PEMS

Asked simialr at a talk: Basically is the standard model still correct? Reason was simple: Present model cannot construct Dark Matter, why are neutrinos still so difficult to detect. Some event occurred and we were swamped by apparently by billions. 4 were detected. Question - were there billions or just a couple of hundred, of which we only detected 4. Brother what a panic I caused - question the standard model ???? BLASPHEMY !!!! 🙃

0 was/is a concept or theory or something. Not 100% sure that is can exist. Likely a mathematical idea to make at least some of the maths easier. A 24 hour clock is not 24 hours. At 23hrs, 59 min, 59 secs the next "time" is 0:00. There is no 24. We have a habit of starting a count at 1, not 0.

I would never consider a non-goto now. Manual finding and tracking just is not worth the effort and mounts like the Az-Gti are so small they are very convenient. And for a G&G setup they will hold a 72mm refractor, even an 80-81mm refractor. Almost no reason not to get a goto these days. Especially for G&G.

Find Skysafari the best, but the Plus version only. Pro is just too much in number of objects most will be too small, or too far away. THink Pro had something like 13 million stars. How many do you expect to look at? Distant DSO objects will likely not visible without a 20" or bigger. Finally Plus is less cost, and will do all you ever need.

Amusingly I looked around at the "Red Light" aspect. Interesting: Use Red because it uses the night vision aspect of the eye. Problem the night vision aspect of the eye is monochromatic so you don't see red. So if you see red it is not using the night vision but the day vision. Next was Amber: Study by a Canadian university into this. Never read the paper, couldn't find it or didn't bother. But some university study at least. Next was Green: The eye is most sensative to green so need less brightness. Sort of half sensible. Next was (oddly) Cyan: No idea why but it was the next option. Finally: Dim white. Equally some sense as the eye is polychromatic so white but dim seems half reasonable. Basically use the eye in the manner to which it has evolved over the last half million years or so. So a reasonable Google search sort of helped not at all. Will say in military applications have not seen Red used, Amber and Green yes, Red no. Does make you question how many astronomers have been effectively burnt at the stake for not having a red light. Throw in the now common use of a computer/tablet/phone screen which is certainly not red and perhaps a small rethink is required.

I would say wait for that rare event - a clear night. Then just get outside and start identifing a few convenient constellations. Ideas like M45 really need you to know that M45 is in Taurus, and then you have to be able to work out where Taurus actually is. As it is well to the "right/west" good chance that by most reasonable times it is a bit too low now. To find Taurus the easy option is find Orion then head right along the belt to Taurus. So now you have to find one, amble across the sky and hope to bump into the second. And the bump into M45. Then throw in that the view you experience doesn't quite match the apparent movement of the scope. Usually all targets are small, and have read they tend to hide when you look through a scope at them. Get a wide low power eyepiece and rather low key go look at the moon. But first just go out, look, and start identifing a few basic constellations, then you can look for targets in them.

Depends on what you expect and want. Take the RSPB Garden Birdwatch, spend an hour observing, identifing and counting little feathered fiends. At a guess 98% of the people observe through a sheet of rather mucky glass. So observing is possible. But for rather exact astro observing the result at your eye will not be great. So Yes, just don't expect high quality. Additionally your angle of view will be constrained. Straight out might be half, or a quarter, reasonable. At say 30 degrees off the normal then blurry. And the zenith is usually impossible. Something called a roof or ceiling.

As best I recall the GTi mounts are quoted as 5Kg load, and scope, camera and guide scope and camera would seem to come very close to that suggested limit. Especially as for imaging it is best to reduce the actual load by 25-30% and you will have other items besides the bare equipment weight - cables and items. And of course potential future additions.

I would say that with a Mak it needs to be initially pretty well aimed at North (NCP). Luckely magnetic North and NCP are close to each other for the UK. Reason is that the focal length of a Mak means a fairly narrow view at the eyepiece and the mount starts out assuming that it is perfectly aligned and slews to the first alignment star on that basis. If you are 1 degree out then the first alignment star is likely out of vision and you probably don't know which way you have to move. A well aligned finder helps. As ever the better set up the easier your life will be. So try and determine North as best you can and align the finder as accurately as you can. It is worth a bit extra time. I gave up with a Mak I had because of the alignment - and a quirk with the mount.

