todd8137

Hi all well the telrad came today from rother valley optics i ordered it on the 31st dec to beat the extra vat ,back then it was £39.00 delivered they e mailed me the same day to say that it would not be back in stock till the 11 jan 2011 and did a want a refund i said no i will wait they rang me on the 10 jan to tell me my order would be sent out on the 11th jan and it arrived this morning the advantage to this for me will be the image the right way up, whist looking for targets has for as for a newcomer this can be hard to get to grips with imho lol thats still hard to get the brain round but this will sort that out a seen one a mate had and it made star hopping easy the sevice of rother valley optics was first class and would order with no probs again pat

hi and thanks a got a book of me dad the same day called "Philips night sky atlas"this book is great a may take a few quick snaps ta show you how it helped me and a think that will explain how a found it easy to find things that was of interest to me its a cheap laptop that a want so a can run a few programs on it starry nights ect o and the 0III filter is worth the moneyi paid it gave a dif view altogether thanks pat

HI to every one well tonight was another great night 9 1 2011,set the dob up around 17:30 and there was a little cloud,tea in hand at around 18:20 a took my first look of the night jupiter was in a clear part Jupiter this was a great view tonight with the 10mm ep i could see 3 clear bands and all 4 moons with no trouble drew a pic which a will post to my pics after a while a put a blue filter 82a in and one of the the bands about a quarter of the way from the bottom really caught my eye this time i then drew a quick sketch and moved on Orion i waited about 19:20 to view this again i looked at the great neb and m43 drew a quick pic i had a great view the dust and gas was really bright i hd no probs pic in 4 stars out in the centre that were in a little group,above that was a group of 3 almost in a line around the edges of the great neb there was lots of stars,at around 23:40 i looked again this time with 0III filter and orion was high in the south i could see even more detail in the great neb and m43 with all its trapezium was easy to spot and all its doubles a wish a had more knowledge to tell you about the rest but that will come with time also there ws a bout 5 shootin stars just to the left of orion which made me jump more than once Taurus at around 12:00 i spun to aldebaran which was a orange/red color tauri the doubles were visible to my eye they were great lots of groups around them as well m1 was not there or a missed it the doubles if never seen before were just thing a did not expect at all the amount of stars around the double was crazy Pleiades m45 was easy 5 stars visible with the naked eye with 20mm ep a could look around and see lots with in this group the 7 sisters were easy to spot it was all the little ones in and amongst this lot that was great for me and try in to spot them AURIGA capella was nice but for just above elnath were a double and a few other little stars i did have a look for Andromeda m31 but yet again my lack of knowledge let me down again ursa major mizar and alcor were good i found it east to separate them m97 was not to be seen at all not even a smudge no m81/82 either but plenty of doubles just above were they should have been use indubhe as a pointer up were lots of doubles a very frosty and cold night and a was freeze in at the end a came in the house wiped the dob dry put every thing a way and went to bed very happy thanks pat ps my lack of knowledge as let me down the things a seen tonight would have made a man weep home work is the key for me links of what a seen on star maps i have no removed the drawings thanks pat

hi and thanks yes it was for sure a big deal i intend to draw it tonight all be in well just about to stick, MO 1 out side (it now as a name ,a will take a look at and Andromeda and a few other things but to be honest a think the great neb will suck me in gonna try and get a pic some how post to follow did a exercise at a place called edmonton in 1994 whilst in the forces take care and clear skies pat

hi every one a clear night came for me around 19:30 the 12 " dob had already been out side from about 18:45, the first light was jupiter and all all its satalites and it did not fail to impress me the 32mm ep gave a great view and the 20mm i was suprised at how fast it shot past and constant movement to keep it in the ep was crazy but a loved it that then was lost behind the trees orion was the next one on my list this was like when people say they have found god or what ever faith they into for me looking at the orion nebula m42,m43 did it for me a was not expecting the view which did make me think just how small we are the detail a could pick out was mega i ran in the house and grabed my daughter and her mate who are both twelve and took a look and my elle said dad the clouds are in the way thats how clear the neb was the gases or what ever you want to call them(thats me be in the newb i am) was mind blowing a could not beleave the amout of detail i ran to the house and got the 0III filter out and yet again this gave me another great view there was things this time i could not see it did not pop out at me but it gave a dif view to the ep a did not have befor after there was things a could not see befor the lack of color which a new would not be there was more than made up for what a did see about 2 hours of looking that was me froze to the point of teeth chatter all i can say is this thermals and plenty of hot tea was in order to say i was overwhelmed would be a under statement the 12 " dob is great and i can not wait for more clear skies sorry if this bored you a bit thanks all the same one very happy pat

hi sounds like you had a great night,mine was mind blowing to say the least,i only looked at jupiter,and the great orion neb which was so goodand the detail was great the 0III filter did make a diference tonight dark skies willing i will attempt to draw the great orion neb hope ya well pat

