tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-11-22:/Stumbling through my first steps in back yard astronomy.MokoFeed2009-11-22T00:25:42+01:00tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-08-22:/2009/08/22/no-news-is-6797024/wowbagger2009-08-22T22:52:51+02:002009-08-22T22:52:51+02:00 <p>Sort of proof that I'm a bit of a slacker I'm afraid. I did take a shot last Sunday, the Sun was out, getting a little low to offer the best viewing but I've nothing to show. I was distracted for a large part of last week for reasons I won't go into here and I've been trying to tidy the area I set my telescope of all the wood I have accumulated. The reason I don't have anything to show from last weekend was that the batteries died. Literally at the point that I had completed the alignment, entered date, time lat & long, yada, yada, got it into the Solar tracking mode, went back in to get the filter and camera and something to weigh down the tripod and when I come out all is quiet, the usual faint whirr of the motor tracking the telescope is absent and when I check the handset the the display is dead. I know it's not a real excuse, but by the time the batteries had been recharged the Sun was far too low. I suppose that a serious astronomer would have a spare set of batteries ready to go, but, as we know, I don't come into the 'serious' category and 8 spares is a lot to keep lying around and away from the kids who would commandeer them unless they were watched 24/7! Forecast not good for the next couple of days but hoping to have something to show before next weekend. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/08/22/no-news-is-6797024/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-08-16:/2009/08/16/finally-6736873/wowbagger2009-08-16T14:40:29+02:002009-08-16T14:40:29+02:00 <p>My man has come through with the couple of bits and bobs for the telescope, a little spacer for the new camera mount and a holder for Baader Solar Safety Film which will allow me to use the full aperture for viewing the sun.</p> <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/VEjEbkWFhvi3F7k413QubQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_D6yjxAi1t_0/SogD4lZhsII/AAAAAAAACVc/H6fDYzbhGI4/s400/IMG_2226.JPG"></a> From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/peterfmarsh/AstroKit?feat=embedwebsite">Astro Kit</a> <p>I expected no less, but it's a beautifully finished piece of beech I think, two pieces held together with 6 brass screws to trap the filter material. It was a bit of a delicate process getting the the filter material in place and one of the screws put a little tension into the film but not enough to worry about a tear. The diameter is over size by about 4mm, I may put some sticky buds on the inside surface to take up the slack but I'm not sure it's worth it. The only thing I would like differently, and it my fault that it's not, is the depth. There is no reason for it to fall off in normal use but considering the consequences I will have to tape it in place to ensure that unexpected knocks from dogs, kids or earthquakes don't result in it coming off the telescope.</p> <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZF8LAjsrROXB1q7zHrdrbQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_D6yjxAi1t_0/SogD6uPFfGI/AAAAAAAACVs/Lkpy1wzxiHA/s400/IMG_2228.JPG"></a> From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/peterfmarsh/AstroKit?feat=embedwebsite">Astro Kit</a> <p>This is the spacer, and the mount, it a little bit of walnut, a really snug fit with the recess so that it doesn't drop out when the pressure is taken off but doesn't interfere with the operation of the mount.</p> <p>Thank you Mark! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/08/16/finally-6736873/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-08-12:/2009/08/12/the-perseids-6706499/wowbagger2009-08-12T12:09:25+02:002009-08-12T12:09:25+02:00 <p>I was pretty grateful that the cloud rolled up about 3 a.m. coming in from the north east, it looked pretty solid and signalled an end to craning my neck looking for something which only appeared very infrequently. I wasn't as organised as sometimes so I wasn't lying out there for long spells but went out about 5 times from about 10.30 for a total of 20-25 mins and only saw 2 short duration meteors. The moon may have had an impact on how many were visible but I'm not too sure this was the case, I didn't keep having the 'was that one?' feeling as if there were many hovering around the edge of visibility. My night vision wasn't helped by the farmers who kept rolling past with headlights and flashing yellow lights on their tractors rolling past at regular intervals, working late getting their crops in before today's rain. </p> <p>It looks like that will be it for me this week, the forecast is for solid cloud for the rest of the week. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/08/12/the-perseids-6706499/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-08-11:/2009/08/11/starry-night-6698258/wowbagger2009-08-11T12:34:22+02:002009-08-11T16:05:16+02:00 <p>Managed to find the email with the download link and licence number for Starry Night Digital Download 6. I was a little apprehensive as I couldn't remember if this had been one of those pieces of software that they expect you to pay a fee solely to keep the download link active for future downloads, but it all OK and I have installed it on the laptop. It was a worryingly slow process with nothing on screen for many minutes between certain parts of the install and just HDD activity to suggest something was still going on.