The Sailor

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

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

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

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

Nice one, well done :) Jim

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

Thanks Isabelle :) Jim

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

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

Nothing to write home about tonight, all went well. Concentrated on M3, M5 and M13, all went very well and am happy at with the outcome, still plenty of work to be done though :). 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.

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.

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