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The Glumslinger posted:I went out last night was foiled by a combo of clouds and hills. I'm going to try again tonight Same here, gonna be the first clear night in weeks. Edit: Well that was a bust. loving new england humidity. A Proper Uppercut fucked around with this message at 12:08 on Jul 19, 2020 |
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Jul 18, 2020 22:04
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We made it out last night, drove out of the burbs and into the proto-burbs. While we waited for it to get dark enough, I showed the kids how to follow planes across the sky. One kid would look through the telrad and push the mount, the other would look through the eyepiece and then take turns. Using this overkill Bogen 3066 head, the C100ED was smooth and easy to control.  When night got dark enough, the comet was naked eye visible if you knew right where to not-look. The 100ED with the ES68 34mm gave us a nice 2.5 degree field, but the comet looked best in binoculars. When the kids first found it, sweeping around with the binoculars, their audible gasp was fantastic. We might try to get out to a darker place in the next day or two. 
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Jul 19, 2020 15:55
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I did get out again last night and managed to see it, I drove like 90 minutes trying to find a spot with good sightlines and lack of clouds and ended up on a hill like 10 minutes from my house  It made me remember how much I enjoy star gazing and I might buy a telescope this week
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Jul 19, 2020 17:10
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I made a very short video of the comet. I would have liked to take more, but clouds conspired against me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNfWr-OzomA And here is a bonus Elephant Trunk nebula in Ha 
Prettypanda fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Jul 19, 2020 |
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Jul 19, 2020 17:33
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I really need a telescope in my life again.
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Jul 19, 2020 17:38
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Prettypanda posted:I made a very short video of the comet. I would have liked to take more, but clouds conspired against me. incredible thanks for sharing
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Jul 19, 2020 19:07
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I'm looking to make a couple mods to my dob. I'm going to pick up a digital inclinometer and attach a setting wheel to the base to get a diy go-to mount. Another thing I'm having an issue with is with the scope staying in place, both in alt and az. Any tips on making everything more solid?
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Jul 20, 2020 01:07
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A Proper Uppercut posted:I'm looking to make a couple mods to my dob. I'm going to pick up a digital inclinometer and attach a setting wheel to the base to get a diy go-to mount. Improving the motion of your dob would mean making sure the balance is good, cleaning or replacing the bearing surfaces, and making sure the tension is enough but not too much. The idea is that you want to be able to smoothly follow an object by hand while observing at high magnification, and also have the dob stay where you put it when you let go. Some GSO dobs have a knob for adjusting (alt) tension, Synta dobs have a spring you can probably tighten. Lots of people improve their bearing surfaces with fresh strips of teflon and ebony star laminate. You sound like you don’t have enough friction, so maybe something needs to be tightened down or something isn’t fitting together correctly. Pictures could help. Take the bottom board off the bottom of the mount to check out the mechanical health of your az axis.
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Jul 20, 2020 15:43
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Rolabi Wizenard posted:Improving the motion of your dob would mean making sure the balance is good, cleaning or replacing the bearing surfaces, and making sure the tension is enough but not too much. The idea is that you want to be able to smoothly follow an object by hand while observing at high magnification, and also have the dob stay where you put it when you let go. Some GSO dobs have a knob for adjusting (alt) tension, Synta dobs have a spring you can probably tighten. Lots of people improve their bearing surfaces with fresh strips of teflon and ebony star laminate. You sound like you don’t have enough friction, so maybe something needs to be tightened down or something isn’t fitting together correctly. Pictures could help. Take the bottom board off the bottom of the mount to check out the mechanical health of your az axis. The az axis sits on bearing like a lazy susan. There a small knob in the middle that you can tighten for more friction but I've already tightened the poo poo out of it. It doesn't ride on pads, kinda wish it did so I'd have a little more friction. And you're right about balancing, I'm sure it's way off, I haven't messed with it in a while.
