Red meteor

ASTROSPEAKERS GOES WORLDWIDE Astrospeakers began in February 2015 with a small list of speakers and since then it has grown to be the goto website for UK astronomical societies to find the best speakers for their astronomy meetings. We have many lecturers, from enthusiastic club speakers to top level professors and doctors in the field of astrophysics and astronomy. We are in the process of expanding our reach to provide a worldwide list of astronomy speakers and professional lecturers together with a worldwide list of astro societies. It will undoubtedly take some time before it becomes a useful global database but we have made a start and it is constantly being updated. This development has been prompted by the recent growth of using online presentations and also the fact that a few speakers and societies had requested registration even though we had only envisaged catering for the UK. Astronomy has no boundaries and Astrospeakers has now opened theirs. www.astrospeakers.org Graham Winstanley, administrator and Glyn de Lacy, webmaster

Lincoln Astronomical Society will be 60 years old in October. To celebrate this, we are opening our facility to the public for three evening lectures. These will take place at 23 Westcliffe Street, off Burton Road in Lincoln with a 7-30pm start time. Thursday 3rd October- Dr Phil Sutton- Lincoln University-‘What do we really know about the Outer Solar System?’ Friday 4th October-Martin Lewis is coming from St.Albans His subject is ‘Planetary Imaging with a Dobsonian Telescope’. Martin’s planetary images show amazing detail and all taken from the UK. Saturday 5th October- Dr Pauline Norris is an Egyptologist with an interest in archaeo-astronomy and is coming from mid Wales to talk on ‘Astronomy of the ancient Egyptians’. She is returning from Egypt on the 3rd. Entry is free but donations are welcome. Children under 16 must be accompanied by a responsible adult. Contact phil@lincolnastronomy.org for more information.

Hi Lester. I own an etx90ra and like you wanted to do some imaging. The RA model is very old and has no computer. I managed to get some lunar and planetary shots with a webcam and at the time was pleased with my pics of Mars and Jupiter. It was difficult to find the target though. I attempted the Pleiades at one point and got something but soon gave up The DSLR was just too heavy and restricted where you can point it. To be positive I would suggest trying a camera like the zwo asi120. A lot less costly than your budget and really useful camera as a guider if you progress to dso's later. It will be good for taking lunar and planetary videos and can do longer exposure as well. Also works well for capturing fireballs. DSO's really need autoguiding but give it a try on something bright like the Pleiades. Good luck and don't give up too easily. Graham

Thank you to all for the input. Not Windows 10, not drivers, not usb and still not really sure what happened. A friend suggested trying the ZWO camera software and that was working. I then updated the software for Sharpcap and PHD2 and both are now obtaining images from the camera. Have not actually done any guiding yet but should now be back in business. Touch wood! Best wishes to all. Graham

Thank you for the suggestions Louise. I think I have tried all these. I am not now convinced that it is caused by a Windows update as I have tried the camera by installing the drivers and Sharpcap on another Win10 PC and it works fine. Both PC's had the same Win10 updates installed. It is starting to look like I will have to get all my software changed over to a another PC.

Thanks Michael and scitmon. I have tried to uninstall the last update but it requires a restart and it just repeats the update. Isn't win10 wonderful!

My ASI120MM (USB 2 version) guide camera has been in use for 2 to 3 years without any issues, but recently it failed to connect to PHD2. I tried with Sharpcap and that too failed to connect. Sharpcap recognises the camera but gives an error message when it is selected. I also use Sharpcap on another laptop and the camera is working normally on that PC, so it must be a software issue with my observatory laptop. I have been in touch with support at ZWO who were helpful but finally admitted they could not find a solution. The drivers have been uninstalled and reinstalled and tried different versions but still have the same problem. Below are screen shots of the camera properties in device manager. I think the key to the problem is on the events tab in the information box - "Device USB/VID_03C3&PID_120A/00000 requires further installation". I would be very grateful if anyone can explain what has happened and suggest a solution. ZWO120.pdfZWO120.pdf

I have downloaded a copy but Canon does not show up on the drop down list of cameras. Can anyone help please? Earlier it was confirmed that Canon cameras are supported. Graham

Just seen your post for the first time. Congratulations on a superb job. Hope you have some clear skies to get some observing done. I am in the process of building my own observatory at Bassingham not far from you. https://1drv.ms/f/s!At85D9aim9G0gQpsL4wanDU-WPXW I am at the Lincoln AS observatory most Tuesday evenings and would be pleased to meet if you would like to come along. The society's website is www.lincolnastronomy.org and my number is on there. Regards, Graham