Star gazing

[jcp]

Originally Posted by thirdway

You can get a 6" Dob for under £200. Basic eye pieces come with it. Webcam is about £25 from what I can understand. Like you say, there is only so much cash to splash. I'm currently out of work at the moment so the bikes might have to stay off the road for the time being. 2 full sets of Ducati belts and valve checking for both bikes means they might have a longer holiday than usual LOL I can gaze at the heavens instead.

Sorry to hear you are out of work thirdway-but at least you have some time back here, it is nice to hear from you!

[thirdway]

Originally Posted by jcp

Sorry to hear you are out of work thirdway-but at least you have some time back here, it is nice to hear from you!

I appreciate it JCP, however I did take the decision to leave. This is the second job I have left in the last 3 years, so it's becoming a habit LOL. I'm busy trying to start a company with a social benefit, in order to give young people a career.it will be a co-operative, giving everyone a share in the business. If it runs to the business plan there will be 1000 branches around the UK.

Biking might have to take a back seat until I can begin to recoup some capital.

[Asid810]

Sorry to hear your out of work but plans sounds good-big change then for you I guess but sounds like a real career move-good luck with it 

[thirdway]

Cheers guys. I've managed to change my career 5 or 6 times and had several businesses over the years. This time it's quite an undertaking, but I have had a lot of experience supporting businesses as well as sucessfully managing other people's businesses. It was time I got off my backside and utilised the skills I have accumulated.

[jcp]

I like the notion of a co-operative set up designed to get young people into the world of work-very appropriate for our current hard times.

[Asid810]

Originally Posted by jcp

I like the notion of a co-operative set up designed to get young people into the world of work-very appropriate for our current hard times.

[StreetHawk]

If you're into star gazing and the like, we do a bit of this at work adn a great website to help you identify what you might be looking at or looking for is www.stellarium.org/ it's a downloadable thing and is very good. It can also give you dates of flares and comets etc to look out for.

 

[thirdway]

It's not available for the iPad unfortunately. I use .

[StreetHawk]

A few downloads that I have seen recommended by stargazers for the I-pad are

SkySafari Pro StarmapHD
Star Charts
SpaceMap
PocketUniverse
Distant Suns
SkyScan
Planisphere
Luminos
Redshift
AstroPlanner
SkyORB
S&T SkyWeek


 

[wheelie]

You see Jupiter and Venus together last night? Was pretty cool! Apparantly, if you have a telescope, you can see Jupiter's moons, and further down the line the two planets make, Saturn and Mars.

[thirdway]

Yes. If you have been watching you will have noticed Venus and Jupiter have changed position. Jupiter is on its way out now as its getting lower in the sky making good viewing difficult, however you can still see the moons with a reasonable pair of binoculars quite easily. The scope I use allows me to see the bands on planet and when the seeing is good the eye as well.

Mars is tricky for some reason everyone seems to struggle, then one evening we get to see the polar ice cap and some surface detail. Saturn is beautiful, simply stunning, like a perfect pearl set in black satin. I can make out the Cassini division on the rings. Venus is difficult for detail because it's so bright, but its interesting to see the phases (just like our moon it goes through partial illumination).

If you have a good pair of fairly powerful binoculars you can easily see the Orion nebula. If you find the constellation, look for the 3 stars of the belt. Below the belt is the sword, it's sometimes difficult to see it with the naked eye unless your in a very dark area. If you scan the stars that make up the sword, even with the naked eye you can make out the fuzzy patch about half way down, that's the nebula. It's pretty big, but don't expect to see lots of colour as its quite faint, more like a misty fog. Still great to find it.

[wheelie]

I think my dad might have some binoculars, might borrow them when I pop round un Sunday. Hope the planets havent run away by then, would be wicked to see Saturn!

[thirdway]

It's a late one for Saturn. Tonight looks good up here.

[thirdway]

Saw my first Galaxies from Kielder the other week, Orion Nebula was astonishing with no light pollution. We were at a remote viewpoint at about 10pm when suddenly there is car coming up the track. I thought courting couple or something like that. Turns out they were an Irish couple that wanted to do some star track photography. They asked about the telescope, so when they got sorted I let them come and have a look at some of the impressive objects ( no giggling at the back ). They could not stop looking at Saturn and kept going back for another peek. It's great when you can share something like that.

[coddy]

Have you seen this thirdway? I found it fascinating.


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