WADAS forum 3

[mapstar]

Looks like there may be a chance for some viewing this evening. Weather forecast has it clear in Barnsley 6pm to about 11pm so I will set up on the patio to at least give the scope a run out on a few targets.

45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova is going to be visible in the early hours hanging about in the central region of Aquilla, I very much doubt to catch a view of this as it will be too low and too early unless I set the alarm clock and leave the scope set up. Mag 7

Johnson (2015 V2) May be an evening view of this near the western arm of Hercules at present. Mag 10.5

2P/Encke In the west after sunset and just above Iota Pisces. Mag 11

41P/Tuttle-Giacobinni-Kresak Halfway between Regulus in Leo and Cancer. Mag 12

Happy hunting peeps 

[2STAR]

On 2/4/2017 at 13:07, mapstar said:

Looks like there may be a chance for some viewing this evening. Weather forecast has it clear in Barnsley 6pm to about 11pm so I will set up on the patio to at least give the scope a run out on a few targets.

45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova is going to be visible in the early hours hanging about in the central region of Aquilla, I very much doubt to catch a view of this as it will be too low and too early unless I set the alarm clock and leave the scope set up. Mag 7

Johnson (2015 V2) May be an evening view of this near the western arm of Hercules at present. Mag 10.5

2P/Encke In the west after sunset and just above Iota Pisces. Mag 11

41P/Tuttle-Giacobinni-Kresak Halfway between Regulus in Leo and Cancer. Mag 12

Happy hunting peeps 

Just a small thing, Owl Neb M97

[Mark62]

The moons lookin good next to Aldebaran in Taurus tonight despite the thin cloud 

[mapstar]

I'm surprised no one has commented about being out last night? It looked good from work especially when the DLB dropped below the horizon. Wish it had been like that Saturday night as I would've had a trip out to a dark skies spot. 

Only two weeks to new moon and Galloway 

Unfortunately I will miss the Paul Money talk, but some of us have to suffer minus temperatures and Inky black dark Skies 

[Vicky050373]

Was cloudy over my way last night with fog setting in as the night progressed. Was still thick when I got up for work this morning. Not looking good out there tonight either

[gtis]

Chucking it down here

[gtis]

1 hour ago, mapstar said:

I'm surprised no one has commented about being out last night? It looked good from work especially when the DLB dropped below the horizon. Wish it had been like that Saturday night as I would've had a trip out to a dark skies spot. 

Only two weeks to new moon and Galloway 

Unfortunately I will miss the Paul Money talk, but some of us have to suffer minus temperatures and Inky black dark Skies 

Good luck with Galloway 

[Demon Barber]

Hi All ,cloudy in the Northeast,Damian,can we have your prediction of cold temps and inky black skies in writing mate

Regards

Mike

[Vicky050373]

It would have been Leigh's 50th birthday today. Just been looking at Moon images and thinking about him. RIP Leigh

[Physopto]

5 hours ago, mapstar said:

I'm surprised no one has commented about being out last night? It looked good from work especially when the DLB dropped below the horizon. Wish it had been like that Saturday night as I would've had a trip out to a dark skies spot. 

Only two weeks to new moon and Galloway 

Unfortunately I will miss the Paul Money talk, but some of us have to suffer minus temperatures and Inky black dark Skies 

Suffer !! No a drop 'O' the good stuff will sort that out. 

[mapstar]

2 hours ago, Physopto said:

Suffer !! No a drop 'O' the good stuff will sort that out. 

Suffer in a rather sarcastic manner 

[mapstar]

By the looks of it another weekend of cloud ahead  but the DLB is 100% tomorrow so it wouldn't be much of an outing if deep space objects are on anyone's list.

Hope everyone is o.k. as the thread has been rather quiet of late . My predictions for the new moon are crystal clear every night for at least a full week so I hope to be reading and seeing plenty of images and reports from you peeps out there.

On a society note to Vicky we need to get that meeting sorted 

[Mark62]

I hope you are wright Damian we might just be able to get out ??

Not that my minds on Astro at the moment. Other things pressing  that need to be sorted 

[Vicky050373]

4 hours ago, mapstar said:

By the looks of it another weekend of cloud ahead  but the DLB is 100% tomorrow so it wouldn't be much of an outing if deep space objects are on anyone's list.

Hope everyone is o.k. as the thread has been rather quiet of late . My predictions for the new moon are crystal clear every night for at least a full week so I hope to be reading and seeing plenty of images and reports from you peeps out there.

On a society note to Vicky we need to get that meeting sorted 

The thread has been quiet, but with the recent run of clouds and fog I don't think anyone has got anything much to report. Really hope we do have clear skies for the new moon. We all need to get out, and especially hope it's clear for yourself with being away at the star party.

