Stars.....

[David Ashby - Moderator]

As you'll know from the Clouds thread, I look upwards a lot - perhaps not always with an informed mind registering what it sees ......but anyhow.

 

I like watching stars too and last night looked up when walking to the garage. I spotted a clear pattern that I knew I'd seen and daughter saw me looking up and came out - "Is that Orion" I wondered?

 

Out came the camera, tripod and all and a 4+ second bulb seemed to get a decent'ish shot.....

 

.....a quick Wiki  later and it is indeed Orion.

 

20-second exposure...

Betelgeuse (the slightly orangy top left star) is 637 light years away so that we saw last night started traveling in 1374!

 

This could get compulsive, I can see me buying a telescope next!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By David Ashby - RCME Administrator on 08/03/2011 05:25:28

[Lee Wilson]

Did you see the International space station and the shuttle pass over? Saw them last night and believe they should be visible again tomorrow evening.

Lee

[David Ashby - Moderator]

No, what part of the sky Lee?

[Lee Wilson]

Download the free NASA app for your I phone and it has live tracking info for the ISS and if you search your postcode it will tell you when and where any spotting opportunities are.

[Lee Wilson]

2011-03-09 ISS Sighting
Date: Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Time: 06:40 PM
Duration: 1 minutes
Maximum Elevation: 11?
Approach: 11? above SW
Departure: 10? above SSW


2011-03-09 SHUTTLE Sighting
Date: Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Time: 06:35 PM
Duration: 2 minutes
Maximum Elevation: 12?
Approach: 11? above SW
Departure: 10? above S

About the NASA App: http://www.nasa.gov/nasaapp

Copied from the app and the ? Should be degrees

Edited By Lee Wilson on 08/03/2011 07:20:58

Another good app is Google sky maps. Locate your position with your phones GPS and then when you point your phone at the sky the screen shows you what stars you are looking at.

Edited By Lee Wilson on 08/03/2011 07:33:07

[Tim Kearsley]

Don't get me started on this one!! Astrophotography is my other major passion and I've spent (wasted?) a GREAT deal of money on telescopes et al over the years. Here's the Great Nebula in Orion, which I'm amazed to see I took back in 2004 - where do the years go?!!

 

Great nebula

 

Cheers,

 

Tim.

 

[Peter Miller]

Just before Christmas I bought a bridge camera with a 30 times zoom. That goes out to a 35mm equivalent of 720 mm.

 

The other night I spent a bit of time taking pictures of the moon. I am quite pleased with the results.

[Gary Binnie]

Ah, blub!!! I had a lovely telescope, did astrophotography and developed the film myself but it all had to go to fund the restoration of an old British motorbike, at least I've still got that!!

I wonder if they fly models on any of the other planets?!!

 

GB

[David Ashby - Moderator]

That's just stunning Tim and Peter....I think I've got a long way to go!

 

 

[001]

I had a very good telescope when I lived in Spain where the skies were cloud free for 90% of the time. (Not so much use now, so I sold it!)

 

If you read some books on the Pyramids, the three main Pyramids at Gizeh seem to be aligned, on the ground, exactly on the same spacing of the three stars of Orion's belt.

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Lee, thanks for that - downloaded that and I'll be watching the horizon tonight

 

 

 

[Tim Kearsley]

Another VERY good source of all things relating to satellite predictions is this Of particular interest are the Iridium satellite flares - can be quite specatacular.

 

Tim.

[Ian Jones]

Whenever I've tried to photograph the stars on a long exposure I end up with blurry oval shapes, presumabley caused by the earth's rotation. On the sky at night they said give it 30 secs, doing that I end up with straight cumberland sausages all over the sky - nice effect but a bit if a mash up

 

I eventually got down to 10 secs on ISO1600 but they still were not very clear. A few hints would go down nicely.

Edited By Ian Jones on 08/03/2011 10:02:44

[Tim Kearsley]

Ian, it's why if you go into astrophotography at anything more than a passing interest level you soon find that you have to start guiding your camera to follow the Earth's rotation. The amount of motion you see in your fixed-camera shots depends on which part of the sky you are pointing at (and the focal length of your lens). The least motion is around the Pole Star (Polaris), whereas the greatest motion is at the celestial equator (about where Orion is!). Without guiding your camera, the best you can do is to set the ISO setting on your camera as high as you can and take the shortest exposures you can, with the shortest focal length lens you can!

 

Cheers,

 

Tim.

 

[Ian Jones]

Tim that's quite helpful - I'll see waht I can find in the southern sky. I'll try a shorter lens too - I was using 600mm (in 35mm terms).

 

Thanks, Ian

[Wingman]

There's also Microsoft Worldwide Telescope which turns your PC into a virtual telescope.

[Ian Jones]

Wingman that is fantastic.

 

I've just tried the browser version, I take it the client version will work much faster.

 

Ta very much, Ian

[Wingman]

Yeah Ian, brilliant init? You can certainly whiz around the sky with the client version - I've never tried the browser version - it's a fairly new addition. Maybe not the same as looking through your own telescope but at least there's no light polution.

[Alan Cantwell]

the heavens have intrigued me too, i just cannot gt the head round what exaclty it all is, how far does it go? you think of the planets in our solar system, then get told there are countless solar systems, i mean, the human mind just cannot fathom the expanse, wander if mankinds destiny is out there, or will we just be another demised occupier of this old rock in space?

 

i often think, get the trouble makers of the planet up there, let them see how small they all are, then throw them out the airlock

[Spice Cat]

Try this one here. Astronomy picture of the day.

[Ian Jones]

All this is very interesting information chaps and just to show I'm not all take, take, take, I'll offer a link to something I was recently put onto:

 

Heavens-Above

 

From the information there I can step outside my front door point myself in the right direction and (on a clear night) look straight at the International Space Station (ISS). Another interesting thing to look into on this site is Iridium Flares.

[David Ashby - Moderator]

I'd no idea there were so many sites like these, thanks guys.

 

Of course, this has to be most people's favourite?

 

[Ian Jones]

Posted by Tim Kearsley on 08/03/2011 10:00:34:

Another VERY good source of all things relating to satellite predictions is this Of particular interest are the Iridium satellite flares - can be quite specatacular.

 

Tim.

Oops sorry Tim, I missed your post somehow and repeated much of what you said.

[Tim Kearsley]

No problem Ian, proves that great minds think alike!

 

Tim.

[Terence Lynock]

Well, used to drop in at this site regularly as I do have an interest in astronomy and astro photography, I had a 9'' reflector scope that I took to Wales when we moved but never got around to rebuilding the mount for it, I still have the mirror and secondary mirror and all the eyepieces somewhere.

I bought a new 6'' reflector from Germany instead of rebuilding the old one and lots of other stuff like lenses, laser colimator, zoom lens, 20x mag finder scope,motor drive and so on, its still in the box as other things overtook it, probably give it to my grandson as he and my son are both interested.