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A bright meteor flashed through the skies of New Zealand last night and a dude just so happened to be taking long exposure shots of the stars at that very moment! 
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Apr 5, 2016 21:39
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| # ? May 15, 2024 03:00 |
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I'm considering the Astro-Tech 6" F/4 imaging Newtonian optical tube as my first telescope since I was a kid. Is there a good computerized mount that'll also work for astrophotography that isn't an arm and a leg? The Orion Sirius mount seems pretty well recommended, but it's a bit costlier than I'd like.
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Apr 6, 2016 23:36
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Thought I'd remind East Coast goons with a hankering for space / astronomy stuff about NEAF, or the Northeast Astronomy Forum; it will be held this weekend April 9th and 10th at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY. This year it's Pluto Mania, leading off in the AM on Saturday will be none other than Alan Stern, speaking as principal investigator of the New Horizons mission! In the afternoon, Annette and Alden Tombaugh, the children of Clyde Tombaugh will speak about remembering their famous father. Bernard Kutter of United Launch Alliance (ULA) will also speak. On Sunday, there will be people from Lowell Observatory speaking, along with Hans Koenigsmann from SpaceX and Alice Bowman, Mission Operations Manager for New Horizons. There will be 120 vendors and exhibitors in the Exhibits Hall selling all kinds of astro/space goodies, and the Solar Star Party where amateurs with solar observing equipment will be allowing all to look at their screens or through sun-proofed eyepieces to see the Sun! Weather forecast looks bad for Saturday but good for Sunday. Exhibit hall hours will be 8:30 AM to 6 PM on Saturday, 10 AM to 5 PM Sunday. There will also be special Pro/AM free walk in classes on subjects ranging from asteroid occultation training to speckle inferometry of close double stars. Find out more at http://www.rocklandastronomy.com/neaf.html I don't work for Rockland Astronomy Club, just a satisfied show-goer. Binary Badger fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Apr 8, 2016 |
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Apr 8, 2016 00:07
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Ahhh gently caress the clouds!!! I just got a 2x Barlow and red dot sight in the mail yesterday and intended to use it this morning when I got home from work. It's been crystal clear black skies for literally a full week and now it's cloudy! Only when I want to observe! This is the same thing that happened to me when I first got the scope at Christmas too 
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Apr 19, 2016 10:36
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Goons please help me. Is there a way of aligning the secondary mirror correctly on a newtonian without having to buy a sight tube thingy? I have a laser collimater for aligning the primary etc, but because I'm a hamfisted idiot I managed to move the secondary in relation to the eyepiece tube and now I can't get anything to line up and feel pretty stupid in general. I don't know anyone else who dicks around with this stuff so I've never been shown how to collimate a telescope properly by someone who knows what they're doing, and the internet is full of 'six easy steps!' that turn out to involve buying a bunch of stuff and doing a bunch of poo poo I'm not confident in doing. I'm not an idiot, compared to the stuff I deal with daily telescopes are super simple, but I still don't get this poo poo.
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Apr 22, 2016 03:17
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Slavvy posted:Goons please help me. Is there a way of aligning the secondary mirror correctly on a newtonian without having to buy a sight tube thingy? Have you tried this guide? It has served me well in the past and explains how to align the secondary using a simple collimation cap, which is just a bit of plastic over the eyepiece hole with a tiny hole in the middle (I built one from a spare eyepiece hole cover).
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Apr 22, 2016 08:46
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food-rf posted:Have you tried this guide? It has served me well in the past and explains how to align the secondary using a simple collimation cap, which is just a bit of plastic over the eyepiece hole with a tiny hole in the middle (I built one from a spare eyepiece hole cover). I've been trying to do what this guy says for a good two hours and all I'm achieving is a constant feedback loop where one adjustment throws out the previous one. I'm on my sixth attempt and I'm not getting any closer because it is literally impossible to get all the mirror clips showing at the same time as having the secondary centered to the eyepiece. I've done a lot of bullshit finicky counter-intuitive manual tasks in my life and this is reapidly climbing to the top of my list frustrating bullshit nobody should ever have to do. If there were someone I could pay to collimate this stupid loving thing I would.
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May 3, 2016 01:30
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Did you do the star test? Does it look right? If so, you've done enough!
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May 3, 2016 02:19
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I'll try it tonight and report back.