I've not heard back from Soupy with regards to the committee meeting, so I might just get an email out later and see what people think

I managed a brief lunar viewing and imaging session on Saturday afternoon during a break in the clouds. There were some beautiful details and shadows to be seen along the terminator. I've attached a couple of my images. Taken using the DMK21 planetary camera and the Skywatcher Equionox 80 using a 2 x Barlow. 3000 frame AVIs stacked in DSS using the best 50% of frames with wavelets adjusted. No further processing in PhotoShop as I didn't feel it would add much to the images.

[Uplooker]

Well done Vicky, those image captures are very sharp, well done.

[astrotyke]

I've not been out with the weather and I've been stacked at work these last few weeks so going outside on an evening has been far from my mind recently but I'll be back out when the weather turns for the better, whenever that will be.

Chris

[rockystar]

I was out a few nights ago - had some pretty clear skies on my way home, so got the scope out to cool while putting the kids to bed, by the time they were done, it was cloudy  so had some dinner then looked again and it cleared. so got everything out and set up - it was cold and damp!

My main objective was to check that I could reach focus with the new focuser that i'd fitted, and re-align all of my finders. so went straight to Orion, as i find that easy to navigate to and through. focus check success (with the extension not full extended as the travel between my ES 24mm and my Morpheus eyepeices is about 2 1/2 foot - maybe a bit of an exaggeration). So, onto a bit observing, starting with M42, the moon as super bright and near by, so it wasn't great, but everything seemed to be lined up and nicely collimated, the sky also seemed pretty still. I then went for a look at the moon (Damian will be proud of me  ) and the skies stillness was confirmed - I can normally see it shimmering across the moon at high mag, but tonight it wasn't. And then everything started fogging over, I thought "that's a bit early, i've only been out for about 20 mins", and the i realised that it was the sky that was fogging over and not my optics. The moon was still punching through the cloud, so I statyed on that for a bit logger, but then even the DLB was overwhelmed, so I packed up.

[rockystar]

On another note, has anyone tried using spring-washers as a replacement for the rubber collimation rings? I just find that this scope doesn't seem to hold it's collimation as well as the previous one, and thought maybe it was something do do with the fact that the previous one had springs instead of rubber rings? Or maybe it's the fact that I check this one a bit more...

[Vicky050373]

Sold my Atik 16IC-S monochrome CCD. Signature updated and another bit of astro gear gone to a new owner. He's a member of Bolton Astronomy and my little camera will be used as a guide camera. He images using a 383L+ but apparently needs an Atik guide camera so he can use the Atik guiding and imaging software. Anyway, we are going to keep in touch and he'll let me know how he gets on. He's a Kelling Heath regular so it'll be good to meet up with him in September. Apparently, a couple of guys from their society have made a pair of binos out of 2 x 8" Dobs, so they'll be fun to look through!

[mapstar]

On 10/02/2017 at 09:36, rockystar said:

On another note, has anyone tried using spring-washers as a replacement for the rubber collimation rings? I just find that this scope doesn't seem to hold it's collimation as well as the previous one, and thought maybe it was something do do with the fact that the previous one had springs instead of rubber rings? Or maybe it's the fact that I check this one a bit more...

I'm not sure as there would be enough movement in them Lee, and also they are designed to bite into the metal surfaces to prevent something slackening off so not really a good idea for collimation. There are compression springs of various guises on fleabay here

Compression springs

28 minutes ago, Vicky050373 said:

Sold my Atik 16IC-S monochrome CCD. Signature updated and another bit of astro gear gone to a new owner. He's a member of Bolton Astronomy and my little camera will be used as a guide camera. He images using a 383L+ but apparently needs an Atik guide camera so he can use the Atik guiding and imaging software. Anyway, we are going to keep in touch and he'll let me know how he gets on. He's a Kelling Heath regular so it'll be good to meet up with him in September. Apparently, a couple of guys from their society have made a pair of binos out of 2 x 8" Dobs, so they'll be fun to look through!

Soupies terrascans are a pair of 6" newtonians made by Peter Drew. They give lovely views of Jupiter as I can remember from his back garden. Last time I was out with Kieran I think?

[mapstar]

Heads up Peeps.

S@N bbc4 22:05 tonight followed by Horizon guide to the space shuttle 

[Vicky050373]

Just now, mapstar said:

Heads up Peeps.

S@N bbc4 22:05 tonight followed by Horizon guide to the space shuttle 

Thanks D! Got my record button set for both

[gtis]

Reminder already set

[rockystar]

4 hours ago, mapstar said:

I'm not sure as there would be enough movement in them Lee, and also they are designed to bite into the metal surfaces to prevent something slackening off so not really a good idea for collimation. There are compression springs of various guises on fleabay here

Cheers Damian, I didn't think they'd be any good - just a thought.

[mapstar]

NGC 891 brilliant