On the whole I thought the episodes were very good and aimed at the right audience. Brian Cox was especially enthusiastic and I was very impressed with Dara O Briain who added sensible humour so it made the discussions credible and interesting. I would have liked to have seen a few more 'how to' guides from BBC The One Show's resident astronomer Mark Thompson but he did a good job of explaining some of the basics on observing and what equipment to use. It was fun watching Jonathan Ross being given a brief tour of the night sky by Mark.
Shame the weather wasn't great down here in London so unfortunately I missed the Partial eclipse at sunrise on Tuesday 4th. However the due to cloud the effect was such that it was noticeably darker than normal driving to work. If it was clear the darkening effect might have gone unnoticed.
As well as screening the episodes the BBC encouraged astronomical societies all over the uk to host public observing events and lectures to fire the public imagination and get them involved in the subject.
I would love to see another set of these Stargazing Live episodes again, perhaps later on the year. Perhaps it could coincide with a Star Party like the one in September at Kelling Heath.
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Stargazing Live!
The BBC are showing three episodes over three days dedicated to amateur astronomy. This coincides with a partial solar eclipse which can be seen from the UK and occurs on the morning of Tuesday 4th January.
Astronomer and host of the series 'Wonders of the Solar System' Brian Cox teams up with celebrity guests Dara O Briain and Jonathan Ross to talk about how to get started in astronomy and stargazing.
Events are are taking place all over the country and some observatories around the world are also taking part. To find your nearest event see the Events page on the Beeb website.
Happy observing!
Astronomer and host of the series 'Wonders of the Solar System' Brian Cox teams up with celebrity guests Dara O Briain and Jonathan Ross to talk about how to get started in astronomy and stargazing.
Events are are taking place all over the country and some observatories around the world are also taking part. To find your nearest event see the Events page on the Beeb website.
Happy observing!
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Moon Venus Conjunction Tenerife July 2010
These were take whilst on holiday in Tenerife 14th July 2010
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Equinox Skycamp 2010
For another year my family and I attended the September Equinox Skycamp up in Kelling Heath, Norfolk. This year however, rather than stay elsewhere the week running up to the main skycamp weekend we decided to stay a whole ten days at Kelling. Sheer bliss! This gave us ample time to travel around the local area and see what North Norfolk coast and its surroundings had to offer. During the week we visited Norwich, Cromer, Sheringham and Wells-next-the-sea.
One of the highlights of the week was travelling on the North Norfolk Steam railway. There was a steam gala day on Sunday 4th September where only steam trains ran along the railway instead of both steam and diesel trains. We picked up the train from Kelling Halt on the way towards Sheringham. Travel time was about 20mins or so. After our stay in Sheringham we travelled to Holt then back to Kelling.
Wireless Communication
I always use skycamp as a test-bed for new equipment and technology and this year again was no exception. This time I decided to change the wireless technology and move from Bluetooth to a Wi-Fi setup.
I invested in a Belkin Network USB Hub (http://www.belkin.com/uk/networkusbhub/) . This device requires an additional wireless router for it to be effective so I dug out an old D-Link Adsl WiFi router from the loft and hooked them up. The hub has five USB connections but you can attach up to fifteen USB devices if you use additional USB hubs.
I managed to wireless the Autostar and my new focuser (see later)... but unfortunately I couldn't wireless the LPI or ToUcam webcams as the hub seems to be incompatible with the webcams.
I was slightly concerned with the amount of power all the gadgets might draw but fortunately it turned out to be much less than the maximum power the electrical hook up provided.
The system worked very well and only the power and webcam leads went between the telescope and my laptop in the tent. It was a pleasure controlling the Autostar and focuser from the laptop especially when I had the webcam hooked up for imaging Jupiter as there was no need to keep getting up to make any adjustments.
Touring the Norfolk Night Skies
With the wireless system up and running it was time to test it out. I decided to take my LXD55 AR-6 6 inch refractor on the LXD75 mount to the camp this year as I want to get the best images of Jupiter and to be honest I actually prefer it to my 8 inch SCT.
Unfortunately I didn't think the weather wasn't as great as previous years although there were long periods of clear skies over the weekend, enough for everyone at the camp to get some good observing and imaging done. I didn't really do much deep sky observing this year as I wanted to concentrate in obtaining decent images of Jupiter.
Jupiter Imaging
Like last year the aim of the weekend for me was to get digital images of Jupiter through the refractor. Observationally I didn't think the seeing was particular great in revealing much detail on the planet - personally I thought that there had been betting conditions the previous year, but nevertheless I still managed to see some of the belts during brief periods of good seeing.
Once again I thought I'd try the LPI but I really cannot seem to get on with the LPI software, it’s just not very intuitive so I used my trusty ToUcam Pro II instead.
Focusing was no longer a problem as I had invested in an Orion Accufocuser and a Shoestring Autofocus PC interface and with that wirelessly linked to my laptop it was a breeze using the focuspal software to tweak the focuser without getting up from my seat.
I took about five movies of Jupiter and processed them with the latest version of Registax v5. In order to try and get a good focus viewing the image from the laptop screen I decided to reduce the saturation to black and white levels - this helped except I forgot to raise then again so all my movies came out black and white rather than colour, doh!
