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The Sailor

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Blog Entries posted by The Sailor

  1. The Sailor

    Redoing the pier

    By The Sailor,

    As I am now changing from a CG-5GT to a NEQ6 the pier need to have a bit lopped off, not easy as it is concrete :(. Anyway, this afternoon I decided to get it done and got the electric saw out, yes thats right, the electric saw!! It's one of those all singing and dancing thingys you put in whatever blade and has a powerful motor. Well the motor may be powerfull but the blade was another thing, not only that but in a confined space and at a height not conducive to old age, my arms gave out after my body was shattered my flying bits of concrete. I ended up using a lump hammer and bolster and after five minutes it all happened, top off and ready for a cleanup. The next installment next week when I prepare the top for the new mount.
  2. The Sailor

    At Last!!

    By The Sailor,

    At last, the observatory is almost finished, the only thing to do is reroute all the cables but that will have to wait till clear weather appears again. With the sun out today it was all go and ended with the mount and telescopes back in place, tonight is clear so will be out to see if all works.
    I was going to get the roof fibreglassed but the weather held this up too much so went and replaced all the wood and waterproofed it, will be interesting to see if all has worked by tomorrow evening when the rain has passed.
    I downloaded the Polaris beta upgrade a few weeks ago, tonight I will be putting it to the test, looking forward to that.
    Jim
  3. The Sailor
    The evening started with a rerun of the previous night, an alignment from the idiots guide. I decided on this course of action to see what was going wrong, needless to say it was again a disaster and by 2330 hrs I decided to return to the old way of point, polar align and 3 star align, straight away I seen results in the handling. I put Saturn in the frame and left it for 30 min and it was still there when I came back. During the day I had a play with a remote timer and had set it up for the evening, plugged it in and away it went, me for a coffee :). All went well for the evening and another obstacle sorted :). Just remembered, earlier in the evening noticed on Stellarium that the ISS was about to rise so got the camera ready with a telephoto lens, watched the ISS move across the sky, a bright light against the now darkening background, up swept the camera, focused and clicked, nothing happened!! Did this a couple of times more but again a dud, have to work on this lol. The ISS came over again later but was in darkness so could only watch it's progress on Stellarium :(.
    Jim
  4. The Sailor

    Viewing

    By The Sailor,

    A great night tonight, not a cloud in the sky and the air temp was just right. Using both scopes the viewing was good, will wait till the mount is on the pier to align the guide scope, so a successful night :) .
  5. The Sailor
    Try to get back into observing has not been easy, disasters all round. After setting up the equipment in the observatory I turned my attention to all the flight cases of gear I had not opened in almost a year. Silly me had left a number of items with batteries installed and these had leaked, so the last few weeks have been a recovery effort and that is going well but the worst part was not the cases but the observatory. I don't know what has happened but I have more rain inside than outside, the roof has developed a sieve like appearance!! I have now decided to get the roof GRPd and as soon as the weather gets better it will be done. In the meantime the kitchen table has taken on the appearance of an astronomy store, gear all over the place. So all in all not a good restart but at least I know the problems and can get them sorted, just have to see if my body can be fixed, not as easy :).
    Jim
  6. The Sailor

    The Return

    By The Sailor,

    Almost nine months has passed since I was last on here, falling down the stairs and breaking my replacement knee put me in hospital. The knee was not so much the problem as what else they found at the hospital, heart, kidney and postrate problems all came along at the same time and I also picked up an infection from the hospital!! So, all in all I was in and out of the place and not expecting to get back to sky watching again, but here I am :hello2: and a lot to learn all over again :). Before the accident I had started redoing the observatory and as I could not get out there it all went to hell, water everywhere and a lot of damage. A couple of weeks ago I got back into it and I now have a dome instead of the flatroof, got it made local, basic dome so I had to cut out the shutter. Almost got it ready, at least it is waterproof so have the telescopes mounted and just have to get the comms sorted, a couple of weeks should do it and back to late nights :).
    Jim
  7. The Sailor

    Sun 19th Jun 11

    By The Sailor,

    Night started well, a little cloud drifting east so decided to get out and play. Opened the obsy at 2330 hrs and got all ready, done my first star align and lo and behold, the sky filled with clouds. Abandoning the alignment I decided that whatever star was available I would use that as a guide star and play with the webcamss to see how tracking was holding. Using both the Meade LPI and the modded SPC900NC I spent the next hour hopping from gap to gap and checking all types of configurations, also used the Canon 450D on the main scope. Things started changing about 0200 hrs when the clouds started to clear and the moon shone in the clear sky, almost bringing daylight to the garden, it was not really what was wanted for skygazing. To make matters worse I had also been knocking my head off the balance weight again, this was getting to be a bad habit, it was then I decided to get to bed, a nice night but unfruitfull.
  8. The Sailor
    Although a nice clear night the moon was too bright to get any good shots. I used the time to run through all the aspects of the cameras and cams on all 3 scopes and it went well, any photos or videos I took were not worth keeping but they did help. Also used the time to work out the guiding software, more to be done.
  9. The Sailor

