{"id":206,"date":"2012-01-29T14:20:33","date_gmt":"2012-01-29T14:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=206"},"modified":"2012-01-29T14:20:33","modified_gmt":"2012-01-29T14:20:33","slug":"astronomical-observatory-news-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/29\/astronomical-observatory-news-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomical observatory: News update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been rather quiet about the observatory and astronomy in general in this blog for quite some time now. (Actually, looking back it was last June.) So, what&#8217;s been going on?<\/p>\n<h3>Observations.<\/h3>\n<p>When the weather has allowed I&#8217;ve been out a number of times, the most fruitful being around the end of October when Jupiter was close to opposition and hence the largest it can be.<\/p>\n<p>During this time the weather was helpfully quite good with a number of days of exceptionally stable air giving rather good viewing conditions (known as &#8220;seeing&#8221;). which gave me a good opportunity to try out a time-lapse video of Jupiter turning.<\/p>\n<p>It took a few hours to image Jupiter using a modified web-cam device and then a further half a day to process each of the video clips into single images such as this:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-208\" href=\"http:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/29\/astronomical-observatory-news-update\/jupiter_20111015_2304_19\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"208\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/29\/astronomical-observatory-news-update\/jupiter_20111015_2304_19\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Jupiter_20111015_2304_19.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"640,480\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Jupiter_20111015_2304_19\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Jupiter_20111015_2304_19-300x225.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Jupiter_20111015_2304_19.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-208\" title=\"Jupiter_20111015_2304_19\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Jupiter_20111015_2304_19.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Jupiter_20111015_2304_19.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Jupiter_20111015_2304_19-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Jupiter_20111015_2304_19-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Jupiter_20111015_2304_19-400x300.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Each of the images was then again put into Registax, aligned and then made into a time-lapse movie:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s3dPUl6kW2I\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Which does look rather impressive.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, after that period the weather hasn&#8217;t been very kind and Jupiter has drifted further away from us as we journey around the Sun. Still, Mars is on its way!<\/p>\n<p>After the purchase of a new telescope at the new year (more later) I&#8217;ve managed to get out only a couple of times, mostly to do tests. The best image so far has been of the Orion Nebula taken by imaging a number of times with my Nikon D90 and then combining the sub-frames into a final image:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/29\/astronomical-observatory-news-update\/10x15s-orion\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-209\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"209\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/29\/astronomical-observatory-news-update\/10x15s-orion\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/10x15s-orion.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2143,1423\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"10x15s-orion\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/10x15s-orion-300x199.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/10x15s-orion-1024x679.jpg\" width=\"584\" height=\"387\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/10x15s-orion-1024x679.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"10x15s-orion\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-209\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/10x15s-orion-1024x679.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/10x15s-orion-150x99.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/10x15s-orion-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/10x15s-orion-451x300.jpg 451w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It could be better. The telescope mount wasn&#8217;t fully calibrated, I need a light pollution filter and the stars were twinkling wildly due to disturbed air. Still, it&#8217;s a start and far better than I could achieve with the Meade LX90.<\/p>\n<h3>Hardware<\/h3>\n<p>Most of my time in the observatory has been spent trying to find ways to stop water seeping in and causing mould to form. In the end I had to spray the whole of the outside of the base with a rubber sealant paint and drill some drain holes in the roof roller rails. These <strong>seem<\/strong> to have mitigated the problem but I&#8217;ll know better when there&#8217;s some more heavy rain.<\/p>\n<p>Other than that, the biggest news is the purchase of a new telescope with a &#8220;German&#8221; equatorial mount. The fact that the new optical tube is larger too is a side issue as the difference in price between the sizes wasn&#8217;t that great and so the biggest which would fit the observatory and the budget was the one I went for.<\/p>\n<p>The reason for the change was two-fold. Firstly, the Meade LX90&#8242; mount is rather crude and wanders all over the place, making it useless for even medium length imaging of deep-sky objects. Secondly, the fork mount, when combined with an equatorial wedge, excludes much of the sky as the mount gets in the way of the camera.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, in the end, after quite some extensive research I decided upon the Celestron EdgeHD 1100, 11&#8243; scope. That, along with the hardware to fit it onto the observatory&#8217;s pedestal and guide scope, cost a pretty penny.<\/p>\n<p>It was only after I mounted it in the observatory that I found the one big problem with the guide scope (other than the weight) and that was that it won&#8217;t fit in the observatory. (In fact, the main scope only just fits when it&#8217;s at its easterly range of travel.) Still, other than that &#8220;Doh!&#8221; moment everything&#8217;s fine.<\/p>\n<h5><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/29\/astronomical-observatory-news-update\/img_0317\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-210\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"210\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/29\/astronomical-observatory-news-update\/img_0317\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0317.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1936,2592\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;2.8&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;iPhone 4&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1326558877&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;3.85&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;500&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.066666666666667&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"IMG_0317\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;The new &amp;#8216;scope at home.&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0317-224x300.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0317-764x1024.jpg\" width=\"584\" height=\"782\" src=\"http:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0317-764x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"IMG_0317\" class=\"size-large wp-image-210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0317-764x1024.jpg 764w, https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0317-112x150.jpg 112w, https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0317-224x300.jpg 224w, https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/IMG_0317.jpg 1936w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nThe new &#8216;scope at home.<\/h5>\n<p>Well, that brings things up to date really&#8230; More to do in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been rather quiet about the observatory and astronomy in general in this blog for quite some time now. (Actually, looking back it was last June.) So, what&#8217;s been going on? Observations. When the weather has allowed I&#8217;ve been out &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/2012\/01\/29\/astronomical-observatory-news-update\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1Kvvs-3k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lingula.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}