Grant

12 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

that's a risk in publicly giving out meeting details that "unexpected/undesirable" input could ensue, might have been better to issue via PM/email to those who've registered an interest perhaps?

That's why we've created a new 'StarGaZine' forum area, visible only to members to post this in.

It doesn't eliminate the risk but it's not much worse than handing out the details individually as there is nothing to stop them posting it elsewhere.

We will also have people on hand to moderate and all participants will be muted during the talks and possibly have cameras de-activated - we shall see how it goes.

Meeting details posted here:

Zoom details for tonights meeting below. You do not need a Zoom account to participate, just join the Zoom meeting using the details below.

We will open the meeting at 8pm BST and kick off the introduction shortly after.

Topic: StarGaZine - Episode 1 - Making Every Photon Count by Steve Richards
Time: May 24, 2020 08:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/95805037947?pwd=Vjd6SERLT1RMZUErSjE5VTU0RDR2Zz09

Meeting ID: 958 0503 7947
Password: 034886

I'm not really sure I understand your message but if you think SGL is putting beginners off astronomy then you are barking up the wrong tree.

Evidence is that SGL is a huge resource that gets cited all the time by beginners for helping them get into and grow their interest in the hobby. Is there things we can do better and improve? Sure, all the time we are considering new ideas etc.. but by and large I think SGL has a very positive effect on beginner astronomy.

We will be recording and will look at making this available to people who can't attend. This will be subject to each speaker giving permission.

Meeting links and ID's will be sent nearer the time 🙂

4 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

Thanks Grant. Just had a quick mooch at it and although it seems an impressive bit of kit, think its a wedge to shell out for something my wife gti mount will do once it's centred.

Hope you only bought the mount, the tripod is same as the wifi gti one and it is pretty average at best.

cheers, steve

I'm using the steel tripods with these. Found the standard star adventurer tripod fine when not extended but not for doing anything to high up.

I've used the GTi a lot as well but it isn't as good at following the sun, spot on in the center of the FOV all day long as the SolarQuest.

6 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Had one of the Solar Scouts and found it to be very poor visualy. It is much more suited to imaging use. So if you are looking for a scope to use visualy there are better choices. 

. The PST is quite good visually but not much different to the Lunt 35. New they are a bit overpriced but can be had second hand at a good price

I didn't find that in my testing John - I tried a Lunt 60 B1200 Pressure Tuner side by side with the DayStar 60 and found I could see some fainter prominence detail with the DayStar than the Lunt and with slightly better contrast too. Up until that point I had been using the Lunt for maybe two years but decided to swap for the DayStar which I still use. I also tried the larger DayStar 80 but found the additional bulk / expense not really worth it for my needs vs the 60, particularly when the sun wasn't doing an awful lot!

The downside is the heating up time and more cables in the way...

Don't get me wrong, the Lunt is a beautiful scope but I found adjusting the pressure tuner a pain and in terms of value, it is much more expensive than the DayStar.

Whichever you end up going for, have a look at the SolarQuest mounts - that has been the best solar investment for me. I now have two of them - for outreach it is absolutely fantastic and for just leaving running, tracking it will go all day so you can keep popping back out for a peek.

The camera is an older ASI120MM but we are going to be upgrading it to an ASI120MM-S as the one we sent over is a very old one and has been a little flakey...

The bracket, is a Rob @ FLO special - Rob looks after our workshop and is brilliant at designing little gadgets and brackets like this. This one was 3D printed and has a sprung mechanism to clamp on to the dovetail - we may well release this at some stage as a product - assuming there is demand

We don’t normally allow this sort of questionnaire but, Neill asked special permission and as we met and spoken to Neill on a number of occasions and like the work he is doing at Go Stargazing to support amateur astronomers, societies and others across the UK lo find and share astronomy we’ve agreed this can be posted.

Temporary glitch - should be ok now.

2 minutes ago, Ant said:

I think its superb. 

For the record it's set in the Prime Timeline.

It's darker than the utopian future that ST:TNG portrayed, it's similar in concept to the TNG episode about the junior ranks of the enterprise. That showed the ST universe from a perspective away from the bridge crew.

It's also funnier and a lot sadder than I was expecting. The opening scene almost made me cry.

