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mapstar

By mapstar
in WADAS Discussion Forum

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astrotyke

astrotyke

Posted
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Setting up on the grass might be better id have thought, like we we did for the mercury transit, leaving the car park for cars. Its only been advertised on Facebook mostly so not sure how many people will have seen about it.

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Vicky050373

Vicky050373

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Yeah, I was looking at the distinct lack of sunspots! Unless that changes there is no point me bringing my scope as I only have a white light filter for it. We might just be using the PST for prominences and surface features at this rate. Let's just hope we get some clear skies :)

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2STAR

2STAR

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On 17/08/2016 at 22:42, astrotyke said:

Same here. Not had my scope out for ages either. I'll be even more clueless with it than usual lol. Could do with making a solar filter for it really.

I have been out 2 nights this week , Wednesday was like daytime at 1am, but I need the practice on alignment and general set up along with some Software familiarisation on the Atik, I managed ok as it happens and had all my targets in or near centre of the screen, but too washy to make out any detail, , used my 20mm reticle ep with 2 star auto to align, then attached the camera with FR6.3 & T adaptor on  and tested on Capella using Bhatinov Mask to focus, left it on Capella for 5 mins to check tracking and that was reasonably good,  slewed quite well to M31/M110/M97/M81, so despite it being a 97% Moon along with a little high cloud I got another 2 hour total booked on my learning curve !!

Eric

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astrotyke

astrotyke

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Thats great Eric, thats what i did in the first spring that i got my new scope, used the light nights as practice alignment. i always do a 3 star alignment, it seems to work well and i guess ive stuck with it. as with any scope, making sure its a level as possible is a major hurdle, and will help with the tracking immensely. ive tracked objects in mine for well over an hour and its still been roughly centred.

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2STAR

2STAR

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4 hours ago, astrotyke said:

Thats great Eric, thats what i did in the first spring that i got my new scope, used the light nights as practice alignment. i always do a 3 star alignment, it seems to work well and i guess ive stuck with it. as with any scope, making sure its a level as possible is a major hurdle, and will help with the tracking immensely. ive tracked objects in mine for well over an hour and its still been roughly centred.

I always make sure its level yes, I did 3 star align to start with and then saw that it doesn't need 3 stars to align as it only uses 2 of them, so I went onto 2 star auto and that seems ok so far for me , like you say its what works best for you that counts, the precise GOTO function seems to be more accurate than 'normal' GOTO so I use that now. The alignment I realise now is crucial to finding objects particularly now I am using the Atik camera , my main concentration is  on the software element and manipulation of the settings particularly the histogram function, the exposure is something to play about with but no major problem with it so far, it has a range from 0.01sec to 120sec which for EAA is ok for my needs as I will never be able to match the quality of a AP camera on EQ, but my intention from the outset was to at least get an image of what I could see via the EP and also objects beyond the visual capability of my scope. BRING ON DARK NIGHTS LOL

Eric  

 

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rich6626

rich6626

Posted
Posted
On 16/08/2016 at 12:19, astrotyke said:

The solar meeting is still on this Sunday at 2 -6pm, at Denby Grange cricket club at Overton. Weather permitting of course. We will need a few people there if we do get members of the public coming along.

Who is interested in coming?

 

 

Awww shucks, borrowing a friends camper to go visiting the in-laws this weekend so won't be around. Shame coa i like a spot of solar observing. Hope the Sun shines for you, there have been some awesome sunsets this past week and the moon as annoying as it is for deep sky stuff has been putting on some awesome displays!!

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2STAR

2STAR

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31 minutes ago, rich6626 said:

Awww shucks, borrowing a friends camper to go visiting the in-laws this weekend so won't be around. Shame coa i like a spot of solar observing. Hope the Sun shines for you, there have been some awesome sunsets this past week and the moon as annoying as it is for deep sky stuff has been putting on some awesome displays!!

I will be there

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Marci

Marci

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We're coming...! Could do with snaffling a 40mm squ & 50mm squ of solar film if anyone's got any offcuts (?)

it'll be the first outting for the wedge & 70mm frack as guide scope - an afternoon of experimentation! Dunno if Hx wants the Dob bringing or not... good practice for fitting it in the car whilst we can see what we're doing.

 

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Vicky050373

Vicky050373

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6 minutes ago, Marci said:

We're coming...! Could do with snaffling a 40mm squ & 50mm squ of solar film if anyone's got any offcuts (?)

it'll be the first outting for the wedge & 70mm frack as guide scope - an afternoon of experimentation! Dunno if Hx wants the Dob bringing or not... good practice for fitting it in the car whilst we can see what we're doing.

 

I'll have a look and see if I've got any more. I'll send you a message shortly when I've looked. Do you just need 2 little squares? 

Would you like me to bring those EPs for you tomorrow? 

Look forward to seeing your new wedge in action. Pity there isn't much to see in white light at the moment. Hopefully there will be a couple of little sunspots to have a go at :)

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Vicky050373

Vicky050373

Posted
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5 minutes ago, astrotyke said:

Only solar film I've got is fitted to the 60/ 80mm fraction I've got vicky. Is it worth me brining that along tomorrow?

I was going to bring my little frac and the Herschel solar wedge but I'm not sure what there is to see in white light at the moment. Bring it along if it is easy to set up and we'll see what we can see. Think we'll mainly be relying on the PST for the prominences and surface detail to be honest. 

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Marci

Marci

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53 minutes ago, Vicky050373 said:

I'll have a look and see if I've got any more. I'll send you a message shortly when I've looked. Do you just need 2 little squares? 

Would you like me to bring those EPs for you tomorrow? 

Look forward to seeing your new wedge in action. Pity there isn't much to see in white light at the moment. Hopefully there will be a couple of little sunspots to have a go at :)

Aye - squares for the apo masks on the 200p and travel70. And yup - bring the EPs please!

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Vicky050373

Vicky050373

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Well, I've just been having a little look to see what's going on up there in white light, and yes, nothing to see here citizens!

Is it worth bringing white light filters unless anyone thinks that people will want to look at a spotless white disc, or green in the case of my solar continuum filter lol ;)

IMG_20160821_090751.jpg

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