Wikiastro

I've just been looking at the website for the event and the holiday camp itself, and there's mention of a discount for attendees if you mention that you're going for the star party.  Does anyone know how much it is per night for a tent w/o electric?

My in-laws live in the Llanfair area, and I always take my scope with me.  The skies are incredible, compared to Wakefield.  It works out quite nicely as the Father in law seems to like having a nosey through the scope too.  Last weekend, the Milky Way was clear and bright, and there were great views to be had of a fair few DSOs.

Whoa!

The notification on this thread has just interrupted me filling out the application form!  I see I would have missed a meeting today in Leeds.  I suspect I might be the only person glad of the postponement till April - I'm a few miles away.

Thanks - the president posted in that! Very informative.  Going to join, I think.

Yes indeed, Mr Munroes!

How very 2021. I misgendered someone. Apologies!

Hi,

I've been pondering joining the BAA, and was wondering if anyone here was a member, and if so, what benefits it gave.  I am a scientist by trade, and I like the look of the journal and the groups, but I was just looking for opinions before splashing £50.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

https://britastro.org/join

2 hours ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Welcome, player of games 🙂

That, sir, is an excellent spot!  I too, like my Banks with an M.

Yeah. It’ll be on the science hour podcast on iTunes. CrowdScience is normally the second half. They’re normally really good - they answer listener questions.

thanks for flagging it

BTW - I use a 6" newtonian on an equatorial mount exclusively for visual without any issue.  With a rough alignment to north, it makes keeping objects in the eyepiece easy.  One of your slow motion controls will correct for the drift caused by the rotation of the Earth.  It is a bit of a faff to go from one half of the sky to the other, so I tend to plan my sessions around a couple of areas per night.  Now all we need are some clear skies!

24 minutes ago, AKB said:

You can, of course, rotate the optical tube in the tube rings until the focuser/eyepiece is in a more convenient orientation.  Folk *do* use Newtonians for visual all the time.

To make this a safer operation, you can have one additional tube ring clamped to the tube, but not the mount, which can act as a stop and rotate against one of the two rings fixed to the mount (and suitably loosened so that the tube can rotate.)

Tony

I've seen someone with a large jubilee clip around the tube to enable this.  I think they had a spot of thin foam underneath too, to prevent scratches.

I have a string for my glasses that I keep with my eyepieces.  It looks ridiculous, but as astronomy happens in the dark, what do I care!

Trying not to get any hopes up, but Carole on BBC breakfast just presented an updated forecast with a lot of clear skies from Sunday onwards.

Clear Outside is looking promising too now.

Ooh!

Plenty of time for that to change! 😆

could i suggest you add the standard, basic skywatcher eyepieces that come with most skywatcher scopes, for us noobs.  It'd be really helpful, but it looks great.