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Jul 20, 2020 17:30
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A Proper Uppercut posted:The az axis sits on bearing like a lazy susan. There a small knob in the middle that you can tighten for more friction but I've already tightened the poo poo out of it. It doesn't ride on pads, kinda wish it did so I'd have a little more friction. Here's a source for bearing material if you decide to do that. https://www.astrogoods.com/atm.shtml
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Jul 20, 2020 17:43
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Hey, since the OP is over a decade old, does anyone have recommendation for a home telescope that I can easily pack up in my car and set up somewhere dark? I have a little bit of experience with telescopes from going to nerd camp while growing up, but probably haven't touched one in 15 years.
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Jul 20, 2020 17:54
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8" Dob with a couple of nice eyepieces. (If you can lay the OTA across your back seat)
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Jul 20, 2020 18:04
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beautiful clear night tonight to spot the comet right from my backyard. could make out the smudge with naked eye. also a very good view of Saturn and Jupiter. could even see the Galilean moons with the binoculars managed to get some passable pictures with my cellphone too comet + big dipper  a tiny bit of milky way action + Cassiopeia in the bottom left 
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Jul 21, 2020 06:05
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Poopelyse posted:beautiful clear night tonight to spot the comet right from my backyard. could make out the smudge with naked eye. also a very good view of Saturn and Jupiter. could even see the Galilean moons with the binoculars Nice work, it’s cool to see the huge size of the comet in the sky with the houses in the foreground and the whole dipper above it. How dark is your back yard?
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Jul 21, 2020 13:14
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Rolabi Wizenard posted:Nice work, it’s cool to see the huge size of the comet in the sky with the houses in the foreground and the whole dipper above it. How dark is your back yard? Small town wyoming so fairly dark. You can see the milky way when the moon isn't out. Pretty lucky to live somewhere with such nice dark skies!
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Jul 21, 2020 16:40
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Poopelyse posted:beautiful clear night tonight to spot the comet right from my backyard. could make out the smudge with naked eye. also a very good view of Saturn and Jupiter. could even see the Galilean moons with the binoculars drat! I gotta get out and see this that is so cool
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Jul 21, 2020 17:05
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Poopelyse posted:Small town wyoming so fairly dark. Oh poo poo what part? I'm in Riverton.
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Jul 21, 2020 20:25
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Star Man posted:Oh poo poo what part? I'm in Riverton. Laramie! not quite as small as Riverton lol
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Jul 22, 2020 00:53
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Poopelyse posted:Laramie! not quite as small as Riverton lol It is this time of year  I've had a chance to use the telescope on top of whichever science building at UW before when I took astronomy 1010. It was pretty weird seeing everything in green because of their distance and other factors.
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Jul 22, 2020 04:24
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Poopelyse posted:Laramie! not quite as small as Riverton lol Youd think the astronomy thread would be a safe place to say Laramie is small but I'm also laughing at that. Buckhorn meetup?!
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Jul 22, 2020 17:55
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Star Man posted:It is this time of year Yeah it's nice and empty in the summer. And the telescope up on the physical sciences building is awesome and super fun for showing off to students and the public. Harry Potter on Ice posted:Youd think the astronomy thread would be a safe place to say Laramie is small but I'm also laughing at that. Buckhorn meetup?! dang, covid has really changed up my life. I haven't been able to go dancing at the Buck in months!!
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Jul 23, 2020 00:19
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Hi, I'm like the one person on earth that never liked the Buckhorn. I just would rather sit down and chill at the Library...if it was still there. I'm not sure if I want to pick up an optical telescope or if I should go for something else.
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Jul 23, 2020 03:30
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Cross posted from the night time photography thread, where I was pointed hereJim Silly-Balls posted:Is this the official/unofficial telescope thread?
