The Astronomy hobby thread

[masraum]

Anyone seen Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS?

I looked a few mornings, but then found out that I'd missed the "morning show." It's now giving a night time show, very low in the sky just after sunset. I've had super clear views the past 2 days (apparently, it was brightest on the evening of the 9th, but I wasn't looking in the evening sky until the 10th). I haven't seen squat. It has been dusty which has created lovely reds and oranges for the cloudless sunset. I'm guessing the dust and light is blowing it out for me. It's going to get higher in the sky, but the moon is also getting brighter (but further away). I'll keep looking.

At least I saw Hale-Bopp back in '97, although I was a young guy with other stuff on my mind, and didn't spend much time viewing it.

[flatbutt]

I live on the floor of a valley and have no horizon at all. Plus, the ridge to the East rises to approx 30 degrees so I must wait till it's higher up. I did get a great look at Mars the other night when the Moon was just a sliver.

[917_Langheck]

Managed to finally find it in the fading light and advancing fog. Unfortunately, the view point was only a few miles from the Pacific, and an elevation of around 1200 ft., so the seeing was ever-decreasing as the atmosphere cooled and the humidity rose.

Looks like there is a good tail to be seen, but not today.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by 917_Langheck

Managed to finally find it in the fading light and advancing fog. Unfortunately, the view point was only a few miles from the Pacific, and an elevation of around 1200 ft., so the seeing was ever-decreasing as the atmosphere cooled and the humidity rose.

Looks like there is a good tail to be seen, but not today.

Very nice!

[917_Langheck]

A little bit better atmosphere tonight.

[Eric Hahl]

I missed my chance at seeing it over the weekend while it was clear. Looks like the clouds are showing up this afternoon for the foreseeable future.

[RNajarian]

Thank to everyone who is sharing their amazing photos.

We amateur amateur astronomers appreciate it.

[Rusty Heap]

[masraum]

Originally Posted by 917_Langheck

Managed to finally find it in the fading light and advancing fog. Unfortunately, the view point was only a few miles from the Pacific, and an elevation of around 1200 ft., so the seeing was ever-decreasing as the atmosphere cooled and the humidity rose.

Looks like there is a good tail to be seen, but not today.

Here's my cell phone shot off of our second story window.


Maybe over the next few days I'll grab my DSLR and big lens and see what I can do. And the moon will be a little lower in the sky at sunset which should help.

[917_Langheck]

Originally Posted by masraum

Here's my cell phone shot off of our second story window.


Maybe over the next few days I'll grab my DSLR and big lens and see what I can do. And the moon will be a little lower in the sky at sunset which should help.

Very nice.

Venus has been providing as a good "guide star" to set focus and basic iso, aperture, and shutter settings. Good luck with the big lense.

[bugstrider]

Took these last night from the Placerville Airport and our house with the iPhone.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[masraum]

Originally Posted by bugstrider

Took these last night from the Placerville Airport and our house with the iPhone.

Nice (all of them, just trimmed some to make the post more brief).

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by masraum

Nice (all of them, just trimmed some to make the post more brief).

Did I do something incorrectly when posting the pics? I’m not sure what I did wrong, so please explain so I do not repeat the same mistake.

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[masraum]

Originally Posted by bugstrider

Did I do something incorrectly when posting the pics? I’m not sure what I did wrong, so please explain so I do not repeat the same mistake.

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You didn't do anything wrong. I just didn't think I needed to repost all of your photos again since they were all right above my post. They are great!

[bugstrider]

Originally Posted by masraum

You didn't do anything wrong. I just didn't think I needed to repost all of your photos again since they were all right above my post. They are great!

Thanks! I seem to have a habit of posting a pic via my iPhone and it creates havoc with the forum. I haven’t been successful in posting an embedded video , so I am always willing to learn the ways of the force.

Thanks for clarifying.

I am looking for suggestions on a viable mount for a pair of large celestial binoculars used for Star gazing. I picked up a SkyView Pro equatorial tripod in FBMP and thought it would be a good starting point. Yes….. it was a blind purchase not knowing what the heck I was needing .
It seems the adapter mounts for these are NLA.

Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[masraum]

Originally Posted by bugstrider

Thanks! I seem to have a habit of posting a pic via my iPhone and it creates havoc with the forum. I haven’t been successful in posting an embedded video , so I am always willing to learn the ways of the force.

Thanks for clarifying.

I am looking for suggestions on a viable mount for a pair of large celestial binoculars used for Star gazing. I picked up a SkyView Pro equatorial tripod in FBMP and thought it would be a good starting point.
Cheers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I haven't figured out a way to embed a YT video from my phone. On the PC, it's fairly simple, right click on the video and these days there's an "copy embed code" option (or something like that).

The preferred mount for large binoculars like that (for astronomy) is a parallelogram mount.

thread on them
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/812208-show-us-your-parallelogram-mount/

Oberwerk makes good stuff, but I'm sure there are less expensive models out there. This is just the first example that I saw in my google results.
https://oberwerk.com/product/oberwerk-pm1/

[Pazuzu]

The rules with big heavy high powered binocs is COMFORT. You need the mount to fully support them because you'll fatigue trying to hold them, and you need to be in a neutral, comfortable posture so you're not straining your eyes. Bending over, crocked neck, bent backwards, hunched, etc all constrict bloodflow through your neck to your head, and you will severely affect your eyesight, meaning you won't be seeing everything in the binocs.

Parallelogram mounts are classic, make your own, the production ones are soooo expensive. People also make articulated mounts that go on a rotating, tilting chair so you're always in a neutral seated position. Finally, big saddle mounts are the next best option, they support the binocs well but aren't as good for looking at high altitudes.

All of the 25x100 binocs are roughly the same (mechanically at least), you have a 1/4-20 photo tripod thread on that center stalk, all of the big binoc mounts have dovetail shoes that will let you mount the binocs.

Or, sell everything and buy my set as a package
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/27220417774238249

[Eric Hahl]

Weather cleared this weekend so I got the scope out and took some shots.

Friday night...Orion & the Pleiades.




Saturday night....M81, 82 and neighbors.


All shot with the RedCat 71 telescope and ASI 2600MC camera.

[masraum]

Great shots, Eric!

[Eric Hahl]

Thanks Steve!