    Solar viewing

    By The Sailor,

    After going through the menu on the NEQ6 I realised that the sun was not on the menu. Went out today and using Stellerium I clicked on the sun and waited, the mount zoomed away and hit it spot on. Hitting identify on the handset it went through it's routine and reported nothing there :( . Was not able to determine if lt stayed on traget for long as clouds came and stopped viewing in it's tracks. So, something to think about at a later date :).
  10. The Sailor

    Fri 3rd Jun 11

    By The Sailor,

    What a night, just hope I don't have another like it, if I did not bump into the eyepiece I bumped into the balance weights. At one time I knocked myself so silly I thought about packing it in for the night. Don't know what was going on, know I am getting on but I seemed to act like a bull in a chinashop all the time, no damage to the gear but my head feels like I have done ten rounds in the ring, maybe I should get myself a hard hat!!!
    I seen some people have been complaining about the how little darkness there is at the moment, maybe they should pray to the creator and ask him to turn the big light out, probably get the same response as from the local councils regarding street lights :D
    Been playing with the DSLR now, took a few photos of messiers, all different timimgs and settings, just tests, the results have been nothing to write home about :).
    I now got my SPC900NC fixed, a few wires and a resistor came apart but all good now so will be testing that as well next night out.
  11. The Sailor

    Sat 21th May 11

    By The Sailor,

    Spent the day playing about in the obsy and garden, worked on the composting in the garden :D, and in the obsy I worked on what to do with my spare mount. Was not able to sell it so I have decided to use it in two ways, the head will be used in the obsy with a camera on it, already tested and both mounts work together in Stellarium at the same time :). The other use will be as a Grab n Go, bought a 12v pack for this at knockdown price so happy there. It's been a clear sky today so looking forward to a good nights viewing later :).
    Well thats that sorted, clouds snuck upon me, never even got a chance to start up the mount :(, still another day tomorrow :).
  12. The Sailor

    Tue 10th May 11

    By The Sailor,

    Been a good day, after making the new solar filter for the Evostar 80 left the mount on solar tracking for the rest of the day, all went well and then closed down for the evening. The local club is having a lecture, off to that and if the clouds stay away will return to the fight :).
    The night is warm, no breeze so will be staying out as long as possible. Have been going through a list of targets, all Messiers and all going well. With the night as it is I have decided to stay up and hopefully get a first peek at the Andromeda Galaxy for this year.
  13. The Sailor
    A lovely day today and was looking forward to tonight but just remembered that we have a group talk at the local library, so have closed the obsy for the moment and will get back to it later :)
    Well got home from the local group meet and got straight down to stargazing. Had worked out the problem with the camera attached to the refracter earlier so went straight into checking if all was well. Aligned and then set the camera up, got focused and with a list of messiers I set off, a 60 sec shot of each one with just a LPF on, turned out better than expected, each photo was on target. Next step will be to use a Barlow, greater focus and longer exposure. All in all a good night, tired but happy :) All photographs on Facebook, just click on the link in my signature block :).
    Jim
  15. The Sailor

    Sun 26th Jun 11

    By The Sailor,

    The last couple of weeks I have been going to the obsy each morning, opening up and switching everything on. A twofold operation, one is to check that noting is amiss as far as security is concerned and two is to get the equipment working. I leave it then till the evening in the hope of clear skies but till now it has only been a couple of night with clear skies. Sunday looked to be one of the best nights, clear skies all round, the afternoon brought a change, a sea mist was rolling up from the south and standing in the garden it looked like there was a large fire somewhere, the cloud hugged the sea and just rolled up. Went for a meal later and sitting eating all we could see was what looked like rain sweeping past the seafront windows, last time I seen something like that was Snowdon. The mist cleared late in the evening and when it was just dark I set the OTA on the mount, opened the roof and nice clear skies :). Spending the next couples of hours wandering the skies I realised there was more light pollution than usual, it was then I realised the mist had returned, the street lights were being reflected a lot more and the GoTo was getting a little erratic!! So what I thought would be a good nights viewing turned into a bit of a damp squib, still more nights to come :).
  16. The Sailor
    What a week it's been, from being deluged with rain to wall to wall sun, I took every opportunity to get work done on the obsy and whatever was required in the garden. During the week I realised that after one night out the obsy needed to be sorted to make more room, this was done the next day I now have a much easier time.
    The nights have been kind and I have spent every clear night out and have relearnt how to use my cameras, plenty of photos taken but few have made it into an album, being fun finding galaxies again and new ones to boot. A few pieces of equipment I know I need and they are parfocal rings, rings for the SCT and a guidance camera, first already ordered, the rest I have to think about.
    After a year away it has been good to get back into the swing of things and hope it can only get better, just have to be careful of accidents :)
    Jim
  17. The Sailor
    At last, without a doubt, all is comming together, the dome works well, rain yesterday failed to penetrate, the new layout of the OTAs worked well allowing me to see the same view through all three OTAs. The only problem I have is Ascom, installed it yesterday with the hope of using the laptop for guiding but it failed and I had to remove it, not the first time this has happened. I am looking at getting a guiding setup but have been looking at direct guide rather then from laptop because of the Ascom problem, it's a wait and see game. The next part of the setup will be setting the parfocal rings on both 1.25 and 2 inch, hope to save a lot of hassle :) So all in all it's going okay, just have to have a few clear nights :).
    Jim
  18. The Sailor

