Helen

1 hour ago, Helen said:

My adapter arrived to day... off to find a little screwdriver for some micro-surgery 😉  and find my filter wheel/changer.  I'm (trying to decide whether to go mono or colour camera on the back, but I'll need a light pollution filter whatever - last night I tried some widefield from my garden with the Sony 6500 and the samyang 12mm and the light polllution was terrible 😞  

Helen

Ah, can't find a small enough screwdriver 😞  and can't pop to the local diy for one...

My adapter arrived to day... off to find a little screwdriver for some micro-surgery 😉  and find my filter wheel/changer.  I'm (trying to decide whether to go mono or colour camera on the back, but I'll need a light pollution filter whatever - last night I tried some widefield from my garden with the Sony 6500 and the samyang 12mm and the light polllution was terrible 😞  

Helen

A Samyang adapter 🙂 

Oh..and a new pc for the Obs (I may be some time getting that all set up...!)

Helen

OK - apparently google started charging lots of money for this use, so its on hold while its being sorted out...

Helen

5 hours ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

Unfortunately the map isn't loading for me, anyone else getting this javascript error please?

"Google Maps JavaScript API error: ExpiredKeyMapError"

I've tried Chrome and Firefox.

 

Hmm thanks for the heads up - its not working on any browser I've now tried 🥺  I'll try to get feedback to the team.

Helen

Finally got

....spotting bats with my new meteor camera 🙄

Really hoping for some Lyrids later...

Helen

Nice Ant! 

12 hours ago, LongJohn54 said:

I really hope something 15Km in diameter made of iron and traveling at 80Kms/s doesn't hit my house or Scotland's had it!

What did you say about kids (even old ones) 🤣🤣

One kid found Trump Towers in the US 😆

So it's the Lyrids (and it's raining!).

Here are some great resources for looking at impact from meteors or comets.  The simulator is great fun 😎

When we do it with kids they always want to make the biggest hole (usually located on their school), but we challenge them to make the smallest hole, and the shallowest, or a particular depth of width...

Have fun, and let me know how you get on 

http://simulator.down2earth.eu/planet.html?lang=en

https://education.down2earth.eu/

Helen

24 minutes ago, Stu said:

🤣🤣

Well Mr Hezzlewood, I can certainly blame you for the best part of £2k on a Tak FC100DC. All your fault, but fortunately have never regretted it! Thank you! 👍👍

I think I can blame you for that too @Stu 🤣 I've never regretted my Tak purchase either!  (I did have my Telementor a long time before you though 😉 )  Last night I ended up just scanning the heavens and enjoying the views rather than anything systematic.  But it was fun 😄 

Helen

It's all @Stu's fault... Lovely views of Venus with the Zeiss 16 Ortho in the twilight sky.

Heading in to get the smaller FL Ortho and then plan some double-star targets.  I need to sort out a finder to save my knees (and more clothes too - cooling down quickly).

Will fire up the obs for comet Atlas once it's dark too!

Helen

OK, decided to go for a scan i5 desktop, 16gb and add 1Tb SSD and 4tb standard storage.  Hopefully keep me going for a while!

I'm hoping the clean install will sort out some of the challenges I've been having!

Now might be the time to think about moving from my old Maxim v5 though... hmm decisions, decisions

Helen

Some interesting prom action - worth a look!!

3 hours ago, Stu said:

That’s good then Helen! About the only thing I don’t like about my Tak is that it is so good it puts me off using other scopes. It replaced any need for scopes from 80mm to 120mm for me. So, that’s one reason why I’ve been trying out a number of different types of old scope, they are full of character and whilst not necessarily as good as the Tak, definitely bring something to the table in terms of observing enjoyment.

My Telementor has a narrow dovetail on it which is very handy. I found that by placing a short length of stainless steel bar alongside it, a standard Vixen dovetail saddle works fine. Does yours have a dovetail?

Thanks Stu. I completely agree with your assessment on the TAK!  Sometimes in this hobby you hit upon a 'one'  that just hits a spot perfectly.  I love it every time I use it 🙂 

My telementor also has the original narrow grey mounting bar, so I need to experiment.  That said the engineering on the zeiss mount is really lovely, including smooth slo-mos, so its no hardship using it (its just not particularly lightweight!)

I might get it out this afternoon and do some solar, and have it ready for Venus 🙂 

Helen

That's a nudge for me to get my telementor out again Stu - it's been a while! The Tak100 tends to be my go-to refractor, but a change would be fun.  The decision will be whether to use the Zeiss mount, or find a way of attaching a standard dovetail ... I wonder whether the azgti could cope 🤔

Helen

It makes a change from things being 'an area the size of Wales' 🤣

Try skyportal - it's celestron's packaged version of skysafari and it's Free!

Helen

Hi and welcome to SGL 🙂 

I would have thought your skies in Loughor would be pretty good (I used to live in Dunvant a long time ago).  Obviously towards Swansea might not be great, and maybe towards Gorseinon, but if you have fields and can see down to the Estuary that should be great (particularly for planets).

The scope you've been recommended is a super scope.  I recommended the same scope to a friend who was looking for a first scope (he lives on the outskirts of Carmarthen) and he has had loads of fun with it!  You'll good planetary views and its great for looking at deeper sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae.  I'd recommend buying the book 'Turn Left at Orion' and a red light torch to go with it and you'll have many happy hours discovering the Universe!

Have fun!

Helen

And now this from the opposite pespective 😉  Gianluca at Virtual Telescope Observatory 👀

BepiColombo spying Earth - how cool is that!!

My Obs pc has died, so as a stopgap I've got my laptop out instead.  I've had to install and set up everything.  Most stuff is working-ish.  I'm having a problem with my Mesu mount though.  When I goto it doesn't stop but sort of rocks instead and still shows slewing.  I stop it and restart and its fine.  Any solutions? (I seem to remember something similar a while ago, but I would have thought installing latest sitech version would have meant no issue...)

Help!

Helen

Have you wondered how big features on other planets are?  Well here's a tool for visualisation

http://countrymovers.elte.hu/countrymovers.html

So if the UK was on the Moon this is how much space it would take up

Have a play and post the results of your experiments 😎

Helen

Thanks Ray 🙂  I'm about to enter the case of the old pc just to check its not something loose...

Thanks all - I think sticking to what I know for the time being might be an idea rather than going down the Pi4 route...

How does this look? https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/refurbished-hp-elitedesk-800-g3-core-i7-6700-16gb-512gb-nvme-ssd-windows-10-t1-hpe800g3i716gb512gbw1/version.asp

Thanks

Helen