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Venusian Weasel posted:Nice! Oh cool, I didn't know there were mounts like that! I'm mostly interested in capturing the things you listed, so I'll dig around a bit and see if it fits my needs.
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Dec 7, 2014 12:16
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AstroZamboni posted:Yup. Freeze dried bullshit. I made an offer on a 12" LX90 that has been for sale for over a month. The price they are asking is actually pretty decent, but if I can get it for a bit cheaper all the better. Even if they turn down my offer, might be worthwhile. It's supposedly only used once and $1K off retail (and no taxes of course) so it's a good deal. It comes with an Autostar controller, but I watched a youtube review of the scope and some guy is saying the Audiostar (newer version?) is supposedly much better. C/D? Is it as simple as plugging a new controller in?
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Dec 7, 2014 19:04
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Whelp, I just made a deal for a taken out of the box and used only once LX-90 in 12" for $1800 CDN. All original eyepieces, accessories and packaging. They ordered it directly from Meade a few years back and never used it. Owner is a retired teacher so they don't lie...right? I think that's an OK deal? 
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Dec 9, 2014 02:09
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Even if it's well used, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. The CPC 1100 we got was very heavily used, with plenty of surface rust on the tripod, and thick oxidation on all the external screws. As long as the optics and electronics are good (ours were immaculate), you should be golden. Some steel wool, oil and CLR took care of the rust, and while I was at it I cracked open the mount and replaced the plastic bearings with chrome steel ones, then regreased everything that had the crummy Chinese gunk on it. One evening of work and it's already better than new.
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Dec 9, 2014 07:01
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I've just got back from a weekend in Iceland to see the Northern Lights, and it was pretty awesome space stuff! Here's a few photos I took of the Aurora:      And here's an animation I made of some shots to show the movement: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7c83y0vzl4f073l/NorthernLights2014.avi?dl=1
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Dec 9, 2014 20:30
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Daveh posted:I've just got back from a weekend in Iceland to see the Northern Lights, and it was pretty awesome space stuff! Is that what it looks like in person, or is that time lapse? Awesome pictures either way.
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Dec 9, 2014 21:29
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AFewBricksShy posted:Is that what it looks like in person, or is that time lapse? yeah, that's what they look like. not quite that bright since I suspect he did a long'ish exposure, but it's basically it, but dancing around. it's actually kind of spooky the first time you see it. EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezobpz55EEY vxsarin fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Dec 9, 2014 21:32
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Yeah, when it's an energetic display they look like the photos and the video Pukestain Pal linked to. On a "slow" night they're just green wisps. The photos are four second exposures at a low ISO. It was stunning to see in person!
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Dec 9, 2014 21:53
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That's really awesome, great shots! One night when I was out doing startrail exposures, a neighbor came out to join me in watching the night sky. Apparently she was originally from the Faeroe Islands and told how common northern lights were there. I live in Denmark which is too far low to see them, but it's one of those things I really want to see and film.
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Dec 10, 2014 00:53
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mng posted:I live in Denmark which is too far low to see them, but it's one of those things I really want to see and film.
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Dec 13, 2014 11:30
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I used to live in Northern Alberta, about 55N and I could see aurora with regularity.
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Dec 14, 2014 02:05
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Yeah, but Denmark and Alberta are at different geomagnetic latitudes, although the increased rate of wander in the magnetic pole in the last couple of decades mean this is changing. Generally speaking, an aurora strong enough to be seen in continental Europe is strong enough to penetrate well into the US. A Kp 7 event might be visible from only 45-50N in Europe, but in the States you'd probably notice a glow on the northern horizon as far south as Alabama and Arizona.
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Dec 14, 2014 02:38
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The Geminids shower tonight seems to be popping for me... in about 5 minutes I've seen 3 bright ones and 1 dim to my north. And my skies are not particularly dark. (suburban Austin, TX).
