Keyboard Shortcuts
ctrl + shift + ? :
Show all keyboard shortcuts
ctrl + g :
Navigate to a group
ctrl + shift + f :
Find
ctrl + / :
Quick actions
esc to dismiss
Likes
- OAFs
- Messages
Search
|
Re: Returning to the fold!
Welcome back Matt! Nice hearing from you.? Yes, astronomy is really fun, especially in retirement. . And? it would be nice to set up like we used to at Chapter's Kanata to show the public the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, etc. Tomorrow night we should have a good sky and seeing, as per Clear Sky Chart so and I plan to stay up late and image Jupiter from my balcony at 1:00AM using a SCT 8" with a CMOS camera.?? FLO is a nice site.? They have trimmed the trees there and installed some telescopes. A darker sky too.?? Matt, Enjoy the re-birth of ameture astronomy now that you have time to devote!! Clear skies Jim
On Wednesday, August 10, 2022 at 07:23:55 p.m. EDT, Matt Weeks <weeksmj@...> wrote:
Well, well, well.? Its been at least 10 (15!?) years since I've poked my nose in around here, glad to see most of the riff raff are still active (and alive!).? I was recently lamenting the fact that I used to be an "amateur astronomer" and was wishing I could return to a once loved hobby when it occurred to me that I might actually be able to.? The "reasons" that made it near impossible to be an active observer have now grown up a bit and I think I can actually take some time for myself!!? Though I sold off most of my gear many years ago, including my workhorse C-11, I had the foresight to at least hang on to my old reliable C-8, so I dragged it out of storage from deep under my basement stairs and started to examine it for damage.? Luckily, I had stored it with desiccant packs so the optics look like they did a decade ago.? I did, however, discover my first problem.? No eyepieces.? I was smart enough to keep the scope but had lacked the wisdom to keep at least one eyepiece.? This is when I sadly learned that Focus Scientific had gone out of business and I would need to navigate online telescope stores that were mostly new to me. Long story short, I picked up a new eyepiece online, which arrived in two days.? A good start, as far as I was concerned.? I was expecting the skies to cloud over for at least a month with such a purchase, but, to my great delight they did not.? In fact, the first light on the new eyepiece occurred that same day under a night a excellent seeing.? The moon was fantastic, and I managed find a few Messiers from memory.? However, I did run into my second problem.? Age.? My eyesight is not what it was years ago and although the views through my new eyepiece and old scope were as good as I recall them ever being, I could not read a star chart under red light to save my life!? I have been putting off a visit to the optometrist for far too many years because my arms are still long enough to allow me to read most fine print, but it'll be a return to astronomy that finally gets me in there to get it all sorted out. So, all that to say "Hello"!? I plan to sink my teeth back into observing. I've renewed my Ottawa RASC membership and plan to contact the FLO administrator to ask for access to the site again (which seems to have grown since I last looked: two observing mounds!, Mike's old beat up 18in Starmaster??).? I'm hoping to pick up where I left off, chasing down the last half of the H400 and hopefully finding some opportunities to observe with other OAFs, including sidewalk events,? sometime soon.? Hope to hear from some of you!! Matt |
|
Returning to the fold!
Well, well, well.? Its been at least 10 (15!?) years since I've poked my nose in around here, glad to see most of the riff raff are still active (and alive!).? I was recently lamenting the fact that I used to be an "amateur astronomer" and was wishing I could return to a once loved hobby when it occurred to me that I might actually be able to.? The "reasons" that made it near impossible to be an active observer have now grown up a bit and I think I can actually take some time for myself!!?
