timwetherell

Would have been fun! As it happens, I did once build a replacement for a historic telescope, the Oddie refractor that was destroyed in the Canberra bushfires back in 2005. The new one was a 9" f15 and whilst not a copy of the original, very much in that late 19th century style

Thanks for posting that - very interesting! Did you find the image very flickery or sparkly (with the scintillation noise)? And how easy was it to order the EP here in the UK?

Thanks Ian

Thank you

Thanks Yes, it's a remarkable variation isn't it! I was lucky to get enough clear nights to complete it, England isn't known for it's lack of clouds

I think the slight kink is real as I didn't miss shooting for any long periods. Aim was once a week and sometimes it would be 10 or 11 days and sometimes 5 or 6 but overall fairly constant intervals. The other thing of course is that each frame had to be corrected for sky brightness (full moon, new moon etc. and some were necessarily at twilight) so there's a bit of jiggery there. I don't think it would have had much effect though as the brightness of the surrounding stars looks fairly constant.

Haven't done a pic for a few days but yes, that's broadly in line with what my photos have been showing - peak around mid May

Cool thanks yes S&T thought the peak was may 2nd but from my pics it looked more like the 10th or so. Wanted to do a visual drawing at max and min too, so I'd better get my skates on

thanks yes, it's awkward at the moment since it's only high near dawn. Couple of weeks in January when it's only visible low in the evening and low in the dawn were the worst for me. Not so good at getting up at 4am these days! Had a look at the AAVSO site but couldn't see a curve for the current cycle. I'd be interested as it's been a bit hard to know when exactly the cycle is complete as some maxima are brighter than others

Recently finished a project to create a time-lapse movie of the variable star Chi Cygni. Period is about 407 days and the magnitude variation is spectacular ranging from about 4 to about 14. It's almost circumpolar to the UK so is visible at some point during any night. Amazingly given the British weather, was able to get a shot more or less every week. Would like to upload the video but it doesn't seem to work for some reason, but here's a link to it on Youtube Would like to put it up here if possible. Tried Mov and AVI neither work. Does anyone have any suggestions for what formats do work on this site?

Thanks yep, was built over several years and very useful. But I appreciate that for many people, this isn't a viable option. Only became possible for me in recent years.

Any possibility of an observatory at your place? Been a game changer for me

Love it! Very ingenious use of the scissor jack! Building your own stuff adds a whole extra dimension to the hobby - especially in a 99% cloudy country

Excellent!!

Actually was still as a mill pond down in the South West! We had a haze/light cloud all night but I often find that's accompanied by good seeing for planets

We were lucky to have clearish skies last night to see the double transit. Heavy haze but seeing moderately good. Really striking difference in the size of the two shadows! Sketch below at roughly 45 min intervals and dodgy photo from the end - single frame on DSLR. So happy that Jupiter is now getting higher in the sky for Northern hemisphere observers - last few years have been rubbish!

This is a sketch of what M3 looks like in my 7" scope in good seeing near zenith.

Thanks I have a infrared modified Sony A7s mounted on a skywatcher black diamond 90mm ED apo. Used a photographic >950nm pass IR filter. The silicon CCD has some sensitivity out to about 1.1µm so it's recording in the 950nm-1100nm band. The filter is only 77mm diameter (bought it for a regular camera lens) so the 90mm refractor is actually a 77mm with that on the front. I find the Sony a really good astrophotography camera - really excellent CCD!

Got quite interested in Chi Cygni recently. Magnitude varies from about 3 to about 14 which is a crazy range. Apparently it's due to the surface temperature dropping which has the double effect of shifting the emission peak into the infrared and molecules forming in the cooler photosphere that absorb visible light. It's near minima so thought I'd try photographing it in visible and infrared light and sure enough, it's really bright at 1µm and really dim visually.

You'll love it, southern sky has some wonderful objects. Spent 30 years down under and do miss the skies. Eta Carinae is one of my favourites. The main nebula is amazing but pay particular attention to the star at high mag. The two gas jets coming off are amazing, unlike anything else I've seen. Will be awesome in a big scope