PeterStudz

11 hours ago, Mircea said:

PeterStudz

How is your daughter ?

I wholeheartedly wish her a speedy recovery.

 

Thanks for asking. She had Monday & Tuesday off school but is fine now and back at school.

Nice report too. I’ve really got to make the effort and go somewhere darker. I don’t actually need to go that far. Although will leave it until the nights get a little longer.

1 hour ago, neil phillips said:

True its just all the indicators have been good seeing. And it isn't. what do we wait for now bad seeing indicators lol. You get the point. Its hard to predict. Often I can. But lately not so much. 

Back to old school looking at how much stars are twinkling i think

I’ve only been into astronomy for about 18 months. But seeing & transparency are weather related. And I’ve been into weather related sports/hobbies for around 45 yrs - areomodelling (mostly gliders), windsurfing, skiing plus I was sailplane and paraglider pilot for around 15 yrs - one thing I have learnt over those years is that no-one has been able to reliably predict or explain the weather 100% of the time. In fact no where near 100% of the time. 75% of the time is pushing it!

1 hour ago, neil phillips said:

Not sure Peter ? haven't heard of that making, what looks like a jet stream. I am unsure what dust would do though ?

Whatever the reasons my feeling is it won’t change until the weather changes. That could be in as little as tomorrow evening or the day after. Showers and  Thunderstorms are forecast for tomorrow. 

Could it be anything to do with dust from the Sahara? My car was covered in it after some showers on Sunday. 
https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2022-06-20/saharan-dust-turns-the-skies-red-and-pink-in-spectacular-show

Much of this depends on what you expect to see and if you’ve seen it before, how new something is. Also an understanding of what you are seeing.

Using Mars as an example. I’d seen it as a boy with a small and cheap reflector that my parents bought me. Then it was never more than a tiny point of light. But I could tell it was a planet and not a star. That was in the late 1970’s and I’d never seen it more than that.

When I saw it in the 15th June I wasn’t even sure it would clear the trees before sunrise. If it did I thought I’d see no more than a very small blob with a phase, probably no detail at all. But it did clear the trees in time. And although small I could see a very obvious polar ice cap, plus a dark area. And if you think what you are seeing - an ice cap on another world from your back garden - it becomes a little more exciting. It will also be interesting to see how the planet changes over the coming months. 

Thought I’d be too busy during the day to do anything but work. However, I managed to get an hour in between 12 & 1pm looking at the sun in my Skywatcher 200p Dob plus a Baader solar film filter. Seeing OK but probably not the best time of day. It was warm with far too much heat haze for my liking. Still, the sun is getting active again. A couple of single shot snaps taken with an iPhone 12. The first with a BST StarGuider 25mm and the second with a 12mm eyepiece.

The smartphone snaps don’t do it justice. At times the haze would settle down for short periods and there were some good views.

My old tripod has plastic spiked feet but I do try and ram these into the grass. it does make a difference to vibrations. Mind, I’m long overdue a tripod upgrade.

With the Dob I place it on the patio but try and have the end of the OTA as close to the edge/near the lawn as possible. My “lawn” is very uneven. Although you have to be careful with that as there’s a drop with steps onto the lawn. Once, I wasn’t so careful and as I was moving the Dob to another target, pulling my observing chair along with it, I fell off and down onto the lawn

Having purchased a ready made solar white light filter for my 4.5” Newtonian last year and enjoyed observing the sun, I decided I’d like something similar for my Skywatcher Skyliner 200p Dob. At the time I was new to all of this and didn’t feel confident with making my own.

This started life as round paper mache box from Hobby Craft for £5. I’m lucky to have a Hobby Craft close to me. It’s a wonderful shop…

https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/search/?q=round box paper mache

And a 20x29.5cm sheet of Baader AstroSolar Safety Film from FLO for £22, although I see that it’s now £25. This sheet doesn’t quite cover the full aperture (you need some to stick down at the sides) but it’s large enough…

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/solar-filters/baader-astrosolar-safety-film-nd-50.html

I made sure that I followed the instructions that came with the film. Eg the use of double sided sticky tape to hold the film down and not fitting the film tight.

I had thought that the 25cm box would be ideal for my 8” Dob. But I didn’t realise that the size was the outer dimension of the lid and not the internal diameter. It was a really snug fit. Now you could get away with this, and it might actually be easier, but I had a design sketched out which needed a bit of a gap for some tabs. So, I used the box lid and made it longer by sticking a couple of strips of veneer (which I already had) into the inner part of the lid. With some 2mm black craft foam this was now a tight fit on the end of the OTA. I’m not keen on relying on a tight fit so for security I put some holes in the tabs which fit over the adjustment knobs of the secondary spider. The foam tabs being stuck down with Evo-Stik impact adhesive.