    Tue 24th May 11

    By The Sailor,

    Came out this evening, a nice clear sky and next to no wind, a big difference from last night :). Thanks to Astroboot I was able to get my guider attached with the rings during the day and after an alignment I was able to calibrate everything. After a good look round the sky I attached the guide cam, a Meade LPI and checked if the work I had do so far was okay. I sent the mount to Vega, spot on in the eyepiece, turning round it was with satisfaction I seen Vega on the cam screen on the laptop, great, all was working and after heading in for a coffee it was good to see it was still on station after 20 min. So, what next, well the Canon has to come out soon and have to start putting all the money I spent to good use :) Well back out now and enjoy the rest of the night :).
  19. The Sailor

    Sat 28th May 11

    By The Sailor,

    My experimentation continues, now that I have the mobile power sorted I decided to get another project I had on the backburner up and running. I seen a camera on eBay last year, a bargin at £20, it is a JAI CV-M50, a mono 1/2" CCD, been lying around since then, had tested it and knew it worked. The only problem I had with it was the power cable, well yesterday I got someone to fix a power/video cable to the plug and tested it with the power pack this morning, a fantastic bit of kit. To see what was on the screen I actually had to bring the brightness down as low as possible and cover the telescope hood to a third. It will be interesting to see what it will be like at night with the brightness fully open, any video will be interesting so watch this space :)
  20. The Sailor
    Cloud cleared for a couple of hours and was able to put the gear through its paces. Alignment went well and with all the gear now installed it turned out to be a nice few hours, aligned 3 scopes, 2 finders, 3 cameras, a laser and laptop and everything was great :hello2:. Most of the seeing was on the moon and Saturn, the clouds were never far away and they soon took over, so the night ended.
  21. The Sailor

    Tue 31st May 11

    By The Sailor,

    With a large cloud covering comming from the west I went out last night expecting just an hour or two of gazing, well had to stop after five hours of it, bed was beckoning my tired old bones :).
    A wonderful night, a bit of cloud which did not affect seeing so it was wonderful to sweep the skies. Found a couple more messiers, each time I used them as a focal point and took in the area round them.
    Tried out the CV-M50 camera, was good, gave good definition on stars but was not able to use it on planetary so that will have to wait. Still learning about it, loads of DIP switches on the back so time will tell.
    After a good night I went to bed and slept well :), looking forward to another night, maybe tonight :).
  22. The Sailor
    A great night, could have stayed up longer but my old bones were giving out by 0100 hrs. The moon again was a bit of a problem but I persevered and towards the end of the viewing I decided to use the tour option and went looking at the heavens, sometimes the side of the observatory but the rest was good. Alignment was spot on all night, this was due to getting Polaris in the right position and waiting for the star to appear to get a good alignment, all target appeared in the centre of the eyepiece, was good to see. Found a problem getting focus with the Canon on the Evostar, not enough travel, this has now been recified with the addition of extenders. Altogether another good night viewing, making up for the long weeks of clouds earlier :).
  23. The Sailor
    Well decided to put the mount on the pier, although still waiting for one part it worked. The only problem was the amount of cloud, allowed me to align Polaris but a 2/3 alignment was impossible so went for just one. With just the 6" SCT on the mount I ran it through it's paces and it went well, very little noise and the comms to the laptop work well, had some good views of the moon and Saturn but because of the alignment I stayed away from DS viewing. The dismount and clousre went well and a good night was had.
  25. The Sailor

    My viewing

    By The Sailor,

    Clear skies late last night enabled me to get my new setup out of the kitchen and onto the patio. Can't use the pier in the observatory yet as it needs to be modified to take the NEQ6.
    Done all the normal setup procedure and got the mount into action, am very impressed with the lack of noise, actually had to look to see that it was slewing. The align procedure was was very simple, thorough and quick and I was pleased to see all tagets come up almost centre in the eyepiece.
    The only problem I had was dew but carried on regardless checking that all was well for the transfer to the pier, comms between the mount and laptop was first rate. The only quesion I have is should I start buying 2" EPs, there is an adapter for 1.25" and I have them in abundance, time will tell.
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