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May 3, 2016 02:25
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I finally managed to catch the cigar galaxy and M81. I managed to grab a bunch of photos and stack them but I need to spend more time with them to see if I could get some more color. Full size: http://imgur.com/iKz8eSk
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May 7, 2016 16:55
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Just upgraded to an 8" dob. It blows my old refractor out of the water, that's for sure. It's been very cloudy so I haven't had much time to experiment with it, but here are a couple of planets I photographed    
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May 7, 2016 17:05
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What camera are you using? Those are great and I hope to get some similar pictures with my 8" dob this summer.
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May 7, 2016 19:26
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Anyone doing anything neat for the Mercury transit on Monday? I took the day off and if the weather holds here in MD I'm going to try and record it so I can do a timelapse.
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May 7, 2016 19:30
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I'm working from home Monday and will attempt to look at the little black dot from time to time with my telescope. I'm not getting up early enough to see it first move in front of the sun but I'll try to see it leave.
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May 7, 2016 19:35
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I was gonna try a time lapse but the forecast is looking like rain most of the day. I guess whoever bought a telescope to watch should have bought it sooner.
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May 7, 2016 20:45
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EngineerJoe posted:Did you do the star test? Does it look right? If so, you've done enough! Just want to report back that I did and it worked great! Guess I need to obsess over details less.
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May 7, 2016 21:19
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EngineerJoe posted:I'm working from home Monday and will attempt to look at the little black dot from time to time with my telescope. I'm not getting up early enough to see it first move in front of the sun but I'll try to see it leave. I'm getting up to start watching/recording, but from my yard the eastern horizon is blocked by houses/trees up to about 25 degrees, so I don't think I'm going to be able to see the beginning.
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May 7, 2016 21:48
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GutBomb posted:What camera are you using? Those are great and I hope to get some similar pictures with my 8" dob this summer. I used a Logitech C525 webcam that I modified the same way this person did, but with an old film canister with the bottom removed instead of an eyepiece barrel. https://sites.google.com/site/wjnastronomy/equipment/webcam-c525 For some reason sticking a webcam with the lens removed prime focus in the eyepiece slot has always gotten me a high magnification without a barlow lens. It did with my old refractor too. Keep in mind that these are stacked from video frames and not single exposures. Some of them are only stacked from like 15 frames though.
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May 8, 2016 01:37
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Vladimir Poutine posted:I used a Logitech C525 webcam that I modified the same way this person did, but with an old film canister with the bottom removed instead of an eyepiece barrel. Awesome. I have a celestron neximage 5 ( http://www.celestron.com/browse-shop/astronomy/astroimaging-cameras/neximage-5-solar-system-imager-(5mp) ) and it's pretty similar to a modified webcam. Looking forward to getting results close to yours.
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May 8, 2016 01:50
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I had just enough holes in the clouds to get a shot in. Telescope is under a tarp in case the rain and clouds let up, but not too hopeful.
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May 9, 2016 17:30
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Very nice shot! I got a few with my DSLR but my best shot came from my phone. I guess it had the advantage of looking thorough an eye piece. Is your filter orange or is that done in post?
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May 9, 2016 20:21
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Both of those are pretty nice! I'm stuck at work and it is cloudy here anyway.
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May 9, 2016 20:38
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Nice shots! It ended up being cloudy and rainy here so I couldn't do anything.
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May 9, 2016 20:44
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EngineerJoe posted:Very nice shot! I got a few with my DSLR but my best shot came from my phone. I guess it had the advantage of looking thorough an eye piece. Is your filter orange or is that done in post? No, it was just a plain glass solar mirror. The Sun's always looked very yellow-orange through it, today was just really orange on account of all the humidity in the air I think. I got lucky, the clouds went away right before it ended so I got a nice picture at 3rd contact. 
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May 9, 2016 21:31
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I've been asked by my aunt to help find a telescope for a birthday present for my turning 6 year old nephew. Looking at about a $350 price range. I've got my 8" dob so I know the basics and all of that, not so sure about goto mounts thought. I'm pretty sure at that age, a goto system is better so the kid does not get frustrated(even I get frustrated looking for stuff with my telescope at 41). Any suggestions for a decent setup? I saw this one that looked okay http://www.meade.com/products/telescopes/etx/etx80-observer.html
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May 26, 2016 17:33
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That seems like a lot of telescope for a 6 year old? Maybe look for a tabletop telescope: http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/TableTop-Telescopes/pc/1/416.uts
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May 26, 2016 18:21
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I think 6 is too young for a telescope. Stick with binos or maybe a correct image spotting scope.