</p> <p>Between the install and the setup once the program was in, the whole deal must have taken over two hours. I also, reluctantly, uninstalled Carina Software's Voyager as I guess there's not going to be anything doing in the absence of any contact from them. I read somewhere that Starry Night could be quite demanding on processor resources but it seems to want no more than 12-15% of CPU resources which I think, with everything else shut down, except Word to keep some notes in, should give me a couple of hours outside on the battery. Now I've had chance to have a look at it, it would suggest that it was not Mars that's near to the moon right now (never said I was Galileo!) but Jupiter(?). I need to get out more! Late at night, when it's dark, with a telescope.</p> <p>I see Starry Night Pro claims to be able to drive 'most popular computerised telescopes', if anyone is using this software with a Celestron NexStar 130 SLT I would love to hear of their experiences?</p> <p>Since the last time I was out my next door neighbour has hacked the Leylandii on our border, bring them down from close on 30' down to a more astronomy friendly 8-10', giving me a lower horizon to WNW. Every little helps. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/08/11/starry-night-6698258/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-08-10:/2009/08/10/not-too-much-longer-6690846/wowbagger2009-08-10T12:33:07+02:002009-08-11T00:34:38+02:00 <p>Spoke with my woodworking friend over the weekend and he has this coming week off so expects to bring over the couple of bits he promised me so it will soon be time to get back in the saddle, not that the weather has been very encouraging in recent times. </p> <p>Since I wiped the HDD in the desktop and the laptop also went back for a new HDD not so long ago, I don't have any planetarium software on either machine. I should be able to resurrect my copy of Starry Night but need to decide which machine to put it on as I think the licence is just for the one machine. I also need to create another observing log and I think that in the future I will email it to myself from time to time so that a copy of some sort is kept on the IMAP server. I see Mars(?) looks to be somewhere near the moon at present and if they are getting closer might make a good target for my first photography project if the daytime weather doesn't give me a look at the sun. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/08/10/not-too-much-longer-6690846/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-07-29:/2009/07/29/carina-software-again-6611180/wowbagger2009-07-29T14:01:55+02:002009-07-29T14:01:55+02:00 <p>No more to report, still no reply to my email, but I did note that the number of hits on this blog went up considerably after I posted about Carina, but no one has commented about what they think of Carina, scam, screw up, whether their software is any good or not? I would like to hear if anyone has any thoughts on them as their Voyager package looks to offer some facilities I would like to make use of. Please let me know if you have any views. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/07/29/carina-software-again-6611180/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-07-24:/2009/07/24/carina-software-scam-artists-6578949/wowbagger2009-07-24T10:54:22+02:002009-07-24T10:54:22+02:00 <p>Or just a marketing ploy that got ludicrously out of hand? Unsurprisingly they haven't troubled themselves to reply to my email so I have no more information than I had earlier in the week. It may be a little unfair to call it a scam as there is a product within the deal which looks very good but the bottom line is that I wasted 6+ hours to get hold of this product and it would appear that there was never any prospect of getting it for the price the offer claimed. I was on the site by about 13.00 US Eastern time, so just after half way through the day and, effectively, the offer had been pulled, without any indication to that effect, which has many of the hallmarks of a scam.</p> <p>If they had come back to me and said, in so many words, 'we screwed up', well that would have been fair enough, this sort of thing happens, or if the website had indicated that the offer had been closed due to the unexpected level of demand, then I wouldn't have gone through the tortuous download and install. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/07/24/carina-software-scam-artists-6578949/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-07-21:/2009/07/21/solar-eclipse-ustream-live-feed-6560314/wowbagger2009-07-21T14:31:12+02:002009-07-22T02:23:32+02:00 <p>Longest duration Solar Eclipse until 2132 will commence 00.55 GMT 22 July, the feed is from Guwahati, India. Struggling to find exactly what time the feed goes live, it gives time as PST but I think it will kick off 00.15 GMT.</p> <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/">Video streaming by Ustream</a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/07/21/solar-eclipse-ustream-live-feed-6560314/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-07-21:/2009/07/21/carina-software-6559137/wowbagger2009-07-21T11:04:02+02:002009-07-21T11:04:02+02:00 <p>Not sure what happened with Carina yesterday? Would like to hear if anyone successfully got hold of the software on offer? I managed to get a copy of Voyager downloaded about midnight yesterday, after two hours I left it still unpacking and went to bed, completed the installation this morning but the purchase option via the website is still unavailable and there is no purchase option within the install process or when you run the program. So as far as I can see there was no option to get the software at the offer price from some time before I went on to their site around 16.00 yesterday afternoon, meaning that I wasted 6+ hours trying to get this software without any possibility of getting it at the offer price. I have emailed Carina along these lines saying 'WTF', in so many words and waiting to hear back. Not holding my breath. