Hello everyone
   Over the past few weeks I've been experimenting with a webcam for
astrophotography. My first attempts at Mars steadily improved as I
got used to the various settings of the webcam as well as the
registax software. One of the most difficult parts of the imaging
process is getting the object in the webcam field of view ( approx
0.0513deg by 0.038deg on my scope ).

   I've had few opportunities through december to do much imaging due
to the amount of cloud we've had. So to make up for this I've been
out on a couple of the clear nights in january to image saturn. I
don't take this too seriously as I haven't the time. I can set up in
about 5 minutes and have had to move my PC downstairs to be able to
locate it close to my back door. A laptop would be ideal but too
expensive. So using a 5m USB extension lead I can focus and observe
the monitor until I'm happy with the image. Focusing is difficult
but thats more a problem with my focuser than other factors. I've
put a Jpeg image of one of my attempts on the photo site, best not
viewed close up due to the poor resolution! you can see the cassini
division as well as one of the belts on the planet. I'll carry on
through opposition where possible to attempt to get better ones.

   Before christmas I observed a very large meteor over hauxley also
I believe another meteor left a vapour trail ( not a plane ) from
overhead right to the horizon around 30 minutes later. I
photographed this.

  On a sour note when purchasing my webcam adaptor a company decided
to send me the completely incorrect part. After much aggravation I
had to get my credit card company to get him to refund my account
even though he had the returned goods ( £16 thats a hanging offence
in my book! ). His service was shoddy and his attitude very poor. No
paper work was sent with the goods which were purchased by phone
from an internet advert. The company is pulsar-optical in
cambridgeshire. Be very wary if thinking of dealing with them they
are cowboys. I've had good service from BCF ( kent site ) and
sherwoods.

  Well thats enough.

        Best regards

                 Martyn

Hello Andrew, and welcom to the group.

This is a link to the NASA eclipse page which will provide you with
all the details about the upcoming eclipse.

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html

As for observing it with a telescope, the simplest and cheapest
option is to make your own white light filter with Baader film. This
is available from several sources in the UK at about £15 + p&p for an
A4 sheet. The link below gives construction details.

http://www.baader-planetarium.com/sofifolie/bauanleitung_e.htm


--- In nastro@yahoogroups.com, "Bill Waddle" <w.waddle@...> wrote:
>
> To all
>
>
>
> Hi there this is my first post as I am a new member to the group. I
hope to
> meet and discuss like minded people who are able to offer advice
and support
> in return for my own. I own a 4.3" TAL-1 Reflector telescope and
also a 35mm
> camera and a keen interest in astrophotography. My question is
regarding the
> 29/3/06, I was using the starry night software to play around a bit
and
> noticed what appears to be a very near eclipse of the sun by the
moon. Where
> is going to be the best observation area and will it even be
viewable in the
> UK? (I live in Blyth,Northumberland)
>
>
>
>           The next question has obvious safety implications. What
filters
> etc are required to view solar events through a telescope?
>
>
>
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated
>
>
>
> Best Regards
>
> Andrew Waddle
>

Hi Andrew,

It has been very quiet of late. It picks up sporadically when its been
clear for a few nights, but of late we've had very few.

Regards,
Austin

Hi Andrew
Mars is getting very small now even for our telescopes.  Its disc is less
than 8 arc seconds in diameter and getting smaller.  I have a 6" Newtonian
and my max. theoretical magnification is around 300 but when viewing mars at
X280(my usual mag. for Saturn etc.) I can only make out an orange/red disc
of light no chance of seeing any real detail and reducing magnification in
order to see clearer images just makes the planet appear far too small.  Did
you see Mars in November last year when its apparent diameter was nearer 20
arc seconds ?  That allowed me to see a small south polar cap and some
surface detail on good seeing nights using my 6" scope.
Hope this is helpful.
Clear skies
Simon



