PeterW

Long shot, but does anyone have any SQM data for places in London over a period of many years? I am seeing if we have any historic time series “ground truth” light pollution data for places in London. There have been plenty of changes in light fittings and some reports of “10% rises in light pollution” floating about. Looking at VIIRS data it seems some area may have seen reduction and others increases in light pollution, so anyone witH SQM data could be helpful to see if things might correlate. A recent paper noted that streetlights (at least in the city in the US studied) contributed potentially less than 10% to the overall night light levels seen from space…. 

Thanks

Peter

If you see Aurora in the news it’s either…

a) already happened and you missed it

b) not going to happen…. Forecasting isn’t always accurate, solar mass ejections have their own ideas

Best to check spaceweather.com for any “heads up, might have an impact in a daybor so” and the use the AuroraWatch app or other to pick up impacts. Twitter/X can provide info on what people are seeing now, if we get another good opportunity.

Peter

Someone got lucky.. clouds here. 
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/05/northern-lights-dazzle-in-brief-appearance-over-stonehenge
Got another ping an hour or so ago, higher Kp index, will it stay active till 9-10pm and will the clouds keep away…..

peter

On 30/10/2023 at 08:43, Jim Smith said:

I have a pair of Mk IIs which have now gone sticky so I might try the alcohol rub. The other problem I have is that the eyepieces fog up as soon as I raise them to my eyes. (My 8x40 Olympus binoculars do not.) Has anybody else had and hopefully, cured this problem?

Jim

Zeiss antifor might help the latter issue, the former can be removed with a moderate bottle of elbow grease and a box of isopropyl alcohol wipes….. rub, rub, rub and you’ll get the sticky patches off. I’ve got a sticky-free “half naked” 12x, undecided if I should recover it with some grip tape or other coating?

peter

Looking forward to more reviews and observing logs!

all the best

Peter

15x70 vs 70mm binoscope… there is a comparison thread on the CloudyNights bino forum now… short answer is yes!  It’s very obvious with my old Helios 15x70. The 70mm APM on a manfrotto 501 is possible if you always secure them on the lock, especially at high elevation- astro only , get the 90degree otherwise the 45degree. They are backpackable in the daytime and give huge wide views beyond normal bino powers. I use 12.5mm Morpheus for around 30x, though best for not changing location or moving about too much. Individual eyepiece focus is fine if you’re not constantly looking at different distance objects (in the daytime).

Peter

Looks to with us for a few days…. Where all  the hot is coming from.

Peter

No note on the local light pollution (though the near full moon was up) and boy did they let it accumulate for a LONG time… as a visual observer I’d have got bored after 5mins! Would be good to see what additional enhancement you can do in app, so you could run through a reasonable number of things in an evening. Playing with stuff on the computer is nice for when it’s cloudy though.
 

peter

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

This looks a useful resource. However, when I look at one of my favourite villages, Alnmouth, Northumberland, there is only one place and that’s Booking.com. I tried several dates in the future and there was no change. Yet I know there are many AirBnB in the area. I not sure it actually updated when i changed dates.

How dark is Alnmouth? Went past it on the train to our recent holiday in Scotland and it looked really pretty and worth a future visit?

Peter

As shown above the ability to mosaic will enable the larger objects to be framed nicely. I’m interested in the likely limiting magnitude with different integrations from city - country skies…. Shaping up to be a very nice tool for a quick look at stuff, find the odd comet etc…

peter

One would hope for a mosaic mode for larger objects (I like emission nebulae) and also make drizzle for better detail. The field of view seems well chosen to allow to the most flexibility… a bigger scope would be more zoomed in. I’d hate to think about the Bortle rating for Tokyo…  probably not as bad as downtown Singapore, but not far off of bet.

peter 

Looking rather good from a location that makes my skies look good… software looks good. And the exposure times weren’t crazy long… I’m an observer, I don’t want to spend an evening and only get to see one or two things!

Need to be good and ask Santa very nicely!

Peter

On 18/08/2023 at 10:33, DirkSteele said:

 

Sky and Telescope had an issue about 15 years ago with a cover photo of 10-year old girl hugging her dobsionian asking the question "where are all the young astronomers?"  Perhaps another cover story is coming in a few years..."where are all the astrophotographers?"

Bit longer than 15yrs, but seems she’s still observing, though with observing buddies like that and access to good skies who wouldn’t be?

https://www.astronomy-mall.com/Adventures.In.Deep.Space/whoswho.htm
I guess it depends on what you’re after and that will vary with time, age, finances, spare time etc. 

Peter

The Nikon homebrew hold their own, the Orion’s are clones with focus and many others have a narrower field…  I like lying down and using mine hands free.

where in the UK are these dark skies to be found… didn’t think too much of the transparency from London yesterday.

Peter

Top job, one of those large “off the beaten track” galactic nebulae done very well! Are you looking for other neglected sharpless objects?

Peter

IC1396 is a large emission nebula.. the “elephant trunk” is a dark nebula in it.. like B33 (horse head) against IC434 nebulosity. There are brighter large emission nebulae up there, but I guess Phil wants the right level of challenge!

look forward to observing reports on this list.

Peter

17mins to go. Interesting that they offer some non-camping options, but coming by public transport and having to bring towels and bedding wouldn’t leave a lot of space for any astro equipment 😞 Looks like a great site, stayed not too far away once, was nicely dark.

Peter

A request for info on a product someone had seen on a webpage on another forum prompted me to get some widgets out and demo it. So I present an Opticron bino adapter connected foot/foot to a robust Ulanzi phone-tripod adapter. Ideally I would use a 1/4-20 grub screw or file out one of the 1/4-20 threads and use a bolt to hold them together… but for this demo I have used a double sided foam pad… so living a little dangerously.

The choice of phone charting software is upto you and I cannot guarantee that the alignment of the phone would perfectly match the bino.

Peter

Maybe a look at Mel Bartels thoughts on Richfield, entendres and binocular summation… https://www.bbastrodesigns.com/tm.html#myProjects the things he’s seen with very fast 7mm exit pupil are awesome, but 2eyes would mean more better….

peter

C11, assume you’ve seen this post https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/503466-celestron-c11-binoscope-with-matsumoto-ems/# worth asking how it went and for tips. Good luck. Maybe a faster, slightly smaller bino, more postable and wider fields?

Peter

?Newport IoW. If you want dark then Grange farm IoW will get you darker and nothing to the south. Used to starparty roundabout.

peter

I’ve only seen it in adverts, never a real one… where is this one going to live? Be interesting to hear some observing reports from it!

Peter

Or the SGL for sale page. Big scope, but unique… good luck on the sale, someone is going to be happy! Do you have fresh building plans…?

Peter

Blue might be good for reflection nebulae..

Peter

RGB filters.. @Captain Scarlet are you turning onto an imager?? (Unlikely probably given your other purchases). 

Peter