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/07/21/carina-software-6559137/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-07-20:/2009/07/20/carina-software-6555648/wowbagger2009-07-20T20:37:50+02:002009-07-20T20:37:50+02:00 <p>They seem to have ironed out there hosting problems and downloads are available again, though mine is progressing very slowly with the 600Mb file projected to take another 4 hours at the present rate! </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/07/20/carina-software-6555648/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-07-20:/2009/07/20/carina-software-6554461/wowbagger2009-07-20T17:50:11+02:002009-07-20T17:50:11+02:00 <p>Probably a bit late but Carina Software are giving away some of their products today and offering others for 1c, got a few problems with the demand at the moment but might be worth a look.</p> <p><a href="http://www.carinasoft.com/index.html">http://www.carinasoft.com/index.html</a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/07/20/carina-software-6554461/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-07-13:/2009/07/13/frustrated-6504235/wowbagger2009-07-13T13:41:34+02:002009-07-13T13:41:34+02:00 <p>I'm still waiting for friend to come back to me with the filter holder. Starting to wonder if he hasn't started again from scratch, I wouldn't put it past him, I know he'll be really annoyed at not having it right first time. I don't like to pester him but it's been a month since I last heard from him and I have a lot of time on my hands still and want to be doing things! I suppose I should be doing things any way, my already limited knowledge of the night must be slipping away but I had decided on a course of action and I'm reluctant to give it up.</p> <p>Had another poke around for my observing log on my reconstituted desktop PC and backups but still can't find it, which continues to grate, but need to be doing something so I think I will have to email my woodworking friend and prod him as subtly as I can. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/07/13/frustrated-6504235/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-05-25:/2009/05/25/oh-dear-6177252/wowbagger2009-05-25T23:09:05+02:002009-05-25T23:09:05+02:00 <p>Not a lot going on at the moment. I have lost my observing log, which ticked me off considerably, I had a copy on the laptop, the laptop died, new HDD was part of the repair, so that copy disappeared and the backup of the desktop I did before reinstalling Vista does not seem to have included the observing log, I have no idea why not.</p> <p>I though I was going to be back in business when my woodworking friend came over this evening with the filter mount. He is one of my very best friends and is pretty anal about detail in just about everything he does so the last thing I expected was for it not to fit. It didn't fit. I had to get the tape out to check the measurement as I was far more ready to believe I had given him the wrong size than that he had made a mistake, but it was true, he had machined it to about 160mm and I had told him 162mm. How awkward was that?? There is enough spare wood to open it out a little more but I don't see him that often and he's had to take it away again so there is no telling when I will get it back. The bottom line is that it will save me about £70 so I will just have to grin and bear it. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/05/25/oh-dear-6177252/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-05-01:/2009/05/01/mercury-revealed-6039798/wowbagger2009-05-01T10:56:59+02:002009-05-01T10:56:59+02:00 <p>NASA have released images from the MESSENGER mission showing previously unseen detail.</p> <p><a href="http://www.labspaces.net/97309/Multispectral_images_reveal_origin_and_evolution_of_planet_Mercury">http://www.labspaces.net/97309/Multispectral_images_reveal_origin_and_evolution_of_planet_Mercury</a></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/05/01/mercury-revealed-6039798/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-04-24:/2009/04/24/time-management-6002538/wowbagger2009-04-24T23:34:32+02:002009-04-24T23:34:32+02:00 <p>More accurately, the lack of it. I seem to remember management types banging on about this concept in an earlier life, I also remember thinking what a bunch of twats they all were but maybe if I taken a little more notice I might, with seemingly all the time I have on my hands right now, have got out, since my job went tits, and had a look at the sky by now. But it hasn't happened. I know that this is in large part due to the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the baseball being on every night but I'm also waiting on my woodworking friend to let me know what he might be able to do by way of a mount for the safety film for my solar observing and I do have a fair bit to do to get organised in my current circumstances. I really want to get a decent grip on the photography side of things and I feel that will require a number of daylight sessions and that means, most of the time, all there is to look at is the Sun and I'm not ready to go with that right now. I will start a little woodworking of my own to produce a spacer to go in the Microstage II to make the clamp position the camera about half an inch further to the right which should then allow me to use it satisfactorily. Metals, glass, electronics, yes; didn't expect there to be wood involved quite so much though.