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Truly once in a lifetime

Azure

By Azure
in The Astro Lounge

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squeaky

squeaky

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Yeah... I think my entire kit weighs a lot more than I do.

To get back on topic - I need to wander up my nearest "mountain" here in Sunny Suffolk and check the view to the East; then find the landowner and get permission.

Edit: Oh, and check if Registax will stack individual photo's not just avi's, and also try out my Nikon's video to see what Registax will do with it. Got a 32GB SD card on the way so should be able to get a good length video at whatever the highest resolution available is

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Delboy_Hog

Delboy_Hog

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I'm quite excited about this! So hoping the weather lets us see this. The plan for me is to head over to Whitby or Scarborough way. If the forecast is good then I might womble over there the evening before and spend the night in a field / on the beach somewhere with the scope...Just gotta remember to take the finder scope out before sunrise if i've spent the night stargazing!!

I need to figure out what views / photos I'm after - it'd be good to use the 40mm with the skywatcher 127 mak, because i'll get to see the whole sun, but then I'm going to want some close-up shots which means switching to something like the 25mm or 15mm, especially to catch the 'black drop' effect.

Guess I'm going to have to spend some of these cloudy nights practicing my 'quick-draw' changing of eyepieces and camera holder, as there won't be a lot of time to see the transit.

The other question I guess (might seem daft but if you knew my skill level ;)...) is how to 'find' this event. Use the goto to track venus or just 'manually' find (can take me a while with the solar filter on!) and track the sun? I guess if I point the scope at the horizon before sun-rise, it'll be relatively easy to find by slewing left / right once it peeps up over the North Sea.

And all of this of course, depends on the great British weather...

Fingers crossed! :eek:

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squeaky

squeaky

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I'd be inclined to set up the goto and then wait until sunrise and just tell it to find Venus. It'll already be in transit and you'll be able to watch it finish and leave the Sun.

Don't forget to sort out a Bahtinov mask so you can get perfect focus on a star in the night and then lock your focus ready for the transit.

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x6gas

x6gas

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I'd be inclined to set up the goto and then wait until sunrise and just tell it to find Venus. It'll already be in transit and you'll be able to watch it finish and leave the Sun.

Don't forget to sort out a Bahtinov mask so you can get perfect focus on a star in the night and then lock your focus ready for the transit.

Why wouldn't you just set the tracking to solar and set the GoTo for the sun? Do be careful slewing around though. Best to keep all the lens covers on and align using the shadow of the scope...

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Delboy_Hog

Delboy_Hog

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Why wouldn't you just set the tracking to solar and set the GoTo for the sun? Do be careful slewing around though. Best to keep all the lens covers on and align using the shadow of the scope...

My goto doesn't have the option of tracking the sun unfortunately - guess it's a safety thing?

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E621Keith

E621Keith

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My goto doesn't have the option of tracking the sun unfortunately - guess it's a safety thing?

Some goto won't track the sun by default. However, you can remove the safety on most system. Consult your scope's manual on how to do it.

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hobbesy

hobbesy

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Well, weather permitting I'll be watching from the best place I can find in London.

So far that seems to be out front of Alexandra Palace which seems to have unobstructed views to the horizon out East and is relatively high up.

Hopefully I'll get an hour in before it finishes.

If any London-based SGL'ers can think of a better place or want to join me and Mrs Tiger let me know.

The view is here...

I've booked a car for that night\day so if the weather looks shonky in London, I'll flee North or South depending.

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Steve Ward

Steve Ward

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Well i've done my recce trip ready for the Transit , ended up with 2 sites to choose from depending on the weather on the day.

1st. Seafront between Keswick and Walcott in Norfolk

52* 51' 39" N , 1* 29' 51" E.

2nd. Carpark at The Coastguards Cottages , Dunwich, Suffolk

52* 15' 06" N , 1* 37' 42" E.

90% certain i'm going to Dunwich , spoke to the warden and got clearance sorted , nice quiet elevated site , just need a bit of blue to peer through now .

Fingers crossed for a good'un.

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x6gas

x6gas

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Once in a lifetime.....your not planning on living much longer then, i`m still hopping i`ll get my 2nd view of haley`s comet, saw it last time but not with a scope just some bins

I'm holding out for the 2134 perihelion - it'll be mag -2.0 and less that 0.1 AU away...

Course I'll be 200 by then so I will probably have worked out how to use Photoshop by then... probably on Windows 157...

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squeaky

squeaky

Posted
Posted
Well i've done my recce trip ready for the Transit , ended up with 2 sites to choose from depending on the weather on the day.

1st. Seafront between Keswick and Walcott in Norfolk

52* 51' 39" N , 1* 29' 51" E.

2nd. Carpark at The Coastguards Cottages , Dunwich, Suffolk

52* 15' 06" N , 1* 37' 42" E.

90% certain i'm going to Dunwich , spoke to the warden and got clearance sorted , nice quiet elevated site , just need a bit of blue to peer through now .

Fingers crossed for a good'un.

Dunwich looks good. I could make that one from here. What do you think the warden would say to more than one scope? Did you invite him to come along and view?

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melsky

melsky

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It'll be second time for me as well, below is my 2004 attempt using solar projection through a spotting scope.

I've got a lot more toys to play with this time :clouds2: so I'm heading over to the east coast to try and get a timelapse as the sun rises.

Mel

3445200205_64cce9a1a5_z.jpg

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squeaky

squeaky

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I'm not going to take any pictures. There'll be plenty around by people far more talented with a camera than me. I'm just going to watch it and try to burn it into my brain.

I'm only just learning too, I've only taken ONE photo so far - but although I'm SURE that my efforts will be outdone, I can't help but feel that there's "something" about having my very own permanent record.

Even if it's only good enough to remind me of the "video memory" I will be burning into my brain :clouds2:

Plan is to grab some single shots first to make sure that my Baader Film is all OK, then view live with my Mark One Eyeball, and finally try for a video sequence as it leaves the Sun's disk and transits the corona.

And we all know what happens to plans! :icon_scratch:

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SeedyF

SeedyF

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I have booked into a hotel overlooking the harbour at Broadstairs. If it's nice I'll be setting up on the harbour wall looking East and texting the wife when it's time to view :clouds2:

I have a home made solar filter which hasn't seen the sun for weeks and will be putting the Flextube on the back seat and driving carefull for about 2 hours the day before.

If it's cloudy we'll enjoy a couple of days on the coast instead.

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tom714uk

tom714uk

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I'm not going to take any pictures. There'll be plenty around by people far more talented with a camera than me. I'm just going to watch it and try to burn it into my brain.

Not literally I hope! Certainly doable though...

Tom

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2

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