michaelmorris

28 minutes ago, SilverAstro said:

One thing though that is puzzling me, the thing takes off at huge great speed, flies rapidly (<understatement!) down range, boosters peel off, , ,then,  how did they fly back to the Cape to land ? I saw no wings and extra motor.

Scratches head ,,,,

The boosters turn using maneuvering thrusters around then re-ignite their main engines to reverse their track.  Bare in mind that most of the fuel they used to get up there was used to carry the payload and the fuel itself up out of a gravity field.  Therefore surprisingly little fuel is needed for the return trip.  They then fire for a third time to slow themselves down just as they start entering the thicker part of the atmosphere.   They are then slowed down and steered by a combination of short thruster burns and some neat steering grids on the side of the booster.  Just before touchdown they ignite the main engines for a fourth and final time to land.

WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW, WOW ..... 

I have the 8mm, 11mm and 32 mm Televue Plossls in my eyepiece collection, and I'm a big fan of all of them.  I use the 8mm and 11mm primarily for double star observing.  I find that the colour rendition on the 8mm TV comes a very close second to my gorgeous 7mm University Optics HD orthoscopic.

The good news is that nice examples of TV Plossls come onto the secondhand market very regularly and tend to go for around £60 - £65 each for the shorter focal lengths and maybe somewhere between £75-£100 for a 32mm.

I've found that the problem is that there is no one system that suits all situations.  A written journal is great, but makes it really difficult to retrieve previous observations of a particular object.  Computer-based logs are great, but lack flexibility and suffer from a fundamental problem of forwards compatibility if you want to retrieve your observations 10 or 20 years later.

Another important thing to make note of the exact position of the front cell (or corrector plate on its own - which ever you decide to remove) relative tube at the point it comes off. This will help you make sure that you start screwing it back together from the right starting position.

On 04/10/2017 at 09:38, furrysocks2 said:

Sketching challenge.

I'll second a sketching challenge.  In fact, why not have a couple of sketching challenges a year?

Subjects could include:

The Moon

The Sun

Planets

Open clusters

Galaxies

Double stars

20 minutes ago, Nigel G said:

I do tend to try and find the limits of my equipment.

Well I suspect you may have just found them! 

I would have thought that 15-30 minute exposures is going to be really pushing the limits of DSLR astrophotography and as a result I'm not surprised that you're getting banding.  I know it is not ideal, but would have thought that taking more, shorter, exposures might help.

My understanding is that banding is likely to get worse the more you stretch an image.  If your tracking and /or guiding is spot on, stacking subs will just increase the problem.  One way around this is to dither between each sub.  

Dithering is moving the mount by a small random distance between each sub-exposure (just a few pixels).  Therefore whilst the fixed pattern noise stays in the same place on each sub-exposure, the stars are in slightly different places on each image. When you come to stack these sub-exposures the stacking software aligns each image on the stars.  When these are stacked the stars are nice and sharp, but the fixed pattern noise tends to get smeared as it is offset between each aligned image.  The nett result is that all forms of fixed pattern noise (including dark or hot pixels) tend to disappear more into the background, allowing you to stretch the final image more.

http://dslr-astrophotography.com/dithering-optimal-results-dslr-astrophotography/

APT image capture software has some great dithering tools including integration with PHD guiding software and dithering when not autoguiding.

https://ideiki.com/astro/Default.aspx

I hope this helps

Great video, thanks for posting.

30 minutes ago, alan potts said:

I have to say having looked at these I have a bit of learning to do, I only have a Brightstar Mammut L429 to use as a guide camera so I may have to look for drivers, still must learn to walk before running.

Look for ASCOM drivers, it will make compatibility way easier.

I have an EQ8 permanently mounted on a pier.  I control it via a computer.  

1. When I shut it down for the night I always set it to a parked position before powering ti down.
2. On start up, I always first unpark it
3. clear all previous sync points.  (reading about this, this step may not be necessary)
4. I then slew it a bit in both axises and repark it to the home position to make sure I am starting off from the correct position.  
5. I then slew it to a bright star near the celestial equator (Altair at this time of year), then centre it in the field of view and press 'sync'.  After that, it tends to consistently put the target in the field of view.  
6. However, if I then GOTO another object some distance away from the first target then 'sync' on it I get better pointing accuracy in subsequent slews.

I hope this helps

20 minutes ago, whizzbang said:

rule 2 ... Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. 

Doh! 

Do the images have to be taken between now and the closing date, or can we submit older images?

I owned a ETX 90 for years.  The optics are really nice and it's well suited to imaging the Moon, Sun and brighter planets.  Unfortunately, the mount is a bit pants.  IMHO the only useful imaging of DSOs that can be achieved with an ETX 90 is mounting it on an equatorial wedge and using it for piggy-backing a DSLR with a wide field lens.

In the end I plumbed for Windows Movie Maker.  It's simple to use and does exactly what i wanted it for - to add text and music.

6 hours ago, Mick J said:

I would suggest for simple, windows movie maker unfortunately microsoft have dropped it alltogether.  The version (2.6vista) linked from @Bizibilder post is a bit old, you can find installers on the net for 'Windows Essential 2012' movie maker V16.4 was part of that package.  I know some have trouble getting V16.4 to run on modern computers (possibly why microsoft have dropped it) but it has always worked for me (only install MM not other essential's).

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately the movie maker program won't load on either of my Windows 7 machines.

3 hours ago, Horwig said:

For me it would have to be Avid media composer, they now do a free version:

http://www.avid.com/media-composer-first#Overview-Download

 

Huw

Thanks Huw

Unfortunately it isn't Windows 7 compatible.

1 hour ago, PhotoGav said:

Are you a Mac or PC sort?

Sorry, should have said - Windows 7 PC.

I very occasionally put together astronomical time lapse sequences. 

What I'm after is some really simple, idiot proof, cheap/free software for adding a title page and possibly some music. Any suggestions welcome.

Thanks

19 hours ago, BeerMe said:

Anyone know if there would be an issue if me and the missus came down and slept in the car?  We have a thing that extends the back seat of the car to make it in to a bed, and my missus wouldn't be able to sleep in a tent at that time of year due to her health.

Needless to say, we would be taking all the normal precautions re stray light, not running the engine late at night, etc.

To the best of my recollection this question comes up every year and (to the best of my recollection) the answer is theoretically yes, as long you book your own separate pitch.  However, I can tell you that, being essentially a metal box that will radiate heat like there is no tomorrow, a car is likely to get significantly colder than a tent.  

I suspect that running a car engine on a camp site for any period of more than a few minutes (day or night) is going to be make you deeply unpopular.  Also, I would have thought that running an engine for any period or more than a couple of minutes close to a tent is potentially very dangerous for the occupants of the tent.

Have you checked out whether there are still camping pods available?

2 hours ago, Adam J said:

Its as solid as a rock and possibly overkill. 

No such thing as overkill when it comes to telescope piers. 

All now (hopefully) finally tested and wired up.  I'm pleased as a really really pleased thing with it.  It means I now have just two wires coming off the mount head - 1 x 12v power and 1 x USB.

A billion thanks to my friend Dave Lloyd for all his help.

The new box of tricks has just passed its final testing and will hopefully soon be wired up to my new scope set up.

I booked this morning, but couldn't find the location plan. Thanks to help from other members I now found it. My preferred pitches are pitches 1 -9 and pitches 27 - 36.