hi everone just want to had ny 2 pence worth about this company, i dealt with James who was great i had no probs every thing came on the date a was told a had e mails phone calls updates of them all the time they even rang me on the day of delivery to ask me if it came i did spend nearly a thousand pound and did get a couple of free things a brigtness filter and a color filter and a couple a books they did them selfs proud and a would say that they are a good group to deal with rant over pat

just like to thank flo for there great service and e mails ,baader 0lll filter ordered 31st dec to beat the vat came today got covering e mails great services from them again 1st rate

yes been playing around with it tonightthe space ship tours are crazy ya can put a number of things you want in galaxies planets ect then you fly around them am still waiting for my first light with the dob which is take in ages thanks pat

hi the post finnaly came and a got the disk of which there is 2 installed it 11gb big install.my pc is pent5.2.8 gb and 3gb ram no graphics card. after insatll took a few mins to update and register the software with there website updated to latest version and it runs fine no crashs freezes ect i like it it offers a few more things than sterlluim has not got and the general lay out is great the gui is great theres so much stuff in this that it would take me weks totell you about it but the first looks are great once you set it up with your location and save the file with all that info,it burst`s in to life the guided tours are great you can have the space ship view which is mega even my 11 year daughter likes it a will update this blog as a get more into it and giveit a good test but at the min it s great and has lots to offer what a did read on the web was that the torrent versions crash ! the price is a bit steep and a think it was worth every penny even tho it took nearly 3 weeks to get here ,the ease of use took a bit of getting ussed to but the help files and online help soon sorted that out,the price was £98 yes it may have well been spent on other things for the scope but this is great sofware i love it thanks pat

phew glad its not just me that as rubbish skies really want to give the filter a blast just to (olll) but no joy it was clear about 8 but a watched the programme on bb2 at 8 so by the time a got round to put in the dob outside no such look cheers pat

This is the starmap pro: hi yes am look in for a cheap pda a was gonna use my daughters i pad but do not like the idea of it be in out side in the cold neither does she but still looking for a pda was looking at starry night sofware as well thanks pat

hi isabelle well still not had a clear night yet but soon as i do .a post will follow i read so much in blogs and various papers on the subject, i thought a may try one as dso`s are what am interested mostly soon as a get get "first light a will let every one no thanks pat

Hi every one just came across this software ,as a noob a thought a would get more things to help me locate and find the targets am after,looking at flat sheets of paper with constellations was a bit hard (did i have it the right way up?) any way so this afternoon a found" stellarium "(google it a may include a link) it is a great bit of software it took a bit of working out setting it up and a downloaded a few more things in to it which is all accessible from the sofware its self. its very easy to understand a may even stick it on my daughters i pad if she will let me for outdoor use a can not say enough good things about this software for noobs the interface is so easy to use and the selection of stars nebs and all the rest are so easy to find on this if you are or was struggling to work the skies out this is invaluable imho because its so straight forwards and easy to use i`ll get the link so you can decide for ya self i rate this software a lot http://www.stellarium.org/

hi all well most of last night i spent reading and looking at filters my main area of interest is dso`s and most of the time will be spent at home in the back garden ,street light may be a problem but there's only one that's about 50m from the house any way "filters" i want to look at nebulas and galaxies ect and the odd planet now what would be a good choice a few suggestion would be great is this a trial and error thing with filters i read so much stuff last night i switched the pc of and felt no wiser and more in a fuddle that when a started baader filters, ect what light they block the mind boggles what is a general one if one exists at all do i just try and look at what a want to and then decide what part of the spectrum a WANT to cancel out HELP a can see my self buy in the lot and waste in a lot of cash any advice on a few general ones that most people would have as a matter of course would be great and may be one that may cut out the street light but not impair my view of what a look at at thanks pat "once again another question you have heard"

LET THE PREP BEGIN Hi every one just a update have cut the roof of the shed in the snow which was a little wild tried to attach the metal runners there but to no avail the snow beet me to it ,the other down side was "feet in first again" i never took the length and turning circle of the scope in to consideration befor hand this may be a prob some were a long the way when try in to to point in different ways we shall see,still no joy with the delivery dates of yet but have had a phone call daily to update me about the progress of the order which is quite good of them,the other thing on my mind is they told me that the mirror comes in a separate box due to the size and posible break if it was attached to the scope this scares me a bit because just getting it set up is going to be crazy never mind try in to get it set up ect all aligned and every thing (grrrrrr) the mind boggles with ithave been reading in books for months and weeks try in find every thing in the skies but due to clouds this as stopped me once again but a can look up and see a few constellation a now recognize that side is going well erm no go to gadget either this will be hard a see declination agles ect time and secs a understand how it works but have no way to measure this may be buy a compass and some sort of gadget to measure the north south bit out the bigest thing a think will be the colamination of the thing this is the biggest probs a have todate a think a can read about it till am blue in the face but untill its in front of me a think that theres no point watching videos ect on how to do thisany way this is the first of many of how am getting on so far thanks pat time and patient s

nice i have got a 12" dob come in for xmass these pics are great