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/24/time-management-6002538/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-04-07:/2009/04/07/not-quite-as-anticipated-5902240/wowbagger2009-04-07T02:05:57+02:002009-04-07T02:05:57+02:00 <p>I did get to do my bit for the ‘100 Hours of Astronomy’ thought I’ve little to show for it. Saw a little of ‘Around the World in 80 Telescopes’, before the laptop went ‘phut’ and got the whole panoply of kit out Saturday afternoon, planning to start with the Sun and go through into the evening. The weather put paid to the evening and the new kit failed to deliver in the afternoon, every last bit of it. </p> <p>I got lined up on the Sun without too much squinting and had in sync to track the Sun as it moved around, and it was nigh on perfect. I focussed on the limb and placed it in the middle of the field using the Meade 15mm and x2 Barlow and it held it absolutely spot on for over two hours, but that was the only successful element of the whole afternoon. Once I was lined up I put the UV-IR Cut filter in, no visible change to the image at the eyepiece, which didn’t surprise me too much, and then added the Solar Continuum filter and everything when green, not just a tint but as green as a very green thing indeed and more significantly, no detail whatsoever. So I thought I would fire up the little Cannon and take some shots and see if Photoshop could find anything that the Mk1 eyeball was missing. Nothing doing. The Cannon has the threaded tripod mount at the extreme left end and the Microstage does not allow the camera to be moved far enough to the left to place the lens at the eyepiece. Also the knurled screw which secures the camera to the Microstage is so short it barely bites with the cable release wrapped around the camera, tilting it up at the right hand end. So no photos to examine.</p> <p>I think I can modify the mount where it grips the eyepiece, forcing the pivoting arm further to the left and allowing the lens to be brought to the eyepiece. I was very disappointed with the Solar Continuum filter but when I got to the PC and emailed Baader, a possible cause of the problem occurred to me and I put it to the people at Baader and they have confirmed that this is the case. I do my solar observing through a 45mm cut out in the full 130mm end cover, backed by Baader’s Astro Solar Safety Film and it occurred to me that this maybe fine for most purposes but with the addition of the filter the light transmission may not be enough to show the detail which the filter should pick out. In a rather prissy reply from Baader, telling me to consult the supplier in future about such matters, they advised that the 45mm aperture may be enough to see sunspots, but that’s all, and there aren’t any at the moment as we are in a very quiet solar minimum, but that I would need the full aperture to be able to see any granulation. I have a very good friend who is a bit of a wizard on the woodworking and I think I will have to challenge him to produce me a couple of 130mm+ hoops to trap a layer of the Safety Film so that I can use the full aperture. As for the cable release I can’t see any alternative but to wrap it around the platform as well as the camera in order to get a secure fixing to the mount, I think there is enough length available but haven’t tried it yet.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/07/not-quite-as-anticipated-5902240/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-04-05:/2009/04/05/dead-laptop-5891451/wowbagger2009-04-05T03:30:08+02:002009-04-05T03:30:08+02:00 <p>Things not going well recently, had a few problems with a job application towards the end of the week due to email issues on my laptop, but it won’t be an issue again for a while as the laptop is now dead. Got up with me tea tray on my lap with the power cord wrapped around my leg and as I tried to shake it free my coffee cup slipped of the tray and smacked down on the laptop, since then not a peep out of it, not even a light to show the power cord is plugged in. I’m thinking the two may not be unconnected? So it’s away to Comet, might get it back in about 2-3 weeks. Bugger. Up until then I had been having a lovely time watching the ‘Around the World in 80 Telescopes’ webcast. Got a little grief at Comet, they agreed to send it off to be checked out and suggested that it might be swapped if too badly damaged to repair; fair enough but I remembered I hadn’t taken out the extra 2Gb of memory and asked for a screwdriver to remove the panel and take it out, at which point somebody chirps up, ‘if you’ve added memory it might invalidate the insurance’. Say what!! By the time she’d wandered five steps to go and consult with her manager, I’d already constructed the first dozen lines to Comet Customer Service. Anyway it seemed to blow over and it’s away to the tender care of whoever does the repair and should be back no later than 24rh April.