nickarp2000

To be honest the TFL website quoted the cost for zones 1-3 all day travelcard at £9.60 for the route of Brent Cross to kensington High Street which I thought was reasonable. As is the case these days the stations aren't manned and the machines only gave the options of zones 1-6 at £15.80 per ticket. I didnt understand this at all, but when the computer says "No" what can you do?

Well I went. Thank heavens for free parking at Brent Cross. £30 in tube fairs for me and the missus. £16 to get in. What a waste of time in all honesty. Few vendors of any note. 365 and Wide-screen (who basically dominated the main showroom). Nothing like it used to be and to be perfectly honest it really shouldn't be charging just to see a handful of vendors with £8 each prebooked or £10 on the door. This exhibition has run its course. Even FLO decided it wasn't worth it! Came away with 2 brochures and a star map from the popastro stand for my grandson. They really need to consider their viability as a an alleged premier Astronomy exhibition now. It's lost its shine. Rant over, glad to be home.

I'm going tomorrow for the first time in 10 years. Really pulling it in with a day out in London with my wife. Not expecting to spend much but would be nice to see new equipment in the flesh rather than looking at cleverly photographed images online for a change. Maybe buy some literature for a change which will occupy me during the "unusual" cloudy period here in the UK!

I have to agree in this day and age with all the centrally located or external London exhibition venues available, I would have thought they would have relocated to provide some greater access for those people who have to travel half the countries length and more to get there. However it is what it is I suppose, and so long as I dont spend more on transport than I may at the exhibition I dont mind.

Thats really kind of you. Unfortunately its only the Saturday I can go this year. I have investigated an alternative option this morning. Driving to Amersham at the top of the Metropolitan Line and tubing in from there whilst leaving my car on the Multi Story. This might work, other than its a 1.5 hours to Amersham in the car.

I believe ow my forecast visit has been sabotaged by the train drivers. Both Avanti West Coast and West Midlands lines are due to be on strike. I'm struggling to find convenient park and ride options. Was thinking of parking at Brent Cross (I understand it's free) and tubing in from there. Just not sure whether it's worth the extra effort now.

Yes both me and my wife are going (so i have to be carefull with the card!) on Saturday. First time since 2015

Perfect dark skies. Crystal still air. Stars leaping out at me. Frozen eyebrows ! There appears to be no happy mediium here in the UK for any form of OBS or imaging sessions which combine an ability to control a computer at the rig with thermal gloves on, a beanie and 25 layers of cloth on you to try to stop hyperthermia. I just cant do it at this time of year anymore and am going to wait until March (when its cloudy and windy) before I attempt to set up again. Being a bit of a neanderthal I dont have a rig thats geared up for remote imaging, nor do I have the funds to have a nice observatory; and the hauling in and out of freezing cold aluminium and steel really doesnt get my juices flowing anymore. Rant over, but I'm sure I'm not alone Nick

So here she is. The rainmaker. Just my little contribution to the appalling weather systems running through the UK at the moment. Received in excellent condition from FLO last week:_ Starfield 102 ED Starfield adjustable reducer/flattener Oklop Bag New ASI 120mmm mini guide camera SORRY ALL.

I have an old S/W Equinox ED80, now well past its sell by date. I am looking to upgrade to a new rafractor to be used for DSO imaging on my rig and was hoping someone could give me some feedback on my potential candidates My budget is around the £1000 mark for the tube assembly only, realising I may have to spend a few hundred pounds on desirable extras. My shortlist is here but if there are others to consider I would welcome suggestions:- Stellamira 110 F/6 Askar 103 F/6.8 Starfield 102 F/7 Thanks Nick

When I decide to go out into the garden and set up my gear for an imaging run (which with our weather isnt often) I always invite my grandson to join me and I wheel out my old 10" dob and allow him to sweep the skies and get used to simple focus runs with varying eyepieces. He loves just being out there under the skies and mapping his own way around. I will give him some simple bright targets to try and find and in this way he is learning his way around the sky. He is only 10 years old and I have resisted buying him a EQ mounted scope as I just think it would be too much for him to deal with at the moment, even a lower value Alt system wouldnt benefit him. The grab and go status of a Dobsonian keeps him interested.

I would agree with your findings. After an extensive search on Wikipedia of all churches on the IOW there is no St. Giles. There is a church that was designed by a cornish architect by the name of Giles but they didnt name it after him. Sounds a lilttle suspicious unless they are sending photos of the telescope from where they bought it from ?? Nick

It's a little different with my set up using my Cem60. Once I have polar aligned using the i-polar, I must use this position and tell the mount it's the new Zero position in the handcontroller. From there I open nina and go to my manual focus tab and just select the first star in the list. Mount goes there but doesn't use ASTAP for plate solving at this stage. I then manually focus to get the best star image I can by imaging in 5 second bursts. From that point I use Stellarium to pick an object. From Stellarium back to Nina and open the framing tab. Get coordinates from Stellarium and then slew and centre. Plate solving now works because my focus is good enough for it to recognise the star field patterns the camera images. If I'm not close enough to focus I can't plate solve. I can the keep in the framing wizard and play about with the box around the object until I'm happy with the position in the frame. From there off to sequencing and set up the lights darks etc. Tweek focus and off we go. Nick

Thanks Unfortunately the Equinox ED80 Pro has a screwed in focuser, which doubles as a rotator. I can find a fitting to fit a new focus unit into it TS have given me some options but when I add an adapter and focus unit it gets upwards of £500, which is a lot to spend on an 11 year old telescope! Thanks Nick

Thanks Yes I did go to FLO and noticed they had the same in stock (different name of course) So you have found it great to work with then? I have a Senso Sesto 2 robotic focuser which I would love to use and am hoping I could couple it to the focuser on this Many thanks Nick