Amateur Astronomy

[JaXanim]

@Miked

Never had a refractor, but they are known to image the planets better than reflectors. I started off making a 6" Newtonian on an electric mount. Took me three months just to make the mirror. The first time I saw Saturns rings was through a home made scope. I sold it for a hundred quid and got three year a bank loan to get the Meade.

JaX

[blobrana]

Hum,
well worth every penny, i imagine.

is it computerised?
(ie check out 73P-C/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 at R.A. = 16 24.82  Dec = 31  5.0)

[JaXanim]

@blobrana

It is, but it's the earlier system (pre-gps), so getting it set up properly is a long job.

I'd like to see this comet (or what's left of it) tracking by the Lyra Ring Nebula in a few days time. Unfortunately, I'm not gonna make it, but the show goes on for weeks yet, eh?

JaX

[JaXanim]

@Miked

Everything's interesting, eh? I guess the best surprise I had was the first time I entered 'M57' into it and watched it automatically slew and stop. I looked in the eyepiece and there it was - amazing! That was also the Ring Nebula as it happens. It was almost as good as first light (moonlight) through the home made Newtonian. I was just astounded by the mirror. Six-point-seven inch diameter, f8, quarter wave accurate, metallic silver coating done the traditional way. I guess people don't bother doing stuff like that nowadays.

I've bought a webcam/adapter to send images straight to a laptop. I managed to set it up in daylight and got great pictures of a synthetic star (pinhole and a torch) a hundred feet away. Not done anything 'proper' yet, but I've experimented with Registax digital image stacker/enhancer. Very impressive.

I'd really like to image the International Space Station using  satellite tracker software, but finding the time to get my head around it all is a problem.

JaX

[Tenacious]

@ Miked

My favorite is Digital Universe.  It scales up to a graphics card and an 060 nicely (it needs some accelaration). It implements a comprehensive database using amiga-guide format, one of the best I've seen.  There is a yahoo forum dedicated to it.  For quick and detailed information, I use this more than any program on any platform.

Distant Suns isn't bad.  The author ported to Windows and won't support the original Amiga version anymore.  It's menu structure is a bit random, but it is very customizable and has a usable orrery.  The paper manual is well written and a nice tutorial of beginning astronomy.  Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to move it beyond Hires-laced.  It also doesn't like my 060 and harddrive combination, it will run directly fron CD though.  It will run on 68000 @ 7 Mhz, but likes more speed.

There are very basic offings on Aminet.  Simple stuff.

I tried Digital Almanac.  It's big.  The 2 programs above answer most questions and explore very well.

At star parties I use a Palm running Planetarium.

Useful Astronomy software (telescope to eyepiece calculaters for example) aren't too hard to write.  Its a shame there aren't more for our platform.

[cecilia]

JaXanim wrote:
@all

Miked asked the question. I gave him my answer.

I have a 10" Meade LX200 Schmitt-Cassegrain reflector. The only thing remotely hyperbolic about that is the objective corrector plate.

Oh, my God - you thought......Jeez...You people..!

JaX

are my puns THAT subtle?  :-D

[JaXanim]

cecilia wrote:

are my puns THAT subtle?  :-D [/quote]

Erm..blimey they must be, I never spotted it! ;-)

JaX

[Hyperspeed]

I had wondered what the Alpha Space Station would look like in one of those telescopes. Is it geostationary or would it be a pain in the arse to track?

If I had a big 10"'er like JaX (Hehe!) I'd be photographing US military satellites and selling them to Iran.

:-D

Oh, and down with GPS, long live Galileo! Let's stop funding the Pentagon's ill thought out military adventures.

[JaXanim]

@Hyperspeed

The International Space Station is certainly not geostationary. It orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, so it's sure moving fast! Seeing it through a telescope requires equally fast tracking and is beyond manual control. So, it needs tracking software and some up to the minute data known as the orbital elements (supplied daily by NASA) to drive the scope. Many amateurs are able to photograph the ISS in this way, but it's a big challenge.

You've obviously never seen the ISS zooming overhead. It makes a track over most inhabited parts of the world so spotting it is easy. You just have to wait till it's coming over your area and watch at the predicted time. You can often see it twice in one evening, 90 minutes apart. No telescope needed.

So, GO HERE join the club and enjoy the sights! You'll need your location in degrees Latitude and Longitude.

Cheers,

JaX

[Agafaster]

@JaxAnim

Cool ! I've registered.

don't do a lot of Astronomy these days (a baby, two bigger kids and a full time job dont help !)

but I did some good work in the '89 Mars conjuction through a 60mm (aperture!) Refractor. saw a lot of Jupiter and Saturn through that too.
I also had a Praktika MTL5B and a 200mm Vivitar Telephoto lens.
later, I got my current scope, a BobOptik 600mm Schmidt-Newtonian - aperture of F7.9 or 76mm (a mere 3 incher! :-o )

I did get a good look at Mars this time round though, but the Skies in the middle of the Black Country a dire, unless you are a big fan of Orange Horizons !  :madashell:

oh - I also have a pair of Russian 10x50 bins which have seen a LOT of service !!

I would like a bigger scope, preferably on an equatorial - probably have to wait until after the new car though !

PS: my degree was in Physics with Astrophysics

[blobrana]

Hum,
The Sattrack  4.1 package authored by Randy Stackhouse will generate predictions and provide a graphical display of the satellite ground track. (183 kB)
Aminet/SatTrack_v42.lha
ftp://sattrack.lha

BTW, The Earth is starting to pass through a stream of dust from Halley's Comet, to produce the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower.
It peaks before sunrise on Saturday morning, (6:00 UT) May 6th.

[Agafaster]

bonza. ZHR ?

[blobrana]

Hum,
Expected meteor rates of about 5 - 10 per hour in the northern hemisphere, and 20 - 60 per hour in the southern hemisphere.

The meteoroids are fast, travelling at 66 km/s, and often leave persistent trains. Typical the meteors are as bright as a 3rd magnitude star (2.4 - 3.1 mag)

[Agafaster]

not quite a Leonid eh!

[JaXanim]

@Agafaster

Indeed. The 1966 Leonids peaked at almost 150,000 per hour, repeating historical observations. Of late, they've fizzled out significantly. Wonder if we'll ever see such rates again?

JaX

[Miked]

Just out of curiousity, what is the limiting magnitude of all of your skys? (i.e. what is the faintest star that you can see on a clear night with the naked eye?)  There is a lot of light pollution where I live, so the LM is only about a 5-5.5 here.

-Miked