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/05/dead-laptop-5891451/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-04-03:/2009/04/03/latest-kit-5885708/wowbagger2009-04-03T21:44:36+02:002009-04-03T21:44:36+02:00 <p>As indicated in previous post, I had a bit of pre-unemployment splurge at Sherwoods and got a couple of filters and a couple of bits for the camera. I need to know if I can make the photography thing work with the camera I have, so I got a Hama cable release, which I have tried inside and it seems to work though it’s not ideal. The strap wraps around the case of the camera, placing the plunger built into the strap over the shutter release. The motion in the plunger built into the strap is considerably less than the motion which can be delivered by the sheathed cable which screws into it and due to the stiffness in the strap, the built in plunger does not sit in contact with the shutter release. I was concerned that the movement available was not going to be sufficient to trigger the shutter, but it does, but it must be a close run thing and will need to be put in place quite precisely. When it is in place the strap obscures all the camera controls so the shooting method to be used needs to be set up before putting the cable release on. The Baader Microstage II looks and feels quite sturdy and offers all the adjustment of my current mount, with the addition of the ability to rotate the camera away from the eyepiece to allow visual aiming without needing to realign everything to find the sweet spot again.</p> <p>I also got the Baader Solar Continuum filter I’d been hankering for since the first time I look at Sun and jumped the UV-IR Cut filter up the wish list and got one of those too. Not used any of the kit in observing conditions yet and the weather forecast suggests that Sunday will be the first opportunity to give it a try.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/03/latest-kit-5885708/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-04-02:/2009/04/02/sherwoods-5879871/wowbagger2009-04-02T20:50:39+02:002009-04-02T20:50:39+02:00 <p><a href="http://www.sherwoods-photo.com/index.htm">http://www.sherwoods-photo.com/index.htm</a></p> <p>Has a final splurge before times of stringency took over completely and ordered some stuff from the above company. Not had chance to try any of the kit yet but as it was all received in good order, whatever deficiencies may crop up later won’t be down to Sherwoods. I tried to order the items via their website on Sunday but that didn’t work out too well. It took me a while to find the various items I was looking for, I had checked that they had all the items I was looking for previously, and this was the main reason for ordering from them. It may well have been over an hour before checking out and I had been doing other things though the page had remained open but when I went to ‘View Basket’, there was nothing in there so I decided I would ring them on Monday to place the order. There was no facility, as far as I got with the order, to create an account to retain order data and there is no login link on the site. Once you click ‘View Basket’, you get bumped over to a third party site called Romancart.com, whom I have never heard of, without any indication that this is happening, as far as I got, other than in the web address bar. I’m sure this is not an uncommon practice amongst small businesses with a web presence and wanting to have an order fulfilment capability but I would have liked to have had a clear indication that I was being transferred to a third party.</p> <p>When I phoned on Monday I was greeted by an unenthusiastic operator who took the order efficiently enough but certainly didn’t seem interested in engaging me in conversation which may have led to further sales. I was also informed that, as I ordered by phone, I could not receive confirmation of despatch by email which I didn’t feel was particularly customer friendly. I did learn that the order would be despatched via Royal Mail Special Delivery for delivery Thursday or Friday so I decided to ring them again on Wednesday to check on progress. When I made the call I think I spoke to the same guy who quickly confirmed that the order was being despatched via City Link and came up with the tracking reference. The items arrived at 9.30 this morning within the expected timescale, all the items were there and correct.</p> <p>The bottom line is that the stuff turned up on time, the prices were reasonable though not exciting and the postage was free. The telephone contact was perfunctory and I didn’t get to see how well things worked via their online offering. I would be happy to use them in the future but it would be price or availability that would drive me there and my preference for most transactions, be it web, telephone or face to face, remains Green Witch.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/02/sherwoods-5879871/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-04-02:/2009/04/02/100-hours-of-astronomy-on-twitter-5878657/wowbagger2009-04-02T16:52:43+02:002009-04-02T16:52:43+02:00 <p>The 'Around the World in 80 Telescopes' event can also be followed on<br> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/telescopecast" title="twitter_logo_header"><img src="http://data5.blog.de/media/648/3374648_81d5be17f2_t.png" alt="twitter_logo_header" vspace="5" hspace="5"></a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/02/100-hours-of-astronomy-on-twitter-5878657/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-04-02:/2009/04/02/100-hours-of-astronomy-on-ustream-5878445/wowbagger2009-04-02T16:10:14+02:002009-07-20T18:52:28+02:00 <p>Many of the events incorporated in the 100 Hours of Astronomy event are being streamed. Seems to be a little high brow and wordy right now but other events, such as 'Around the World in 80 Telescopes' and '24 Hour Star Party' may be a little more accessible.