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May 26, 2016 22:52
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Are there any New England guys in here? I'm moving to Utah and I'm trying to reduce the amount of stuff I'm taking with me so the 8" dob is one of the first things to go. Obviously I don't want to ship it so eBay is pretty much out, and I've kept an eye on Craigslist and keep seeing the same scopes for sale so no one is using Craigslist to buy scopes. I've got an XT8 with a lot of accessories. Is there a good message board our club or something in the New England area where I might find interested parties to buy it? Also if there is some interest in here by New England goons I can whip up an SA mart thread.
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May 27, 2016 00:04
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You can try astromart or the cloudy nights classifieds. I have sold and bought things on both and its been crazy smooth. Also maybe you could strip all the accessories off, sell the base XT8 for cheap and just buy another XT8 or Zhumell 8" when you move?
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May 27, 2016 00:10
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I do have a nexstar 4SE that I'll be taking with me, because it's nice and compact and I find myself using that one more often because the XT8 is too cumbersome to bring in and out often.
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May 27, 2016 00:38
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Speaking of that, what are people's recommendations for travel/grab-and-go scopes? I was looking at the OneSky.
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May 27, 2016 01:44
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I went ahead and placed an ad if anyone here is interested. http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=919167
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May 27, 2016 01:58
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hannibal posted:Speaking of that, what are people's recommendations for travel/grab-and-go scopes? I was looking at the OneSky. Celestron c90 is incredibly portable and quite cheap.
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May 27, 2016 08:21
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So I decided to try and look at planets today. Pulled out the best optic I have, a lovely Simmons spotting scope that does 20-60x with a 60mm objective. Attached it to a cheap tripod and the whole thing wobbled in the gentle breeze. I still think I managed to see jupiter and mars, as both resolved as disks and one had what looked like three small "stars" around it. Can someone confirm the position of the Galilean moons? I think I saw two on the left and one on the right. I need something better than this set up, methinks.
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Jun 3, 2016 06:56
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PerrineClostermann posted:So I decided to try and look at planets today. Pulled out the best optic I have, a lovely Simmons spotting scope that does 20-60x with a 60mm objective. Attached it to a cheap tripod and the whole thing wobbled in the gentle breeze. I still think I managed to see jupiter and mars, as both resolved as disks and one had what looked like three small "stars" around it. Can someone confirm the position of the Galilean moons? I think I saw two on the left and one on the right. http://www.shallowsky.com/jupiter/
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Jun 5, 2016 11:57
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PerrineClostermann posted:So I decided to try and look at planets today. Pulled out the best optic I have, a lovely Simmons spotting scope that does 20-60x with a 60mm objective. Attached it to a cheap tripod and the whole thing wobbled in the gentle breeze. I still think I managed to see jupiter and mars, as both resolved as disks and one had what looked like three small "stars" around it. Can someone confirm the position of the Galilean moons? I think I saw two on the left and one on the right. Jupiter's moons move quite fast so it really depends on the time. The giveaway is that they form a very straight line, and you can normally make out two bands on jupiter itself.
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Jun 5, 2016 16:07
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Yeah, just enter the time you looked at Jupiter in any of those websites that tell you the position of the Galilean moons and it'll tell you, but you have to be accurate to within an hour or so. They'll noticeably move around over the course of an evening.
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Jun 5, 2016 16:13
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The moons of Jupiter are super bright and can definitely be seen with good Binos. Even a mediocre telescope will make them pop out as obviously not just background stars.
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Jun 5, 2016 18:19
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Hell, I was taking pictures of the Venus - Jupiter conjunction last year (no telescope, just a camera lens), and the 4 Galilean moons were extremely clear, surprisingly so.
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Jun 5, 2016 18:37
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| # ? May 15, 2024 03:00 |
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I know it's not really amateur astronomy, but if y'all didn't know it was happening, there's a chance to help out some astronomers do some peeping on one of the weirdest happenings we've seen in a while https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/608159144/the-most-mysterious-star-in-the-galaxy/description There's just over a week to go in the funding phase and I'd love for it to see full funding. KIC 8462852 Is a cool star to look at, and it'd be a shame if we had to wait however long before they got government funding to continue on.
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Jun 9, 2016 07:28
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