badhex

Hello all, Anyone know where one might procure such data per the title? I want to find out when a) enceladus is at apsis, b) the other moons are out of the way and c) it's actually night time on earth (in the UK, at least) and I feel like the best way to achieve this would be to put the data in excel and highlight rows when the above criteria are met. Doing this manually with a planetarium program would be quite time consuming - I've tried this for a few of the next occurrences and it takes a lot of clicking! If anyone knows where one might acquire such data, or there is another way, I'm all ears!

No more opportunities since I last posted and probably not for the next few days but will keep an eye and report back. I'm actually going to try and find a systematic way to find out when a) Enceladus is at apsis, b) the other moons are out of the way and c) it's actually night time on earth (in the UK, at least). I may post a new thread about that as it's a slightly different task than the observing itself.

If anything, the thing that is most important Re levelling is the tripod. If the installed bubble level is a bit off, use a separate level to ensure the tripod top is level, obviously you can adjust each leg independently until you're sorted. Of course, you don't need to go crazy about it but level by eye with a spirit level should be enough. The issue with not being level is that the mount will always assume you are. As an example, imagine three objects at the same altitude, with azimuths of 0°, 120° and 240°. If you slew to the object at 0° then adjust a little up or down. If the base is not level, when you slew to 120° you will need to adjust again, sligty up for down to account for the tilt and your previous adjustment. Once again when you slew to 240°, you will again need to adjust up or down to account for the tilt and your previous adjustment. In general, just make sure that you are definitely getting a solid 12v with whatever power pack you are using, even when slewing at full speed. The mount can be a bit picky if it drops too far below 12v, eg dropping out of slewing, or slewing to a random direction or even resetting.

Meteor update! Turns out someone else reported the same thing, so I didn't imagine it! https://ukmon.imo.net/imo_view/event/2023/5412

Manual is pretty basic and only mentions 'North' without specifying True or Magnetic in the alignment section. That said, it refers to the home position of the telescope being "True North", page 7, so we can infer from that that True North is assumed for alignment as well, as this is where the telescope should be when starting a north level alignment procedure. synscan_app_manual_en_20201008.pdf

Sounds absolutely amazing, very happy for you! Having observed on only a few occasions in Bortle 4 or better, I have also been amazed what difference it makes just going from even 5 to 4. I look forward to more reports!

Sadly not it seems, just had a quick look. Looks very useful!

Cheers, yes I think it's a fun challenge! From what I have researched, Enceladus would definitely need to at its 'visual apsis' , if such a term is correct, in order not to be lost in the glare of the planet itself. Obviously planetarium software can help here but @John also reminded me about the webapp linked below which is very useful as it is purely focused on Saturn and its moons. Good luck, feel free to add your findings to this thread if you like! https://skyandtelescope.org/wp-content/plugins/observing-tools/saturn_moons/saturn.html

Out again last night with the Enceladus challenge, but still no dice. I was able to easily spot Titan and Rhea, and the north equatorial belt was very clear during moments of still atmosphere, but Enceladus eluded me once again. It's possible that 73mm aperture / 112x is just not enough to spot such a tiny moon. That said, despite the lack of our own moon, the neighbours more than made up for it by having more lights than usual on. You couldn't make it up. Speaking of things you could not make up, one of said neighbours shares some of the garden area where I am staying, an elderly lady from the UK who popped over to where I was observing not long before I was packing up. She was very interested in my goings on, asking lots of question about astronomy and Saturn, and I gave her a quick look at Saturn while we chatted. She asked if I'd made any discoveries, which I'd said was quite rare for mere mortals apart from comets and we got on to the difference between comets and meteors; just as I looked up a saw the flash of a single, bright meteor almost exactly as I said the word (around 2015-2020 UTC), travelling from approximately aquarius or capricornus in the direction of scutum. Unfortunately she was not looking in the same direction, and hopefully she did not think I was fabricating it but it really was one of those weird moments. If anyone knows of a resource that records meteors I'd be interested if that one was tracked - it was very bright, but also short lived, possibly less than a second.

Incredible. Beautiful image!

Just posted a short observing report here, whoops! Instead here's my ZS73 a few nights ago, and the ridiculous combination I'm using as a "planetary" eyepiece:

Interested to know what time you were out and if you managed to spot Enceladus (my current obsession) with the Starfield at all? It was out on its own on the opposite side of Saturn from the rest of the moons, furthest out at about 2000 BST.

Ah apols, my post might have been confusing because I wrote UTC but the time offset in the screen grab is +2 hours as I'm in CEST at the moment. I did get some clear skies BUT in a classic twist loads of lights on next door's properties (both sides!) meant that the lack of a moon tonight was largely negated by local LP 😭 I did spend over an hour on Saturn nonetheless, but sadly no Enceladus. I think a 73mm F6 is really just not enough to cut the mustard!

There is some cloud here too but hoping I can dodge it enough to give things a go. Will report back!

Going to give it a go! Astro darkness is 2047 local time, so get the scope out a bit before and start at approx 2100 local time (1900 UTC)

Thanks. I think this is one of the ones with some not so good reviews (actually I think the main complaint is that it's not very scientific?) but I don't always set much store by what amazon reviews say hence me asking aome actual astronomers here! Plus for £4 you probably can't go wrong 🙂

Hello all, I'm looking for recommendations on a good book about Caroline Herschel, available in ebook format. I was looking through the kindle listings and most of them have quite mixed reviews, so was hoping some SGLers might be able to give a first hand experience. So far the only one I've found without quite mixed reviews is "The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos" which per the title is about both siblings, but happy to give it a go if it's is worthwhile. Obviously the ideal scenario would be if we could read her journals from when she was most active, but alas!

Not sure what everyone's weather is looking like for the next few days but Friday night could work - 1900 UTC. Enceladus placed all on his lonesome away from all the other moons:

So far it seems like we're almost evenly split on keep vs sell and buy a new mount. Does that mean "keep the EQ6-R, save up for a the new mount as well"? 😂

This is the thing. I know it's an excellent mount even without having had chance to use it. The kind of thing you both expect and want in a small observatory!

Thanks @Alan White, I know you've been through several iterations of your observing setup so are no stranger to changing tack when the existing setup no longer makes sense - even when significant time or effort has been invested.

Indeed! My partner and I have been chatting occasionally about this for a few weeks and she is generally of the opinion that right now I'm essentially £1400 down with nothing to show, and should take the hit and put money towards a mount that I actually definitely want!

In honesty, I'm not sure sub £100 2" EPs will be a satisfying experience with an F5 scope, but same as @Stu said, I don't own this scope so someone else my have real-world experience to offer. For my part, I can give an example of an F5.9 APO doublet combined with the 30mm GSO Superview (also available from FLO under their own branding, I believe), which is an example of a sub-£100 2" offering, but sadly it's not great. The best you can do for that FL would be the StellaLyra 30mm UFF at £179 and its counterparts under other brandings. For longer focal lengths, the 40mm Aero ED (originally TMB Titan II, then Aero ED amongst other brandings and now only available as the Lacerta 40mm ED, AFAIK) is a great EP and should still perform well in your F5.

Certainly the easiest option, and no money lost unless you account for something going unused!

Certainly a pier is what I eventually had in mind when I first bought it, assuming that when we buy somewhere it will be with better observing space in mind. It's a long term investment in that case, and that way I arguably don't lose any money.