</p> <a href="http://www.ustream.tv/">Live TV by Ustream</a> </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/04/02/100-hours-of-astronomy-on-ustream-5878445/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-03-30:/2009/03/30/itunes-u-5860987/wowbagger2009-03-30T19:30:29+02:002009-03-30T19:30:29+02:00 <p>If anyone uses iTunes for any reason you may want to have a look at something called iTunes U. A number of academic institutions have put up podcasts on various topics. So far I have only checked the listings for the OU and there are video podcasts on there for Astronomy and Planetary Science. They seem to range from 2 to 10 minutes in length and transcripts are available on the site also. About 15 files currently uploaded at present but hopefully this resource will grow over time. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/30/itunes-u-5860987/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-03-27:/2009/03/27/100-hours-of-astronomy-5844629/wowbagger2009-03-27T23:08:52+01:002009-04-02T16:11:49+02:00 <p>100 Hours of Astronomy is one of the cornerstone projects of the International Year of Astronomy and runs from 2nd-5th April.</p> <p><a href="http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/">http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/</a></p> <p>Details of the various events can be found at the above site, including Around the World in 80 Telescopes, 24 Hour Global Star Party and Sun Day. A little disappointed to find from the site that there is nothing going on that’s very local to me as it seems to me that the 24 Hour Global Star Party was designed to be the biggest of the outreach efforts yet I have seen very little in the general media promoting this event. There are two events reasonably near, at Letchworth and Levington, but on the 100 Hours site the posting does not indicate that anyone outside of the members of the organising group are invited. Still, that’s just my neck of the woods and if anyone has any inkling towards astronomy I would urge them to have a look at the site and see if there is anything in their neighbourhood as I’m sure many of the events will welcome all comers.</p> <p>I aim to be out as much as possible over the four days and hope to have my solar filter by that time and can attempt take more photos which should look a little more interesting, though having looked into solar photography a little more, it seems it’s not quite as simple as just the solar filter. I saw somewhere that in addition to the Solar Continuum Filter, a UV-IR cut filter was recommended. I think that is towards the bottom of the wish list currently. I When I was looking for the filter I found a different camera mount which I might buy; a Baader Microstage II, which was what I was originally looking for when I got my current mount. The mount operates on a click stop mechanism and can be swung out of the way, without dismounting, for visual aiming. An additional benefit is that it will accommodate my new 2” eyepiece as well as the 1.25” eyepieces. This same outlet also has a cable release for the camera, at £15.99, but I have seen a couple of reviews which claim these devices do not offer a great deal of improvement in stability and are difficult to retain in place around the camera but the only alternative I can see is a new camera with a threaded shutter release and that’s even further down the wish list than the UV-IR Cut filter.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/27/100-hours-of-astronomy-5844629/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-03-21:/2009/03/21/saturn-5804342/wowbagger2009-03-21T23:35:34+01:002009-03-21T23:35:34+01:00 <p>During my three hour marathon yesterday evening, I must have spent at least an hour trying to get some shots of Saturn and these are just about all I got. I took 18 shots all told, half of them show nothing at all and of the remaining nine, eight of them look very similar to this one;</p> <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/NltHrMOd_tYVUeSWL5dF8Q?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_D6yjxAi1t_0/ScVi5XJiy6I/AAAAAAAAAh8/P7DN6m79_y0/s400/IMG_1526%20blog%20crop.jpg"></a> From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/peterfmarsh/AstronomyBlogMedia?feat=embedwebsite">Astronomy Blog Media</a> <p>And I have just the one here where the setup was reasonably stable. </p> <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/VvL1zouMvKNqx9RHLA9amg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_D6yjxAi1t_0/ScVi6D4P3PI/AAAAAAAAAiE/eXBM9l6aOOo/s400/IMG_1530%20blog%20crop.jpg"></a> From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/peterfmarsh/AstronomyBlogMedia?feat=embedwebsite">Astronomy Blog Media</a> <p>Both were taken on a 10 sec delay, 1 sec exposure at ISO800. I thought I had set the ISO to ‘HI’ though I don’t know what effect that has, I don’t see how it is different to setting it to the fastest setting of ISO1600? Maybe it had reset itself, as it has a habit of doing, to ‘AUTO’. The aperture and focal length differ, the top one being aperture 5.0 and focal length 18.4mm and the bottom aperture 2.6 and focal length 5.8mm but I don’t recall making any changes and the shooting conditions did not change. The bottom image was one in the middle of the sequence so I have no idea why it is so much better than all the others which show so much oscillation.