>From: "Bill Waddle" <w.waddle@...>
>Reply-To: nastro@yahoogroups.com
>To: <nastro@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [NASTRO] Mars
>Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 14:01:56 -0000
>
>Hi ,
>
>
>
>I was out at the weekend it was actually patchy for a spell. The viewing
>was
>poor but I could still view Saturn and make out the sphere and its ring
>system. However I have been having the same problem time and again with
>Mars. I cannot magnify it enough to make out any characteristics. It looks
>the same as when I magnify a star just like a magnified point of light. I
>cannot make out a sphere let alone polar caps etc. My scope is a TAL-1
>newtonian reflector. I use a 3x Barlow and a 25mm and 15mm EP this gives me
>magnification values of x32, x54, x96, x162. I thought they would be
>powerful enough to make out the sphere of Mars, is this view incorrect and
>do I require a more powerful scope.
>
>
>
>
>
>Regards
>
>Andrew
>
>
>
>PS.. Austin, managed to work the EQ mount without moving the tripod
>position. Just through rotation of the RA and Dec. I have to flip and
>rotate
>a bit but it seems to cover all the points I've viewed so far. Thanks
>

_________________________________________________________________
The new MSN Search Toolbar now includes Desktop search!
http://toolbar.msn.co.uk/

HI Simon
	 Many thanks for the advice I had been playing around with some
software called starry night and noticed that Mars was closer at the end of
last year and it is currently moving further away on its ellipse.
Unfortunately I only got my scope at Christmas time so was unable to take
advantage of its proximity in November.

	 Now for the good news, I was out last night and it was by far the
clearest I have witnessed since purchasing my scope. Even with a virtual
full moon I was still able to see phenomenon that I had so far been unable
to see (can't wait for a clear dark night). I was also able to get a good
look at Mars without distortion. My barlow lens gave me mags of x96 and x162
with these I was able to make out a small red/brown spherical body. Although
I could not make out any great detail like polar caps etc it still sent my
heart thumping when I first realised I could make it out.

	 I have learnt that not all questions can be answered directly,
sometimes an attempt to give it a try physically can offer a much broader
understanding of the subject.

Clear skies
Andrew


-----Original Message-----
From: nastro@yahoogroups.com [mailto:nastro@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
SIMON EMBLETON
Sent: 16 February 2006 12:14
To: nastro@yahoogroups.com
Cc: srembleton@...
Subject: RE: [NASTRO] Mars

Hi Andrew
Mars is getting very small now even for our telescopes.  Its disc is less
than 8 arc seconds in diameter and getting smaller.  I have a 6" Newtonian
and my max. theoretical magnification is around 300 but when viewing mars at

X280(my usual mag. for Saturn etc.) I can only make out an orange/red disc
of light no chance of seeing any real detail and reducing magnification in
order to see clearer images just makes the planet appear far too small.  Did

you see Mars in November last year when its apparent diameter was nearer 20
arc seconds ?  That allowed me to see a small south polar cap and some
surface detail on good seeing nights using my 6" scope.
Hope this is helpful.
Clear skies
Simon

Hi Andrew,

...sent my heart thumping when I first realised I could make it out...

Have you looked at M42 in Orion yet?

(in the middle of the sword, just below the left hand side of the belt)

Regards,

Austin

Hi all,

Finding myself looking after the young one on Friday night, he wanted
to watch a DVD, so I looked outside and observed a rarity, 90% clear
and time on my hands. As it had been so long since such an
opportunity presented itself, I left the boy watching his film, while
I got the scope out. Ten minutes later, I was set-up, looking at my
perennial favourite, M42, the Orion Nebula.

By now it was almost 100% clear, but unfortunately I was confined to
one side of the patio due to the wall providing the only cover from
the direct lights of a neighbours conservatory, which seemed to be
lit up like the Crystal Palace. This was the first time I had used a
new wide-angle (70 degree FOV) eyepiece in anger, and I must say, it
performed superbly. I looked around to see what was on show, and
decided to look for M1, the Crab nebula. I hadn't seen this before,
and must admit, when I found it I had expected a little bit more with
it being the first on Messier's list. Maybe it requires a darker sky
and better dark eye adaptation. Next, I took my first look of the
season at Saturn and was not disappointed. This was showing good
detail with the Cassini division easily resolved at 240x
magnification.

Bored with his film, the boy decided he wanted to 'do astronomy with
his Dad', so he came outside. What celestial objects do you show a
young boy to stoke his interest? We went back to the Orion Nebula,
then Saturn and by now, the less impressive Mars. Perseus was well
placed to show him the Double cluster, NGC869 & 884, but even with
only 30x magnification, this is still not as impressive as looking at
them with a good pair of bino's! Next, the one thing guaranteed to
impress him, an alien, NGC457. Described in the book Left turn at
Orion as "It's one of the nicer open clusters in the Northern sky,
one of the best of the ones that Messier missed" it looks like E.T.
with his arms outstretched. Finally to round it off, what better than
a pair of galaxies, M81 & M82. Both fit perfectly into the same FOV.

