todd8137

sounds a little like my night i had the "big donut did ya try refocusing on the scope a got arctuirus a random star andsaturn with a simple web cam last night(spc900)but did have the big out of focus donut but soon as a spun the focus it was there a even got the the colors of flashing arcturus sounds like you had a good night

hi am think in of getting a auto track scope something small a meade etx90ec or a skywatcher autotrack 127 telescope but they both seem to getmore bad reports than good o and we have cloud for a change tonight

hi isabelle checked the colamination this morning it was out may be this was one of my many probs last night

glad you have in a great time sounds good

be in on guard in south america in the 90s whilst in the forces 4 hours of walikng round and they always gave us some binos it was great fun sat in the open

get some good binos till ya save the big cash up for the photo stuff i had loads a fum with binos for about a year and learnt my way round

hows the course go in ?

pat

hi Stellarium is a great bit of software i use a couple a books ,pocket star atlas,andnight skt atalas both by phillips and both great books a do night have turn left at orion yet and if you do get turn left at orion make sure its the 2011 edtion the new one and not the 2005 one

pat

i was just looking for the paper work from were a got mine from here in the uk,but can not find it soon as a do will post but they are good and help no end

sounds like another good night for you and these foggy damp nights are a killer

your a man after my own heart i love doubles and am on a bit of a mission my self just got the cambridge double star atlas and a hope to tick them of asap good hunting great blog

isabelle ,a was hope in it was broke so a could upgrade it ,but no such luck.its a old sony mavica mcvd it takes the very small cds but it as more settings on it more like a top end dslr the only thing is the lense is fixed so its no good for astro work apart from the a focal method which it worked well at got a copy od the cambridge double star atlas and will post some pages up would be interesting to see what other people can see will start with the ursa major page will start a blog if you care to look later

pat

hi,true but am so eager to see if a can get better pics than the afocal method a do not think a will risk it till then my daughters ipad nearly got a noght out under the stars but she went crazy so a gave it a miss,a forgot to mention that a left my camera out in the ran the other night under the table and it still works fine the lcd screen had a bit of water in it took it to bits and dried with hair dyrer works fine doh

pat

thanks a got there in the end ,unlike most other nights.a will be brave and risk the laptop out side one of these nights and give the webcam a whirl

pat

another 2012 rubbish a thought it would not be long before this came up

some nice pics with the iphone

sounds like a good night to me the smudge is a great sight if you ever get bored with looking at that just rember what and where it istry draw in the smudge and keep a record have a look for some clusters and doubles they will be great sights

thanks jamie181 thanks for that it nore to do with the f 1 f2 f3 layers that are excited by sunspot activity radio progration is more worldwide the more sunspots there is

Hi and thanks the afocal was not bad it was a littledamp and did not want to take the laptop outside in case it breaks with all that damp air the tube was wet at the end of the night for some reson a put the photos in twice to photo bucketone of these nights a will get the webcam and laptop out to get saturn filmed thanks pat

do not let this put ya off there lots to see get some cluster looked at or the chrismas tree cluster ,there lots of doubles to split and pleaides as lots to explore the moon is another great site as ya no am still try in to tick of all the craters ,andromeada usally does not excite people eithr but it does me some more eye pices would no be a bad idea and or a barlowx2 that will double ya collection of ep`s

clear skies always

no in a word unless you have tracking on your scope and a dslr camera and adapters and long exsposures, color filters will bring dif things out lets say jupiter red green yellow filters for me brought dif belts and the red dpot out but other wise on orions great neb and most others will be black and white

sounds like you got a bad service a spent just over a grand with them and they was brill they e mailed me and rang me to let me no the score ,but the woman on the phone will tell you what you want to hear but i have ordered stuff in the past and its come 2 days latter and when it was not in stock they rang and told me how long it would be be

its the other way round for me every time a load sharpcap it crashs tried to reinstall no joy

sounds like a great night jupiter is also great and try in to pick out more details bands and its moons gloves hat are a good start and maybe a flask next time sounds like ya had a great first light

pat

try morgans web site they sell the spc 800 but theres a link for the drivers ,when you click the link on morgans website site it takes you to phillips website scroll down and v lounge is there under sofware

the pic is great 1st try we had a short gap in the clouds last night ,and a got the scope out for ten mins but the moon was boiling, here but gave the spc900 webcam a good try but the vids were all boiling but i got there in the end