As Carbon Brush says there appears to be a train strike on the 3rd, the Friday. Also it seems the 1st as well. Local station says that people can expect morning trains on the 2nd and 4th to be running some odd times until they get things back on synch. A Friday Astrofest visit could be problematic as the underground doesn't extend too far out and not even sure if some of those will be affected. Guess I could get to either Kings Cross, Euston nor Liverpool St on the main line services. Not sure which ones are presently classed as Underground either - gets a bit fuzzy atsome locations, but they are south of me. What I could work out was which group is striking and so the potential impact.

Better add if you want more serious then I suggest it means a Skywatcher EQ5 Goto. The HEQ5 is not exactly small, and convenience is a much ignored aspect.

For camera use I would say the Skywatcher AZ/Gt mount or variant. The original is Alt/Az so not directly for AP. However the Eq wedge to enable AP is not costly, think mine was around £60-65 from FLO. Will take a camera easily. Now I suspect a bit better is the one that is dedicated to EQ operation. Looks more compact and again will handle a camera with relative ease. Not sure of the cost of the EQ version. Reasonable I think but also unsure if they are actually easily available yet. They were not when I looked last. Hence I bought the Eq wedge item. Doubt either will easily handle a 127 Mak for AP. Sort of pushing your luck a bit. That is likely the least cost entry, and should keep you occupied. AP can be a bottomless pit in money terms. Where are you, as in add a location. Often helps.

Once read that that the best all round and easiest scope was an 80mm refractor. And I tend to agree. BUT they do everything pretty good and do not not excel in any one field alone. A 10" reflector collects more light, an 8" SCT give a greater focal length and so greater potential magnifications. An 80mm refractor is the classic "Jack of all trades, master of none". The AzGT is a nice small mount, but I wouldn't put a 125 SCT/Mak on it. A small (60-80mm) refractor yes. Set up is fairly straight forward. Except for centering the alignment stars. You use a phone/tablet and when looking through the eyepiece you have no idea where your fingers are on the touch screen to move the mount. As they say "Been there, done that". Also best set up is Synscan to align, and Skysafari to goto targets. Skysafari Plus is more then adaquate. Think it has about 3 million stars in it, how many do you want??? For visual the Alt/Az version is easiest, just won't do AP, without a couple of bits - Eq wedge, which isn't actually that costly for the mount (think ~£60). At least that way you have both options. Your decision. I have the Alt/Az one and the Eq wedge to convert. But may buy the full Eq version if I decide AP is worth half serious bit of playtime. The mount needs a half decent Li rechargeable battery, and a couple of cables. Putting the battery in a reasonable place is still something I haven't really sorted - only had it about 4 years, still working on that aspect. One day..... as they say. What do you means by "deepsky". M31 is deep sky and a small refractor will do that. Will also do M33 and assorted others. The clusters at the end of Leo has lots of galaxies, but they are all small dots/discs almost immaterial of the scope used. Was said here I think that with a bigger scope you see more small disks, but they are still just small disks. "More" is a bit ambiguous in its meaning.

If you decide on a Redcat, then the early ones were triplets at the front and flattener (or whatever) at the rear, again a triplet lens arrangement. They have collimation and set up issues. Basically I suspect just too complicated. Good when sorted, bit of a pain to get sorted. Newer ones are doublet at front and corrector/flatter at rear is still a triplet arrangement. They are easier and as good. Relevent if you buy used items. Concerning the SW 72ED, I have one and will likely give it away. Just don't get on with it. Really a case of it works but only just. There seems no spare tolerance in it to make life easy. Had to have a diagonal machined slightly just so I could look through it and get a focus. Don't know what mount you have but for AP that is most important, and as ever the mantra is "BIG". And a big mount is not user friendly.

