Moonshed

Oh, is that all? No problem, I’ll get to work on it straight away, once I’ve figured out how to work this new air fryer thingy, it’s very complicated.

Virtually all my life I have tended to dismiss the idea that we have been and/or are being visited by extraterrestrials. I am now 77 and no longer quite so sure. The videos of UAPs taken from military jets are very interesting, to say the least. Whether or not they show ET or his unmanned flying machines we cannot, yet, say. However, I for one have reconsidered my position and now accept that these UAPs could in fact turn out to be alien. If not then what on Earth are they? We have nothing that can accelerate and change direction as these things do, not even materials that could withstand such massive G forces. This strongly suggests that they are not made on this planet, but does not of course prove it. Apart from UAPs some of the amateur videos of possible UFO sightings are very compelling, the Phoenix Lights is the best example by far I have seen that cannot be explained away by the usual methods, weather balloons, military flares, Venus etc etc. There are many other UFO videos, some of which are fakes but not all. Will we make contact? Is there anything out there to make contact with? Time will tell. Hopefully.

Because if you did it would result in a massive black hole that would deform the fabric of the sock space continuum.

I believe it is unremarkable that the physical parameters of the universe has produced stars, planets and intelligent life. If there had been no “fine tuning” and stars and planets had not formed and therefore also no intelligent life, there would be no intelligent life that could raise the question about fine tuning, or anything else. Simply because we exist does not in any way imply that the universe was designed in such a way that we would exist.

Quelle surprise! Haha. Glad you got it sorted. You do of course realise that this means you will now have a minimum of two weeks of total cloud cover?

No bears or wolves, true, but I have come across spiders that were huge enough to drag you off to their lair. (Or so it seemed to me).😆

A Mac could only solve the problem if it had more free RAM to run the programmes and if the CPU speed was fast enough. Sorry I can’t be of more help than that, I’m not that knowledgeable on computers.

That reminds me. Back in 1999 or thereabouts when I was living in Scotland I had been a member of the local astronomical society for a few years, in fact I was the poor guy who was charged with producing the monthly newsletter. It was always my dearest wish to see the Aurora Borealis, I still haven’t! Even booked a flight a couple of years back from Norwich airport and it was cancelled at the last minute due to lack of interest! Anyway, back to the story. On this particular night the sky was lit up with the most breathtaking display that had been seen in Scotland for decades. Guess what, even though it was only 11.00 pm they didn’t bother to phone me, only the three that run the association phoned each other. Their excuse was they didn’t want to wake me up, the truth is they didn’t want to waste 5 mins calling a few people each when they could be out there getting wonderful photos. At the next meeting, in the same week as it happens, the three of them came in carrying stacks of incredible photos of the Aurora. That’s when I quit. That’s a problem I have run into a number of times (I have moved house over 20 times) that some astronomical associations can be very cliquish. Such a shame because it shouldn’t be like that. However, there are many really good societies thankfully.

Stu and cajen2. Love your laws! Defo need to be included! 😂

Definitely should be included in the Laws of Astronomy!

It really is beginning to look as if the problem is with your laptop, I suspect it isn’t capable of running the astro programs you are trying to use, maybe due to lack of available RAM and CPU speed as suggested by Elp. My first thought on reading your post was that it was likely a memory (RAM) problem. Have a look and see how much RAM you have and the operating speed, that could put the problem to bed.

Yes it does, my laptop has USB 3 and it runs FireCapture.

Thank you for your explanation. It was my understanding that every measurement was only accurate to a certain level. I remember being taught in school that when, for example, surveyors were reading from their theodolites they would repeat their measurements numerous times and take the average reading, something like that anyway, it was a long time ago. 😄

Thank you for that explanation that clears up my synchronisation problem only to replace with an even greater one trying to make sense of all the info in that wiki link. It’s doing my head in! 😂

Autostakkert is a very simple program to use as it only stacks the video images, not a lot to go wrong there in my opinion. Just ensure you select a good cut off point on the graph and a reasonable, say 20 points, for the “select AP Grid”. What program did you use to make the video? I think it more likely that errors were made in the video program, especially as you say that you can see it in the raw video. I use FireCapture and there are a number of settings that if not used correctly will result in images such as the one you have shown. I’m pretty sure your camera is blameless. Good luck.

Applying the same logic and standards of measurements we do when attempting to measure the speed of light it appears to me, fool that I am, that we cannot be sure of the speed of anything, we just accept a reasonable tolerance depending on the object being measured. We can say for example that a car is travelling at 30mph, but by doing so we accept the distance measured is accurate and the time taken is also accurate, it’s just a question of degree as to how accurate that speed is or needs to be. How can we be sure that all clocks used are all reading precisely the same passage of time and start and stop at the same time? Nothing is certain, quantum theory has taught us that.

Hi Brenski, can’t help you I’m afraid but just pointing out the link doesn’t work, apart from going to the supplier.

I don’t profess to know how to fix your problem but as a suggestion check if your laptop has sufficient memory to the run the program. It may have nothing to do with it but have you looked up to see if that could be the code 10 error?

Methinks you are tempting the weather gods!

I have kept mine fully assembled on the mount for the last 8 years and have not noticed any problem because of that. The only thing I remove is the counter weight and shaft because it makes it heavy and awkward to lift out of the shed.

Don’t remind me, I missed it too.

Mine go something like this: 1st Law. The more complicated and difficult it is to set up your gear the less it will be used. 2nd Law. Any new astro equipment is immediately followed by at least two weeks of total cloud cover. 3rd Law. Every significant astro event (eclipses, meteor showers etc) will cause clouds to obscure it. 4th Law. If you set up your gear early in daylight so as to be definitely ready to observe/image it will rain soon as it get dark. 5th Law. The better your polar alignment the greater the risk of bumping into the tripod and ruining it. 6th Law. You will trip over the cables and knock the mount having polar aligned and completed star alignment. 7th Law. It will take a while to figure out that the reason your GOTO is way out is because you haven’t changed from GMT/BST 8th Law. You will forget to remove the focus mask and continue to take images. 9th Law. Your neighbour will turn on their insecurity light seconds after you start imaging. 10th Law. You can never, ever, ever trust a weather forecast, unless it predicts rainfall over your house. That will do for now😄

I store mine ready to go in a wooden shed. The shed is well ventilated so condensation or any other form of moisture is not a problem. Before I had the Moon Shed I used to strip it down and pack the scope away into a well padded foot locker and stored it in the garage. The mount just leaned against the wall, not ideal. It worked well enough though but was a pain to set up every time and often by the time I was ready to start observing the clouds had rolled in. The more difficult your gear is set up the less it will get used.

Of course it will. You can’t tell me that the weather hasn’t evolved to frustrate astronomers.

Due to the clouds rolling in what I saw tonight was a documentary about beavers in the UK and I’ve just started watching a documentary about Stephanie Slater, “The Girl in the Box”. (sigh) Much sooner be looking through the scope at anything!