/160 at 200 asa.

The single frames were taken at 10.07, 10.14, 10.29, 10.49, 10.55, 11.09, 11.40 and 11.49.

2 hours ago, Ibbo! said:

I saw an annoucement yesterday about the upgrades so very recent I think.

 

And most welcome.

Thank you Ibbo, that's good to know.  I'll look forward to seeing some clear skies on it 😊.

I just Googled  'UK cloud maps'  as I was unhappy with the resources I already used.  It looks like the Met have upgraded their maps, or I just hadn't seen them before!  Either way, here they are anyway.

The first two maps are for my location for the solar eclipse tomorrow, and the second two are for the Jupiter phenomena on Wednesday evening.  My location is roughly half way along a straight line drawn between Skipton and Bradford.

The fifth shows the tab with alternatives to having the cloud cover.

For the cloud cover, the maps appear better than what I have been using.  Though only time will tell how accurate they are 😊.

3 hours ago, Astro_Dad said:

Thanks @paulastro , I’ll miss the solar eclipse tomorrow but hopeful for the Jupiter phenomena. Scope Nights suggests Wednesday is “fair” , we’ll see.🤞🏻 

The best of luck with the weather Andrew.  At least it all lasts a while so we may be fortunate and we may have a view at some  time.

3 hours ago, Stu said:

Thanks very much @paulastro. Forecast is likely rubbish, but hopefully some will get a chance to see it. I’ll certainly try!

You're welcome Stu.  It sounds as if we have the same forecast.  Best of luck anyway, you never know.

This is a post I've posted as a heads up.  As it's a particularly good series of events I'm posting it here for those who may not look on the heads up forum, but might still wish to observe it.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/401721-october-26th-to-27th-multiple-satellite-and-grs-phenomena-a-visual-guide/

I thought this might be helpful, the orientation is inverted to match that of a Newtonian or a refractor without a diagonal. The location is for West Yorkhire  - the times will be slightly different depending where you live.  The GRS trans is actually at 8.37pm for my location.

There won't be any problems.  The cradle for your phone doesn't know what telescope it's attached to - it makes no difference.    I've used a i0inch scope with a  cradle from the SS Explorer 70 AZ attached and it worked great.  😊

Of course this assumes that you have fixed the cradle firmly in place so that it can't move.

Thanks, alas cloudy in deepest Yorkshire too.

16 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

A word of warning (depending on which dob you've got). My Oklop bag fits my 8" StellaLyra exactly, but only if I take the side alt bearings off, which is a PITA. If I'd known, I'd have bought the bag for the 10" version. If by any chance yours is similar, consider going large! 

 

 

This is good advice.  I contacted FLO when I was considering buying an Oklop bag for my 8inch Celestron Starsense Explorer dob ota, and they suggested the bag for the 10inch may be more suitable.  I'm pleased I took their advice, the 8inch bag would not have been big enough - or at best a very tight fit.

On 22/08/2021 at 11:03, Piero said:

To me a solid tube makes sense up to 8" - 10" with f.l. of 1200mm. These sizes fit the back seat of a car. With a focal length longer than 1200mm, I don't see any advantage in using solid tubes, whereas I do see many advantages in a truss design.

I am aware that this comment will be confronted, given the fact that here in the UK people seem to prefer solid tubes no matter what.

I wonder whether this preference is primarily due to the design of the UK Orion optics VX solid tube dobson, and people willing to stick to UK brand / choice.

This has nothing to do with Orion Optics - a comparativel newcomer to the astronomy market if you are over a certain age!  In this country Fullerscopes and Peter Drew were providing solid tube Newtonians as far back as the late 60s / early 70s. (among a few others)

Peter Drew used mirrors made by David Hinds - who supplied top quality mirrors of almost any focal length you wanted.  Some time ago I asked Peter why he used the focal ratios he did.  He told me that it was so that they would fit onto the back seat of cars.  Hence his most popular scopes had a focal length of 1200mm or less - whatever their aperture!  😊

2 hours ago, Moon-Monkey said:

That I couldn’t honestly say buddy as I’m a purely star charts person what I meant about the phone ruining your night vision isn’t about the app itself it’s when someone rings or you get a notification (which is shown in normal light ) 🙂 maybe these two people were using it wrong ?? As I say it’s not my personal experience it’s second hand but good to hear all sides as always 

You don't have to have any internet connection when using the app on your phone.  So there's no reason to be interupted by anyone trying to ring or message you when using it. Just switch the Internet connection off and turn the volume down. 

All of these points are covered by the more informed reviews, particularly those by Ade Ashford in the October issue of Astronomy Now and one by Alan Dyer which you can find on line.

On 09/10/2022 at 07:44, Moon-Monkey said:

I know two people that have a celestron star sense setup and both of them do not enjoy the function of the system you may have better luck but do remember if your looking at DSO’s a mobile phone will destroy your night vision the second your look at it for planetary I guess it’s ok though 🙂🙂

The Celestron Starsense App has a night time mode which turns the screen red, and you can reduce its brightness using the phones brightness control.   It then won't spoil your dark adaption.As Astro_Dad says, it's a game changer.  It's the fastest, easiest, most enjoyable to use and most trouble free object finding system I've found in over fifty years of practical astronomy - and I've tried most things.

Changes following AR3112 finally 'exploding' into life on October 10.  Single frame and crop using at 9.15am with Altair 80 ED-R and Olympus E-M5 Mk11.  Plus pics from 8th for comparison.

Luckily I  had some early morning sunshine before I had to go out this morning.

Single frame and crop taken at 9.30am with Altair 80 ED-R and Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/320 at 200 asa.

Great fun early this morning waiting for clear patches in very blustery winds.  As it turned out the conditions improved a ittle and I started taking some pics - alas I hadn't noticed the ominous clouds creeping up behind me - along with the telescope I was engulfed in a sudden downpour.  I did remains at my post though, and didn't retreat into the garage until I had taken a few more pics.  Neither of us were the worse for wear after a rub down with my dark cloth. 😊.

Single frame and crop taken at 8.29 am, 1/160 at 200 asa.  Altair 80 ED-R and Olympus EM-5 Mk11.  I was pleased to have a pic of AR3112 for the fifth in a row since itcame over the E limb.