Malpi12

Something is well confused that's for sure ! Might be time to start suspecting equipment malfunction. I suppose you have extracted battery from the 'ometer to do a reset ? What type of 'ometer, I mean wired from it to the plug on the camera or a wireless type ? Easy to test the camera interface - using the (usually supplied) small intermediate cable with a male jack on each end, use a wire (or bent paper clip) connect the tip to body should trigger the camera, to momentarily trigger the shutter, or hold the paper clip on for bulb timed. (Am I teaching egg sucking ? sorry if so !! ) To test the 'ometer - how is your diy box of tricks, have you got a multimeter and/or access to LEDs and resistors ?

Ooops, correction ! "exposure time+write time+a second or two for luck". is for camera shutter timed mode For Bulb use "write time+a second or two for luck" . for the 'ometer delay between exposures. Sorry about that

I recently got into a terrible tangle with my intervalometer appearing to do random lengths and numbers of exposures , I dunno if this will help, :- I had forgotten to allow sufficient delay for the camera (60d) to write the data to card before the 'ometer fired the next shot. Try - set the delay between 'ometer activations to exposure time+write time+a second or two for luck. If you are saving RAW data (.cr2 on my 60d) that takes extra time to write the large file. Extra confusion was caused by the length of the data buffer memory in the camera. The camera can appear to take many exposures in quick succession but only for a limited number, before the data being stored in the buffer clogs up, then the camera slows down and is not ready to accept the next trigger from the 'ometer. I actually gave up on bulb mode and now use 0sec exp. on the 'ometer and set the camera shutter speed to the length I want.

Solved. Found the Stellarium archive of versions and re-installed 0.18.0 All now good (until I do again what I did before to corrupt it !!! ) Now that I have asteroid 1994 PC1 updated (again!) , , , all we need is a clear sky !

Help ! While updating the asteroid database ( I had just updated ok to include 7482 (1994PC1) ) but then I have messed something up In Plugins, highlighting the SSE brings up the configuration window but the configure button is not working (remains white) I have ticked the load at startup box and restarted as per FAQ1746 https://answers.launchpad.net/stellarium/+faq/1746 but still no joy Stellarium v 0.18.0 Windows 7 64bit Any ideas where to start looking please (yes 18 is very old but so is my computer ! and that was the last version that worked for me, something to do with graphics card and/or OpenGL) Thanks.

Oh no ! they forgot the screws and damaged the gold

I thought I had also ! but I cant find me !!!! So -- I got into it about age8 +/- when I found a victorian looking book on optics in my g-ma's library, my dad left some lenses on a bench in his workshop -- and I found the Moon, Uranus and Neptune soon after - - Approx 2y later Patrick (later Sir) visited our new local astro soc. and a little later made Episode1 of S@N ! (April 1957), Sputnik 1 followed soon thereafter and the rest is history ! Gosh these sorts of topics make me I feel so old ! and usually the outside temperatures are a bit of a hazard, but so far this year has been quite clement in sw uk.

Ok, found your link, (there were spurious characters on the end of yours ) http://skywatcher.com/download/software/motor-control-firmware/ The 4th item (your attempt?) says Firmware: Universal DC Motor Driver with Built-in Wi-Fi, Version 3.36 Motor controller firmware for the AZ-GTi, AZ-GTe, Virtuoso GTi, Skyliner series Dobsonian GOTO(with Wi-Fi) and Star Discovery (with Wi-Fi) mounts. Whereas the 1st on that page says Windows program: Motor Controller Firmware Loader, Version 1.76 This application is used to update the motor controller's firmware of a Skywatcher GO-TO mount, with a SynScan hand control programmed with the SynScan Relay firmware, a SynScan USB dongle or a SynScan hand controller working in PC-Direct mode. and the 2nd says Windows program: Motor Controller Firmware Loader - WiFi, Version 1.76 This application is used to update the motor controller's firmware of a Skywatcher telescope mount, which has a built-in Wi-Fi module or an external SynScan Wi-Fi dongle. *Please note that this program does not support the firmware update for a Star Adventurer Mini via WiFi. So I would guess you want one of the 1.76 updates, all we have to do now is find the difference between dongles and adapters, ! have you a link to your adapter ?

Hi smd, welcome aboard the lounge and I'll try The simple answer is "I dont know" ! But ,,, I am going to guess, the 2nd and 3rd links you give dont work, hence the guess; that you are trying to use a 'motor controller firmware' for the later integrated-wifi-Discovery which may have different motor controllers to those in the early version ? You need to look in those pages for a motor controller firmware for the early Discovery. the non-integrated-Discovery. Did the mount not work with the original firmware ? ,,, now I will have a look round for where those links should be , , , hth.

Very illuminating

Very interesting. I had the same thought about star diameter, I didnt (yet) come to a conclusion ! Also I had worked with terrestrial radio antennas and propagation in obstructed paths some years ago and was aware of Freznel (near field) and Fraunhoffer (far field) and had persuaded myself that they were negligible at these astronomical distances , it seem will have to think again ! Do you have a link to the works of Eric Frappa and/or other occultation experts ? (edit, update) Found some of his works https://ericfrappa.com/publications/ that lot should keep me out of mischief for a while !

This would (only?) happen if (a) the star was an extended source ie. not point-like or (b) the asteroid had an atmosphere (c) I have made a fundamental blunder ! 7.73x12.44=96.16km 7.21x12.44=89.69km 7.01x 12.44-87.20km So I have two problems, the spread of values, and they are all too large Being too large could be due to me making an error on the velocity. Is the asteroid orbiting the L-point with a significant deviation from that of Jupiter ? The spread I cant explain it should be there in one camera frame and not in the next at the start (oppo at end) a & b improbable c very probable HELP !! my head is about to explode !!