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Dec 14, 2014 07:08
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Venusian Weasel posted:Yeah, but Denmark and Alberta are at different geomagnetic latitudes, although the increased rate of wander in the magnetic pole in the last couple of decades mean this is changing. Generally speaking, an aurora strong enough to be seen in continental Europe is strong enough to penetrate well into the US. A Kp 7 event might be visible from only 45-50N in Europe, but in the States you'd probably notice a glow on the northern horizon as far south as Alabama and Arizona.  completely forgot about the differences Edit: Question about eyepieces: For a telescope that can use a 2" piece, what are you missing out by only using a 1.25? slidebite fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Dec 14, 2014 |
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Dec 14, 2014 17:09
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Sigh, haven't had a cloud free and non-busy day for over a month now... Oh and Venusian Weasel, I'll be working on those Saturn pics soon, been way to busy lately.
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Dec 17, 2014 14:41
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swebonny posted:Sigh, haven't had a cloud free and non-busy day for over a month now... No problem! I'll probably be focusing on my Mars Viking Orbiter project for the forseeable future anyway. Lots of goodies there too.
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Dec 17, 2014 22:30
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Dec 21, 2014 12:24
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Geez, selling a 10" dobsonian on Craigs/Kijijii is proving harder than I would have thought. Had 2 people that seemed somewhat serious and one that tried to lowball almost half what i was asking and I'm only asking $425 including eyepieces and barlow, still with its shipping box and seems like a better price than the other dobs listed for sale. Is there not much demand for them used?
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Dec 23, 2014 20:36
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slidebite posted:Geez, selling a 10" dobsonian on Craigs/Kijijii is proving harder than I would have thought. Had 2 people that seemed somewhat serious and one that tried to lowball almost half what i was asking and I'm only asking $425 including eyepieces and barlow, still with its shipping box and seems like a better price than the other dobs listed for sale. If you live in new England I'd buy that this weekend. That's a great deal. If you don't, but want to deal with shipping, we can take this to PMs
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Dec 24, 2014 00:36
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I would consider it, but shipping this big boy from Western Canada would cost a fortune.
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Dec 24, 2014 08:54
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I can ask around here in Winnipeg to see if anyone is interested and is heading your way. I know there's a student in my SO's astronomy class who really wants to get a dobsonian of her own to start off with, and that's a pretty wicked price.
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Dec 24, 2014 10:02
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So I guess it's possible to still discover a new deep sky object these days.
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Dec 24, 2014 16:45
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That's pretty cool. How often do people give the well known bright stars good long images? I wonder if there are more out there.Coxswain Balls posted:I can ask around here in Winnipeg to see if anyone is interested and is heading your way. I know there's a student in my SO's astronomy class who really wants to get a dobsonian of her own to start off with, and that's a pretty wicked price.
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Dec 24, 2014 18:04
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slidebite posted:That's pretty cool. How often do people give the well known bright stars good long images? I wonder if there are more out there. Usually not many. They usually turn up on deep sky surveys that horrendously overexpose bright stars as a matter of course. There's a few objects like this that have been discovered by sharp-eyed observers and photographers, but the only one I can really think of offhand is the dwarf galaxy Leo I right next to Regulus.
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Dec 24, 2014 18:15
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I was gifted the Bushnell 10x50 binocs and Turn Left at Orion today, and I dug out my old tripod from the garage. Time to get back into this. Hooray 
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Dec 25, 2014 19:51
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I got some Celestron 7x50s to replace the pair that broke this year!
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Dec 25, 2014 20:43
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Van Dis posted:I was gifted the Bushnell 10x50 binocs and Turn Left at Orion today, and I dug out my old tripod from the garage. Time to get back into this. Hooray Awesome  Probably one of my better hobby decisions to get some 10x50s and a tripod mount to start with.
