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Look to the East tonight... Plus other astronomy chat

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DixieDean
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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by DixieDean »

Not a naked eye object but I will be well chuffed if I can get the scope pointing in the right place at the right time!!!

Will start looking about 8.30pm when it's a bit higher and also there is a large star cluster nearby which should help me find it.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by juckster »

Just bought myself my first scope. Really looking forward to using it for the first time, waiting for delivery any day, so may miss the asteroid.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by DixieDean »

Excellent, what one did you buy juckster?

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by Surprised »

juckster wrote:Just bought myself my first scope. Really looking forward to using it for the first time, waiting for delivery any day, so may miss the asteroid.

I still mean to get one but want one that I can attach a DSLR to.
Better if it can be a general purpose scope too but I don't think that's really possible without losing quality.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by DixieDean »

Surprised wrote:
juckster wrote:Just bought myself my first scope. Really looking forward to using it for the first time, waiting for delivery any day, so may miss the asteroid.

I still mean to get one but want one that I can attach a DSLR to.
Better if it can be a general purpose scope too but I don't think that's really possible without losing quality.
The best advice I could give you is to buy this book:

Making Every Photon Count by Steve Richards

You need a pretty substantial setup to do what you want but I'm no expert. All I know is... prepare to spend a lot of money!!!

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by juckster »

TBH it's for my Son's 5th birthday, so wanted to get a child friendly one. And if I get into it, I'll buy myself something decent.

Skywatcher Heritage 76 - got it for £45.00

So nothing special, just wanted to look at the moon and maybe Jupiter/Saturn and also Comet ISON later in the year.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by DixieDean »

juckster wrote:TBH it's for my Son's 5th birthday, so wanted to get a child friendly one. And if I get into it, I'll buy myself something decent.

Skywatcher Heritage 76 - got it for £45.00

So nothing special, just wanted to look at the moon and maybe Jupiter/Saturn and also Comet ISON later in the year.
That's a very good little scope. I'm sure it will blow your son's mind. My daughter was gobsmacked when she first saw Jupiter and the Moon close up. 8-)

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by DixieDean »

If I was to start from scratch I would not buy what I did... It's a great scope but not simple to set up. Instead I would have got this one or the one just below it in the range.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsoni ... onian.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by Surprised »

DixieDean wrote:
Surprised wrote:
juckster wrote:Just bought myself my first scope. Really looking forward to using it for the first time, waiting for delivery any day, so may miss the asteroid.

I still mean to get one but want one that I can attach a DSLR to.
Better if it can be a general purpose scope too but I don't think that's really possible without losing quality.
The best advice I could give you is to buy this book:

Making Every Photon Count by Steve Richards

You need a pretty substantial setup to do what you want but I'm no expert. All I know is... prepare to spend a lot of money!!!
I have the dSLR so that's OK. Probably would spend no more than 300 quid on a scope though.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by Shaggy365 »

Just had a look out of the windows & there's 100% cloud cover. Marvellous.

Anyway, according to the Beeb, keen viewers anywhere can find one of several live streams of the event on the internet, including a feed from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Nasa, available from 19:00 GMT.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by Bob Newhart »

If you're in the Urals, look straight up and run like hell...

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by bluenosey »

Very close call for us all shortly :-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21442863

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by bluenosey »

Here's some footage of the Russian incident :-



Luckily it wasn't a Tunguska :-


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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by Shaggy365 »

Is that it?

Just managed to contain my excitement.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by bluenosey »

Shaggy365 wrote:Is that it?

Just managed to contain my excitement.
Yup. Hope you're now sitting safely :wink:

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by Shaggy365 »

... and breathe.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by Surprised »

So no trail of blazing flame wreaking havoc in a small American town with only a Deputy Sheriff to save mankind.

Hollywood would struggle to sell this asteroid as a blockbuster movie. The old Asteroids game was scarier.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by Footy66 »

It's not exactly a common occurrence, considering it injured up to 1000 people it is pretty crazy considering it's size of a meter to 2 meters wide. Surprised it hasn't beaten this horse meat bowlaxe to the headline news story.

It makes you realise that a mansion sized meteor would probably injure 1million people and make buildings shatter completely.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by Moist von Lipwig »

those Russia videos from this morning are incredible.