A circular hole of 185mm diameter (as much as I could get away with) was cut using a sharp knife into the box lid. This was painted white on the outside with black trim. 

I then made a cell with another piece of card, added some card tabs or “ears” so that when I dropped the cell into the lid it would be an accurate fit. For me gluing “ears” is far easier than trying to cut the whole thing to an accurate fit. This was painted with blackboard paint on one side with double sided sticky tape on the other. 

The film was carefully stuck to the tape on the black card cell. Following instructions and ensuring that the film wasn’t tight. More double sided tape was added to the round box lid and the cell plus film dropped and stuck down. I then finished off by adding flocking material to the inner sides which were scraps left over from flocking the OTA. Blackboard paint would work just as well but I didn’t want to risk dropping any onto the film. 

That’s it. I’ve used it a few times now and it seems to work well. It’s certainly not going to fall off.

As I mentioned before - you could get away with cutting down the box rather than using the box lid. And a cut down box will make a tight fitting rear dust cover as shown in the pictures (shown unpainted).

And every solar filter needs a safe storage box. I made one out of a lager 29cm Hobby Craft box, painted and decorated.

All I got was this. Well, and some beer.

Grass also helps to dampen vibrations. As a beginner it took me about 10 months to work this out! Eg if, like me, you are the owner of a wobbly mount and you have vibrations that last around 7 seconds being able to get those down to 3 seconds makes a whole world of difference. Suddenly something that made life very difficult becomes user friendly.

As for using a phone handheld at the eyepiece… I have an iPhone but I’m sure Android has similar. I find that using the physical Volume-Up button as a shutter button far easier than using the on-screen software shutter button. Just hold the Volume-Up while using the camera app to take the shot. This makes it easier to keep the phone steady. And I find Burst-Mode handy too. Just keep the Volume-Up button held down for the potential of dozens of shots rather than just one and hope. The idea being that you have more chance than a single shot and hope. 

Slightly disappointing night here in Southampton.

Camped outside on a couple of air beds with my daughter. No tent necessary, although there was a bit of dew.

I was up at 2:30am. The low moon looked stunning and Saturn, Jupiter and Mars possible later on. Seeing looked good however transparency was poor. Although I couldn’t see anything it was if there was some high thin cloud which washed out gas giants. I saw this morning that someone mentioned the return of  Sahara dust. Possible I guess but my bet is thin high cloud.

Got my daughter up who obviously wasn’t quite herself. So after a quick look at the moon, Saturn & Jupiter she went back to bed.

As the sun came up I was entertained by bats flitting around the trees, the dawn chorus and a couple of foxes. 

In the morning my daughter had a bad sore throat. Gave her a COVID test which fortunately turned out negative. 

Still, not all bad and it’s early days!
 

I made one recently for my 8” Dob. A single A3 sheet of Baader film has a width of ~202mm and of course you have to allow a bit each side in order to stick it down. With some careful sticking it made an aperture of 185mm. I don’t think you’d notice any difference - and it covers the mirror clips

Used it a few times now. Each time the view has been significantly better than on my 4.5” Newtonian.

I can remember reading on here that someone had trouble with a “small counterweight”. I don’t know how small is small. The suggestion was that the counterweight (maybe plus bar) could be used as a weapon and/or to cause damage to the aircraft. In the end it had to go in the hold. I can see and understand how that could be an issue. Basically anything with significant weight that could also be used like a hammer. Then there’s tools like screw drivers. I’ve had a problem when, by mistake, I left a small-ish screw driver in my bag. It was confiscated. 

@Kon, which planetary camera do you have?

Those are good, especially as it’s so early! Almost makes me want to splash the cash and give it a go. 

I do have the budget SvBony SV135 7-21mm and although the FOV is a bit of a pain (my daughter doesn’t get on with it at all) I find that the contrast a bit poor. And for planets you obviously really need that. The BST StarGuiders that I own are far better in that respect. But of course it’s a budget zoom, so I’m sure that the non-budget zooms are much better. 

I’ve just come in after a session on Saturn, Jupiter & Mars. In fact it’s the first time I’ve seen mars other than a tiny dot. Got up at 3am and set the 200p Dob outside to cool down for 30 mins.

Seeing quite good. I could make out the Cassini division on Saturn, some banding and several moons. Jupiter showed multiple banding. I had to wait until Mars passed a big tree at the end of a neighbour’s garden (I’m sure that thing has grown since last year). By this time it wasn’t far off sunrise. The whole thing was small/tiny, however, the southern ice cap was obvious, like it was wearing a small white hat - it seemed to glow. I also thought that I could make out some dark markings in the southern region - have just noticed that @Nik271 reported similar yesterday, we can’t both be mistaken!

