uhb1966

Hi All!

Does anybody know where to get a good artificial star at a decent price?

Spending 100$ on a simple white LED with a potentiometer seems a bit strange to me 😕 

EDIT: just found this one at FLO-looks decent: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/other-collimation-tools/hubble-optics-5-star-artificial-star.html 

Does anyone have some experience with this one?

Best, U.

well,my fellow stargazers beat me to giving you more tips

One more thing: i suggest starting out without the barlow lens and well, using the moon as a target which you know by now - with the moon, you can get by with quite short exposures, that reduce the wobbles

And: if you dive into astrophotography, usually the most expensive hardware is agood mount ... best! U.

Hi Bodger!

Well, the wobble is , im afraid, nothing you can do a lot about.

Regarding the dark picture: darkness is a function of the scopes aperture and its magnification, ie the more mag, the darker, the larger the aperture , the brighter.

Regarding the softness: how far is the tower from you, and how is the seeing today? for a test, you might want to try a target no too far away, like 1-2 miles...

On 22/07/2020 at 11:26, Paul M said:

There are some stunning comet images right now on SGL. My "like" button is worn out!

I know it's not a beauty contest and images can be very personal endeavours, but this image stopped me in my tracks. Perhaps it natural, understated quality caught my eye. 

Unfortunately I've been clouded out but this image is exactly how I want to remember this fine comet!

This is f....vermaledeit beautiful!!

Best, U.

You are right! Neg magnitude seems to be an understatement... 😎 Imho not a comet... hope it's not some kind of artefact. 

8 hours ago, wornish said:

Not sure to be honest.  I have intentionally kept my iMac running Mojave 10.14.6 because the later releases seem to stop anything that is not an Apple approved app from working.  And with their latest announcements about moving to ARM that situation is going to get even worse.

 

@wornish you are totally right. For the same reason, i stick with 10.13.6. I have used Macs since 2008 for making a living but i´m not sure whether i'll buy another mac again.

About wine: if you are not going to update that software, wine *may* be an option, but i'd use vmware w/ a current version of Win10.

I love wine but it's really a hell to configure with some software. If you just want to run Windows software, and don't want to spend a lot of money, virtualbox is free while vmware is much better but costs a few squid. You will also need a Windows license key and install medium which might cost anything betweeen 10 and 40 squid.  

On 22/06/2020 at 12:00, Corncrake said:

There is an overlay of all transits of C3 for2020 in the spaceweater archive for 16June.
which shows NEOWISE crossing the field bottom right.

https://www.spaceweather.com/images2020/15jun20/c3transits.jpg

EDIT harrumpf it was there when I posted onnest but now it is giving a 404

try again :

https://www.spaceweather.com/images2020/15jun20/c3transits.jpg

 

C/2020 seems to be clearly visible on LASCO C3: https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/lasco-coronagraph

Its no Halley, but considerably brighter than all stars in view...

I'm certainly no pro, but to start things up, i would nowadays ONLY start with the following things

1- a good deck chair with arms rests - in your case 2 desk chairs

2- a wellpriced 11x70 binocular like for example: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p2005_TS-Optics-11x70-LE-Porro-Prism-Binoculars---perfect-for-twilight-and-night.html

3- a free star map application like stellarium or CDC.

Only if you and your daughter start using the binos on a regular basis, it's time for the next step. 

PS the arm rests are vital bc that bino gets VERY HEAVY with time!

Best, and have fun!! U.

On 22/06/2020 at 23:41, dd999 said:

Yes ..... and yes I'm afraid

Sounds like a damn cement mixer going off in the garden at 1am

These are probably extremely stupid ideas but i'll fire it off anyway: there are these egg-box shaped silencer foam thingies. Maybe glue some of them together as a silencer around the part of the mount that contains the gears? Can the mount be belt modded? I personally use eqmod.

1 hour ago, Gina said:

Reckoned to be about the best weather station is the Davis Advantage Pro 2 and I can see advantages in the wind sensors in this station.  This format is much more compact than my last version.  There is very little interference from the support bracket.

Wow ... a 400+ squid weather station! Oh boy ...🤯 Mine is definitely more frugal...  https://www.froggit.de/product_info.php?info=p316_wh1080-se-profi-funk-wetterstation-solar-touchscreen-usb--neuer-aussenmast-.html

...but i fire my money out for cars  

Regarding the BT/Wlan question: I'd also go for Wlan if possible - you can then beam the data over longer distances.

1 hour ago, MarkAR said:

Just out of interest, anyone know what the carbon footprint of each of Musks launches are ?

If he's launching strings of 16 satellites at a time its going to be 2625 launches to get his proposed 42000 lumps into space.

He'll run out of money. But the debris will remain... until they fall back to earth. I do hope they are small enough to get vaporized on reentry.

With an optimized setup, i got the time for hardware setup and start cooling down to 11min 3 sec.

Again, thank you all

APT has the possibility to show you USB commands, and there's a free demo - here: https://www.astrophotography.app/downloads.php

On 19/06/2020 at 10:02, Grimbles said:

I had the same issue with a 150 PDS, a cut down black bin liner and a piece of bungy cord sorted not just the darks and flats but improved the contrast in the light frames.

@GrimblesI'll try that, thanks !

On 20/06/2020 at 08:26, alacant said:

Hi

Is there any way you could leave the mount set up permanently? An upside down water tank, bin or roll off cover for the mount? Put a mark of the dovetail carrying the optics at balance and attach when it's clear?

For me at least, it's the difference between imaging and can't-be-bothered!

Cheers.

Hi @alacant yes, possible! but i guess if i optimize my setup, i might make it without a permanent setup. Thanks for the idea with the upside down water tank!!!

Very nice! You may be better of with longer subs (if possible). Great for Bortle 8!

@smerral I've been searching a lot for exactly this ! Thanks!!

Well - i guess the first one carries the most colour information at the expense of having more noise. The second one has much better defined structures and less noise, but also less colour information. I do like the combination of the two best. Thanks again! 

On 21/03/2019 at 11:30, souls33k3r said:

This is a very neat idea, thank you for that.

I have been trying to find a washing line cover as Dave suggested but can't seem to find one wide enough to encompass the mount head.

... And have it printed "This is totally a heater! No scope mount at all!"

@smerralDid you use filters? Best, U 

@CloudMagnet Yep, narrowband gives the most dramatic images! But i like to see the stars as they are as well. Decisions!🤔

3 minutes ago, tomato said:

Fortunately I’m now retired so I have permanent observatory (dome). I certainly don’t miss the set up/take down activity, I think having a permanent setup is the single biggest thing you can do to reduce frustration levels for this hobby in the UK.

I don't think it's much better over here 😬

@tomato very interesting! How are you doing it now?

vb runs quite okay and yes, you need a license for the guest OS. For AP, i head to move to vmware bc  the usb port sim was only running on single speed which was too slow for the orion starshoot autoguider.

For astro stuff, you should generally opt for a powered one as many astro gear takes its power from the hub. If the drain on the master's power hub gets above 500mA, the master usually shuts down the usb port.