The Main Weekend
Saturday 11th was the main event day. Trade stands were again in the yellow field and lectures took place in the Kelling Heath ‘The Forge’ bar. Speakers included Jack Martin and Bob Mizon who kindly gave a last minute talk as one of the lecturers unfortunately could not do it due to illness.
Loughton member Alan Marriott directed the telescope tour, demonstrating the different instruments strewn across the red and yellow fields.
Raffle tickets were available from the Loughton Society's stand located on the bandstand in the square. The draw took place in the early evening where prizes, kindly donated from vendors were won.
The day was pleasant and quite warm, and as the Sun went down I saw some amazing cloud formations during the prize raffle.
Sunday was a another bright sunny day and by traditional we visit Cromer for the afternoon and by the time we got back in the early evening it was looking likely that it going to be a clear. I spent most of my time before midnight observing Jupiter and after midnight I decided to have a walk around and view through other people's telescopes. By about 01:30 the seeing conditions were getting poor so I called it a night.
On the whole the skycamp was another great success. It is known as the largest established skycamp in Europe with hundreds of people in attendence on the main day. Looking forward to next year where we have booked again a lodge and pitch for yet another 10 nights!
One of the highlights of the week was travelling on the North Norfolk Steam railway. There was a steam gala day on Sunday 4th September where only steam trains ran along the railway instead of both steam and diesel trains. We picked up the train from Kelling Halt on the way towards Sheringham. Travel time was about 20mins or so. After our stay in Sheringham we travelled to Holt then back to Kelling.
Wireless Communication
I always use skycamp as a test-bed for new equipment and technology and this year again was no exception. This time I decided to change the wireless technology and move from Bluetooth to a Wi-Fi setup.
I invested in a Belkin Network USB Hub (http://www.belkin.com/uk/networkusbhub/) . This device requires an additional wireless router for it to be effective so I dug out an old D-Link Adsl WiFi router from the loft and hooked them up. The hub has five USB connections but you can attach up to fifteen USB devices if you use additional USB hubs.
I was slightly concerned with the amount of power all the gadgets might draw but fortunately it turned out to be much less than the maximum power the electrical hook up provided.
The system worked very well and only the power and webcam leads went between the telescope and my laptop in the tent. It was a pleasure controlling the Autostar and focuser from the laptop especially when I had the webcam hooked up for imaging Jupiter as there was no need to keep getting up to make any adjustments.
Touring the Norfolk Night Skies
With the wireless system up and running it was time to test it out. I decided to take my LXD55 AR-6 6 inch refractor on the LXD75 mount to the camp this year as I want to get the best images of Jupiter and to be honest I actually prefer it to my 8 inch SCT.
Unfortunately I didn't think the weather wasn't as great as previous years although there were long periods of clear skies over the weekend, enough for everyone at the camp to get some good observing and imaging done. I didn't really do much deep sky observing this year as I wanted to concentrate in obtaining decent images of Jupiter.
Jupiter Imaging
Like last year the aim of the weekend for me was to get digital images of Jupiter through the refractor. Observationally I didn't think the seeing was particular great in revealing much detail on the planet - personally I thought that there had been betting conditions the previous year, but nevertheless I still managed to see some of the belts during brief periods of good seeing.
Once again I thought I'd try the LPI but I really cannot seem to get on with the LPI software, it’s just not very intuitive so I used my trusty ToUcam Pro II instead.
Focusing was no longer a problem as I had invested in an Orion Accufocuser and a Shoestring Autofocus PC interface and with that wirelessly linked to my laptop it was a breeze using the focuspal software to tweak the focuser without getting up from my seat.
I took about five movies of Jupiter and processed them with the latest version of Registax v5. In order to try and get a good focus viewing the image from the laptop screen I decided to reduce the saturation to black and white levels - this helped except I forgot to raise then again so all my movies came out black and white rather than colour, doh!
 |
| SkyCamp 2010 |
The Main Weekend
Saturday 11th was the main event day. Trade stands were again in the yellow field and lectures took place in the Kelling Heath ‘The Forge’ bar. Speakers included Jack Martin and Bob Mizon who kindly gave a last minute talk as one of the lecturers unfortunately could not do it due to illness.
Loughton member Alan Marriott directed the telescope tour, demonstrating the different instruments strewn across the red and yellow fields.
Raffle tickets were available from the Loughton Society's stand located on the bandstand in the square. The draw took place in the early evening where prizes, kindly donated from vendors were won.
The day was pleasant and quite warm, and as the Sun went down I saw some amazing cloud formations during the prize raffle.
Sunday was a another bright sunny day and by traditional we visit Cromer for the afternoon and by the time we got back in the early evening it was looking likely that it going to be a clear. I spent most of my time before midnight observing Jupiter and after midnight I decided to have a walk around and view through other people's telescopes. By about 01:30 the seeing conditions were getting poor so I called it a night.
On the whole the skycamp was another great success. It is known as the largest established skycamp in Europe with hundreds of people in attendence on the main day. Looking forward to next year where we have booked again a lodge and pitch for yet another 10 nights!
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