I'm in the very early planning of a backyard roll off roof enclosure for my scopes. I'll share with youse guys once I pull the trigger on it.

A roll off roof is only useful if it does 3 things:
Shield you from the wind. Any wall will do that.
Shield you from the neighbor's security lights. Make sure the walls are high enough for that.
Allow the scope to be parked in a reasonable location. I've seen lots of roll off roofs where the owner is trying to save money and make them too short, and then have to park the scope in some very specific, very weird direction to clear the roof. That's all fine and good as long as it actually parks perfectly, EVERY TIME.

Number 2 is one of my main motivations. The top reason is that I'm getting too wobbly to keep hauling the CPC 800 out and back for every session. Plus I waste a lot time setting up, equilibrating and re-aligning.

I've done a few measurements and six feet to the roller track should do it. My horizon is in the trees and there is serious glow to the SSE so below 25 degrees is useless.

I was completely unaware of the once every 700 years lunar eclipse last night. I got lucky that our dog woke up at 2am needing to do some business, so I got to see it.

Now I'd ready for the 2023 annular solar eclipse and the 2024 total solar eclipse both of which are going to pass over Texas. I'm not directly in the path for either so I'll have to travel a bit.

Ordered a new imaging scope today for widefield. Should be here by Friday. Too bad I live in the cloudy northwest. Oh well, this will give me time to research other items to go along with it.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1639436707.jpg

Waiting for new pics!

I was out with the dog the other day in the early morning and saw something not far from the heads of Gemini (Pollux specifically). Checking Stellarium, it's the Beehive cluster. I'm always surprised at what you can see in relatively dark skies, even without binoculars or a telescope. I spent a couple of weeks in the burbs a few weeks back and couldn't see squat when I'd look up. It was pretty sad.

I found this animation of the solar system. Pretty interesting how the digital age opens up all sorts of new ways of looking at complex stuff..

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0jHsq36_NTU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Cool video!

Did you know the sun was like a comet, dragging the planets in its wake?

Well, the whole galaxy is spinning, most objects relative to each other. Lets throw another mind bender in there for ya...Imagine the plane of that vortex not perpendicular to the center of rotation of the center of the Galaxy as shown.

like so....

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1639441672.jpg

The vortex animation lets me understand the professor explaining the gravity of planets as shown here, which I never could quite grasp (hard to picture 3D with a 2 D model) until recently, so maybe someday I'll be able to understand your offset solar system plane, should another enlightening lesson arrive in my inbox!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MTY1Kje0yLg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Also, the video assumes the sun is moving in a direction perpendicular to the orbits of the planets. Why must that be? The galaxy is also moving at 468,000 mph. But what are all these velocities relative to?

what is pulling on our sun to make move and where are we headed ???

The animation is really cool, but not accurate.

https://astrorhysy.blogspot.com/2013/12/and-yet-it-moves-but-not-like-that.html

The whole galaxy is moving, the whole universe is in motion. Our Galaxy has a super massive black hole at its center that everything in the galaxy is in motion around. So gravity, dark matter, dark energy, and probably other stuff we can't explain yet.

Check out the the stars in motion. This is 20 years of captured movement. Those stars must be moving at incredible speeds! <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TF8THY5spmo" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

eppur si muove!

Steve's post helps to make Eric's a little clearer!

<iframe width="560" height="315src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MTY1Kje0yLg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/QUOTE]
insert above video here. It shows on my dialog box but not in the posting.

I guess it's the limitations of my imagination, but I've always had trouble conceptualizing this 2D model in 3D. I'm supposing the 2D plane this plays out in is actually an infinite number of planes centered around the object radiating the gravitational pull. In my weak mind, the 3D reporsentation could be illustrated by concentric spheres/shells of ever weakening and strengthening of gravitational pull relative to the distance from the body exertiing it. I'm probably off base with this.

I just printed the plastic for a friend for an OpenAstroTracker:https://openastrotech.com/#section-openastrotracker

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1639601075.jpg