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Credit Crunch Astronomy - Some hopefully useful tips

NickH

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1337geeza

1337geeza

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Awesome advice, I especially like point 2, I am an IT Professional and try to push free alternatives to expensive software but it can be quite hard to prove the free software is up to the same standard, people think that because it's free it must be rubbish software, 99.9% of the time the free software is just as good if not better! People of SGL, Take heed in NickH's words, this is clearly man who knows what he's talking about!

1337geeza fellow credit crunch budgeter!

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doubleclix

doubleclix

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BBC NEWS | Magazine | How much does it cost to operate a street light?

I remembered reading an article similar to this a few months ago. The credit crunch has hit councils as much as us citizens, so perhaps we should start a petition to start saving money, the planet and astronomy...

Does anyone know how many street lights there are in the uk? Quite a few I should think

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Mercury

Mercury

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Credit Crunch Astronomy

Some hopefully useful tips..

1: Time to refurbish your mount – Mounts, especially ones with GOTO etc, can take a bit of a battering. If you think you have the skill or know someone who does, now may be a good time to strip down the mount, check the motors, gears and grease to ensure that it lasts for as long as you need it. It will save you money in not having to buy a new mount

2: Freeware software – Rather than spending hundreds of pounds on Photoshop, Maxim and all these other applications (fantastic though they ultimately are), have a look at many of the freeware offerings online. These include IRIS, The GIMP, Deep Sky Stacker and more. Sure, some of them have a much higher and more difficult learning curve than their commercial counterparts, but, time is one thing most of us have with these rain sodden nights. If you have a need for a mobile phone contract, or need to renew one soon, then look at the £19 a month deals available which provide you with a free, brand spanking new laptop (or micro webbook laptop). These are more than powerful enough to run most of the applications you need for imaging and mapping the stars.

3: Online robotic rent a scope – Given the conditions we have experienced this year, some of the “pay as you go” robotic offerings do now seem to offer great value for money, especially as you are getting access to world class cameras and instrumentation, in crystal clear skies. Having spent some time this month using the Faulkes telescope database, it’s also a great way to hone and practice your image processing skills with all that new freeware you just downloaded in point 2

4: Invest in some binoculars and learn the sky. I have to hold up my hand and say that without GOTO, I would be lost, but having recently spent the princely sum of £17 on a pair of 70mm binoculars from www.bid.tv (BK7, and they show the moons of Jupiter easily). These and a simple tripod adapter, you can have as much fun as any night with a laptop and mounds of cables. £17 is about the cost of a few coffee’s and a sandwich at a chain coffee store.

5: Come along to viewing evenings. Cost = nothing, value = huge. Again, due to family commitments, I have not been to many at our local society over the past year. Came along to the last one, and it was fantastic. You get to look through wonderful equipment, and all for free.

6: Study online: There are tons of free courses and information podcasts from a wide ranges of sources such as the OU, NASA etc, and you only need a free copy of itunes to access most of them.

7: Clean up your EP’s and gear. As with point 1, some time spent making sure your optics and cameras are dust and dirt free, will pay huge dividends on those rare clear nights, when you need them to perform at their very best.

8: Do some outreach. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is more enjoyable than watching someone who has never seen the Moon, Saturn, Venus, a globular cluster or some other wonder of the sky, and the look on their face, when you show them and explain what it is they are looking at.

9: Free magazines – Well, close to. BBC Sky at Night are running an offer for 3 mags for £1, which is great value. There are also magazines like the ones produced by the PPARC, EuroPhotonics (interesting if you are in to CCD cameras), and newsletters in PDF format from other societies, which are well worth a read

And Finally

10: Make your own scope - Probably the most challenging, but again, various magazines have run articles on making your own scope. This is a long term project, but the joy of making your own Dobsonian, from scratch, I can only imagine must be immense. Grinding mirrors takes hard work and commitment, but, for not much investment, you could make up a 10 inch scope, for hundreds less than it would cost to buy. If that scares you…then ukastrobuyandsell website or ebay can have some genuine bargains as well. Be aware that these obviously don’t come with the usually excellent support and warranties which buying new will provide though.

Thanks for the tips Nick, I now have some more web sites to visit.

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Andy McK

Andy McK

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I bought my daughter 1 sq km of the moon, £20, bargin!

1 hardly used Helios 114mm newt, couple of EP's, Barlow, RA motor drv of *bay £40

for her to look at said sq km.

I managed to get a T34 tank, sorry, TAL 2 in it's coffin with all the standard bits n pieces of Astrobuy for a Ton. It needed some work, but now it's done, I'm very pleased with the results. Now I spend more time with my daughter looking into the sky.

A modest investment, I think, the plesure of astronomy, priceless.

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YorkieGraham

YorkieGraham

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Hi, This is my first post. Interested to read peoples astronomy on a shoestring ideas. I have just started getting back into astronomy after a long break. Bought myself a second hand 150mm Celestron refractor on ebay and a CG5 mount with dual axis motors (financed by selling clutter on ebay). Its amazing what you can buy now which would have cost the earth when I first got interested. Have been getting some shots of Jupiter with a Philips webcam but am hoping to get into some deep sky stuff if I can upgrade my kit for autoguiding. Have to get some more clutter on ebay!

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NickK

NickK

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Ok for exploring the sky and to identify things you've seen, in order if simplicity and usability for the beginner:

Stellarium (Stellarium)

A free downloadable application that has a basic catalogue, you can add additional catalogues to add more stars. Easy to use and available on all platforms.

Google Sky (Google Sky)

Just what you'd expect.. prepare to get lost in roving the night sky!

I wouldn't say this is entirely accurate from experience but it's good fun and free.

Aladin (The Aladin Sky Atlas)

So you want information about anything and everything you've seen... from all the databases and catalogues.. This is awesome for finding details on virtually everything in an image. It's not as friendly but when you've advanced beyond Stellarium or want to find more info that's missing from it - this is a great place to start. I'd advise downloading the application as it's faster. Again it's free.

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Grunthos

Grunthos

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Credit Crunch Astronomy

Some hopefully useful tips..

6: Study online: There are tons of free courses and information podcasts from a wide ranges of sources such as the OU, NASA etc, and you only need a free copy of itunes to access most of them.

Apart from the OU I have come across a set of excellent astronomy courses and public lectures at undergraduate level.

They are posted by Prof Richard Pogge of Ohio State University. :p

Downloadable on iTunes and with full lecture notes available.

Courses include:

Astronomy 141: Life in the Universe Autumn Quarter 2009

Astronomy 161: Introduction to Solar System Astronomy Autumn Quarter 2007 Autumn Quarter 2006

Astronomy 162: Stars, Galaxies, & the Universe Winter Quarter 2006

Astronomy 830: Observed Properties of Stars & Galaxies Autumn Quarter 2004

Astronomy 350: Methods of Observational Astronomy Autumn Quarter 2002

Highly recommended!

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