Astronomy Log

Each of the 50 sights are given their own chapter in this book with these chapters then divided into sections based upon the field of view, and thus what you need to use to see each sight. This includes the naked eye, binoculars, small and large telescopes.

Each of the fifty sights is given several pages each, and each sight is well described together with tips on how to see the sight.

Such sights covered are solar and lunar eclipses, the Pleiades, Andromeda galaxy, Jupiter, Great Orion Nebula, Venus and The Milky Way.

‘The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How To See Them’ is great little book, and will give beginner astronomers a great insight in what you can see and what to look out for during the astronomical year.

Most of the images in the book are in black and white except for a few colour glossy pages that can be found in the middle of the book.

The book also contains five small appendices covering a list of total solar eclipse dates up to 2024, major meteor showers throughout the year, total and partial lunar eclipses, the brightest stars and the transit dates of Mercury and Venus.

Overall ‘The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How To See Them’ is a useful beginners book but it would have been nice if each sight could have been presented with a colour photograph.

The 50 Best Sights in Astronomy and How To See Them can be purchased at Amazon

I managed to get outside again last night and try out my focal reducer and 40mm Antares eyepiece for the first time. The Orion Nebula was a good choice to view as now the whole nebula was visible in the eyepiece by using the focal reducer which reduced the focal length to f6.3 from f10.

The Orion Nebula M42 can be found beneath Orion’s belt (which is the three angled horizontal type stars) .

The Great Orion nebula is situated at the middle of the three smaller vertical stars underneath the belt.

The Great Orion nebula is situated in what is known as the hilt of Orion’s sword.

The diagram is taken from Starry Night Pro.

I then used my Canon DSLR at prime focus to take the two photographs below, both were at ISO800 and both were at varying exposure times, both around the 15 second mark.

I was very happy with the focal reducer and the 40mm eyepiece and can’t wait to use them on the moon.

I recently purchased a second hand Hartmann mask together with an ETX90 solar filter from astrobuysell. Today I had my first chance to try it out and view the sun.

The Hartmann mask covers the front of the LX200, just like the telescope cover. It contains three screws which are tightened so that the mask cannot be accidentally removed or fall off. The solar filter screws into one of the masks three viewing holes. The glass solar filter is actually designed primarily for use by the ETX90 telescope.

I had no idea of how to get the LX200 and autostar to find and keep track of the sun. I had never used the telescope before in the daytime. I began by letting the LX200 go through it’s set up procedure and then just pressed ‘Enter’ when it asked me to align to the brightest star. I then looked on Starry Night Pro for a star near to the Sun, and selected that.

It was difficult to know where the telescope was pointing, so I also looked on Starry Night Pro to find out the RA and Dec positions of the Sun. I then entered these into Autostar and had the telescope slew to this position. After a little tweaking I found the Sun in the eyepiece.

I initially decided I was only going to view the Sun through my Philips web cam, but after not being able to get an image through the web cam I decided to view the sun through the eyepiece using my 40mm Antares eyepiece.

I had already fitted my f/6.6 focal reducer to the telescope which allowed me to view the whole disc of the sun in the eyepiece.

I then swapped out the eyepiece and inserted my webcam, but did not manage to get the sun to display on the laptop, nor did I manage to use my Canon DSLR to get some images. So instead I just put my Canon IXUS up to the eyepiece and took a photo, and here it is:

As you can see there are no distinguishing marks on the image, perhaps some new filters will change this, as I have been reading a lot about H-alpha pass filters and Solar Continuum filters.

I actually received this book as part of the AstroBox when I purchased my Bresser Messier 130N telescope. Philip’s produce some really good books on all aspects of astronomy and this book is no different.

Stargazing with a telescope begins by taking you through how telescopes work and the various types of telescopes available and which may be right for you. The book also contains a lot of information on the various types of mounts from various manufacturers and how they all work. There are also some great tips on what to look for when purchasing a second hand telescope and a section on how to maintain your telescope.

Stargazing with a telescope then moves onto using your telescope, it begins with setting up your viewfinder and getting its alignment correct. The book also describes each part of the telescope in turn and gives help and advice on how to make the most of your nights viewing.

Stargazing with a telescope shows you how to set up and use setting circles, and get used to use RA and Dec settings, and polar align your telescope. It also instructs you how to use the Philips Planisphere.

There is then a section on the planets and how to view the sun and about viewing nebulae and double stars.

The last major chapter is about the extras you can purchase for your telescope including eyepieces, filters, dew shields, power supplies, astrophotography and web cam use.

Finally the book has a number of sky maps depicting the sky throughout the various seasons and a list of the various nebulae and other interesting objects to observe.

At around 190 pages Stargazing with a telescope packs in so much vital information for astronomy beginners.

I actually think that every person starting astronomy should read Stargazing with a telescope. I still am, for reference as well. This book could also be read before you purchase binoculars or a telescope as there is lots of good advice about the different type of telescope and which may be right for you.

This book review is based on the 2004 edition.

I decided to brave the cold last night and go out at about 10.30pm. I did not find it that cold, although this time I did wear a ninja type balaclava. After setting up, I wondered why I had even bothered coming out as a kind of icy fog then appeared.

I recently purchased a 2″ ED Barlow and wanted to give that a go to try and capture a larger Mars. I did have problems though get Mars on the computer screen via the webcam when using the Barlow. I usually start by getting Mars in the centre of the eyepiece and then I sync the LX200. I then swap the eyepiece for the webcam. I then re-focus and play with the webcam settings and then record.

