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The Sailor

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Blog Entries posted by The Sailor

  1. The Sailor
    Day started well, decided to do some solar viewing, although I put all the OTAs on the mount I can only use the 6" SCT as that is the one with a filter :) . Put the rig on the mount, started Stellerium and sent it to the sun, bad thing to do!!! Standing at the laptop I got a blow to the back, swinging round I found the rig in my face, again I had forgot to put the counterweights on, I will have to put a small sign by the on/off switch to warn me. Anyway, tracking went well and the sunspots showed up well, so got the DSLR working, took the photos and then left the gear to track the sun for the rest of the day. Evening started late, went well, concentrated on both M5 and M13 and checked alignment by hitting other targets. The moon again caused problems with its brightness, although I could see both the Messiers it was difficult to catch on camera. A good day all round and hoping to improve on all.
  2. The Sailor
    Last night was a complete disaster, for some reason I decided to follow the instructions in the idiots guide regarding polar alignment, from that moment on it all went to pot. Not one target was achieved within the finder let alone the eyepiece, and to make matters worse light pollution was horrendous. Although I took some photos I am not holding out too much on them being any good :(. I accept that this is all part of package, good nights and bad nights but will plow on and hope to achieve some good results :)
    Jim
  3. The Sailor
    Did not get out last night, too tired after a day with the outlaws, also old bones are giving out :( . Today I decided, a lovely day, done a bit of solar, just a couple of shots and a bit of play with them, here is what I am keeping:

    Will now keep myself in readiness for this evening, hoping for a clear night :).
    The evening went well, of course the ISS was part of it, nice and bright, tried to photograph it but a complete failure, too fast on the shutter.
    I have now put a warning label at the on/off switch on the mount warning me to put the weights on first, less accidents :).
    The viewing was good, returning to my own way of aligning I was pleased to be able to hit tragets and stay on them for quite a length of time, will start using the webcams next and see how they go on the new scope.
    Jim
  4. The Sailor
    Not so much gazing at the sky last night, spent most of the time gazing at the handset!! With the wind playing about the last week I spent the time fixing all the cables in the obsy, bundling them neatly and moving them so not in the way during observing. Well whatever I done had a disasterous effect on last nights viewing. Each time I got align done for some reason I lost power to the handset, there was a loose connection and this caused restets. The serial connection seems to be the culprit at the moment but last night I decided to pack up rather than fumble around out there so this morn will be the time to test, shake rattle and roll the handset and see what happens, I will also see about new solar filters for the rest of the OTAs :)
    Well redone the serial connection, put straps in to keep it together, shook the cables and the handset and all seems well :).
  5. The Sailor
    Decided to check out my Grab n Go gear and done some sun spotting. This is the first time for using it and it proved simple to setup, no leccy or any cables, just plonked it on the ground and a manual search for the sun. Turned out well for it's simplicity, a Meade Telestar RB60 on an EQ3, end shield off and a solar filter on,

    only problem is keeping track of the sun, no nipping indoors for a cuppa :) so SWMBO done the catering :).
    Just looking at the cloud cover on the net, doubt if there will be any clear sky tonight, but we can always live in hope :)
    As an afterthought, the Grab n Go gear is all secondhand and bought from various sources, recycling at it's best :).
  6. The Sailor

    Thu 12th May 11

    By The Sailor,

    The night started out with rain in the air but turned out okay and so opened up and aligned. It was great to have the 2" barlow, thank you Sy, was a great purchase, the Messiers were wonderful to see and wandering round the sky was a dream. Cloud cover beat me in the end and ended the night on a good note.
  7. The Sailor

    Sat 14th May 11

    By The Sailor,

    Over the last few months I have found that Stellarium has been so power hungry that I could not get any other programme to work on the obsy laptop whilst it was running, one of the reasons which I did not do much remoting.
    This week I decided to reinstall XP and see if I could change anything, but no, still the same. After a bit of thought I decided to see if I could run the hub direct from the house, installing the wi-fi on the laptop gave me a spare cable, so putting USB boosters on the cable and connecting the mount to the house laptop was easy but a mightmare getting the USB/Serial to work. The orignal one refused to work but a spare one I had solved the problem.
    Booting Stellarium on the house laptop and configuring the port I watched in anticipation for the ring to appear, it did, next was to send the mount to a target, again it worked. With a wireless keyboard and mouse and a remote monitor in the observatory I can now remote the house laptop to it and use it for guiding and use the laptop in the observatory for camera work without a problem.
    It's been raining most of the morning but did not worry as I got a lot done, now for clear skies :)
  8. The Sailor

    Fri 20th May 11

    By The Sailor,

    Setup just after dusk and alignment went well, up to now have added two more Messiers to the list. Been quite an enjoyable night so far, no wind and the temp is nice, the clouds that threathened earlier never got to me so been clear so far :). At the moment I am using the refractor for the Messiers and the SCT for wandering around, just looking and taking it all in, no cameras or webcams, plenty of time later. Right, coffee break over, back out :).
    Well I got just under another two hours out of the evenings viewing, in the end it was the clouds that got me. A good night was had so can't say I don't see much :).
  9. The Sailor

    Fri 27th May 11

    By The Sailor,

    With little clear sky the last few nights my thoughts turned to portable power. Although I have been using 12v in the observatory it was a fixed option but now I have decided to use my CG-5GT as a Grab n Go it will need power.
    I bought a power pack off eBay and modified it by taking the compresser attachment off the back, this allowed it to fit perfectly into a flight case. I had a load of electrical pieces from my sailing days so these have been installed and tested okay.
    Last night I done a test run, with the mount sitting beside the laptop I put it on Polaris in Stellarium and left it running all night. This morning, switching all off I checked the battery and found it had run down to 50%, next job was to recharge the battery.
    A solar panel is attached and so far all has gone well, half of what was used is already back, hopefully this will be used for the DSLR as well.
    Just took the Canon power lead and cut the cig plug off, put a marine plug on and held my breath whilst I threw the power switches, the camera lit up in all the right places and no smoke, success :), a little more for the battery but don't seem a problem.
  10. The Sailor

    Thu 2nd Jun 11

    By The Sailor,

    A lovely clear day, opened the obsy and decided as there were some sunspots I would see what I could do. The sunspots and a blemish :( came out well, they are as follows, 1225,26,27,28 29 and 1231.
    Jim
  11. The Sailor

    Fri 10th Jun 11

    By The Sailor,

    Been a week since I wrote and it has been a busy one, decided to get myself a replacement laptop for the obsy, the orignal was falling over, steam driven!! I decided to get a secondhand one, same type as I am on now, knew it worked all the gear in the obsy so got it nice and cheap on fleabay. Just spent the last few days getting everything working, two mounts, cameras, webcams and extra monitor. So far all is well, remoting from the house went well but something I will keep to a minumum as I would rather be hands on. The great thing is I can now use Stellarium, PHD Guiding and a few other programmes without having to wait ages for something to happen, so a good week so far. Now where is all this clear sky so I can play with my new toys :).
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