</p> <p>It’s doesn’t appear quite so obvious here as when I look at the images in Photoshop, but there are some chromatic effects from top to bottom of the image of Saturn and I’m not sure why this is, whether eyepiece or camera.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/21/saturn-5804342/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-03-21:/2009/03/21/the-pink-smudge-5803815/wowbagger2009-03-21T21:30:43+01:002009-03-21T21:30:43+01:00 <p>Well here it is, the clump of pinkish pixels which caused me so much excitement last weekend. It’s still a bit of mystery to me, though it’s certainly not something on the Sun. It doesn’t appear in the best image I have of the Sun, uploaded here.</p> <p><a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/q__2mTh8anx9Kpty7PSTXA?feat=directlink">http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/q__2mTh8anx9Kpty7PSTXA?feat=directlink</a></p> <p>And it’s not there in the Venus images from the previous week and it’s not there in subsequent shots taken this weekend.</p> <p>There are still no sunspots at the moment but I would still like to get the Solar Continuum filter to pick out the granularity but at £60 I might just wait until there are more active areas before lashing out.</p> <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/aQkiY2cQLw_3YXZlDBaF4A?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_D6yjxAi1t_0/ScVFMpP63NI/AAAAAAAAAg4/rdal276qF2A/s400/IMG_1419%20blog.jpg"></a> From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/peterfmarsh/AstronomyBlogMedia?feat=embedwebsite">Astronomy Blog Media</a> <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/lh/photo/lt3GMU_PSWQlhv1-kSZLjQ?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_D6yjxAi1t_0/ScVGQxUxcQI/AAAAAAAAAhY/PACksVlXlcM/s800/IMG_1419%20blog%20crop.jpg"></a> From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/peterfmarsh/AstronomyBlogMedia?feat=embedwebsite">Astronomy Blog Media</a> <p>Not very impressive in these images, but in Photoshop they stand out from the rest of the image pixels very noticeably. </p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/21/the-pink-smudge-5803815/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-03-21:/2009/03/21/observing-20th-march-5799705/wowbagger2009-03-21T05:05:25+01:002009-04-04T23:08:00+02:00 <p>Out observing for almost three hours tonight. I never realised that 7° could feel so cold, it was quite still so no wind chill but really cold by the time I came in. I would have stayed out longer but the alignment appeared to have wandered. </p> <p>Tried to setup the ‘scope using ‘Auto two star’ but having entered all the site information and lined up on Sirius, instead of the usual ‘SkyAlign’ point it at something press ‘Align’, point it at something else and press ‘Align’ again and Robert’s your mothers brother, you’re ready to go, this time the handset offered a menu of objects to be used for the alignment process and Sirius was not one of them? So I went through the usual ‘SkyAlign’ process using Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius and I was up and running. </p> <p>My local equipment supplier has a sale on at the moment and I picked up a couple of new eyepieces which I was eager to try out. They did me a Meade 4000 Series 15mm and an Adler Optik Skarp 2” 32mm SWA for £80 which looked like a very good deal to me. I was also thinking of getting a Baader Solar Continuum filter but they did not have any stock, so that will have to wait.</p> <p>I went first to the Orion Nebula, M42, as I am reasonably familiar with it but, having looked at it last time with the 9mm + Barlow, the image with the Meade 15mm was a far greater FOV, so not much use as a comparison of the merits of the two eyepieces. Next I put in the Adler and went over to the Beehive Cluster, M44. A wonderful view of a tracery of stars of very similar magnitude which filled the FOV, I now realise that I should have moved the ‘scope around a little to see if I had the whole cluster in view. The reviews of the Adler that I have seen suggest that there is some softening of the image outside of the central 50% of the field, I realise that I’m not that discriminating given my level of experience, but I did not notice this and the cluster extended over the whole of the FOV. I would really have liked to have had a go at photographing the cluster but the mount will only fit the 1.25” eyepieces. Ho hum, can’t have everything. Had a look at another couple of objects, King Cobra, M67; didn’t see anything well defined, and NGC2264, The Christmas Tree Cluster which didn’t appear to be a particularly good target for the Adler either. I really ought to slow down and try other eyepiece options but I tend to just go off to look at something else. In this case it was Saturn, which gave a very good view in the 9mm + Barlow, rings are presently very closed up but still clearly visible. Tried for a long time to get a shot of it with the 9mm eyepiece but there is little length for the camera mount to grip and I struggled to get a useable image in the viewfinder. I tried setting the mount up off and on the ‘scope but didn’t get anything at all so went to the 25mm + Barlow, the image through the eyepiece looked good but the viewfinder image, less so but I took about 20 shots on various settings which I’ll have a look at tomorrow.