DaveL59

sounds like one of the ultra-wide screens I've seen at client sites, 34-37 inch wide but regular height. Great option to having dual or triple monitors per person in some ways. Was almost tempted to get one myself for the home office/desk but in the end went for dual 24-inch HD curved ones. That way I can switch one to the work laptop and retain a display for the home PC (well in fact 2 remain on the home PC as I now have 3 screens 😉 ) 

8 minutes ago, Louis D said:

What telescope are you using that swings through such a wide variety of eyepiece heights?  A giant Dob?  If so, Starmaster used to make an observing chair/stool that you could probably duplicate with a bit of woodworking and pipe cutting skills.

I believe its a DX102 starsense from other posts, so a basic Alt-AZ on a tripod. Likely no pillar attachment available for that so a case of extending the tripod legs or sitting lower.

10 minutes ago, Louis D said:

But imagine the surprise of an Ark ship arriving at a planet that has been fully colonized for centuries by folks who arrived via faster drive technologies.  That, and they're tech knowledge is centuries or millennia out of date.  Perhaps they would have appreciated being "hailed" centuries earlier now that they have no place in the modern world except perhaps to make period dramas.  Imagine a 1600s cross-Atlantic ship full of colonialists just now arriving in the Americas.  Awkward!!!

thing is what could they do if you did hail them. Unless you could bring them aboard to travel on with you they're still stuck and of course by the time you've caught them up they're probably already way out of date in terms of tech and social/cultural ways.

Unless of course you mean hailing them in the Klingon style? 😉 

There's a number of height adjustable stools out now, this thread may help:

There are also a number of wood height adjustable chairs or some use an ironing chair for this purpose.

1 hour ago, Dark Adaptation said:

Thanks, I'll try this! Looks like exactly the same problem I've got.

Let's hope I don't mess up. But after all--the eyepiece was off already, so what could possibly go wrong? 😁😁

It's a bit involved but I used a piece of steel bracket cut to shape after drilling out the hole to suit the central hinge. Ally would be easier but I figured steel would be stronger. Skiming the original arm to reduce it for the steel to overlap I just used a file, not ideal but worked.  Bolting the 2 parts together at the overlap I had suitable taps already, epoxy in the join to keep things secure and keep moisture out. Been a while not and still working well. Best to remove the occular element and carrier from the arm tho to protect it from the metal swarf and filings.

I guess another way would be to make the steel part and cut it and the arm to butt together in the right alignment, then fix a plate (over/under/both sides) to join them. Won't look as neat but should work.

not seen that Mark but I can't recall seeing a deselect option either.

In some ways its a shame they didn't fit the cradle with fine-tune adjustments like we have with RDF/finders so we can get it truly zero'd in to target but then I guess they figure it should be close enough on-screen.

2 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

The rocket is launched eastward over the Atlantic and North Africa so it may be too far south for us?

yeah probably, such is life huh

according to the beeb, Should Launch Someday will be going up Saturday in a 2-hour windows from 19:17 BST

Artemis: Nasa will try to launch Moon rocket on Saturday - BBC News

Wonder if with the sky getting darker we'll see it pass over us at all?

8 hours ago, Dark Adaptation said:

No, I mean the actual eyepiece has come off 😭.

Don't mind the timestamp, it's wrong.

ahh ok, so the arm has snapped, not as easy a fix but can be done if you've a mind to do it:

On 29/08/2022 at 21:54, DaveS said:

For centuries long journeys the sort of deep frozen hibernation used in several SF novels makes more sense than generation arks. You're not using / recycling resources during the trip, and the people arriving are the ones who started, with all the drive that sent them out in the first place.

The Magellan starship in Clarke's "Songs of Distant Earth" (Novel, not short story) is a good example (Leaving out the rather improbable drive).

I'd worry tho about deep freezing, organics decay even when frozen, albeit a lot slower, but 1000 years, who knows what we'd be defrosting at the end...

so listening to that session it makes me wonder, they only have single sensors per engine to verify this chill-down phase. Also tricky to try replace them on the pad so they're gonna work the data to determine if they're ok or not. Were Boing building these, sounds like a common theme here, no?

Lets hope they've at least a backup sensor in critical systems - this part is considered test rather than flight so corners cut I guess. Can't imagine tho that 4 extra sensors would cost more than aborting a launch.

Scrub was in part the chill-down and also a vent valve issue so the view seems to be to sort the valve issue, start the chill-down of engines earlier in the session and push launch out to saturday 3rd.