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Jul 25, 2020 03:04
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Orion’s EQ-2M motor is a hundred bucks. It looks like one of the little 9V units is also compatible. https://youtu.be/xlGF7PYLpYE I have no experience with the suitability of either item for photography. Platystemon fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Jul 25, 2020 |
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Jul 25, 2020 03:11
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You’re going to have a somewhat difficult time getting focus on that scope with a dslr. Out of the box prime focus is basically impossible without modifying the scope to move the mirror cell forward. You can do some shots through an eyepiece with the appropriate adapter but the next problem you’re going to run into is the focuser. It doesn’t have a locking screw so gravity will unfortunately win and it will fall out of focus easily. I’m not trying to be a debbie downer. All of those problems are somewhat overcomable but it is really a challenge. I know because I tried it with this exact scope and then I said gently caress it and bought a whole rig just to do what I wanted to do. Now, if you want to piggyback your camera on the mounting rings and do some super wide field Milky Way shots that’s a whole different ball game and I think it will work great even with just the Orion attachable motor. Another option is a one of the many affordable trackers that sky-watcher or ioptron or whomever make. I considered the star adventurer pro for a bit but never pulled the trigger. It will do what you want (assuming it’s wide field using a dslr lens).
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Jul 25, 2020 03:35
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Yeah focus is tough with the t-adapter, I have to use the Orion 2x Barlow to get it to focus at all. I haven’t had issues with it falling out of focus yet, my main problem is the focus wheels are too small. They need to be like 4x the diameter that they are. I blow right by the focus point 9 times out of 10. I’ve already decided I’m gonna skip the Orion Eq motor, it engages with the knurled part of the knob and is pretty inaccurate. I already have that problem without spending $100 I’ll take a look at those other mounts too
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Jul 25, 2020 16:16
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Hi guys Is this the place to talk basic astrophotography ? I like viewing the night sky, and also trying to shoot it if possible. I'm mainly just using an EQ6 mount and using my dslr and lenses on it, but have just bought an Orion 6" CCG scope to try and get some views of the planets if possible. Shot from last night of the moon using an old skywatcher telescope. Best viewing I've seen for ages of the moon  Moon by Marc, on FlickrI should really check out if my scopes are aligned up alright, and still need to properly figure out guiding (and balance, polar alignment just the usual)
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Jul 27, 2020 10:29
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Today’s apod is “two worlds, one sun,” and tomorrow’s is “gaping comet”  .Seriously, though apod is cool, if you don’t know about it.
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Aug 3, 2020 05:06
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Raikyn posted:I like viewing the night sky, and also trying to shoot it if possible. Great pic, I'm enjoying them if this isnt the right place I'll follow you to it
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Aug 3, 2020 15:43
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I'm planning on doing some radio astronomy. I found some plans for a hydrogen emission line telescope online. While the proposed antenna here should work, I think since the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi frequency is roughly twice that of the hydrogen emission line, that would make the antenna on it most likely a full wavelength antenna or nearly so. https://www.rtl-sdr.com/cheap-and-easy-hydrogen-line-radio-astronomy-with-a-rtl-sdr-wifi-parabolic-grid-dish-lna-and-sdrsharp/ However I would prefer to make my own antenna for the radio that's properly suited for the emission line wavelengths. I was thinking of a helical antenna since it's fairly compact and can be combined into an array to get higher gain and the pointed direction. However, the required diameter of the cylinder needs to go around doesn't exactly fit with any PVC pipes that I can find. Does anyone have any suggestions for what could be used? https://www.changpuak.ch/electronics/calc_12a.php This is what I used to calculate my needed diameter, 67.25mm Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Aug 4, 2020 |
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Aug 4, 2020 18:13
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Nitrousoxide posted:I'm planning on doing some radio astronomy. I found some plans for a hydrogen emission line telescope online. While the proposed antenna here should work, I think since the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi frequency is roughly twice that of the hydrogen emission line, that would make the antenna on it most likely a full wavelength antenna or nearly so. Some amateur radio astronomy would be pretty cool! I found this person who did it with a helical antenna - https://thenack.com/2020/05/space-antenna/ They use a 50 mm diameter PVC pipe for theirs. I assume if you are close enough then it will still work but you just won't have peak sensitivity at 1420 MHz. 2 inch (~50 mm) diameter PVC pipe is apparently a thing you can easily buy. Looks like the outside diameter is 2.375 inches (60.3 mm) which is pretty close to the calculation. Looking at this stuff now makes me want to build one too...
