WADAS (Wakefield and District Astronomical Society)

[2STAR]

Fantastic mate, make the most of it !! its a very special time.

regards to you both, oops sorry the 3 of you lol, bet the grandparents are delighted also.

They soon grow up Matt & that's when the fun begins ha ha, I have twins boy & girl, they are 41yr old now and still behave as if they were 10 or 11yr olds lol

Eric

[Ryan P]

Great news Matt!! Congratulations to the both of you! I hope you don't have too many sleepless nights!

[adam_sage]

14 hours ago, cosmicbug said:

Congratulations to you both...many years of joy and happiness to come!

ps..how much do you want for your mount and frac ? :-)

congratulations buddy!!!! glad you are all ok :-)

[astrotyke]

Congratualtions to you both

[Vicky050373]

Nothing more satisfying than finding a good quality padded bag at an inexpensive price. Perfect fit for my guidescope. Sorted

[2STAR]

Just bought a tent for keilder

[Vicky050373]

44 minutes ago, 2STAR said:

Just bought a tent for keilder

Fabulous. What size have you got? Did you go to Go Outdoors?

[gtis]

1 hour ago, 2STAR said:

Just bought a tent for keilder

Eric I am going to get one which one have you got

being looking at a Vango at Go Outdoors

Neil

[gtis]

1 hour ago, Vicky050373 said:

Nothing more satisfying than finding a good quality padded bag at an inexpensive price. Perfect fit for my guidescope. Sorted

Nice on Vicky did Damian give you a flight case for me

Neil

[Vicky050373]

18 minutes ago, gtis said:

Nice on Vicky did Damian give you a flight case for me

Neil

Yes, I texted you on Monday to let you know I had it. Said that it was here if you wanted to pop up and get it before the next meeting. Thought it was odd that you didn't reply. Wonder if I've got the wrong number. Anyway, yes, I've got it

[hazegood]

32 minutes ago, gtis said:

Eric I am going to get one which one have you got

being looking at a Vango at Go Outdoors

Neil

whatever you get make sure the hydrostatic head rating is at least 3000mm, anything less is not really much good for the uk weather,

I have a vango Alpha 30o, great 3 person size tent, easy enough to put up and take down on my own

[Mark62]

Home made power tank up and running. 28AH golf cart  battery charger is just sat in box and connected just pull out the lead and off we go. I have a fold up solar panel I'm hoping I can connect it through the charger leads to charge when I'm away from electricity 

[gtis]

1 hour ago, Mark62 said:

Home made power tank up and running. 28AH golf cart  battery charger is just sat in box and connected just pull out the lead and off we go. I have a fold up solar panel I'm hoping I can connect it through the charger leads to charge when I'm away from electricity 

Hoping for some sun then Mark

[gtis]

1 hour ago, Vicky050373 said:

Yes, I texted you on Monday to let you know I had it. Said that it was here if you wanted to pop up and get it before the next meeting. Thought it was odd that you didn't reply. Wonder if I've got the wrong number. Anyway, yes, I've got it

Hi Vicky

next meeting will be fine thanks

Neil

[Mark62]

1 hour ago, gtis said:

Hoping for some sun then Mark

There's nothing rong woth hoping ?

[mapstar]

2 hours ago, hazegood said:

whatever you get make sure the hydrostatic head rating is at least 3000mm, anything less is not really much good for the uk weather,

I have a vango Alpha 30o, great 3 person size tent, easy enough to put up and take down on my own

I think Leigh is well experienced in this and the virtues of good waterproof tent. 

[mapstar]

2 hours ago, Mark62 said:

Home made power tank up and running. 28AH golf cart  battery charger is just sat in box and connected just pull out the lead and off we go. I have a fold up solar panel I'm hoping I can connect it through the charger leads to charge when I'm away from electricity 

Nice one Mark well done 

[mapstar]

Apart from the moon the skies look great tonight 

[Soupy]

skies look good indeed Damian, it's getting cold out there as well. I'm just debating with myself whether or not to do a quick set up in the garden, or sit and have a few beers!

 

thanks to Vicky and Chris for going around to the scout hut this evening to do some outreach. Well done guys managed some clear patches as well.

[Soupy]

Just got my answer, wind rain and clouds have just descended from nowhere! Glad I didn't set up. Beer o'clock it is!

[astrotyke]

Skies looking good here too tonight, but bed call's for me tonight though.

I thought it went well tonight Paul,  vicky was as good as always, and the scouts and the adults all seemed to enjoy the observing session that we managed to do. So hopefully some successful outreach work done

[Vicky050373]

14 minutes ago, astrotyke said:

Skies looking good here too tonight, but bed call's for me tonight though.

