Astronomy on your mobile!

[Airspeed]

Nice shot!
Would you care to enlighten us on the gear used?

[airboatr]

From the ground up

A Bogan 3000 series tripod & head .. can't remember the exact numbers 3001 3035
Cannon EOS 3
Canon EF 28-105 mm ll USM lens (set at just under 105mm)
A hand made Barn door timer
A Casio anolog watch.

I took several pictures at 10 minutes with aperture setting of f/22 down to f/8.

Been too long to remember.... Oh hold on..
I remember I posted up a thread about the Barn door timer.... DB actually threatened to rescind my membership if I didn't tell what it was ...
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19464



And I was wrong about the year in that thread.. it was 1997 that Hale-Bopp appeared in the western sky

800 asa doesn't sound right either... ...

[Kevin Farnell]

My favourite is Stellarium. The iPhone app is £2.99 but the PC desktop version is free and a very impressive piece of software.
Cheers,
Nick

Thanks Nick.

I've just downloaded the PC version of Stellarium. It really is excellent. I've had a copy of Starry Night Enthusiast 4.5, which I got free many moons ago (did you see what I did there? ). Stellarium at first glance, seems to offer all that Starry Night did with the added bonus that I saw a satellite!

Cheers

Kevin

[Airspeed]

I downloaded Stellarium, but strained my back trying to point the computer to the sky.

Thanks for the info., Joe.

[Nick M]

[...] Stellarium at first glance, seems to offer all that Starry Night did with the added bonus that I saw a satellite!

Yes, and actually this is really handy for anyone who wants to try viewing the International Space Station with an astronomical telescope (quite tricky as I mentioned earlier, because the ISS is whizzing around the earth at some 17,000 MPH). The trick is to view the ISS transit in advance on Stellarium for your chosen night, then pre-position the telescope so that it's pointing at a star which the ISS will fly in front of.

I suspect some advanced electronic telescope mounts can track the ISS automatically, but mine has a rather fiddly equatorial mount!

Cheers,
Nick

[simondix]

Another good free app if you are interested in seeing the Aurora is found on the Aurora Watch website.

[Kevin Farnell]

My favourite is Stellarium. The iPhone app is £2.99 but the PC desktop version is free and a very impressive piece of software. The cheap 4" Newtonian reflector telescope I've had since I was a kid still gets some use when I can be bothered to get it out, sometimes I even think about upgrading to something a little more 'grown up'.

Nice dark skies where you are Mike?

Cheers,
Nick

Following on from Nick's excellent recommendation of Stellarium, I've recently come across NASA's 'Eyes 5.4' program. It's free and available here -

https://eyes.nasa.gov/

It's a program, giving not only wonderful views of our own solar system, but also of newly discovered exo-planets. It's compatible with Win 7, 8.1 and 10.

Kevin

[FlyTexas]

NASA's Eyes...thanks for that Kevin. Downloaded, installed, amazed. Viewed one satellite which can measure sea level changes as small as 1.3 inches...from space! Definitely a keeper.

Brian

[Nigel H-J]

Many thanks for that link Kevin, spent a long time exploring the distant planets listed. Just makes you realize how vast space is and also what lays beyond where even the most advanced observatory or even satellite cannot see.

Just wonder if there is life beyond our earth (I do believe there is) what form of life exists?

Again, many thanks.

Regards
Nigel.

[nigelb]

Thanks Kevin for that link! I have always been interested in astronomy and it looks like thre is a lot to explore here.

Nigel²