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The Sailor

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Blog Entries posted by The Sailor

  1. 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 :).
  2. 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.
  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
    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 :).
  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

    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 :).
  9. 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 :).
  10. 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.
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