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Aug 4, 2020 19:40
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The amateur radio thread can probably help you. Lots of antenna wizards in there: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2827275
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Aug 4, 2020 20:34
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Welp, I just wound up with my own personal Bortle 2 dark sky observing site with unobstructed skies in high desert. poo poo's gonna get real.
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Aug 5, 2020 00:49
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Awesome! I am totally jealous. The wife just bought a pop up trailer for dog show purposes, and I think I'm going to take it out to do some dark sky tourism with the kids. I've heard there are a few pretty good ranches in west Texas that cater to amateur astronomers. Looking forward to that.
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Aug 5, 2020 01:03
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Poopelyse posted:Some amateur radio astronomy would be pretty cool! I found this person who did it with a helical antenna - https://thenack.com/2020/05/space-antenna/ Thanks, I think that might work. I was considering getting a 3D printer so I could make a proper pipe sized correctly but that's a pretty big investment for this project I think. I suppose I should try the 2-in PVC and see how well it works before I go making big purchases like that. It looks really cool and you should be able to see the Doppler shift from the gas clouds that are moving away or toward us which is something that isn't really easy to see with visible light astronomy unless you know the color it was originally. Since this light is emitted at 1420 MHz almost exactly any variation from that is very clear. If you had a telescope with an extremely high gain and narrow arc of the sky that it sees you could even probably see how Andromeda is approaching the milky way. it would probably take more than one helical antenna for that however. Jim Silly-Balls posted:The amateur radio thread can probably help you. Lots of antenna wizards in there: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2827275 I'm a ham radio operator myself already actually. I was just pondering how to get this support cylinder to be the correct size since I can't use conductive material. It has to be some sort of plastic which doesn't give me a whole lot of flexibility in terms of how to adjust it. Building this telescope is actually what got me into amateur radio since the skills I would need to make it more or less coincide with ham radio so there was a little reason not to get licensed in that as well. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Aug 5, 2020 |
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Aug 5, 2020 01:37
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So I soon may bite the bullet and purcase a field flattener and T-Ring for my 102mm F7 Stellarvue with D700 Full Frame Nikon. The T-Ring for the specific field flattener for this scope is 42mm (2.5" focuser), and I read (Highpoint Scientific description of the t-ring needed) that it may have some vignetting. Has anyone input about that combo? I'd be using this combo for terrestrial photos as well. Hasselblad fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Aug 7, 2020 |
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Aug 5, 2020 22:02
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Turn Left at Orion... seems hard to come by and expensive here in the UK. What else do people recommend for absolute beginners?
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Aug 7, 2020 18:17
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Bollock Monkey posted:Turn Left at Orion... seems hard to come by and expensive here in the UK. What else do people recommend for absolute beginners? Beginners to astronomy in general, or a sky map?
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Aug 7, 2020 23:41
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Hasselblad posted:Beginners to astronomy in general, or a sky map? In general I guess? I've got sky map apps that are helping me identify things (though the constellations are mirrored and I find that confusing?) but it sounds like that book has a bit more info?
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Aug 8, 2020 09:44
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Bollock Monkey posted:In general I guess? I've got sky map apps that are helping me identify things (though the constellations are mirrored and I find that confusing?) but it sounds like that book has a bit more info? My first book was “NightWatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe”. Gives a good general rundown and solid foundation. Hasselblad fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Aug 9, 2020 |
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Aug 9, 2020 14:43
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