I went back to have a look at Jupiter again. By this time it was 5:05am and after sunrise and I could only just make it out by eye. Interestingly the contrast, although a bit washed out, with some sunlight was better and I could make out features in the banding. To my pleasant surprise the GRS was also visible and seemed a bit more prominent than last year, but that could just be the light.

Then went back to Mars for one last look. By now I could not even see it by eye and had to use the PushTo feature in PS Align Pro on my iPhone in order to locate it. I could not even see it in my RACI but could see it in a low power eyepiece. Increasing the magnification revealed the ice cap again and it’s waxing gibbous kind of phase.

Packing up I was over the moon, or is it over Mars  

3 hours ago, MonsterMagnet said:

https://www.easyjet.com/en/help/baggage/cabin-bag-and-hold-luggage

Looks like the "smaller" cabin bag can be 15kg (which is quite a lot) and the bigger non-checked one doesn't have a limit.

Worth remembering for the future!

MM

I believe that’s out of date. From the 10th Feb things changed.

https://www.easyjet.com/ejcms/cache/medialibrary/files/business-partners-library/cabin-bags---tmcs---en.pdf

Mind, they have never ever checked the weight of my cabin baggage. Size yes. If they did then I’d just show them their own information   Although I’d be struggling to get a small reflector, mount and small tripod to weight over 10kg. 

5 minutes ago, MonsterMagnet said:

Possibly, most seem to stop at 10kg in my experience.  That info on EasyJet seems wrong - they say 15kg if you book a "large" cabin bag.

I'm not on EasyJet this time unfortunately.

MM

It’s correct. I’ve been there and done it before, although not with a telescope! 15kg is for checked baggage which you pay for. Cabin baggage has no weight limit  and is free. 

First light for my DIY solar filter for my Skywatcher 200p Dob using Baader solar film. Seeing a bit average but nice to see that it works. Quick single shot with an iPhone 12 held at the eyepiece with basic editing on the phone. 

30 minutes ago, MonsterMagnet said:

Hand luggage is restricted to 10kg within Europe with very harsh size guidance (something like 40cm x 20cm x 25cm - I haven't checked exactly).  They are a bit stricter internally than transatlantic.  I did look at the Celestron C90 but it looks to big for hand luggage and clothes for a week.  It's also a bit more expensive but that isn't the main concern.  I'll take another look but I want to take some underwear as well :).

MM

Doesn’t it depend on the airline? EasyJet don’t have a weight limit and will accept larger bags than that. I intend to take a small reflector.

https://www.mybaggage.com/shipping/airlines/easyjet-baggage-allowance/

9 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Btw, you can use barlow lens to move focus point outward or shorten the tube like in this video

 

What a nice video. The guy has a lot of enthusiasm and whatever he’s doing you can tell he’s had great fun doing it, which is what it’s all about.

37 minutes ago, Chris said:

lol I'm tempted to steel that prank if it turns out to be Pyrite 😅

For a second I thought Pyrite could be wrong because I read it's only weakly magnetic, however I'm guessing Iron Pyrite is quite magnetic. 

The Wiki page mentions London Clay and Pyrite practically in the same sentence so it is fairly compelling.  

Hmmm… iron pyrite is hardly or weekly magnetic at best. So maybe it isn’t that! Although another iron/mineral nodule might be possible.

18 minutes ago, Chris said:

Hi Peter, Thanks for the reply, I found it at a place called Bawdsey on the Suffolk coast. The cliffs are eroding fast and we sometimes find fossilised sharks teeth there:

https://ukfossils.co.uk/2012/01/24/bawdsey/#:~:text=GEOLOGY,age (approximately 2.5 Mya).

A chap on the meteorite and prospecting forum said the cut face looked like meteorite but I will need to buy a Nickel alergy/meteorite test kit to confirm. Your suggestion also makes perfect sense with the fast eroding cliffs and I've since looked at pictures of slag which don't seem to match too well. 

It's probably either Pyrite or meteorite!

 

 

 

 

That’s useful. It’s London Clay. As it says in Wiki…

”Nodular lumps of pyrite are frequently found in the clay layers.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Clay

Of course this doesn’t mean it isn’t a meteorite! Although out of interest and as a confession - I use to fool my school friends by pretending that the ones I found were meteorites. 

Might be wrong but looks like what’s commonly called an iron pyrite nodule. I use to collect them as a kid. Often eroded out of cliffs - what part of the country did you find it as that would tell us about the geology. 

Sometimes called “Iron-oxide concretions and nodules” which have been mistaken for meteorites… 

https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/concretions/