Though I sold off most of my gear many years ago, including my workhorse C-11, I had the foresight to at least hang on to my old reliable C-8, so I dragged it out of storage from deep under my basement stairs and started to examine it for damage.? Luckily, I had stored it with desiccant packs so the optics look like they did a decade ago.? I did, however, discover my first problem.? No eyepieces.? I was smart enough to keep the scope but had lacked the wisdom to keep at least one eyepiece.? This is when I sadly learned that Focus Scientific had gone out of business and I would need to navigate online telescope stores that were mostly new to me. Long story short, I picked up a new eyepiece online, which arrived in two days.? A good start, as far as I was concerned.? I was expecting the skies to cloud over for at least a month with such a purchase, but, to my great delight they did not.? In fact, the first light on the new eyepiece occurred that same day under a night a excellent seeing.? The moon was fantastic, and I managed find a few Messiers from memory.? However, I did run into my second problem.? Age.? My eyesight is not what it was years ago and although the views through my new eyepiece and old scope were as good as I recall them ever being, I could not read a star chart under red light to save my life!? I have been putting off a visit to the optometrist for far too many years because my arms are still long enough to allow me to read most fine print, but it'll be a return to astronomy that finally gets me in there to get it all sorted out. So, all that to say "Hello"!? I plan to sink my teeth back into observing. I've renewed my Ottawa RASC membership and plan to contact the FLO administrator to ask for access to the site again (which seems to have grown since I last looked: two observing mounds!, Mike's old beat up 18in Starmaster??).? I'm hoping to pick up where I left off, chasing down the last half of the H400 and hopefully finding some opportunities to observe with other OAFs, including sidewalk events,? sometime soon.? Hope to hear from some of you!! Matt |
|
Re: good seeing tonight
Ingrid
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýJust to clarify: Attilla is hiding _from_ Covid, not _with_ Covid. ? From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of InQ
Sent: Friday, August 05, 2022 23:44 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [OAFs] good seeing tonight ? You're not the only one with covid. Observing from my yard and my neighbour's. On 2022-08-05 8:07 p.m., Attilla Danko wrote:
? |
|
Re: good seeing tonight
fine detail on jupiter now. On Fri, Aug 5, 2022, 21:18 Attilla Danko <attilladanko@...> wrote:
|
|
Re: good seeing tonight
InQ
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýYou're not the only one with covid. Observing from my yard and my neighbour's.On 2022-08-05 8:07 p.m., Attilla Danko
wrote:
|
|
Re: good seeing tonight
For Jupiter fans: there'll be a transit of Europa and the great red spot after midnight. On Fri, Aug 5, 2022, 19:16 Attilla Danko <attilladanko@...> wrote:
|
|
Re: good seeing tonight
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Aug 5, 2022, at 8:08 PM, Attilla Danko <danko@...> wrote:
|
|
Re: good seeing tonight
Would be a good night for moon-only sidewalk astronomy. (too bad im still hiding from covid) On Fri, Aug 5, 2022, 20:05 Richard McDonald <richard@...> wrote:
|
|
Re: good seeing tonight
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
On Aug 5, 2022, at 7:17 PM, Attilla Danko <danko@...> wrote:
|
|
Re: how was the carp star party?
Surprisingly, Attila, when I did the survey of members previously for star parties, there was very little interest in staying longer. A couple of people at most. Those who want to stay longer generally have better viewing locations than the Carp Library or want to do imaging, which kind of defeats a bit of the purpose of the "public" side of the star party.? It's good, don't?get me wrong, but it's hardly a dark-sky location. :) On the other hand, if they could kill the Diefenbunker lights AND have a full service washroom nearby...but you'd still need an event marshal to agree to be responsible for the location, even if the city and library were willing. P. |
|
Re: how was the carp star party?
Yes. 12:30 departure time from the Carp library parking lot is
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
unfortuneate. We'd probably get more telescopes out to carp star parties if he had permission to stay later. attilla danko, , danko@..., attilladanko@... On Mon, Jul 4, 2022 at 10:45 AM PolyWogg <thepolyblog@...> wrote:
|
|
Re: how was the carp star party?
Adam -- FYI, the lot is only good until about 12:30 anyway, no permission to stay later even with scopes. Paul On Sun, 3 Jul 2022 at 14:08, Adam Bell <adambell714@...> wrote:
|
|
Re: how was the carp star party?
I showed up late (10 pm) and the parking lot was nearly full. It was my first time, but I would consider that a decent turnout. It was a lot of fun, I'll definitely come for future events. Seems like the scope-less folks had cleared out by midnight. It will be nice towards the fall with more hours of darkness. Temperature dropped and the bugs buggered off. -Adam On Sun, Jul 3, 2022 at 10:49 AM Mike Wirths <mikewirths1@...> wrote:
|
|
Re: how was the carp star party?
Glad it was a good turnout! I'm going tonight to do sidewalk here in Perth for the 5 day old moon --by the crystal palace near the Perth basin Mike On Sun, Jul 3, 2022 at 10:38 AM Richard Harding <r.elleray.harding@...> wrote:
|
to navigate to use esc to dismiss