At this time all that anyone can say is: We have no evidence of advanced live elsewhere. Often stated is there are lot of stars and so planets so there must be. However consider if there are 12 requirements for live to flourish and each requirement has a 10% chance of existing then there needs to be 10**12 planets. Assuming one suitable planet per star that is 10*12 stars and the milky way has "only" 10**11 stars. I recall one well presented talk where the presenter listed something like 22 "things" that had to be right. And the presenter wasn't out to be for or against life, just what they had identified as likely criteria. Have to also remember that 1 million years is a very short time, and if the next life were 1 million years behind us. Then no chance of them having a radio or anything. Homo sapian didn't exist 1 million years back. The previous does sort of assume that we were the first to climb out of the slime and develop technology, but someone has to be the first out of the slime. Why not us. 😄

To me I would hesitate going and purchasing a barlow. An 8SE has a fairly substantial focal length, and a barlow effectively increases that. With the long focal length and being f/10 the idea of the Astro Essential plossls seems a fair idea. Have to remember that as the magnification goes up then the field of view goes down. For example I don't think any eyepiece will allow you to see all of M31 in one view. And there are a few things a bit bigger the M31. Not overly sure that M45 will canbe fully viewed in one go. People often say that 60x to 80x is the most used magnification. 60x is a 33mm eyepiece, and with a plossl that is only around a 0.8 degree view, under 1/2 of M45.

Thought I would throw in a quick look I did a few months back. For £250 you are limited to either a DSLR, not sure about an astro modified one, or a used astro camera. As I have a DSLR my intention was to start and use that. If you buy a standard body then remember that they all limit the amount of Ha (reddish) light that gets through. Canons seem to allow about 20% of the Ha through and Nikons about 10%. So not a lot of the often wanted Ha. Used bodies are often available at places like London Camera Exchange, Well the Norwich one has a fair number of bodies. Get a spare battery or two, and if used a couple of memory cards, and an intervalometer. Astro camera - my search turned up the Altair 269C or the 294C, both new are around £600. Cooling is not peltier just a fan, work around it by reduced exposure times and a bit more cool down time. Don't get into the competition for the longest exposure known to man. Astrophotography is painful on the wallet.

I would suggest that the "singularity" idea is more to keep the maths simple or sensible. Years ago in what was likely my final exam in my degree I answered a semiconductor problem. I had learnt to maths translation parrot fashion, basically how to get from Eq1 to Eq2 looked like some sort of fiddle. When actually sitting the exam I realised that the fundimental equation which consisted of 2 parts, that the second part was much smaller the the first, say 1/10,000 the concentration. In effect it was fairly insignificant. In effect (1 + 1/10000) is so close to 1 that you can forget the second part (=0). I strong suspect that the idea of the black hole size = 0 is something along these lines. It simplifies everything if size = 0 is used in whatever calculations are used.

For AGS I would have thought this one was relevant: www.astroforum.nl Dutch based, has a For Sale section (Te Koop). I had it recorded as I thought I read of a star party north of Alkmaar some time ago. Thought I might attend at some time. Then Coronavirus hit. Never found further references, so may have got it wrong. Also the description seemed wrong - forested area north of Alkmaar. Didn't know of such. Must be one for Germany, however never had reason to look for such.

If this already exists then someone can either delete it or merge. Deletion seems easier. Visited Decathlon 2 days back and they had a small USB and wind up lamp in. Usefully to astronomers the first option is a nice dim red lamp. Didn't expect Red and don't think they advertise it as such. Illumination order seems to be: Press once and it is a dim red, press 2nd time within about 2 seconds and it is dim white, another press within another 2 seconds and it is a "bright" white.. The bright is in "" as the bright is not exactly bright, really pretty dim. If after the the press for red you leave it for around 5+ seconds then the next press it simply switches off - so no need to cycle through Red-White-White to get to Off. As said USB chargeable and also you can hand wind it. Reasonable size flat base, dumpy little thing. For a useful astro lamp seems pretty good. Oh yes, cost a penny or 5 below £13. Half the problem is you need a Decathlon within reach. Bought one to try, sort of well impressed, likely to pick up a second. Again apologies if in the wrong location, or old news.

