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Greetings everyone

H2IKXF

By H2IKXF
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H2IKXF

H2IKXF

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Greetings everyone

I've made the New Year's Resolution to finally pursue a few new hobbies. Learning to play the 'jumping flea' (aka the Ukulele), photography and astronomy.

The camera is a Nikon D3000 D-SLR and my very first camera that isn't a Kodak 210 Instamatic. Have I just 'dated' myself??? The laptop is a Pro-Star (aka Clevo) D900F currently running Fedora 12 and the Gnome DE. The pickup is... well, running at the moment so let's not jinx things... Don't want to end up spending the telescope money on repair bills.

The plan is to travel around the country in my pickup and once a site is selected pop open the top on the bed (the whole top opens up like a clam-shell revealing the entire bed) set up the telescope and have fun. The telescope, camera and laptop will be run off a few deep-cycle marine/rv batteries put in series which are recharged by solar panels and/or the alternater during the day. And while the camera is snapping away on those long exposure shots using the telescope I shall serenade the local flora and fauna with my jumping flea. :-) Hopefully my concerts will not result in you hearing about me being savaged by some fauna possessing sharp teeth, claws or exceedingly pointy horns.

My difficulty at the moment is deciding on a telescope. I'm completely open to suggestions on the matter but I've been keenly looking at the possibility of either the Celestron Omni XLT 150 Reflector OR Celestron Omni XLT 120 Refractor. I've been thinking of the possibility of getting the reflector and then getting the refractor tube assembly and interchanging it on the EQ and tripod that came with the reflector...???

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dark knight

dark knight

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Hi and a very warm welcome to SGL.

Firstly your biggest problem is going to be vibrations created as you move around your camper van, these will get transmitted to your telescope making long exposure astro photography virtually impossible. Much better to set it up just outside and run cables to the inside to hook up your lappy...

Carl

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi H21KXF,

A very warm welcome to SGL, nice idea with your pickup, you will be able to travel to very dark sites, put the Black Mountain area of Wales in your diary, it is so dark there the Milky Way shines. As for telescopes and your intention to image, perhaps you should have a look at using an APO refractor or quality reflector, not quite sure about using it inside the pickup though, vibration may be a problem, whatever you do enjoy the forum and your travels.

John.

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sandyn

sandyn

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Hi Hey.really new here hey but just wanna say hi to everyone, ive been interested in astronomy for years and years and years hey but never been in a forum or really met anyone that is as interested in it as me so IM NEW hey...lol...

sandy

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Talitha

Talitha

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Hi to you both, and welcome to SGL. :)

H2IKXF, your plan sounds ideal but as others have said, the vibrations would be problematic. My winter observing here in snowbound Wisconsin is done from my east deck, and vibrations interfere even when using binoculars. The vibrations are caused by my own movements and from the OTA being nudged when small puffs of wind slide across the dewshield, causing the OTA to shake a bit. If it's calm and the seeing is decent, i can get fairly good (single image) lunar shots for my studies, but Luna's pretty bright in the 8" SCT and exposure time is very quick, ranging anywhere from 1/15 to 1/60 sec depending on the albedo i'm targeting.

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H2IKXF

H2IKXF

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I wish to thank all those who've brought up the issue of vibration. Thanks also to "Rusty Strings" for also pointing out the issue of heat rising from the engine/exhaust. I hadn't honestly thought of either of these issues.

I suppose I shall have to place the telescope a good 15 ft away from the truck. I was hoping not to have to do that as there exist two difficulties.

First, the telescope will have to be some distance away from the truck so the beast doesn't get in the way (physically and visually) when the telescope transits from one portion of the sky to another.

Second, I'm running everything off marine/rv batteries as I don't wish to deal with the pollution, noise and fuel expense of running either the vehicle or a generator. When using batteries significant amounts of electricity is lost in the converter and then for every foot of travel down that extension cord to the camera, laptop and telescope. Hmmmm... must do maths to determine amounts lost so the amount of observation time can be known. I might have to either get bigger batteries or add another one into the string to compensate.

"Talitha" brought up the point that even on her deck (obviously less prone to vibrations than a truck bed) she has difficulty with vibrations. I had planned on sand-bagging the tripods legs so that the wind wouldn't catch the telescope and pitch it over the side of the truck bed which would end catastrophically in the fall to the ground. But even outside the truck I shall have to do similarly to solve some/most of the wind vibration. However, even sand-bagged vibrations from the ground will travel up the tripods legs so I wonder if I should invest in some vibration absorbtion pads???

Thanks everyone for both welcoming me and for pointing out some difficulties I would encounter. :-)

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brantuk

brantuk

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Hi H2IKXF

Sounds like you fell asleep and slumped on the keyboard when you made up that nickname lol.

On a more serious note - most people sit a battery pack under the scope to power it - and active usb cables are great for connecting equipment to a laptop. I use an exterior mains extension to power the laptop (mostly from inside an awning). Just keep the battery pack well charged.

Welcome to the group.

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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Hi (cut/paste) H2IKXF

Welcome to SGL.

Regarding the scope: I always use my C8 when I travel anywhere by car. The SCT design gives you a good compromise between portability and light-gathering power. Of course, I also have to fit the family in the car on holidays :), and it's no pick-up. You might be able to fit in a more powerful scope.

A decent battery pack keeps it tracking nicely through even the longest observing runs, and my laptop last for 4-5 hours on stamina mode, so I usually do not need external batteries. Some netbooks last even longer.

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H2IKXF

H2IKXF

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Hi H2IKXF

Sounds like you fell asleep and slumped on the keyboard when you made up that nickname lol.

Ahh... no. The moniker is a hash of an acronym and a proper name from two different Sci-Fi shows.

The 'H2IK' comes from a show in the U.S. called "Gravity" (which has been canceled before the first season ended) wherein one of the characters being confused about something but not wishing to publicly broadcast it called his difficulty an "H2IK" system failure/anomoly. The acronym stands for 'Hell If I Know".

The 'XF' comes, of course from the show called "X-Files"

I thought combing the two together in an astronomy forum would be way too cool as a nickname. :)

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