Physopto

1 hour ago, Uplooker said:

Mike et Al,

I am cooking breakfast. Obviously, only when I wake up. 

Ooo err "wake up".None of us have seen that as yet! Have to get out the cameras.  Better still give us a chance to contact the BBC, sure it will make the evening  news. 😂

4 hours ago, Uplooker said:

Does anyone on-site want me to get them anything from Tesco when I am on my way up this evening? Sensible requests only please.

Well, the wife won't get me one, so how about a 6 foot tall blond female with.... 

OK just remembered you said not enough space 🤔

😂

Derek

Cracking morning, just. Got up to clear skies and sunshine. Most are beavering about doing their chores and getting prepared for another imaging session tonight. Me I'm off to get supplies for a meal, then trying to find out why the blue filter is the only one that recorded unfocused stars. Astrodon PHAA!!!!!! No I don't want that either😞

Derek

Spent all of the early night trying to get polar aligned with little success. Until I found out that my repaired mount control had the menu setting for j2000 switched off by 10 Micron at their factory. Ho hum, 4 months for the repair, new circuit board and reprogramming. After that a pleasure to watch it plate solve each point in under 2 seconds, using Model Maker. Then 4 hours of imaging on the Rossette Nebula finishing just after 0400 hrs. Makes it all worthwhile. 

Derek

7 hours ago, Uplooker said:

Clear skies here at home

Get the motor fixed and get your self up here pronto.

Derek

Scope and boxes covered indew that has turned to ice. Just off to bed as a wee it chilly now. ❄️❄️

Well, setup at last. One or two small problems as usual then off to the warm room to sample a few small drams. All punctuated with Damian running in  and out trying to get a good shot of the sky. Good clear spells but a wee bit windy at present. Any way too tired to spend any more time out of the sack. Looks like it may be even better tomorrow.

Ian yer need to get here fast as whisky stocks are already dwindling. 🌝 And Damian is having such a good time "missing you already" 😂

2 minutes ago, mapstar said:

At least it's an improvement. Still lashing it down here. 

Weather forecast for tomorrow shows a rain band across the UK just south of the Tyne area for most of the day. Hopefully Mike and I will drive over in the dry👍. You may be coming through it though. ☹️

 So take it easy. Late but safe.

Got to think positive thoughts! Repeat, Got to think positive thoughts! Repeat..............

56 minutes ago, Demon Barber said:

You can swim surerly,Damian.

Mike

🤔Probably never got past the dodgy, sorry, doggy paddle. 😂🔭

https://pixinsight.com/trial/

Last I read, Astronomik coat both sides of their filters so there is no preferred direction. I had a set of theirs a few years ago, and some of them did produce halos on Alnitak. They were returned under their guarantee and a new set procured. They were extremely good to deal with and pretty fast at replacing the filters. Great service. Shortly after I made enquiries about the actual refractive indexes on their glass substrate and exact (within experimental error) thickness  of the filters. If memory serves me the thickness is actually approximately 1.1mm.

Later on using Astrodon filters (3mm thick) and one  Astronomik caused too much trouble refocusing all the time as the backfocus between field flattener  and CCD sensor changed due to the refractive index differences. 

Astronomik state that for a small extra payment they will match the optical thicknesses of a set of filters for you. What that means in real terms is anybodies guess, as there will always be an error of some sort.

I have never used Baader as their 1.25mm filters at that time had  a very thick metal frame, much too thick for my QSI cameras causing too much vignetting. I see they now can supply unmounted filters.

Derek

Could it be a slight misalignment of the optics. There is a wee bit of elongation in the bottom left and right. Without spending large amounts of time experimenting and losing good sub time in the UK can you afford it.

last time I actually looked at anything I did (several years now) mine was similar if not worse. 

🤔

Derek

Cheers Adrian, actually been right out of it all for some time now as Mike will tell you. I have never heard of Night Scopes. Just been using BBC, ugg, and XC weather. XC shows some hope so fingers crossed.

Same to all safe journey to the camp.

Derek

Just found it. I see it is Scope Nights Astronomy Weather, an Apple application. Pity it is only Apple.

I am sorry for anyone living in Blackpool. Not intending to insult those who love the place but, I once drove into Blackpool and kept going until it was a distant memory. I like the country and lack of any light outside at night, baring the stars and moon.

