A reason to get up early

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jdaw1
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by jdaw1 »

DRT wrote:The scope I am thinking of buying costs £529. The same scope with auto-tracking costs £959. I think it is probably essential to have auto-tracking if you want to get into photography but manual tracking is fine for me.
The smugness of posting the pictures here would surely justify the price.
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by DRT »

Perhaps, but I would also have to buy a camera and lots of bits and bobs so the actual price difference would be north of £1k.
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by PhilW »

A friend of mine had a Celestron 6SE which he was very happy with; though he upgraded within 6 months, which he warns as a common problem with the hobby, and would recommend going for the 8SE if you can afford it! Good set of features including auto-setup, go-to and tracking, as well as excellent image quality. Not cheap though. He is now heavily into highly composited image creation, generated from multiple frame overlays from tracked images over several minutes, quite impressive stuff.

He also recommends checking with any local astronomy group, since once you get bitten by the bug people often upgrade several times in the first couple of years, so well worth checking their classifieds for good deals for their old scopes.
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jdaw1
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by jdaw1 »

DRT wrote:The pattern is very similar to First Bottle of LBV >> First Bottle of VP >> First Case of VP >> Case of F70 >> Where Did My Money Go? >> I Need A Case of Nacional 1963.
My stocks of N31 are critically low (i.e., below half a pipe).
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

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PhilW wrote:A friend of mine had a Celestron 6SE which he was very happy with; though he upgraded within 6 months, which he warns as a common problem with the hobby, and would recommend going for the 8SE if you can afford it! Good set of features including auto-setup, go-to and tracking, as well as excellent image quality. Not cheap though. He is now heavily into highly composited image creation, generated from multiple frame overlays from tracked images over several minutes, quite impressive stuff.

He also recommends checking with any local astronomy group, since once you get bitten by the bug people often upgrade several times in the first couple of years, so well worth checking their classifieds for good deals for their old scopes.
That does seem to be a familiar story from what I have seen on the bulletin boards, but I think I am safe because I have no personality traits or history that suggest I would become excessively obsessed with an expensive hobby and choose to spend lots of time surrounded by geeks with similar interests. :roll:
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djewesbury
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by djewesbury »

"My name is Derek and I'm an addict."
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

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I've just been out to look at Jupiter and I would be prepared to swear under oath that I seen the Great Red Spot. It was either that or a random reflection from my neighbours security light.
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djewesbury
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by djewesbury »

DRT wrote:my neighbours security light.
Gentlemen, should this go in the obvious place?
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by DRT »

djewesbury wrote:
DRT wrote:my neighbours security light.
Gentlemen, should this go in the obvious place?
Yes, it was a gift.
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by djewesbury »

DRT wrote:
djewesbury wrote:
DRT wrote:my neighbours security light.
Gentlemen, should this go in the obvious place?
Yes, it was a gift.
*bows in grateful acceptance*
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by Alex Bridgeman »

LGTrotter wrote:
DRT wrote:I am about to spend all of that again on a bigger tube:
So should you buy a bigger tube in the first place?
I keep getting adverts through email offering me the opportunity to get a bigger tube. Would you like me to forward these on to you?
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by LGTrotter »

AHB wrote:
LGTrotter wrote:
DRT wrote:I am about to spend all of that again on a bigger tube:
So should you buy a bigger tube in the first place?
I keep getting adverts through email offering me the opportunity to get a bigger tube. Would you like me to forward these on to you?
Alex! I never had you down as a double-entendreist. If I had known I would have given you one.
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by DRT »

I don't have the equipment required to do good quality astro-photography, but my small telescope and a digital camera yielded this a few minutes ago...
Jupiter_and_Europa.jpg
Jupiter_and_Europa.jpg (15.65 KiB) Viewed 4936 times
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djewesbury
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by djewesbury »

That's rather wonderful. I have listened to Jupiter on a radio telescope. It's filthy.
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by LGTrotter »

"All these worlds are yours, except Europa, attempt no landings there". Arthur C Clarke, fictionally telling us to stay off. Seen any signs of a new civilisation developing there?
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by DRT »

No signs of civilisation, but the large black obelisk is still parked off to the left. I'll let you know if anything stirs.
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by LGTrotter »

Good stars tonight, bit of haze on the horizon though. Got anything for your loyal subjects tonight Derek?
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by DRT »

Very clear viewing tonight but camera skills let me down :(
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by DRT »

One for Owen!
2014-01-03 18.56.26.jpg
2014-01-03 18.56.26.jpg (26.03 KiB) Viewed 4881 times
Not great but you can see a few craters around the edge of the shadow.

My Astro webcam arrives next week 88)
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Re: A reason to get up early

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DRT wrote:My Astro webcam arrives next week 88)
Thanks Derek, I though you had gone a bit quiet on the astronomical front, mind you; the weather an' all! Does the webcam mean we will be able to have a live stream of whatever you're looking at? Or are you doing one of those things where every telescope in the world looks at something for research purposes?
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by DRT »

It's a bit of an experiment. I read lots of things about people spending thousands on astro-photography equipment so that they can take pictures of planets and nebula that look like they have been drawn by a 5 year old with a crayon. If you want a photo that looks like it was taken by Hubble you need to own Hubble. I just want to find out what kind of pics I can get with a cheap option. If nothing else I should get some really good shots of the moon.
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by LGTrotter »

I happened to notice a low moon this evening, 'frail and faint as a sickle of straw'. It might be a bit thin for your purposes, but I understand that can be an attraction.
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by DRT »

LGTrotter wrote:I happened to notice a low moon this evening, 'frail and faint as a sickle of straw'. It might be a bit thin for your purposes, but I understand that can be an attraction.
Did you notice the name of the file I uploaded, which is the date and time stamp of when it was taken :wink:
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by LGTrotter »

DRT wrote:
LGTrotter wrote:I happened to notice a low moon this evening, 'frail and faint as a sickle of straw'. It might be a bit thin for your purposes, but I understand that can be an attraction.
Did you notice the name of the file I uploaded, which is the date and time stamp of when it was taken :wink:
My moon was more on it's back. Anyway they can't possibly have the same moon covering the whole country.
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DRT
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Re: A reason to get up early

Post by DRT »

LGTrotter wrote:My moon was more on it's back.
Are you sure it was the moon that was on its back?


PS: Camera + telescope optics = things do not quite appear as they do to the eye.
"The first duty of Port is to be red"
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