Thread: astronomy

Sorta.

Got a couple of Meade's but there's too much ambient light and overhead/surrounding impedimenta for any decent viewing where we are now.

Veeerrrrry casual. More of a make-an-effort to look up and identify night sky objects, get up at odd hours to view events and the like. Fascinating though.

Yeah - just built this...why??

TerryB has a good set up.

I have a 4" reflector & an Autostar controller but I hate the mount, the drives have plastic gears & it is very disappointing.

Originally Posted by Skew ChiDAMN!!

Sorta.

Got a couple of Meade's but there's too much ambient light and overhead/surrounding impedimenta for any decent viewing where we are now.

Argh, same here

Originally Posted by RufflyRustic

Veeerrrrry casual. More of a make-an-effort to look up and identify night sky objects, get up at odd hours to view events and the like. Fascinating though.

I like satellite spotting too and one of my favourite sites is heavensabove.com for the night sky and satellite info

Originally Posted by Ian Smith

Yeah - just built this...why??

why? You built it, you tell us why! That looks like a serious telescope Ian, did you grind the mirror too?

Just wondering was all... I've always been interested in what's out there, sort of keeps me grounded when you contemplate the size of it all.
I have a small 114mm newtonian I made from a kit a few years ago and it serves me OK for looking at the moon and planets and a few other things. I was just having a look at Saturn tonight.
The thing that gave me the biggest buzz didn't need a telescope though, it was learning to see venus during the day. When I read that venus is visible most of the time it is above the horizon even during the day I just had to try it. Took a while to learn to focus on infinity and I think it helped initially that the moon was nearby to help focus, and binos helped too.

Thought I'd better put my hand up, otherwise everyone will think it's only canetoads that stargaze. I have realised an ambition to learn more about the heavens in the last 2 or 3 years, with an 8" collapsible Dob, and more recently with a 2nd hand Meade ETX105 as a grab-n-go. I joined a local Astro society and have had lots of advice and encouragement. The rewarding challenge is learning the night sky, being able to identify the constellations and star hop to the object of interest. The ETX has Autostar which is a pain to use, much easier with the Dob.

It's quite satisfying to be able to use my wood and metalwork skills in the hobby. I've just completed an equatorial platform for the dob, which keeps the scope tracking, rather than nudging the mount every 30 seconds.

don't tease please although I have been through the inner sanctum of Anglo Observatory Coonabarrabran with Fred Watson

Regular astronomer when weather permits.

Just swapped the skies of Syhdnehy where I couldn't see the stars because of the light pollution for Tasmania where I can't see the stars because of the trees.

I mostly use a pair of 20x80 binoculars on a parallelogram mount. The telescopes are still in storage.

Originally Posted by mic-d

why? You built it, you tell us why! That looks like a serious telescope Ian, did you grind the mirror too?.

Sorry mic-d - didn't mean to sound trite - just noticed your post as I was heading out to use the thing. - not a bad night here in Brisbane, 11 degrees and a clear sky but a bit of dew.

It's a 10" Newtonian reflector on a dobsonian mount. My youngest son just happened to mention he'd like to get a 'scope of some kind and I'd always been interested but never done anything about it ..so he sowed the seed and 3 months later it was done.

I bought the optics ( 2" thick 10"pyrex mirror 60.2" focal length, 2" secondary , spider and eyepiece holder) from a bloke named Kevin Dixon, a member of the Southern Astronomical Society, here in Brisbane. So, no, to answer your question, I didn't grind the mirror - not that keen.

Total budget was $1500 ( originally $1,200 but once started there was no going back)and then you add eyepieces and filters - bit of a slippery slope really, but it has been a worthwhile exercise.

You might take a look at his thread - https://www.woodworkforums.com/f15/be...centre-135195/ classic hi-jack, even if I do say so myself, but the OP encouraged me so I guess it's OK and it'll tell you most, if not all, about it

Ian

yep hand up here as well. I have a 25acre block about 10ks out so a loverly dark sky most times. Being a pensioner now I make do with 4" & 5 " newts the 5" has motordrive as I am thinking of going astrophotography.(made a ccd camera to that end) trouble is tools take my cash away before a new scope though they are getting cheaper so who knows? Spend time on Ice in Space don't post much but learn a lot. Use Cartes du Ceil (freeware) and Stellarium (freeware) depending on the mood. No club here but there is 1 in whyalla (70 kms) but can't seem to get there (mainly fuel costs) but one day
Pete

Wowsers. Nice work, Ian!


On a slightly different note does anyone else here play with FITS data? ie. access the Hubble's (or Spitzer's or GLAST's or...) raw data from any Science Data Archives and create their own imagery? (I'm no researcher, but by dang they can look mighty purdy! )

If anyone is interested, the FITS Liberator enhancement SW for Mac or Win is free and made publicly available at the Hubble website. Or link here.

It's easy enough to learn... and the same site gives instructions on how to access various public access Data Archives. (LH list, click "Example data sets and links to archives" )

NB: Adobe Photoshop's needed to "assemble/colourise" the images after enhancement!

114mm newtonian, which I built a dobsonian for.
6" Celestron SCT with a GoTo mount.
Just made a full aperture white light solar filter for the Celestron - which is why its been raining for 3 weeks in Sydney
First light for the filter yesterday showed a very nice sun spot

No you weren't Ian, I was just being cheeky. That sounds like a nice scope Ian and good bang for your bucks. I'll have a look at the link later today. Mine is a truss scope too so ambient light is more a problem.
I was half thinking of getting something bigger but given the light conditions and my sporadic use, I don't think it is worth it. I do like to idea of getting one with a go-to facility.

Cheers
Michael

Originally Posted by Ian Smith

Sorry mic-d - didn't mean to sound trite - just noticed your post as I was heading out to use the thing. - not a bad night here in Brisbane, 11 degrees and a clear sky but a bit of dew.

It's a 10" Newtonian reflector on a dobsonian mount. My youngest son just happened to mention he'd like to get a 'scope of some kind and I'd always been interested but never done anything about it ..so he sowed the seed and 3 months later it was done.

I bought the optics ( 2" thick 10"pyrex mirror 60.2" focal length, 2" secondary , spider and eyepiece holder) from a bloke named Kevin Dixon, a member of the Southern Astronomical Society, here in Brisbane. So, no, to answer your question, I didn't grind the mirror - not that keen.

Total budget was $1500 ( originally $1,200 but once started there was no going back)and then you add eyepieces and filters - bit of a slippery slope really, but it has been a worthwhile exercise.

You might take a look at his thread - https://www.woodworkforums.com/f15/be...centre-135195/ classic hi-jack, even if I do say so myself, but the OP encouraged me so I guess it's OK and it'll tell you most, if not all, about it

Ian