Mike, Annette and I are travelling up on Saturday. Meeting up on the A69 just before Corbridge. Hope to be there between 2-3 ish.

Crossed fingers for the weather and hope it is actually better than Adrian says.

Derek

The latest Windows 10 update I think is version 1909. Apparently the bright sparks there have caused a few problems with this update, one in particular is in ACP Bob Denny has sent out an email to all his ACP users to not try to uninstall and reinstall the program as it will not fix the problem. Bob is working on a fix for it. This is the second time over the past year that Microsoft have caused serious problems with updates that affect his product. Bob has urged his customers to stop Windows updates if possible for a while. You can easilly defer these  for a month in settings.

But I agree with Dave best wth no internet connection if at all possible.

Derek

My wife bought me something similar a few weeks ago. Not even tried it as yet. But I expect it will get plenty of wear at the Galloway Star Camp next week. Can and does get a bit err chilly, really freezing, at times.

3 hours ago, Skipper Billy said:

Our heating is on 0500 to 0800 and 1600 to 2200 - I work mostly outside and we are a long way north so I dont like starting the day off cold and I like to come home to a warm house!

We also have a 12kw log burner for when its really cold as our lounge has 2 walls that are almost all glass and the heat loss is horrendous!

One of our regular customers is still in shorts and a t-shirt although I did see him with a fleece on the other day when it was -3º !!

 

One of the regular attendees at the Galloway star campcome rain or snow  is allways in shirt and shorts, I just don't know how he does it.

36 minutes ago, estwing said:

Can't remember where I put my telescope its been that long!!!

Try nearly 4 years. Hope I don't forget anything. Still searching just in case.

Especially for Ian, his favourite I know. 😂

Looking forwards to seeing everyone again.

Once went through the cow brown stuff with our caravan on the back. Took a heck of a long time to shift it once dried. No wonder they used it for the old plaster work, wattle and daube I think it was called.

11 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

A similar scenario with car insurance. I have "fully comp" like most of us these days so if my car is stolen and not recovered the insurers pay out. Not so!, in the small print it states that if the car isn't fitted with a tracker, you're not covered for theft. This is a household name insurer.       ☹️

I have had trackers fitted on most cars over the past 15/20 years. Even my caravan had a Cobra tracker fitted. That is until recently, I was always quoted a slightly cheaper overall cost. But lately I began wondering if it was necessary with the better so called security systems on cars. Bit of a laugh really considering we are now informed, well over the last few years, that the criminals use electronic cloning devices to pinch the vehicles. 

If you use a tracker with gps it is negated very easilly by sticking the vehicle in a container or garage until the tracker is disconnected. The phone and sim types are not much better. Carry a Faraday case for your keys and maybe your vehicle will be safe-ish. 

But I have not heard of this insurance clause up until now!

To cap it all both my wife and I use the same insurer. Slight discount. But whilst my insurance went up by about £10 2.5%, this year hers has just been quoted at an extra £56 approximately about 20% increase. Does not make any sense to me at all.  Hey-Ho off to look around once more!

Hi everyone.

Input welcome from anyone but mostly any lawyer/solicitor as to legality of the insurance firms methods.

I have just been and looked for house and contents insurance to replace one that got prohibitively expensive. I insure for accident all risks.

This includes my astronomy equipment at home and away at Star Camps.

I thought I had my insurance sorted with a reasonable deal, until the last online page" agreeing and paying". On that last page it asked if I agreed with their terms and conditions. Up until that point I had told them everything including that my UPVC window levers were of the non locking type. (They had been there for thirty plus years).

I had never had any queries/rejections from insurance firms over the years, bar paying a slightly higher premium placed on my voluntary excess.

As usual I checked the terms and conditions before signing. Good job that I did, as this firm stated that any break in when there were no locking window handles, would make the insurance null and void, regardless of any questions that they had asked. As I have said they knew but never indicated at the question stage that it would "null and void the burglary insurance" bit.

They had been specifically informed about this in the questions asked and agreed to the insurance and had been prepared to take my money, but it would have been almost worthless to me in a burglary situation.

After answering all questions truthfully they had tried to sneak in a last minute clause null and voiding the burglary insurance.

I have now changed all these handles for the locking type, but please be aware if you don't already know that you may not be covered.

As they say check and recheck at all stages, even at the very last moment, before signing up!

Sneaky to say the least.

Derek

Damn! Busted🥃🥃🥃😂