LandyJon

There'd be a lot less cars on the road 🤣

No mention of a focus step as others have said, its out. Put camera on, set high gain on a short 1-2 second exposure, adjust focus till those doughnuts become stars, find a bright star, apply a bahitnov mask to achieve precision focus, slew to target and start finding suitable longer exposures and gain settings ... look up 'unity gain' for your camera, its a good place to start. Then watch the magic happen 🙂

Haha, no its got one already thanks, besides I'm fairly well practiced in reversing trailers, although the mover is handy when it comes to levelling onto a block. Amy and Tom are a bit feeble, sorry young, to help manoeuvring, I'm feeding them up tho 🤣

Haha, no they loved it, might have helped that Grandma and Grandad were on the pitch next door. Great time round Ffestiniog tho 🙂

I've built an extension on the tent to keep the astro gear in ... See you there in 10 weeks 🙂 Looking forward to doing it 5* lol

This seems to be way down below the 2024 threads, thought it needed bringing up the list since its the next one. Looking forward to seeing you all there, hope you can make it Jim.

No imaging sadly, it was still too windy and frequent rain showers or cloud passing over. Was great to meet you both, hope you make it to the autumn camp to meet the rest of the crowd and, with a bit more luck, appreciate the quality of skies Galloway offers when its clear. Enjoy your summer, see you there.

Diesels 149 a litre now at Creetown !

Aurora showing through some brief patches in the cloud. Even the Dob Mob doing a bit of astrophotography ! ...

Thought you'd gone to sleep, I asked Derek about 8pm if he was coming for a drink but he was being lightweight ! 🤣 didn't want to bang too loud in case you were having a kip. I can also recommend the Fabsil, sorted my leaks on Friday night

Saw some clear skies tonight, enough to get setup, polar aligned and focused before rain stopped play. At least its ready to go for any breaks we get in the week. covered up for the 1st shower, then gave up n packed ota away when the 2nd one started just as I snapped this.

You're all missing this glorious sunshine and the crystal clear skies tonight !

Hi folks, Thanks for reconfirming the dates Derek, I let them know and linked them here. Sorry to hear Ian and Peter won't be making it, hopefully see you both in the autumn and best wishes to your wife Peter. Stu and I are booked in from Friday night, he can't spare midweek holiday days so he'll be away Sunday and I'll be there as long as I can last the cold 🥶 Long range forecast for Friday doesn't look so clear, but if anyone else is arriving early, we'll see you there. Jon.

Could we get clarification on the dates for this camp ? I seem to remember Lesley saying she would be away the weekend of the 18/19th but that someone would be able to let us in. I have my kids the following weekend so I think me n Stu are going to be there that weekend and I'll stay on through the week again but head home Friday 24th. The Astronomy Scotland group on WhatsApp seem to be under the impression the dates are 20/26th so its all a bit unclear. Thanks, Jon.

I'm wondering if the first part of your question is asking why does 1 star not fill the sky with light. Just to clarify the light from each star is travelling in all directions but you can only see the photons that have directed to the tiny pinhole in your eye, or larger bucket of your telescope. There are still photons hitting people in the other hemisphere and missing earth entirely, but you'll only see/capture the ones coming from that tiny pinpoint in the sky billions of lightyears away that are directly aimed at you. The rest has been answered pretty well, but to add for almost the entire history of astro study there has been a gulf of a gap between what we've looked at. Decades ago it was realised we could see in radio waves with telescopes like Jodrell Bank and Arecibo and for centuries we've been studying the visual light spectrum. So as has been explained about the frequency shift of light over the vast distances, its safe to say we've studied the relatively near and glimpsed the super far, but there is a gulf in between that we're only just starting to see with Webbs infra red imaging sensors. Welcome to the forum, I hope this adds to the pondering ! since this is why we all look up.

Brilliant, thanks vlaiv, I'll try some different placements for the filter and see what happens. Thanks again for your advice.

So you think it's reflection back off the pixels bouncing back from my LPF maybe ? I could try moving my filter drawer back up the train a bit, that might widen the spacings and remove some of them from the sensor at least. It is only visible on bright stars when I'm focusing or when there's one in frame, but it's not restricted to long exposures, this one was only 5s. Thanks for the help

I have an Edge HD 9.25 with the Celestron OAG and v2 adapter followed by a filter drawer with LPF then a few 48mm extensions to set correct back focus in to an Altair 294C pro. It's been collimated accurately, but I can't understand what's causing this strange pattern of doughnuts ... Any ideas, much appreciated, Many thanks, Jon.

Close but no cigar ! This time next week, see you there ...

If 60 gets you in to a cheaper bracket for delivery, I'd say go for it. We'll see you're not out of pocket, I'll bring 20 home if needs be and live off them for a month lol

I'm looking to upgrade the focuser on a EdgeHD 9.25 having suffered the limitations on my old 6" SCT I want a better option on this new OTA. I'm wondering whats the difference between the celestron motor focuser and the starlight feathertouch ? Other than the obvious automation of 1, would it give as good focus as you would get with a dual-speed ? and can't the starlight have motor control added ? Anyone have experience with either or both I'd appreciate your thoughts. Thanks Edit: I guess what I'm asking is would a motor controlled dual focuser be better than the celestron motor or would there be little difference ?

Yeah I'll bring a few more home if it saves you some postage Stu's had a few good nights already getting used to his new CMOS ... I've missed a few between having kids next day or being knackered from work or both 🙄

I'll have 2 pies please, pretty sure Stu will have a couple too, if not I'll bring them home. So make it 4 for me n Stu. Looking forward to the camp, totally understandable prices have to go up while energy and fuel costs are so high, can't expect smaller businesses to absorb the costs long term. See you all there.

Enjoy your break Jim, how did you get on with sharpcap ? I've had big dramas since spring, all turned around for the better 🙂 tell you all about it in Nov. See you there Pixies 👍

I like the look of that roof tent, you think it'll go on my car !? Not sure I'd fancy the trip in my Landy, @ 2 mpgs it'd cost a bit more than the car did (not much mind 🤣) and 50mph top speed I'd have to set off tomorrow ! If that Coleman tent is a standing room one, I suggest reading back (was it this thread or previous star camp ones ?) ... they had some strong winds and some tents suffered, make sure it's rated for high winds or try find some extra lashing kit just in case.