From attending the first one it might be useful if it were made clear that the queue is for people wanting tickets for the talks. Since it is free and if you only want to attend the retail aspect there is no reason to stand in the queue. As you are in effect queueing for no reason. However if you wander along and inside people start thinking you are jumping or trying to jump the queue. Makes it a little difficult. Would I suppose be useful if that were made clear or even 2 queues at the start. One for talk tickets and one for shop/retail show only. Anyway need to get there around 8:00 to 8:30 I suppose. Hope it is not raining. Also need to find the A14 these days. They have moved it around - literally. Thanks for the times.

A difficult subject to be able to state anything specific. I have found that I end up picking or using an eyepiece that will suit a target. If you want to see M33 then as it is around 1 degree across you need a view of about 1.5 degrees to frame it. Using say a normalish eyepiece field of 60 degrees (not too expensive) that means a magnification of 45x area. So what do you need to get 45x? If you search around you will also find that for DSO many people find 80x a useable maximum. So be a little careful of wanting wanting a high magnification. Such may be of little use. The full moon, needs "only" around 60x for sensible viewing, at a guess that would be around a 20mm 60 degree EP in your scope. M42 is similar to M33 so for that again around 45x. You will I expect find that a 12" will not allow the full view of objects like M45 or M31 and even a few others. As said fitting a whole object in view gives a different set of considerations. Cost is a BIG factor. I have stuck to the lower cost end and ended up with the BST Starguiders, or is that Skyguiders. about £50 a piece. Around the same cost are ES 52's. Narrower FoV but have read reasonable reports and you would need to pick the relevant focal lengths. ES82's are often chosen but cost of such is rising and I am happy at the BST prices. Especially with the limited use they get these days. And a wonky pair of eyes. I say the BST offerings would start at Wide, say a 25mm. Then a 15mm and a 12mm. And stop there. In the ES52 offerings say 30mm then 20mm and 15mm, and again stop there. Just read that the ES are now £74 - wow, getting costly as 3 would clear out around £220+. Those would form a good base set and you will soon work out if you want magnification in greater amounts or not. If you want something like the ES82's it becomes difficult as it seems you need to mix 82's and 68's a little. They also cost around the £140 mark and £160 mark each. Too much for me to consider. Not sure how good plossls are these days, TV's used to be the standard step up from whatever was supplied.

Thanks Gfamily, helps a bit and from attending the first, or only one so far. My recollection was a long slow moving queue of people requiring tickets to the talks. Since the queue took well over 30 minutes to get in and through I suppose that the actual show will open around 8:00, maybe 8:30 at the latest. If it follows the previous then a 9:00 opening time would mean many will be stood outside and not able to request tickets to attend the first talk. Unless I find anything further I will presume 8:00, that should be early enough and not too early. Well as long as it is not raining. Thanks again. Although does raise why don't the organisers just put an opening time in with the show details?

Sorry and an odd question but I cannot locate the information: What time does the PAS 2022 show start? Cannot see anything in this thread and nothing on the PAS website. And I don't have a Facebook Account so cannot read whatever is on there. Guess it is an oversight but the start time is useful. Gives me an idea when to get there and when to depart.

I would say get the iOptron in whatever form. The AzGTi is a nice small mount however it is still at source an Alt/Az mount. You can set the operation mode to Eq, would have to buy the bit between the tripod and the scope to get equitorial and even then it is still sort of approximately an equitorial mount. Seems Skywatcher are getting tired of telling people that the AzGTi is or was not intended as an imaging mount. If you are going imaging get the proper mount and that is an equitorial. The Az GTi is a great little visual mount, easy to use and set up. However it reads that you want an imaging mount. Also the carrying capacity will soon be reached and exceeded, especially if you add guiding. Then you would need a bigger mount. As in from 5Kg to around 25lb as a first step. Which is from Az GTi to CEM26 (OK I did pick those deliberately 😛)