lukebl

I've heard gooses but also a lot of bats that fly, squeek and catch insects.

Never heard of bats in "'a flock of at least 50 in a sraightish line with just a hint of a v formation". Unless they're Fruit Bats. Now that would be something. Flocks of Fruit Bats over Doncaster!

I'd say Gulls then. Often fly at night between reservoirs and along river valleys, and there are a lot of reservoirs near Doncaster as I recall!

Whereabouts are you? Barnacles are unlikely except in certain locations on the North and east Coast. Most migratory geese are only on the coast and it's still a bit early for them.

I regularly get flocks of feral Greylags and Canade Geese flying over at night, so I'm guessing that's what you're seeing. If they're making a noise they are probably them, if not they could even be flocks of Lesser Black-backed or Herring Gulls.

Strangely, I had a Barn Owl over the garden last night, and I'm in fairly built-up area. Had no idea they strayed over suburbia till now, although I regularly see them in the fields a mile down the road.

Luke,

If you can't solve your XP problem, send the cameras to me I'll flash and return for the cost of postage.

PM me.

Ken

Thanks Ken. I'm looking around for an XP model to borrow, but if that fails I'll get in touch.

.....you can download an xp mode...

Dammit. Just tried to download XP Mode and I get the message: 'You are not eligible to download Windows XP Mode. You must have Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate to run Windows XP Mode.' I have windows Home Premium 64 bit.

Anyone else have this problem?

... you can download "XP Mode" free from Microsoft. This is a Win XP running inside a window on your Win7....

Yes, I do have Win 7. I'll have a go, as long as it doesn't mess everything else up!

Could launch a XP VM?..

.... so it's not possible to flash these if you don't have access to a computer with Windows XP?

I've got three of them now, but no means to make them work!

Did you see the post about the Free XP license for VM's under windows 7?

.... I think so, but didn't understand it! I have a new laptop and don't want to mess it up by installing some ancient version of windows on it. Or maybe I've misunderstood the whole process. and what's a VM?

Sorry if I'm repeating stuff, but I've read through all these threads to find an answer.

As I understand it, it is absolutely impossible to flash these webcams or get them to work UNLESS you have Windows XP.

Is that right?

I only have Windows 7 and have no access to a pc with XP, so does that mean I can't do it? How many people still have XP anyway?

Another mod page for the SPC900NC:

astropetros.com - SPC900NC Long Exposure Modification

Thanks. Will give them a try.

Hopefully you can DIY and have a deepsky/guider camera for peanuts.

As someone with extremely basic electronics knowledge, but still pretty handy, am I the only one who finds the various modification tutorials fairly unintelligible? I can't even find a basic shopping list for the parts that you'll need. Can anyone direct me to one? I just want to be able to trundle along to Maplins with a list!

Awesome :icon_salut:

You took the words right out of my mouth!

Doubly awesome.

I had a previous list which I've updated to show the more common Bayer names for the Skywatcher stars.

Hope this helps,

ken

Thanks Ken,

That was all I was after, but couldn't find it anywhere on t'web! Perfect.

What's an alignment list? (:-))

EQMOD is the way to go...

Like I said ... I must get a life!

I've now updated and edited the star list so that it matches Phil's list, and taken out ones not used in Synscan.

So here it is, a complete list of the Synscan stars, their magnitude and constellation. Must get a life.

Even if no-one else does, I will find it useful!

Synscan_star_list.doc

To be fair, I cobbled together a spreadsheet from various lists including yours and then put them into a word document, so it contains more stars than your original list (I think). A couple of errors and typos by me, I've noticed, but a much more complete list and just what I was looking for!

Here you go. Alphabetical list of all stars over mag. 4 and their constellations.

Alphabetical star list.doc

Luke,

I am a Unix man at heart - just shoved the 3.27 firmware through my windows version of the Emacs editor. The star names are in plain text; here they are :) :-

Brilliant. Thanks for that. Just need to add the constellations. I'll have a go!

If you are a member of the EQ6 Yahoo group, a guy called Mike McRoberts created a PDF with star charts containing all the alignment stars along with a list of the actual alignment stars....

Thanks Phil. I'll try that, although presumably this is the same list as the incomplete one I was talking about, which was also prepared by a Mike McRoberts? This one:

The list is five years old, so I guess that SynScan have added more stars? Time for an update. I'll have a go, if no-one else has done it!

Personally I always cheat. I dummy run the mount indoors setting time for when I'm going to be outside, then I note which alignment stars Synscan chooses, I then look them up on stellarium. Easy.

Ian

A simple list would be easier!

Google -> "synscan star list"... wasnt rocket science

SkyScan Alignment Stars and Finder Charts - IceInSpace

Yes, if you read my message fully you will see that was the very list I was referring to. Not rocket science.

My point being that it is a very incomplete list.

Hi,

Does anyone else find it frustrating that Synscan uses the colloquial (ancient) names for its alignment stars, rather than the constellation name? Fine for obvious ones like Arcturus, but a bit of a pain when it comes to things like Zubeneshamali (Beta Librae).

As part of my sky is obscured for various reasons, I would rather know what constellation it was in, so that I can choose one in the right general direction rather than fumbling through a list of arcane star names to find the 'official' name and constellation. Not that I object to these wonderful evocative names, it's just that I can't darn well remember them!

Anyway, the only online list I could find was HERE , but most of the stars Synscan comes up with aren't even on this list. There doesn't seem to be a list on the Skywatcher website.

For anyone interested, here's the stars it came up with last night which weren't on the list and their relevant constellations:

Seginus - Bootes

Maaz - Auruga

Algorab - Corvus

Tejat - Gemini

Zebenelgenubi - Libra

Vindematrix - Virgo

Rastaban - Draco

Kornephoros - hercules

Alwaid - Draco

Rukbah - Cassiopeia

Muphrid - Bootes

Kraz - Corvus

Zuben Elschamali - Libra

Zubeneshamali - Libra

Zosma - Leo

Tsih - Cassiopeia

Sadr - Cygnus

Alkaid - Ursa Major

El Nath - Taurus

Presumably, at other times of the day and year there will be even more stars on the list.

So, is there a complete list anywhere?

Just a point regarding running Stellarium in Windows Vista. My problem is that I simply can't get either versions 0.10.3 or 0.10.4 to work on my PC. The program just crashes. There have been a few threads on this but I can't seem to resolve the issue.

I am running ver 0.10.2 fine, though, with full scope control via ASCOM. Anyone else still having problems with the newer versions?