If I am using a Barlow on top I then add the Barlow, but last night everytime I added the Barlow I lost Mars on the computer screen - very frustrating!

I wonder if the webcam went to sleep or just gave up, so I tried unplugging the webcam and shutting down VLounge as well. I tried several times then got annoyed and just took some footage without the Barlow lens.

What are the best procedures to follow to get webcam footage when using Barlows? Do I need another piece of equipment to see what is going on at the telescope at the same time as what the webcam can see?

I think the other problem was that the Barlow is 2″ and my eyepieces are 1.25″ and so is the webcam so I kept taking the Barlow out and then I had to add the adaptor back into the telescope to just use a 1.25″ eyepiece.

The Barlow does have a 1.25″ adaptor, I did try to align Mars in the eyepiece when using the Barlow and then swapped the eyepiece for the Webcam, but there was no Mars on the computer screen.

Ho Hum - try again next time, probably when the outside temp is not -2.

It was amazing to see the Meade Sky gadget on Channel Five last night on The Gadget Show, when it was up against the Sky Challenger Picoo Z helicopters and won.

The MySky is definitely an amazing gadget, and particularly useful if you want to add GPS functionality to your Meade Non-GPS telescope.

The only thing that worries me is that from the image above, people may think that what you are looking at on the screen is actually a live shot of what is in the sky, when it is really just images stored on the MySky.

I have written more about the Meade MySky here.

The Meade My Sky is available for £299 online here.

This was my 2nd attempt at imaging Mars with my Philips SPC900 Webcam. This time I decided to go out a bit later, so headed out at around 10.30pm and started imaging at 11pm. Leaving it later in the evening meant that Mars was in Gemini and quite high in the sky, so hopefully the atmosphere would not affect my imaging so much.

This time I made sure that VLounge software was recording at 10fps, I also played around a lot more with the setttings.

Both images are the same, just at different resolutions and magnifications.

This image was stacked in Registax 4 and the clip length was around 2 minutes. I originally took the clip at 10fps, but now I have looked back at the .avi, it says the fps is 24, this may be because I had to convert the original .mpg clip into an .avi

I did not use a Barlow, so it was taken at f10, I did try to use a 4x ImageMate, but this was just too powerful, so I stuck to just using the webcam with the UV/IR filter.

I am a lot happier with these images, and I am learning a lot doing this. I think the next step is to try and fill more of the CCD chip with the red planet. This means getting hold of a good quality 2x Barlow lens.

As Mars is very prominent in the sky at the moment, I feel it is my mission to try and get the best possible image I can whilst I have the red planet in sight.

I purchased a new Baader UV/IR lens the other day so I was really itching to give it a go. I used my Philips SPC900 web-cam, and I took around 100 seconds of video each time at 10 frames per second and 15 frames per second, in order to get lots of frames to put into Registax.

I still do all my recording in the supplied Philips VLounge software, although I don’t think this is the best way to go about it, one reason is because the output format is .MPG and I have to then convert it to .AVI to get it into Registax, which is a real pain.

See my second attempt for better Mars images. I have learnt a lot since this post.

You can make out some terrain marks of Mars in the image, but I want more! I still think I can get a better image, as this footage is a bit fuzzy and kind of out of focus. The video was taken when Mars was quite low in the sky. As at the moment I just can’t stay out too late as it’s so cold outside by the time Mars is high in the sky, but hopefully during December and January I should be able to get some more imaging done. I am also reading The Lunar and Planetary Webcam User’s Guide book, so hopefully I should pick up some more tips from this book.

On my travels around the internet I found the National Geographic Star Planetarium. This planetarium can transform a room into a space theatre. A Cyber Sky CD-ROM comes with it and is packed with facts and ancient legends to learn about as you watch projected stars move across the ceiling.

I think this kind of childrens planetarium has been around for many years now and has been updated in it’s look and now comes with a CD where it used to come with a cassette tape (remember those?).

“Transform your room into a 360-degree planetarium filled with stars and constellations. Includes a CD audio tour of the night sky and a hand-held meteor maker to add streaking meteors on command. Use the constellation dome outdoors as a 3D glow-in-the-dark star map. With lights, sounds and fascinating facts, it’s just like being in a real planetarium at home!
Age 8+”.

A great gift for the junior astronomer and not too expensive either, I found a similar Star Theatre which looks an improved version at The Science Museum for £29.99, or the version pictured above from The Toy Shop at £19.95

View the National Geographic Star Planetarium here.

A short while ago I discovered the UK Astronomy Buy & Sell website. It was nice to find a website where you could list any astronomy item for sale for free, instead of having to pay the high listing and final auction fees of eBay.

A couple of weeks ago I listed an LX200 data cable, and some astronomy books for sale, a couple of the books sold and the communication between the buyer and myself was easy via email and the transaction was easy, payment was made through PayPal, so eBay (who own PayPal) still got some commission!

This week I have now also become a buyer from the site, as I purchased a Baader UV/IR Rejection Filter for £16.50 including delivery and it turned up in the post today, again a nice straight forward transaction.

Admittedly I do frequently look at eBay for astronomy listings, but I also regularly visit the UK Astronomy Buy & Sell Website, if you don’t know it have a look yourself, you may find a bargain!

View my astronomy listings here