I thought it went well tonight Paul,  vicky was as good as always, and the scouts and the adults all seemed to enjoy the observing session that we managed to do. So hopefully some successful outreach work done

Feel we had a successful night at the scouts. Thank you for your kind words of support Chris. It wasn't just me though you know lol. We were a good team. I think we both really enjoyed it. The kids loved looking through the scope at The Pleiades and the Orion Nebula. Think they've gone away with something.

As I had my little grab and go scope out already, I had a half hour in the back garden when I got home. Just set up the camera tripod with my new little 80mm frac on it. Stuck in the 18mm BST and wow! I am actually quite impressed with the optics of that little scope. The Moon and Jupiter just sneaking in the same FOV. Switched to the 8mm BST and had a good look at the Moon and also managed to get a brief look at Jupiter and it's Galilean moons. Could only see 3, but I've not looked to see which one was missing behind Jupiter. 

Decided to grab the DSLR and got a few shots of the Moon and Jupiter in the same image. Just had to cut out the bottom of the moon to squeeze it in. A full frame sensor woukd have got them both easily. Took a couple with the Moon over exposed to bring Jupiter's moons through into the image. Going to download them onto the laptop tomorrow for a look to see what I've got.

Could see clouds approaching, so stuck the 8mm BST back in for a better view of Jupiter and it's moons.  Haven't had chance to try my Celestron X-Cel 2x Barlow yet, so put that in along with the 8mm BST. Wow! Again I was blown away! Jupiters bands were so clear, even in the little 80mm refractor. Looked amazing!

The clouds had then began to move across and spoiled the party. At work early so it was probably for the best, as it made me pack up and come in for a cuppa before bed.

All in all it's been a good evening

[Ryan P]

Damian. Please could you give me the name of that Laser Collimator you have please?

 

Glad you had a great night with the scouts Vicky. Sounds like they enjoyed it. The sky did look lovely and clear last night.

[2STAR]

15 hours ago, gtis said:

Eric I am going to get one which one have you got

being looking at a Vango at Go Outdoors

Neil

 

15 hours ago, gtis said:

Eric I am going to get one which one have you got

being looking at a Vango at Go Outdoors

Neil

I bought a cheap thing from Argos 2 man will be ok if it doesn't rain lol, if it gets bad I will just have to suffer, or maybe decide to go to GO OUTDOORS this next week and buy a decent one and stop being a skinflint to myself or penny wise & pound foolish as they say.The hydrostatic head value on the one I bought is 1300 , so nowhere near the mark !!! , I know what will happen now, my dearly beloved will remind me again that I' m just like a little kid rushing in to things again , I hate to admit but she is right again lol

eric

[astrotyke]

10 hours ago, Vicky050373 said:

Feel we had a successful night at the scouts. Thank you for your kind words of support Chris. It wasn't just me though you know lol. We were a good team. I think we both really enjoyed it. The kids loved looking through the scope at The Pleiades and the Orion Nebula. Think they've gone away with something.

As I had my little grab and go scope out already, I had a half hour in the back garden when I got home. Just set up the camera tripod with my new little 80mm frac on it. Stuck in the 18mm BST and wow! I am actually quite impressed with the optics of that little scope. The Moon and Jupiter just sneaking in the same FOV. Switched to the 8mm BST and had a good look at the Moon and also managed to get a brief look at Jupiter and it's Galilean moons. Could only see 3, but I've not looked to see which one was missing behind Jupiter. 

Decided to grab the DSLR and got a few shots of the Moon and Jupiter in the same image. Just had to cut out the bottom of the moon to squeeze it in. A full frame sensor woukd have got them both easily. Took a couple with the Moon over exposed to bring Jupiter's moons through into the image. Going to download them onto the laptop tomorrow for a look to see what I've got.

Could see clouds approaching, so stuck the 8mm BST back in for a better view of Jupiter and it's moons.  Haven't had chance to try my Celestron X-Cel 2x Barlow yet, so put that in along with the 8mm BST. Wow! Again I was blown away! Jupiters bands were so clear, even in the little 80mm refractor. Looked amazing!

The clouds had then began to move across and spoiled the party. At work early so it was probably for the best, as it made me pack up and come in for a cuppa before bed.

All in all it's been a good evening

I hope we sparked some of there imaginations last night Vicky, a couple of the scout leaders said to me they would print the planetarium off for themselves at home and give them a try, so for me it seemed to go down well and hopefully helped them on there way to getting there astronomy badge done.