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Dec 25, 2014 21:16
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I got an iOptron Skytracker and ballhead mount expecting to be able to use a tripod I already owned. Turns out now that I've screwed off the pan head on the tripod that it apparently uses a non-standard mounting screw and so I can't fit the Skytracker to it. Really sucks, I was hoping to get some good pictures of Comet Lovejoy tonight since it's the only clear night I'm going to have until next Monday at least. Oh well, guess I'll just be using a telescope and pencil tonight.
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Dec 25, 2014 22:50
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So I finally got some good telescope time tonight from here in Tucson. I was able to get an amazing view of Jupiter and the Galilean Moons. I could make out the bands and everything! The moon also was really nice. The terminator broke through a nice field of craters. What a great hobby! The view was very sensitive to vibration however. I am not sure if the current mount is up to the weight of the telescope.
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Dec 28, 2014 07:53
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The Bushnell 10x50s don't have a way to mount them to a tripod. What are some solutions to this besides "hold really still"?
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Dec 30, 2014 04:23
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Van Dis posted:The Bushnell 10x50s don't have a way to mount them to a tripod. What are some solutions to this besides "hold really still"? I have a type like this, does the job. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-B...+tripod+adapter
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Dec 30, 2014 16:47
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mng posted:I have a type like this, does the job. What I mean is, these binocs don't have a mount, so you can't attach a tripod adaptor to it at all. Which I'm honestly very surprised about; I assumed binocs recommended for astronomy would necessarily have that feature.
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Dec 30, 2014 16:58
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Van Dis posted:What I mean is, these binocs don't have a mount, so you can't attach a tripod adaptor to it at all. Which I'm honestly very surprised about; I assumed binocs recommended for astronomy would necessarily have that feature. That's surprising. It's not hidden under a cap at the front? I guess you need a clamp then http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manfrotto-035BN-Binocular-Allows-Binoculars/dp/B000LRFV42/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419957033
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Dec 30, 2014 17:32
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Got a picture of Comet Lovejoy last night. Really need to figure out a way to drag some more detail out of the tail, with almost 14 minutes of exposure it should be stronger than that.
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Dec 31, 2014 03:41
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I'm curious about upgrading the mount for the telescope I mentioned awhile ago (120mm Orion apochromatic refractor). It's currently on an older Orion alt-az mount that seems unstable to me and tends to wobble for a while after making adjustments. It's missing the accessory tray so I have some braces I made with sheet metal, but not as stiff as the screw in tray would be. Is there a good starting point for price where I'm not buying junk? I was thinking of a basic equatorial mount that I could upgrade with a motor at some point.
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Dec 31, 2014 05:29
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Just getting back into the hobby after being out of it for a few years and ordered myself a new Nexstar 6 SE! My previously owned scopes were a Celestron 5" Newtonian on a EQ mount, and a Celestron 8" SCT on a manual Alt/Az mount. Both of those scopes were excellent, and the 8" SCT especially was a lot of fun, but with Los Angeles's light pollution, finding enough visible stars to begin star hopping was very difficult. So I'm really excited about the GOTO feature in the Nexstar, which would hopefully allow me to start seeing things from the roof of my apartment instead of making a 45 minute drive to darker skies. For those that own one, what do you guys use for power? I've heard that the 8 AA's in the base hardly power the scope for more than a couple of hours at a time, and the big Celestron Power Tank looks kind of heavy and bulky. Online people have given good reviews of 12v lithium ion battery packs, and I'm just curious if anyone's tried one. INTJ Mastermind fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 01:44
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mng posted:That's surprising. It's not hidden under a cap at the front? I guess you need a clamp then http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manfrotto-035BN-Binocular-Allows-Binoculars/dp/B000LRFV42/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419957033 Yeah, there's no way to mount these binocs without a clamp. Maybe we could get the first post amended to include that info about the Bushnell 10x50s, along with another binoc recommendation.