He went back inside leaving me to work my way through the objects
described in the afore mentioned book. At this time of year, the
Milky way stretches roughly from the SE across the sky to the NW, so
what followed seemed like an open cluster feast: -

M44 the Beehive cluster, just next to Saturn,
M34, in Perseus,
M36, M37 & M38 all close together in Auriga, M37 being the pick of
the bunch,
M45,
M35 in Gemini,
M50, M46 & M47 all suffering from the mush that seem to permanently
sit over the Tyne Valley, though all still visible.
Managed to easily split Castor at 120x magnification,
Finally, again some thing new to me, the Clown Nebula NGC2392, but no
sign of the central star.

After nearly 3 hours, the cold was starting to nip the fingers, so I
packed up and went inside. Less than an hour later, while locking up,
seen that the mist had descended and there was zero visibility.

Regards,
Austin

Hi everyone

The meeting on Thursday evening will be a Telescope Workshop!  If you
have a telescope (old or new) and want to get some advice and opinions
about it then please bring it along with you.  I will give a brief
demonstration on collimating a Newtonian telescope and may even go as
far as taking the mirror cell off the telescope ;-).

This will be good opportunity to see what other members of the society
have got tucked away at home!  This event will be combined with an
observing session if the sky is clear.  Please tell everyone who might
be interested that they are welcome to come along.

Cheers,

Adrian

Hi all,

There is a new Sky at night program on BBC4 tonight at 10:35 if the
clouds prevents you going out observing ;-)

Also at 7:00 on the same channel, The planets might be of interest..

Regards,
Austin

Hi all,

Some years ago, when I was actively looking to take up the hobby
seriously and contemplating buying a telescope, one of the first
things I did was to buy a copy of Sky & Telescope. This was filled
with a bewildering array of adverts and articles which over the
following weeks were read and digested. One of the articles was about
observing a part of the sky often overlooked because of the relative
lack of bright stars, but visible most of the year in the Northern
hemisphere, the constellation Camelopardalis. One of the objects
described was an asterism, Kemble's Cascade, described as a line of
stars looking like water flowing over a waterfall. For whatever
reason, this stuck in my mind.

Following last weekends observing session, showing my son the 'ET
Cluster', I was searching the web to find out its official
designation, NGC457. One of the web sites that I looked at described
a small list of the author's favourite targets, and among them was
Kemble's Cascade.

Similar to the case where I don't need the longitude and latitude co-
ordinates to find the Red Lion, just past the roundabout, up the High
Street, next to the Butchers, when I want to go for a drink, I don't
use RA and Dec co-ordinates with my Dobsonian mounted telescope.
Simply locate a bright near by star and think in terms of fractions
of a distance to some other bright star.

The web site showed easily in these terms how to find it, and I
wondered why I had up until now overlooked it. Find Cassiopeia,
locate the start and end star as if you were writing a 'W'. Starting
at the end star imagine a line joining to the start star, then
continue this line as far again, simple.

Last night was clear and the Dob is in the body shop at the moment,
but that's a different story, so it was out with the binoculars.
After 5 minutes of allowing my eyes to acquire some semblance of dark
adaptation, I easily found what I was looking for and what had stuck
in my mind for so long, Kemble's Cascade.

Did it look like a waterfall? Its as good a description as any, 3
bright stars move off at an angle from a line of fairly dim stars, I
could make out 10-12, with a brighter star in the middle, terminating
in a group of stars forming an open cluster, NGC1502. Now that I know
where it is, I shall re-visit this when the Dob is back in business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemble's_Cascade

Regards,
Austin

Managed to get a couple of decent photos of the moon last night.
Hopefully they will be attached to this image but if not I'll upload
them to the files area of the Yahoo website tonight.

As usual, these were taken with a digital camera handheld at the
eyepiece of my 10 inch Dobsonian.

Adrian

Try this quite funny.

Barry.


----- Original Message -----
From: "dunmunro1" <dmunro@...>
To: <digital_astro@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2006 8:50 PM
Subject: [digital_astro] OT: Why NASA will never find life on Mars...


