Sky News special on astronomy equipment - tonight at 9.30pm 21.8.15

[Jimmyj]

Hi, great article there you did brush over apps that can be used may i ask what apps you think are the best. On it it said about apps for taking photos with phone and also apps for cloud cover, ive downloaded aurora watch uk and ive got a stargazer app to help me identify things. Any other apps you suggest?

Thanks

Jimmy

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[Commanderfish]

Yep mine is the C9.25 AVX, got it for £1500 or so plus accessories in April, the prices have shot up!!  Is that exchange rates or perhaps it happened to be on special when I got it?  Then again, the point I should have made is that you can get a Goto system for around £600, just not with 9" aperture.  

Re the apps, I don't really do photography so Craig's your man for that (not sure if he posts on here?).  However, I would recommend Sky Safari 4 for about £2, that's a great one for finding out what's visible in the sky from where you are.   I also find that Clear Outside, the free weather app which FLO had created for us, is good for estimating cloud cover, mist, rain and visibility so I use that to work out when the next opportunity for astronomy will be.  They all seem to miss high thin cloud sometimes though.  

I then get Sky Safari out and forward wind time to nightfall and see what is going to be up so I can plan what objects I will view and in what order - for instance, Saturn is dropping below my neighbours house before it's even properly dark at the mo.

[swamp thing]

Good job guys

[brantuk]

Ahhhh.... 925 AVX. Still.... a good rig for a great price - nice one!

[Commanderfish]

Just gave myself a real fright googling the price of a C11!

[Chris]

Watching this news special prompted me to look into the Celestron Evolution mount having previously not payed much attention to it.

I've got to take my hat off to Celestron, it's both a fantastic but annoying product. Fantastic because I think it's going to revolutionise and simplify goto astronomy, and annoying because now thats something else I blimming want   

[Commanderfish]

Hi Chris,

You probably already know all this but:

My mount is the AVX, which doesn't have wifi built in, but doesn't have to do an equatorial flip either;

The Nexstar Evolution as I understand it would need to do an equatorial flip but does have Wifi so you can control it with your phone without adding a wifi module

[Chris]

Hi Chris,

You probably already know all this but:

My mount is the AVX, which doesn't have wifi built in, but doesn't have to do an equatorial flip either;

The Nexstar Evolution as I understand it would need to do an equatorial flip but does have Wifi so you can control it with your phone without adding a wifi module

Hi, yes I did see your C9.25 on AVX also, it's a very nice setup, and the AVX seemed to handle the C9.25 just fine by the looks of it I know the AVX has some kind of auto meridian flip function but didn't realise you had to do it with an Alt/Az?

I was once in the AVX club had a little ED frac piggy backed on a C8 Edge on an AVX, all on a concrete pier in my obsy, wonderful setup for both imaging and visual I sold the lot I converted the obsy back into a shed, needed the space plus no time for imaging with a young family. I love my little fracs on the Skytee but do miss having some aperture!!