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Hey astrogoons. This might seem a rather mundane question, but how does temperature effect your observation sessions, and how does it effect the equipment? I know there's less turbulance in colder weather, but that's about it. I've been thinking of getting back into astronomy (used to do it when I was a kid) since it'd be a good winter hobby (I live in Alaska, so it's dark all drat day in the winter). edit: I love technology! I've discovered that I can comfortably operate a telescope remotely from the comfort of my computer so I don't have to freeze to death. cerror fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Sep 16, 2009 |
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Sep 16, 2009 20:09
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:01 |
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Oh! I bet I could get some nice aurora borealis pics without even needing a scope. That stuff is constantly shifting around and changing so long exposure shots might look pretty interesting. 
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Sep 16, 2009 20:17
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Hi all! Got my fancy new Meade DS-2130 yesterday and took it out for a test run tonight. There were a few clouds around, plus trees, the house, etc. to block my view, but I did get some really nice views of a few nebulas and galaxies. Space totally owns. I think I'm going to blow my PFD this year on a fancy camera to do some astrophotography. 
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Sep 20, 2009 07:51
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Hey astrogoons, I have a dumb question. To calibrate my robotic mount, I'm supposed to point it north and then run it through its calibration routine. Celestial north from my location is about 19 degrees to the west of magnetic north. So, to set it up, I'd just find magnetic north with my compass and then turn the scope left until the compass reads 19 degrees to the east, right?
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Oct 5, 2009 18:43
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Jekub posted:I'm sure there will be plenty of good advice online if your manual isn't clear, let us know when scope and mount it is. It's a Meade DS-2130LNT with the motorized mount that it came with. The manual just said to make sure it's pointed north before running the computer through its calibration routine. Your advice about finding polaris sounds like it's probably the easiest way to go about it without monkeying around with a compass. I feel kind of silly for not thinking of that.  On another note, it's been overcast for days, but it's crystal clear out this morning, so hopefully the weather stays nice so I can look at some stuff tonight (probably mostly just the moon).
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Oct 6, 2009 16:08
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Jekub posted:I found this image for another discussion, figured people in here would be interested to, it puts the Moon and Andromeda in the same frame at same scale. Giving you a good idea of just how large the Andromeda galaxy is relative to the night sky. Holy crap! That's huge! I'll definitely try to spot that if the light pollution from the moon isn't too bad.
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Oct 6, 2009 18:08
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That's alright. The moon is still pretty drat awesome to look at in detail. Also, since solar activity seems to be pretty minimal maybe that drat aurora borealis will leave me alone this winter.
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Oct 6, 2009 20:15
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Well, finally had the first clear night in 2 weeks. Got out my shiney new telescope and saw a few galaxies and nebula. Unfortunately, the light from the houses in the neighborhood and the passing cars kept screwing up my view. I could probably get a better view of those galaxies if I had a camera that'd do long exposure though. M31 looked pretty awesome without one though. 
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Oct 13, 2009 07:02
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Aligning the autostar system is also pretty easy after the first time. It slewed over to align on Capella and I'm like, "Okay, it must be that bright star right there, I'll see if I can find it in the scope with a 25mm lens." So I slew around on slow-mode a bit looking for it. There were so many stars that I wasn't sure which one it was, then into view comes, "BLARGH!?! I'm a motherfuckin' star, bitch!" Must of been the right one.  edit: oh hey, it's actually 4 stars in 2 binary pairs. 
cerror fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Oct 13, 2009 |
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Oct 13, 2009 16:23
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My Meade Deep Sky Imager Pro II just arrived! Now I just have to wait for the clouds to go away.
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Oct 15, 2009 02:56
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blugu64 posted:I think I saw andromeda in my galileoscope last night. Hard to find, and it was just a gray-ish mass. Need more power I guess. Also while gawking at pleiades a meteor flew across my field of view. Like others mentioned, it's just a matter of how much light your scope is collecting. With my 5" reflector Andromeda is pretty obvious, though I don't get much detail. A series of long exposures with a camera though, and voila!
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Nov 13, 2009 19:39
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I made this animation with my Meade DSI. Unfortunately it was so drat cold that condensation became ice and screwed up my view. According to autostar the temp of the camera was hovering around -9C. Anyway, here's my blurry timelapse of the moon moving across the field of view at 1 frame per second. 
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Jan 21, 2010 06:50
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:01 |
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I spotted a neat thing last night. I was standing outside having a smoke and noticed a really bright object that reminded me of Jupiter. However, it wasn't where Jupiter normally is. Then it faded a bit to look more like a star, and I noticed that it was moving. It was moving pretty fast, in fact! It was in view for about a minute before disappearing behind the trees. After doing some research, it turns out that I saw the second stage of an Ariane 42P rocket. 
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Mar 12, 2012 21:51
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