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Venturing out tonight ?


knobby

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lol...this was last night....me and Gary went out and did quite a lot of testing and stuff. will just be heading outside on the front driveway tonight. The location of the roding site is earlier in this thread. we usually post up when one of us is heading over there...just in case anyone else wants to tag along.

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On 2/10/2016 at 17:01, Blazar said:

wow...no other responses....where is everyone?!?

Hi, I am new to the group and would be keen to join you for an evenings observing. Anyone know how I can set up 'alerts' or something so I am notified of new messages to this group? Cheers, Tim.

edit. Just worked it out! If you plan any more nights at Margaret Roding, I'd be keen to come if I could.

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Thought I'd repost this as it's disappeared amongst the thread ...

On Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 21:15, knobby said:

If anyones up for a bit of trail blazing, this Saturday or Sunday night I might be popping over here http://goo.gl/0AIOjO with bins to see if its as dark as the dark sky apps / web sites say it is.

to the east of the pin is a large concrete area, enough for 4 or 5 cars plus scopes.

I've contacted the landowner and they are fine about access so long as we leave it clean and tidy.

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On Thursday, May 22, 2014 at 21:40, knobby said:

i've tried to illustrate the possible darkness ...

dark sky map

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map

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composite

post-21341-0-28616400-1400791143_thumb.j

 

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I'd definitely be up for an evening/night visit. Not much clear weather coming up, according to clear outside. Wed and thurs OK but moon is ginormous. Weekend looks s**t. Is the owner OK if individuals or groups just turn up or do you need to phone and OK with him?

 

Cheers, Tim.

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Hi Tim. No we just turn up. Though the other night it had quite a lot of straw on there. it looks quite neat in those old photos. More than welcome to join us. Usually its me posting that I am heading up there....and I try and get Knobby to come along as well. I have been up there on my own a couple of times, and its not that bad....but its always better with someone to chat to.

 

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Thanks Steve, That's good, I might go for a reccy tomorrow daytime. I take it that it is to the west of the pin on the map posted by knobby, rather than to the east. If it is the east it is on the other side of the road (providing i know east from west!).

Now i get alerts, I hope to meet you soon, If i decide to go myself (I'm only half hour away from it) I'll post here as well. My garden is pretty much hemmed in by trees and houses so I can't wait to get a better view. I'm into imaging more than observing so i look forward to getting some longer exposures than I have been able to. Cheers, Tim. 

 

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Did a reccie tonight and found it OK. Got there about 6 ish at dusk and planned to take a few pics with my camera and tripod before the moon rose, so no worries about carrying and setting up loads of equipment. Put tripod up and took off quick release plate then into car to attach camera, or so I thought. I couldn't find the plate, searched outside, under the car, in the car , all my pockets, all car pockets, everywhere, no quick release plate to be seen. Convinced myself I had dreamt I took it off the tripod and told myself I had left it at home. No photos. Drove to Dunmow for a meeting... had another look, or feel, for it in the car and found it!

So it doesn't really bode well for me.... I couldn't even get using a camera and tripod, never mind a scope, mount, guiding, camera, dew shield, etc, etc, etc, And it wasn't even dark! :blob8:

Seriously though... despite my failed attempt, it seems a great place for astronomy, even though the toilet and refreshment facilities are... well... somewhere else... I think I need to strap all essential bits and pieces around my body or employ a personal assistant to help me not lose stuff.

Would love to join some folks there in the future so I can moan about my short term memory loss to a real person rather than writing about it! 

Cheers, Tim :icon_biggrin:

 

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Hi Tim, if it makes you feel any better , when I went last time with Steve (Blazar) we tried my new ASI224 on his C11, after much tweaking and fiddling we both disappointingly found it to be no better than our ASI 120 cams, same sort of speed and gain , no real increase in frame rate ... Bare in mind that I loaded the car in the dark and set up in the dark , Id packed my 120 and not the 224 :hello:

Well , it was dark !

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Can't imagine how difficult the set up is for you imagers....I only have mirror box, trusses and secondary , collimation plus a couple of wires and in the dark, that's enough!

knobby, in your original Google link, you had the pin placed near the road, is the observing location up the path due west of the pin. The current google image has a big hay bale placed on it I think?  I'll try to get up there with stargeezertim at some point soon.  Might do a daytime review this weekend, I need to take my daughter out on a driving lesson, so might head off that way.

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popped up last night, last time we visited we thought it was the hardstanding nearer to the road (doh!). 

Anyway, we had about 30 mins of clear sky around 8pm, so were able to get a feel for the place.  Have to say its a great location :) will be up there like the proverbial rat up a drainpipe next opportunity :)

Couple of questions:

1) what do you do regarding the approach road, I guess if someone turns up later on, their headlights could be an issue for dark adaptation/images ... figured walking up behind someone with a red torch would be best etiquette.  

2) there was a bright security light over the road to the south east, is that a permanent fixture ?  I guess strategically parking cars would help with that  ?

Noticed the dirt, a tarp could be the solution there, more an issue for dob than fracs on a tripod I guess

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Yeah, I liked the un-obscured southern horizon. In summer will be possible to delve down into Sagittarius: Lagoon, Trifid and maybe lower still .....Will be murky, but more transparent than houses and trees ;-)

That light was SSW; blocking with cars would be dependent on exact location of scopes and risks blocking good areas of the sky nearby? Wonder if the owner is amenable to tweaking its direction (wishful thinking) ??  

Re. the approach, maybe driving up the track with side-lights on is OK, till you get near the hard-standing ?....Be good to know the thinking of folks who frequent this spot; attitudes towards this kind of thing can vary.....

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Hi Sam and John, the security light seems to be new, amazing really ! we spent ages looking for somewhere decent then up pops a security light :hmh:

As for the approach, Steve and myself mainly image (or try to) so it's not been an issue for us so far and we're pretty laid back so i guess maybe posting here to warn others that any visual is taking place might alert others.

Maybe set up a whatsapp group chat so we all know whats going on.

Glad you liked it there, if any one passes at dusk it would be good to try sussing the details of the security lamp owner, I don't mind having a diplomatic chat with them.

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if we see someone coming, we can avert our eyes or close them ? Not a big issue really. Normally we set up early , mirror takes 60-90 mins to cool to ambient.

whatsapp group a good idea! If you set one up, I can pm you my number if that's ok.

the light is probably the farm on the opposite side of the road, asuume the landowner. Its SSE of the site.

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