wakefield area

[mapstar]

Yeah playing with wood but wait till you see my 16" truss ha ha

I've seen that one crash and this one too

Sumerian have stopped making the light weight travel scopes and also David Lukehurst has stopped too siting not enough protection for the optics? so I suspect the design is a little temperamental?

Think it looks stealthy in black though and very elegant!

[Astronomer69]

Cheers soupy, Russ and nick looking forward to it, will be a big change to the big long focal lenth scope want to do some widefield imaging.

[crashtestdummy]

I can get an 18" mirror blank for under £300 so its very tempting.hope you guys got some observing done last night

[mapstar]

Very cloudy when we arrived so spent an hour wiring soupy's power tank up.

A couple of large breaks in the clouds prompted us to get the scopes set up in hope of it clearing more.

I saw a few occasional stars between the clouds but only just managed to get polar aligned and slew the scope to M57 for a one minute view before the clouds rolled in and never budged!!

Packed up after standing about chatting till about half 1!

Soupy set up at home as the clouds had cleared and by the sounds of it and managed to get the auto guider working.

I hit the sack at 4 after seeing a good 5 min view of the ISS going over.

I shall be out later though looking at the sky today!

[mapstar]

There's a lot to grinding a mirror and I've not really read up on anything about it?

Not sure as I'd be able to get it anywhere near as good as a commercial one?

[Russty]

Bad luck chaps it was worth a punt though. I was in 2 minds to come down as I,m itching to try my 2 new Eps.

[Astronomer69]

It's a good forecast tonight peeps but am just sticking to bk garden trying to get this auto guider up and running but if its clear weds night can make it out to winscarr as got thurs fri off work.

[crashtestdummy]

Ive read a bit about mirror grinding and cant see how to do it precisely but will read more.may buy a cheap 8" blank and have a bash.

[mapstar]

Russ if its fine tonight I'll be up for winscarr again, my new EP hasn't had a decent comparison with the BST yet so I want to give it a good try.

[Russty]

Dunno about tonight Damian, I will be going down to Cornwall early tomorrow morning but if the weather is fine I might make it tonight I'll just have to see.

[mapstar]

Theres a 16" mirror and secondary on astro buy sell at present @ £400 but its F6 so would be a focal length of around 2500mm? i'll have to do some more reading crash as to how to configure things when i finally make a start?

[mapstar]

Here's the time's for the ISS if anyone wants to see it this month

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_Kingdom&region=England&city=Sheffield#.UaiTop5Z4zE

[Sammyb]

Hello chaps,

could I ask if these dark sites you go to at winscarr and Sutton bank are Milky Way dark?

The reason I ask is that I was thinking of taking the kids out one night so they can see the Milky Way. Does it get more difficult or appear much later in the summer months?

Might try tomorrow night.

Sam

[Russty]

Sutton was Sammy I think Kieran has posted some pics of the milky way from the night we were at Sutton on his flickr page.

[mapstar]

Sutton bank more than winscarr for the milky way Sammy but you can see it from both just Sutton has no light pollution looking east so it stands out more.

At this time of year its probably more 2am before you have true darkness and can see it so might be a little difficult.

It's looking good for tonight so I'm going to be venturing up to winscarr about half 9 if anyone else is?

[Russty]

what time was it useably (if thats a word) dark last night Damian?

[nicks90]

Clumber park has brilliant blue skies so I'm hopeful for a bit of viewing tonight on my last day of holiday. Typical I only brought my 70mm frac with me again..... but I bet I can finally get them clusters in ophiuchus that were invisible at wins car under the glaring moon! Clear to the east of lp for 28 miles before Lincoln, so should be good

Hope you all get to see "stuff" tonight.

Nick (needs a big Sumerian dob) c

[Russty]

What unit do you have Nick?

[mapstar]

It was a bit difficult to tell Russ as tif clouds were blocking the view, I think it was about half 11 when I picked M57 out and getting better after that?

Hope you have a good evening Nick.

[Russty]

It was a bit difficult to tell Russ as tif clouds were blocking the view

lol good point

[Soupy]

Hope you all have a good night if out. I'm not far from you Nick at centre parcs in Nottingham, so hoping for some clear skies. Couldn't bring 80mm st frac as have no mount for it and didn't have time to sort out camera tripod which i think might work after a late night last night. But I have camera and might get the chance for some star trails if nothing else.

only problem with getting dark at 2 Sammy is it is getting light at 3!

[Astronomer69]

Yeah sammy Sutton bank is a great spot to see it you can just make out the dust lanes but its late on in the night also you would have to be under dark skies for at least an hour or so first to let your eyes adapt to the dark to be able to see it properly as it is quite dim.

Here's a pic I took a few weeks bk you can just make out the dust lanes curving over the tree. http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/astronomer69/8724330204/

[Astronomer69]

What are skies like up winscarr way Damian coz its clouded over here in brighouse would of loved to come up but got my kids for the weekend so am only limited to bk garden or local but not looking too good at mo with weather.

[Astronomer69]

Here's another Milky Way shot sammy. http://m.flickr.com/photos/astronomer69/8710151862/lightbox/

[mapstar]

I've not actually set off yet keiran just checking the forecast and actually forcasting broken cloud until 1am so i'm undecided as yet?