I hope that this series get a fair crack of the whip. But that said, I hope the writers are telling a predefined story, one where they already know the end. It cannot drag on - it needs to finish with us gagging for more.

Then ST: Section 31 can entertain us all

Thinking about it more, the whole 'Freecloud' environment reminds me of the 'Toehold Space' concept in the 'Golden Age of the Solar Clipper' Universe by Nathan Lowell. What do you reckon @Grant?

Ant

Only just finished episode 2 so will let you know!

Busy waiting for the next Nathan Lowell audio book to be released as well!

11 hours ago, geordie85 said:

@Grant I'm just wondering if you received my pm as I notice it is still unread.

 

Yes - sorry we are behind on these, mugs are now here and will ship next week.

Enjoying coming along for the ride on this one - great write up!

Temporary fix in for now but its currently rebuilding the search index so will be slow and not 100% up to date.

We are working on this now, please bear with us.

Sadly over the Christmas break Pulsar Observatories suffered a break in at their workshop in Norfolk. Some tools and other items were stolen but most importantly, Steve Collingwood's very special, hand made (by his own hands) 3" f/16 BCF brass refractor has been stolen. This was the last scope made at BC&F after nearly 300 years so it's a big loss.

Many of you may already know Steve, he has been part of the amateur astronomy community for a long time now and is definitely one of the goods guys so please keep an eye out in case this scope pops up for sale somewhere. Any sightings please let me know and I will pass it on.

Below are some pictures:

This is now fixed 🙂

All,

There is a bug with the way cookies are working on the forum caused by the new year rollover. This affects all forums using the same platform as us and the forum developers are aware and will have a fix for this issue shortly but, due to the new year holidays it may be a day or so.

Please don't keep reporting it - we are aware and will put the fix in place as soon as it's released.

Happy new year!

Cheers,

Grant

The ESP_XXXXX WiFi network is from the Skywatcher dongle - it probably indicates an issue with the WiFi dongle itself as it shouldn’t be broadcasting that WiFi network ID.

The GTi mounts occasionally broadcast something similar if there is an issue and they need a firmware update.

Congratulations to the winners - joint second on this one as well

NLC arch frame By Daniel-K

Milky way, Jupiter and Rho Ophiuchi By alexbb

HDR Lunar eclipse and clouds By Ethan Roberts

Teesdale aflame... By clarkpm4242

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/339127-teesdale-aflame/

Congratulations @Daniel-K, @alexbb, @Ethan Roberts and @clarkpm4242 please PM me your addresses so we can send you your prize mug

We are woefully behind on this apologies - catching up this next week.

The winners are:

Full Arch Over Joshua Tree By HunterHarling

m16 By geordie85

M13 The Great Hercules Globular Cluster By Graeme1858

Well done @HunterHarling, @geordie85 and @Graeme1858 - please PM me your addresses so we can send your prize mugs out

12 minutes ago, carastro said:

Ah OK, so this is where the images should go then?

Also where we can download the data (when the time comes)? 

Carole

Yes 🙂

The data will be hosted somewhere and we will share the access details on here. We are still deciding the best way to offer the data at the moment but I suspect we will end up offering publicly the integrated, calibrated master lights that can then be processed from there.

If anybody wants access to the raws, we can look at that but I have concerns around the amount of bandwidth this might consume!!

12 minutes ago, carastro said:

I was thinking that we ought to have a separate dedicated imaging forum for the IKI downloaded data images so they can be kept separate from our own self captured images.  

It will also clearly showcase the results rather than getting them muddled up with regular images.

What do you think SGL Moderators?

Carole 

 

That's why we've created this new forum area specifically for IKI Observatory discussions

The idea is to use this area to share results, data and to collaborate on choosing targets and creating sequences.

Andrew and Simon - lots of good ideas there - we will start some separate discussions on the science side, initially we will focus on imaging but definitely want to dedicate a % of time to other projects and hopefully @Helen can also weigh in on good projects to participate in 🙂

If you prefer a more open version the AtikBase is similar - uses StellarMate in the backend so Indi/Ekos but has built in power distribution / focuser control in the hardware as well.

It lacks the front end mobile interface though.