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Jan 3, 2015 02:00
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INTJ Mastermind posted:For those that own one, what do you guys use for power? I've heard that the 8 AA's in the base hardly power the scope for more than a couple of hours at a time, and the big Celestron Power Tank looks kind of heavy and bulky. Online people have given good reviews of 12v lithium ion battery packs, and I'm just curious if anyone's tried one. http://rasc-vancouver.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/mar-apr-08.pdf http://rasc-vancouver.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/jul-aug-08.pdf Those two RASC newsletters have parts one and two of a really good article on powering equipment in the field. Here's my own example I'm working on right now: My telescope's manual specified that the mount draws a maximum of 1.5A during heavy slewing. Since I'm using an SCT scope some dew heaters are going to be necessary, and since it's 11" the front one is gonna be a big one. On full power, the dew heaters for the corrector plate, eyepiece and finderscope are going to draw 4A. Worst case scenario, there'll be a total draw of 6.5A. Batteries are typically rated in amp hours (Ah, or mAh for smaller batteries), which will help you calculate how long your battery will last. So, let's say I'm going to use this 72Ah deep-cycle battery, if I was to run all of my equipment at full power (Not terribly likely), it would take 11 hours to hit 0Ah (72/6.5). Since draining a battery to more than 50% capacity is very bad for the life of the battery, halve that hour number to get a proper, worst case scenario number. In reality I've been told that a tracking mount has a pretty low power draw when you're not slewing all over the place, so as long as I'm not going crazy with the heaters, that 72Ah battery should be plenty for a long-weekend star party. Those Celestron power packs are really overpriced for what you get. You can probably build your own battery with a ton more capacity for a lot cheaper. I'm currently working on my own battery using that tutorial as a base, but with some extra safety features like proper outdoor rated connectors and a low voltage disconnect with solar charging capability. Van Dis posted:Maybe we could get the first post amended to include that info about the Bushnell 10x50s, along with another binoc recommendation.
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Jan 3, 2015 05:56
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You guys have awesome setups and I feel kind of stupid for posting this here since it's obvious that everything you've got is miles out of my league. Nonetheless, the following is my situation: I got a $50 gift card from best buy for Decemberween. Best Buy has telescopes on sale until January 8th. I have $50 (+$20 or so ~ish) to spend. I've got a 50mm aperture spotting scope of unknown focal length (it's variable zoom. Does that matter?) It's basically good for spying on neighbors. It has a tiny little unadjustable tripod, where pointing "up" to any degree basically requires lying on my back in the dirt. I'd like to upgrade. Given my price range and store restrictions, I've narrowed my search down to the following: http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product...ae2ac0d5cf5en02 Pros: Big tripod. Appears to be adjustable. Might come with a suitcase. Cons: Smallest aperture of the things I'm looking at. http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product...ab1722e5eb4en02 Pros: Larger aperture than the other scope. Cons: Appears to have a red-dot site instead of a spotting scope Tiny arsed tripod - appears to be non-adjustable. http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product...1d0895388a9en02 Pros: Appears to come with an adjustable tripod. May come with a free set of binoculars Has a spotting scope which is not a site from a paintball gun. Cons: Claims to be a refractor but the eyepiece is mounted on the side. May be constructed via voodoo. Customer reviews are unenthusiastic. They've got a few items in the $60 - $90 range. I know little enough about these that I don't feel I can ask an informed question - let alone make an informed decision. If you had $50 to spend on a telescope and it had to come from Best Buy (Canada), what would you choose?
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Jan 4, 2015 00:15
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Honestly? I'd trade the gift card for straight cash and buy something second hand. If you absolutely HAVE to buy one of those three, the 300x 76 Newtonian or the Safari would be the better choices. 300x 76 if you've got a park bench somewhere you can sit it on, and the Safari if you don't. To be quite honest though; dealing with extremely budget equipment can often be quite frustrating, and may turn you off the hobby. You wouldn't be the first. I'd actually suggest trying to find some 10x50 binoculars and getting yourself a halfway decent sky map. You can just lie on your back and check stuff out. You'd be surprised what you can see with it.
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Jan 4, 2015 00:29
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