Somewhatlater ! :- From https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html Jupiter orbital velocity (km/s) max 13.72 min 12.44 (12.44x701) = 87.2km Better, but not there yet, this is very interesting, what have I not taken into account ? The star is an ideal point source and the asteroid is far enough away to be an ideal knife-edge, they are both outside of the twinkling atmosphere and not subject to the aperture of the scope (Airy disk etc.) ? Frequency/Bandwidth/Sample rate in the recording chain ?? Time I was in bed

@lukebl Beautiful obs., well done and I envy your clear spell total cloud here So I was reduced to armchair playing with your result :- I copied your plot into gimp and measured the entry/exit , mid and total durations in pixels, and also the 10sec width(308px) :- 238/308x10=7.73sec 222/308x10=7.21sec 216/308x10=7.01sec Give or take a pixel or two it looks like you were on or near the max center line ! The trojans @Stu are in the same orbit as Jupiter ( at the L4 and L5 Lagrange points 60deg ahead and behind ) round the sun so it should have the same orbital velocity as Jupiter (mean 13.06km/s according to wiki). So I should be able to get from that to an estimate of its diameter. 7.73x13.06 gives 100.95km 7.01x13.06 gives 91,6km Hmmm, I think I have gone astray a bit, or maybe I need to find the min. orbital velocity. That was fun ! quite interesting, not a million miles off the 63to71 km dia in the header of the pic in post#1 of the ground track.

Nope, not para, the weather in blighty comes (usually) from the atlantic, but that doesnt always mean that the clouds are coming from there ! The conditions do come in thus, but the critical dew/cloud forming bit can rapidly evolve over one's head Yes! but these days not with the'big' gear (wrong side of 3score years and neveryoumind !!) so I have a little Heritage150 for rapid visual deploy, and opportunistic grab imaging is limited to lens on camera and tripod for the grab-and-go outside the front door. My big prob in grabbing clear spells is - in my youth I would periodically look outside, but getting outa da chair is ummmm problematic , so I really must get round to researching an outdoor camera, doesnt have to be an allsky job , anybitofskycam would do me for alerts, like a patch to the s&sw mid elevation. Once upon a time I could guess the intervals between low pressure areas and grab some hours of clear rain-washed sky in between. but these days the cloud-free intervals (if any) between incoming atlantic lows are vanishingly small. I blame GretaTh

If I tick "Use horizontal coordinates" in the Stellarium calculator I think it gives me the comet position ref. my horizon. In which case it will look like this (lat 50, E - NE ) at 4am 8Nov through to 10Dec. And it is going to have to brighten rapidly if I am to see anything of it ! PS the altitude numbers are unlike stellarium because I forgot to include them and had to add by hand in Gimp ! ! Edited to add :- This is a better way of showing it, daily from 8Nov to 10Dec lat. 50ish.:-

I agree with aavso ! I was able to snap 10x1sec exposures with 135mm lens, aps-c, tripod while the moon was still low. Then played in dss, gimp and imageJ so, about 1/2 between HD220770@ m7.8 and HD220819 @ m6.6 ( So oi'll giv it a m7.2 )

Still entertaining us ,my first view in a while and it looks quite bright ! near HIP 115691 / HD220819 which is 6.6 in my stellarium.

Thank you for the encouragement ! I had imagined specialist tools needed and maybe an optical bench, but you are so right, two small screwdrivers and it was all undone. I was a bit foxed at the start when I didnt find any screws down the side of the barrel, but the secret turned out to be two tiny black holes in the black front cover Now to wait for some proper fluid to arrive,

Perhaps tonight (12Oct), this was what I saw in my aurora-watching page a couple hrs ago, looking more intense (at the mo.) than last night.

and I did mean grim grime ! I wonder what the seal is like between the glass and the body, would it leak if I were to put some detergent soln. in there to give it a good soak ? Probably ! Perhaps suspend it upsidedown and squirt detergent up at it and let soak awhile ? Gotta do something, no good as it is and was free, so nothing to lose Any other bright ideas ?? Anyone used one of these, quality worth it or chuck it !!

I have been given a box of vintage fSLRs ! One of them, a Zenit with a Helios 2/58 lens, looks like it has not had a lens cap on it since Methuselah was a lad and is covered in dust/grime. How best to clean the lens ? to give it a try on my dslr. (I have an eos<>m42 converter)

Good explanation in The Daily Record https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/potential-ufo-sighting-in-scotland-25086889 Not a fuel dump, not a reentry burn-up, brief quotes : "space technology engineer, Dr Malcolm Macdonald said: "Yesterday evening an Atlas V rocket Centaur upper stage The exhaust gases from this manoeuvre was illuminated by the Sun" end quotes. I was out observing at the time but didnt see anything, Reason :- thanks to @jiberjaber video locating it in a star field, - way too low in trees on the northern horizon for me 😢

KentOnline are suggesting it was the Landsat9 Atlas V rocket re-entry burn. https://www.kentonline.co.uk/thanet/news/bizarre-ufo-spotted-in-night-sky-254720/ Other reports are suggesting a fuel dump [the video of the fan looks like a dump, not a re-entry burn, imho) from the Centaur upper stage of Landsat9 launch vehicle. In my day an upper stage rocket - that injects the satellite/payload into orbit - continues in a similar orbit. So is it new practice these days ( space junk minimization ?) to de-orbit the redundant rocket stage along with a (prior?) fuel dump ??

Yes, very faint, almost beyond my capability with a 50mm lens on a tripod. Yesterday 20Sep, a race between dusk and it going behind a tree not helped by some thin haze and drifting thin clouds, surprised I got anything! A quick 40x2sec, DSS + a lot of stretch in Gimp but no added saturation, still a nice ruby red.