Also questioning the fidelity of the sensors monitoring the chill-down, esp re engine 3 that has a longer pipe run in the manifold than the other 3 engines

8 hours ago, Dark Adaptation said:

I have a pair of Avantek 10x50 binoculars, but one of the lenses has come off of the roller :(. They still work, if I can align it right, which I usually can (phew). What worries me is that they can see the andromeda galaxy better than the telescope I've got. 😅

I wonder if tonight I might see this: 👽

do you mean the eyepiece arm? Should just be a case of refit and tighten up the large central screw or has that gone AWOL?

oops seems its 23:00 BST, countdown says 51 mins, assuming of course it doesn't go to hold at 40 😉 

9 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

Yes, they do, don't they? However, it was not a telescope focussing issue; it was more of a prime weed issue with the occasional cloud of smoke passing in front of the telescope from a neighbouring flat. I didn't touch focus throughout most of my imaging time, after the scope had cooled. First attempt, I rushed to find some good moons, but had 700 images to go through! Many of them had figure 6 shaped tails, due to the smoke.

so I guess your "seeing" got a bit out of focus by the end too then 😉 

defo a step up, the moons look much better focused in this one 🙂 

Sounds like there might be an update later today: (22:00 UK BST)

NASA to Provide Update on Artemis I Moon Mission Status - SpaceRef

and the blog from yesterday

Artemis (nasa.gov)

1 minute ago, markse68 said:

Regarding @col’s original question, I haven’t tried skyeye or similar but do wonder how accurate they can be. Maybe they are better at utilising the IMU in the phone than Starsense but SS does use the IMU when the scope is moving as the platesolving needs the scope to be steady and takes a few seconds to capture and calculate. I noticed that there’s always quite a jump in the calculated position after a slew as the platesolving locks onto its position.

Mark

SkEye does work reasonably well, but it needs a phone with good sensors, low interference of the sensors which can be problematic with a steel tube scope, electrical equipment etc. Often you can improve its effectiveness by doing the "swing the phone about in a figure-8" before using it. You can set it up to have the phone vertical to the OTA or laying parallel like the starsense (indirect mode) and I was playing with this before Starsense came along. You do of course need a suitable holder and mounting for it.

Found the thread on it:

Hi Peter, if you take a stroll thru this thread it covers what John and I had done when adapting ours and then building our own mounts

I blacked the prism sides as well as created and extended hood similar to the OEM mount to reduce any stray reflections and it works fine. Used a prism from a very old japanese 10x50 as its larger, the smaller porro prisms in something like an 8x30 were too narrow, tho perhaps from an old Zeiss pair that may work. Since the phone camera is only a couple mm from the prism edge, vignetting wasn't much of an issue, what there was didn't affect the ability to analyse the sky. John used a cheap mirror diagonal (poor memory as I thought it was a prism) on his.

7 hours ago, Robindonne said:

They treat is basically as a test (😉).  Their excuse is, its a test and if the test goes well why not launch it during that test. The problem today, besides the crack, was a problem that could only pop up on a day like this, an almost launch.   
 

Friday…..after Max set the fastest laps in fp1 and fp2

Well is disappointing when they hit the same issue before and then again on the big launch-1 day but yeah is an iterative process, should be flying by take-6 or so 🙂 

Thing too is that since they're going to need to build a new SLS for each trip are they going to be going thru all this failure/delay again and again? 

Can't say that SpaceX's starship impresses either, they may get it to land occasionally but that shape ain't exactly stable in flight so what's the odds going to look like if they do go forward with it. A good landing 7/10 times?

if it does get away, the interesting bit will be the reentry:

Quote

The current mission's chief objective actually comes right at the end of the 42-day flight.

Engineers are most concerned to see that Orion's heatshield will cope with the extreme temperatures it will encounter on re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.

Orion will be coming in very fast - at 38,000km/h (24,000mph), or 32 times the speed of sound.

"Even the reinforced carbon-carbon that protected the shuttle was only good for around 3,000F (1,600C)," said Mike Hawes, the Orion programme manager at aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

"Now, we're coming in at more than 4,000F (2,200C). We've gone back to the Apollo ablative material called Avcoat. It's in blocks with a gap filler, and testing that is a high priority."

wonder if they'll play that classic line by Kenneth Williams in the carry-on flick for the over-temp alarm:

"frying tonight!" 😉 

11 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

I'll let Boeing get the bugs worked out.

Love to see it live, but I'll watch TV next time.

About 360 miles round trip of 75 to 80 mph even when I shouldn't. 

Didn't bother me when I was younger. I'm beat and about to make a crash landing on my couch!

wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot less of a crowd next time, a long return trip to make for a no fly disappointment...

next window is friday 02-Sept if they can figure out which bit they'd fitted upside down 

Pretty much all we know is engine 3 had an issue during conditioning, flow rates? They did say the earlier crack in the SLS was in the foam and not the main casing. Could be other issues that we've not heard of course.

Kinda waiting for the secret whispers that China are imminent to launch their crewed mission to the moon's south pole. That'd maybe light a fire and up-speed getting the SLS off the ground leak or no 😉