</p> <p>I had a look at another couple of things, or at least tried to, first was The Leo Triplet but nothing recognisable to me resolved so I had the ‘scope go to Denebola and it put a star in the edge of the field but I don’t have sufficient knowledge to know if this was Denebola so I had it go to Castor and, after it failed to line that up, Pollux. Neither came into the field of the 25mm and I put the red dot finder on again to try to get it in view and still couldn’t get it in view. At this point I decided I was getting too cold and probably wasn’t going to achieve much more and called it a night.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/21/observing-20th-march-5799705/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-03-20:/2009/03/20/more-backpedalling-5796564/wowbagger2009-03-20T17:51:23+01:002009-03-20T17:51:23+01:00 <p>Having received a brief note from the OU last week, confirming I had passed S197 I assumed that the routine would be the same as it was for S194 last year and that would be that. However I have received another communication today giving a little feedback on the End of Course Assessment and advice that there is a little more info on the OU website. Fair enough, that was all I was looking for.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/20/more-backpedalling-5796564/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-03-18:/2009/03/18/open-university-s197-how-the-universe-works-5784183/wowbagger2009-03-18T22:05:49+01:002009-03-18T22:05:49+01:00 <p>It seems that I passed this course, not sure how you fail if you submit the end of course assessment. Didn’t even get a mark for the multiple choice questions completed online; how difficult can it be to provide feedback on just this part? Didn’t expect anything different, this was all I got from the last course I did but I don’t feel any better about it either. These courses aren’t cheap, £130 I think they are up to now, but if another £20 obtained even some perfunctory feedback I would happily cough up.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/18/open-university-s197-how-the-universe-works-5784183/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-03-15:/2009/03/16/backpedalling-5763371/wowbagger2009-03-16T00:41:35+01:002009-03-16T00:41:35+01:00 <p>Beginning to wonder if my first assessment might have been the right one? I’ve had a closer look at some of the images and my little blob of pixels has moved slightly in some of the shots. Whilst the Sun rotates and first to last shot was as much as 90 minutes apart I don’t think this accounts for the movement and I’m back to wondering if it might be an error on the CCD. I can’t find it on previous images but I will try to think of something to be used as a test shot and have a close look at it. The other possibility that occurs to me is some minute damage to the solar film used to bring the Sun down to manageable proportions for viewing. The film reduces the throughput by 99.99% and whilst there is no problem discernable to Mk1 eyeball maybe the CCD has recorded something.</p> <p>The photos that were linked from spaceweather.com were all tight shots of the area of activity and did not show the exact location, so I will have another look tomorrow to see if I can find something which gives a better indication of the location.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/16/backpedalling-5763371/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>tag:wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk,2009-03-15:/2009/03/15/fuzzy-pixels-5762870/wowbagger2009-03-15T22:49:09+01:002009-03-15T22:49:09+01:00 <p>I’ve now had chance to have a look at my photos from earlier in the day and there did not appear to be a lot to shout about. I opened them all up in Photoshop and about half a dozen of them were not close to being framed correctly and another twenty had thin cloud obscuring some of the detail, such as it was. Some of these were a series of continuous shooting and might make a nice little animated GIF showing the cloud moving across the frame. Other than that there did not seem much of interest, I looked over many of them for some sort of identifiable feature, examining the limb for any interesting irregularity and found nothing that, to my eye, looked at all interesting. But I did notice a cluster of fuzzy, pinkish pixels which I had seen on a previous image and had put down to a possible error in the CCD. Although I had shot in colour all the rest of the image, and all the other images, appeared as shades of grey apart from this small spot, which when I zoomed in, appeared in all the other images. It appeared in the same spot on the Sun even though the Sun was not in the same part of the frame from image to image. I can’t tell you how exciting it was to have something to show for my afternoons shooting, in all probability, disproportionately so!</p> <p>I went off to spaceweather.com to check on solar activity and found that there is only one area of activity on the Sun at the moment, in the south east, which was a disappointment as my little smudge was in the north west but it did eventually dawn on me that the images I was looking at were as seen through the telescope and that what appeared on screen top left was, when viewed with the naked eye, bottom right! Doh! So it does seem that I have a really low grade, handful of fuzzy pixels which represent something which might turn into a sunspot in the near future.</p> <p>I haven’t done the crop of the area yet but will post it later along with an image showing what someone with the right knowhow and equipment can do.</p> <p> <small> <a href="http://wowbagger-astronomy.blog.co.uk/2009/03/15/fuzzy-pixels-5762870/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>