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by DixieDean »

Well that was a waste of time last night... I took a while to set up the scope and practice where to look before the sun went down and then come 8.30pm it had clouded over!!! The joys of astronomy in the UK GRRR!!!

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by ctibbits »

My wife got me a scope for my birthday! I am incredibly excited and have spent the last couple fo nights looking at the sky in awe. Eventually I am going to tire of the same things though I am sure. Can't wait for the next meteor shower and a good clear sky :)

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by juckster »

Scope arrived yesterday at work. Like a little boy, I was that excited that I left work early and got it setup while the sun was still in the sky and set it on the Moon. Great views in the daytime. And when it went dark, the Moon was so bright !! I could clearly make out the craters.

Then as the stars came out, there was a particularily bright one to the right of the moon which turned out to be Jupiter. I could even make out two of it's moons !!

Dixie, have you managed to get up early enough to view Saturn yet, I hear it's looking awesome at the moment. I wonder if I'll be able to make out it's rings with my little Sywatcher 76 ?

And also, how do I go about upgrading it ? Can I get a more powerful eyepiece than the 2 that came with it ?

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by DixieDean »

juckster wrote:Dixie, have you managed to get up early enough to view Saturn yet, I hear it's looking awesome at the moment. I wonder if I'll be able to make out it's rings with my little Sywatcher 76 ?

And also, how do I go about upgrading it ? Can I get a more powerful eyepiece than the 2 that came with it ?
Haven't had a chance to see Saturn yet this year although I did see it last year. I was going to wait until it rises earlier in the evening (about mid-May).

The eyepieces that come with SkyWatcher scopes are pretty bog standard apparently (You've probably got the same as me - 25mm and 10mm) but you can buy better ones. The thing is they would cost more than your scope! If you do decide to buy a better scope for yourself then it would be worth it.

You can also get a barlow lens which will double the magnification of your view through the eyepiece.

I'm looking to buy more/better eyepieces when money allows but I'm still happy with what I can see now.

BTW: What did your son think of it?

Edit: Here's a website that will give you an idea of what you'll see through different eyepieces. Just pick your telescope from the list, pick an eyepiece and select an object from the list.
It's not perfect but a rough guide...

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by ctibbits »

Seeing that you could see the moons of Jupiter with a relatively inexpensive telescope has got me pretty excited. the one I was given is the Orion Space Probe 130 ST. Would I be able to view them with this? If not would it simply be a matter fo buying the 6mm eyepiece for $40 to make it happen?

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Re: Look to the East tonight...

Post by DixieDean »

ctibbits wrote:Seeing that you could see the moons of Jupiter with a relatively inexpensive telescope has got me pretty excited. the one I was given is the Orion Space Probe 130 ST. Would I be able to view them with this? If not would it simply be a matter fo buying the 6mm eyepiece for $40 to make it happen?
That's basically the same as my Skywatcher 130P but under a different name (they're all made in China and then branded).

You can easily see 4 moons orbiting Jupiter and on a good night the cloud bands around the planet.

I would recommend getting a 2x Barlow Lens which would double the magnification of your eyepieces to start with.

And remember... When you see Jupiter and her moons, they are roughly 400 Million miles away!!! 8-)

EDIT: Here's a pic someone on another forum I frequent took with a very similar scope and a modified webcam. :shock:

Image
Last edited by DixieDean on 19 Feb 2013, 18:02, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Look to the East tonight... Plus other astronomy chat.

Post by DixieDean »

I thought I'd change the thread title slightly as this has moved on from a thread about just one night's viewing to a more general chat about stargazing.

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Re: Look to the East tonight... Plus other astronomy chat.

Post by juckster »

Do you want me to move the thred into Science/Technology ?

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Re: Look to the East tonight... Plus other astronomy chat.

Post by DixieDean »

If you want... I suppose it fits that category better than just 'stuff' :wink:

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Re: Look to the East tonight... Plus other astronomy chat.

Post by ctibbits »

I have been looking into these Barlow lenses. I am slightly confused about something. Is it just a magnifier that sits on top of your current eyepiece? Is it really a better bet than just spending the same amount to get a better eyepiece?

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Re: Look to the East tonight... Plus other astronomy chat.

Post by juckster »

Looking at the lense on Ebay - it looks like a completely seperate lense.

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