Author Archives: james

The Beginning of a New Dobsonian

Posted on April 12, 2012 by james

I recently had the chance to acquire some bits left over from a damaged Skywatcher 250mm Flextube dobsonian telescope for not very many pennies. As a result I’m now the proud owner of a the mirror and cell, spider (with … Continue reading →

Posted in Astro Equipment, Astronomy, Projects | 1 Comment

Veg Plot Progress

Posted on April 12, 2012 by james

Busy times at the moment. This is the veg. plot as it looked at the start of March. It’s a big plot and in previous years has taken a very long time to dig over by hand, so this year … Continue reading →

Posted in Polytunnel, Smallholding, Veg plot | Leave a comment

Focal Ratio and Capture Length for Planetary Imaging

Posted on March 26, 2012 by james

Thus far with my planetary imaging I’ve used capture times and focal ratios just “by the book” without actually understanding how the answers were derived, so I decided it was about time I worked things out for myself. I’ve summarised … Continue reading →

Posted in Astroimaging, Astronomy | Leave a comment

Notes on Using the SPC900NC for Planetary Imaging

Posted on March 24, 2012 by james

A while back I was looking for information on which codec was best for data capture from the SPC900 cameras and found several web pages suggesting that YUY2 (aka YUYV, I believe) was best on the grounds that it generated … Continue reading →

Posted in Astro Equipment, Astroimaging, Astronomy | Leave a comment

Observation Report 23 March 2012

Posted on March 24, 2012 by james

I’ve not written many observation reports recently, mainly because I’ve spent my time concentrating on planetary imaging. I’m still doing that, now starting to turn my attention towards Saturn as well as Mars, but there’s time during the imaging runs … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged | Leave a comment

Veg Plot Ready for Planting

Posted on March 24, 2012 by james

Last weekend it was finally dry enough to get the rotavator onto the veggie plot to get it sorted for this year. I say rotavator. I cheated a bit this year. Sadly work too often gets in the way of … Continue reading →

Posted in Smallholding, Veg plot | Leave a comment

Xbox Live All-Sky Camera

Posted on March 19, 2012 by james

I picked up an Xbox Live camera very cheaply in the hope that it might be comparable to the SPC900 for planetary imaging. Very quickly however that turned out not to be the case. When testing the camera I discovered … Continue reading →

Posted in Astroimaging, Astronomy | Leave a comment

New Images of Mars

Posted on March 19, 2012 by james

Last night I captured what I think are possibly my best images of Mars ever (maybe even of any of my planetary images), and it may well be the best I can do with the kit I’m using at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Astroimaging, Astronomy | Tagged | 2 Comments

Capture codecs for Solar System Imaging

Posted on March 19, 2012 by james

Until the last few days I’ve not been aware that the various codecs offered for capture by my SPC900 webcam (and others) are not equal and some retain more data than others. Once aware of the issue I did a … Continue reading →

Posted in Astroimaging, Astronomy | Leave a comment

Measuring Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude

Posted on March 19, 2012 by james

I recently came across this posting on measuring Naked Eye Limiting Magnitude and decided to give it a try for my home. We live very close to Exmoor National Park which is now designated a Dark Sky site, so I … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy | 2 Comments