> http://tinyurl.com/o2wb3
>
>
> cheers
>
> Duncan
>
>
>
>
>
> Before posting an image to our group please read the space management
> guidelines:
>
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital_astro/files/Photos%20Section%20Space%20Man\
agement%20Guidelines
>
> Please check the digital_astro FAQ at:
> http://home.earthlink.net/~digitalastrolight/Update%20FAQ%20Text.htm
>
> Our Monthly Challenge Galleries are here:
>
> http://digitalastro.skyinsight.net/gallery/albums.php
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

Space Weather News for March 12, 2006
http://spaceweather.com

LUNAR ECLIPSE:  When the full moon rises on Tuesday evening, March 14th, you might notice something odd--a pale shadow darkening the moon's southern hemisphere. That is the shadow of Earth, and if you can see it, you've spotted a "penumbral" lunar eclipse.  Weather permitting, the eclipse will be visible from eastern parts of the USA and Canada, all of Europe and Africa, most of Asia and South America, and western Australia. The eclipse will *not* be visible from California and other far western US states.

BLUE SUN:  Lately, the sun over Egypt has been turning a strange color--blue!  This is a side-effect of very fine particles in the air kicked up by seasonal dust storms. Where there are blue suns, there could be blue moons, too, and maybe even a blue lunar eclipse.  Observers in and around Egypt should keep an eye on the sky in the nights ahead.  

Visit http://Spaceweather.com for pictures of Egypt's blue sun and more information about the March 14th eclipse.

You are currently subscribed to spaceweather as: adrian@.... 

To unsubscribe click here: http://www.spaceweather2.com/u?id=605625S&n=T&l=spaceweather
or send a blank email to leave-spaceweather-605625S@... 

Bottom of the following page:

http://www.spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_29mar06.htm

Taken with my telescope and digital camera. Orange colour added for
effect :-)

Adrian

Hi everyone

I saw this webpage dedicated to the fragmented comet
73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann which is due to sail past Earth next month:

http://www.skyhound.com/sh/73P.html

It shows the optimum time to view the comet at 55 degrees North.  At
present the fragments are visible in the evening sky but I haven't had a
chance to see them yet because of moonlight.

Adrian

Hi everyone

Metcheck have got a useful astronomy tool on their website - a cloud
predictor!

http://www.metcheck.com/

Click on Cloudwatcher on the menu.

Adrian

They also do quite a good Astronomy forecast. By the bye does anyone use the
paid for service and how much does it cost? I use Weatheronline and I think
it was £15/a, but Metcheck has been more reliable and flexible. It was a
fine night last night before the moon got up.

Cheers


John Hendry





>From: Adrian Jannetta <adrian@...>
>Reply-To: nastro@yahoogroups.com
>To: NASTRO Yahoo list <nastro@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: [NASTRO] Clouds
>Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 09:50:56 +0100
>
>Hi everyone
>
>Metcheck have got a useful astronomy tool on their website - a cloud
>predictor!
>
>http://www.metcheck.com/
>
>Click on Cloudwatcher on the menu.
>
>Adrian
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

Hi everyone

The sky was clear last night so I was out in the garden with my
telescope when the sky finally got dark.  The primary goal of the
session was to spot the comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann (more
specifically, Fragment B - the brightest bit).  Began observing at about
10.50pm with my 10 inch F5 Dobsonian.  Most observing was done at 39x
magnification.  Again, having the red-dot of the Quick Finder helped
enormously.

I printed some finder charts for the comet from SkyTools (and for some
other objects) and saw that it was fairly easy to locate by aiming about
half way along a line connecting stars in Corona Borealis and Bootes,
high in the southeast.  It took less than two minutes to slew the
telescope into position and confirm that the pattern of stars in the
field of view matched the printed charts....but with no comet.  Another
five or ten minutes of dark adaptation and it still wasn't visible.  The
predicted magnitude was about 10 and this should have been bright enough
to see from my light-polluted garden in Hadston.  Oh well.

Jupiter was visible at low altitude above the houses at the bottom of
the street.  The view telescopically was very disappointing; the disk
was watery and shimmering.  No atmospheric bands were visible at all.
All four Galilean moons were visible; Io to the left and the other three
moons to the right.

