The Sailor

I think this couple were out to ruin my night :(, although the mount is practically silent in moving I did not use it and went indoors leaving it latched on to Andromeda and waited for them to go. So an hour and a half later, all silent, I ventured out and decided to do a tour of the heavens, was able to see 6 out of 10 of the target Messiers, Andromeda came out of the murk of the town light pollution at 0315, this was my first sighting so went to bed later a happy bunny, a good night all round.

Thanks for that :), good that it's nice night, first night that my old bones have allowed me to stay up. Have had to curtail any movement at the moment, a couple have decided to set up camp down by the back wall, don't really want to advertise myself to them :(, hopefully they will not last too long :D

Ha ha, lovely one :).

Jim

Chinese lanterns, yes a pain, gave me a fright first time I seen one, thought it was a plane on fire. With no wind it had got quite high and running in to get SWMBO we both looked and wondered untill she said look, and there rising a few houses down was the damn things, hate them :).

Jim

Oh Lord, don't mention that subject, my SCT has given me headaches for quite awile but is okay now, fingers crossed :). Well you are getting somewhere now and thats good, just to give you something to think about, as I only have a North thru East to South view that is the view I have in Stellarium when it opens, I do this by setting all up and without mioving anything I save the configuration, also as said it automaticlly updates each time it is opens :).

Jim

Ha ha, you sound vexed, okay, let me know if there is still problems with it.

Jim

It is great to see Isabelle, always remember when Sputnik and all the other satellites were being first sent up, people said the could see them now and again, for me it was a dream :). Nowadays, seeing the ISS has become second nature as a when I know it is around. I don't know if it's orbit will take it your way Isabelle but you can check with Stellarium :)

Jim

Well done on that, know the feeling :).

Jim

Nice one, well done :)

Jim

Thanks Isabelle :)

Jim

Thanks Isabelle, a couple of teething problems but am getting there, will be trawling some treads to find a few answers :).

Jim

So, now you see it now you don't lol, I put a camera on a 3" refractor and all set up to manually track it. Came over the houses, west to east and after 3 sec it was gone, into shadow, no time to even think of pressing the shutter. Well maybe another time :).

Jim

Last time I seen it was when the Soyuz had a problem docking and stood off, was great to see both heading across the heavens in tandem, is a sight to behold even by itself :)

Jim

I downloaded a programme this afternoon, I was looking for a programme to log my stargazing and came across it. It is called Astrobyte and it not only helps you log but has small maps showing Messiers and NGCs. Google Astrobyte and take a gander, it's also free :)

Jim

Yes, just put Stellarium into fast mode and there she is, hopefully she will be visable, I mean that it is not in shadow, if so then your out of luck :(, fingers crossed.

Jim

I have to be honest on this and say I would not give anyone advice on purchasing a telescope. I don't think I am compentent enough, but I also feel that each persons circumstances and need is different. To me there are so many viarables to look at, cost, mobile or static, planetary or deep space. Myself, I made an error on my first scope but learned quickly and having the money have been able to cater for all of the above, just have to put it all into practice :) I would put something into the Beginners forum and see what replies you get there :)

Jim

Derek, my curiousity was aroused and I went Googling, lo and behold, a USB radio control plane :D. Not big, just a gadget type thingy but shows that it has arrived and will no doubt advance is size. I have loads of RC gear, a throwback to my previous hobby, lived on a yacht so decided to build an ROV to play about with whilst moored, sadly I could not keep it dry :D. I still have plans for the gear but more on the security side.

Jim

Radio control with a USB socket, now that would be great, hopefully not far off. A radio control transmitter can be hardwired to a computer but only to run some types of sim software. Except for maybe a focuser I cannot see too much use for raiod control in astronomy, gear is far too heavy.

Understand some :) , am into radio control myself and have converted some of the servos to run from USB and pick up commands from the keyboard, I like it :) .

Jim

Done :)

Here you are, click the link and input what OTA and EP you want to use and it gives you an idea of what you will see:

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

Jim

No reason why not, I have a couple of x2 and 1 x 3, I use them to look at a target in more detail.

Jim

No reason why not, I have a couple of x2 and 1 x 3, I use them to look at a target in more detail.

Jim

I have a goto and it has helped me greatly with my manual mount. For instance, last night I was able to hit each target spot on with the goto, those that I knew where to look anyway. I used the tour guide on the handset to take a look round and as each object came up in the viewfinder I noted where it was in relation to other stars, a help for later if and when I use the manual mount. Hope that is a help, not an expert in any way.

Went well Isabelle. Snow storm, yes can well believe it, have been known to have them here in May so keeping fingers crossed :).