Man of Honour
One for the diary - Stargazing Live returns to the BBC on 16, 17 and 18 January:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wnvpf
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One for the diary - Stargazing Live returns to the BBC on 16, 17 and 18 January:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wnvpf
Man of Honour
Permabanned
Anyone see Venus tonight? This cold weather is really bringing the skys to life.
Venus? I thought it was below the horizon?
Jupiter - too bright for my scope and camera! (RGB image)
Just the red channel from the Friday night.. one 10 minute, raw exposure:
I took these of M42, A-D stars with a hint of E & F and they're quite low res due to low quality polar alignment:
I created my own image resolution enhancement process, although not pretty the resulting output was enough to split E and F stars from the usual A-D stars:
A closer view of the trapezium showing E and F stars..
Although I managed to destroy the USB socket on my 383 on saturday so it's going to have to go back for repair ;(
Just the red channel from the Friday night.. one 10 minute, raw exposure:
I took these of M42, A-D stars with a hint of E & F and they're quite low res due to low quality polar alignment:
I created my own image resolution enhancement process, although not pretty the resulting output was enough to split E and F stars from the usual A-D stars:
A closer view of the trapezium showing E and F stars..
Although I managed to destroy the USB socket on my 383 on saturday so it's going to have to go back for repair ;(
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Man of Honour
Stargazing LIVE is back tonight for series two:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00mlr20
BBC Two and BBC HD
16th - 20:30
17th - 20:00
18th - 20:00
16th - 20:30
17th - 20:00
18th - 20:00
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00mlr20
Was amazed yesterday. Looked out the front door to see if my neighbours had moved there car from the front of my house and noticed a really bright star. I knew it was not Jupiter as thats directly above at that time. Had a little look at my app and was amazed that it was Venus. It was -3.9 and it was still half dark so had to get my small scope out as my 200p is out of action for the moment. Only looked like a really bright star but was not expecting much on a travel scope. Try check it out if you can, it was about 4pm. Takes my planet count to 4 now
Soldato
Excellent, cheers for the heads up. Was great last year even though i was struck with a horrendous bout of swine flu.
Permabanned
Nice to see a thread on this. Astronomy and the Universe is one of the few things that I can sit and read and look upon for hours. Currently saving up for a good telescope and hoping to do some astrophotography in the future.
Soldato
i dabble myself in Astrophotography ...
M42 - Orion Nebula
NGC6357 in Scorpio, cant really be seen from the UK ... known as the Lobster nebula ..
M8 The Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius, again, not really seen in the UK
The Helix Nebula, in Aquarius
M83 in Hydra, a Galaxy at about 83,000,000 light years
me!!
M42 - Orion Nebula
NGC6357 in Scorpio, cant really be seen from the UK ... known as the Lobster nebula ..
M8 The Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius, again, not really seen in the UK
The Helix Nebula, in Aquarius
M83 in Hydra, a Galaxy at about 83,000,000 light years
me!!
Associate
Here was my attempt at the Rosette nebula a few nights ago:
and before packing up my gear for the night I thought I would take a quick shot of the moon at the same magnification to show how big this thing would be in the sky if our eyes were sensitive enough to see it:
Needs more exposures but it's a start.
and before packing up my gear for the night I thought I would take a quick shot of the moon at the same magnification to show how big this thing would be in the sky if our eyes were sensitive enough to see it:
Needs more exposures but it's a start.
Depends what you want to do with it. Just observing? You can get some really great dobs for £200-300. There's some deals to be had for less than that too. Where it gets really expensive is when you start talking about astrophotography, which would be hard to do anyway until you've learned the sky.
Cool thanks mate, that's a good price range. Are there any good recommendations for that price range? Must admit really impressed with some of the photos but like you said you have to learn first.
Well the most popular suggestion for beginners is without a doubt this:
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html
But depending on your expectations the 150P might be just as good. Just to throw more options your way, i think you can get the 150P for £10 than the 200P with an EQ3-2 mount, which would come in useful if you did get into AP. Or £200 on a dobsonian (which is a lot easier to use).
http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html
But depending on your expectations the 150P might be just as good. Just to throw more options your way, i think you can get the 150P for £10 than the 200P with an EQ3-2 mount, which would come in useful if you did get into AP. Or £200 on a dobsonian (which is a lot easier to use).
Man of Honour
The 200p is fantastic and for a beginner a dob will be a your best bet. But you wont be able to do astophotography on it as it will need a motor and goto for it. You can get goto on a dob but not many people go that route. My first scope was a 130p manual which was a great scope but i really wanted to do photography. I then spent a small fortune on a 200p which i love. Then i sold the 130p and got a star travel so i could take it on holiday.
One thing i do stress tho is the telescope is is not the last purchase you will make. Lenses are the thing i did not really research on before i got my first scope and now i think my lenses cost as much as my scope.
One thing i do stress tho is the telescope is is not the last purchase you will make. Lenses are the thing i did not really research on before i got my first scope and now i think my lenses cost as much as my scope.