Before deciding to pack up decided to have a look at some `faint
fuzzies'; the apparant double nucleus of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51 and
NGC5195) was a treat but the view of the Great Globular Cluster (M13) in
Hercules, which I remember being resolved into countless stars in years
past reminded of the need to get my mirror resurfaced because it must be
well and truly tarnished.  Tried to see the Owl Nebula (M97) which was
overhead, but maneuvering a Dob for objects overhead was too difficult
so I gave up.

Just before packing up I decided to have another go at looking for the
comet.  Still no luck.  Back inside to check the star charts and at the
bottom of the page the date showed April 18th  - the following night!
Half an hour of looking at a blank bit of sky :-(  After printing
another chart for right date I only needed a couple of minutes to find
the right position and there, right where it was supposed to be, was the
faint glow of a comet 19 million miles away!

Has anyone else seen this comet yet?

Adrian

Hi all,

I've been busy this weekend, so haven't had the scope out, and have
not had a chance to look for the comet. I have to be honest though I
thought it was a morning object for some reason.

Hopefully this weekend at Kielder I will have the opportunity to track
it down.

Regarding the weather forcasts, I find the BBC ones are as reliable as
any and they are free. About 5 to the hour on News 24 or the
Countryfile ones on a Sunday for longer range ones.

Regards,
Austin

At the moment the comet is well placed in the evening sky (somewhat to the
east of the brilliant orange star Arcturus).  By the time of closest
approach (early May) and maximum brightness it will be best seen in the
hours after midnight.

Adrian

-----Original Message-----
From: nastro@yahoogroups.com [mailto:nastro@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of
austinbwmn
Sent: 18 April 2006 10:15
To: nastro@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NASTRO] Re: Observing Report (17-Apr-06)


Hi all,

I've been busy this weekend, so haven't had the scope out, and have
not had a chance to look for the comet. I have to be honest though I
thought it was a morning object for some reason.

Hopefully this weekend at Kielder I will have the opportunity to track
it down.

Regarding the weather forcasts, I find the BBC ones are as reliable as
any and they are free. About 5 to the hour on News 24 or the
Countryfile ones on a Sunday for longer range ones.

Regards,
Austin






Yahoo! Groups Links








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Nice clear night last night so I tried to get Schwassmann-Wachmann 73P.
I used an old Nikor 180mm f/2.8 for a 28min exposure in 14 subs.There
are two fragments on the image, part of the whole frame, but which
ones? I have included two enlargements of the images. They are in my
folder.
I also imaged the Virgo cluster, but have not yet processed them.

Cheers

John H

Hi There,

Could someone tell me when the next Nastro meeting will be held please? I
did attend one a few weeks ago but have only just managed to get my
transport back on the road.

Best Regards
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

The next meeting will be on the last Thursday of the month, 27th.

Regards,
Austin

Austin,

Will that be a workshop evening going outside etc, or will it be one of the
class nights with the theoretical presentation and questions.

Regards
Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: nastro@yahoogroups.com [mailto:nastro@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
austinbwmn
Sent: 19 April 2006 14:25
To: nastro@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [NASTRO] Re: Next Meeting

Hi Andrew,

The next meeting will be on the last Thursday of the month, 27th.

Regards,
Austin







Yahoo! Groups Links

Hi John

Thanks for posting those incredible images of 73P!
I think the brighter fragment is C (the fainter one is B).  Fragment B
has ruptured into at least two bits and will continue to fade during the
coming weeks.  I was out with the telescope last night and managed to
see fragment C - it was quite easy to find (with the red-dot of the
QuickFinder) and is moving through the Northern Crown constellation at
the moment.  Over a period of 40-45 minutes I was able to see the
comet's motion against the starry background.

Looking forward to your images of the Virgo Cluster :-)

Cheers,

Adrian


--- In nastro@yahoogroups.com, "napier58" <napier58@...> wrote:
> Nice clear night last night so I tried to get Schwassmann-Wachmann 73P.
> I used an old Nikor 180mm f/2.8 for a 28min exposure in 14 subs.There
> are two fragments on the image, part of the whole frame, but which
> ones? I have included two enlargements of the images. They are in my
> folder.
> I also imaged the Virgo cluster, but have not yet processed them.
>
> Cheers
>
> John H
>
>

Andrew,

Adrian was thinking of doing a short "What's on in the night sky"
presentation followed by a quiz (possibly giving away the stuff NASA
sent a few weeks ago).

After that if its clear, there will probably be some observing, or if
not, we might have some episodes of Brian Greene's cosmology series to
watch.

Regards,
Austin