Essentialy Video-AP gives you the ability to see on a screen what you'd see in your eyepiece. And you can choose to record it - or not. It's great if you have other people there. They can all see what's in the eyepiece by watching the screen, rather than by taking turns one by one.

And many other possibilities will come to mind.

Dave

 

Yeah, the eyepieces seemed fine Ray. I checked them thoroughly in daylight first, then later observing the Moon. As far as I can tell they seem OK. I think the SW UWA's give a very slightly brighter image than the X-Cel. They are a simpler 5 element design though. I paid over 10 euro less for my SW 5mm than these here on Astroshop. So they've been a bit of a bargain.

http://www.astroshop.eu/skywatcher-1-25-5mm-uwa-planetary-eyepiece/p,33203#tab_bar_0_select

The BCO is a very nice EP, again, excellent for the money. I think the simple aluminium housing contributes to keeping the unit cost down as they're easily 20 or 30 quid cheaper here than other orthoscopics. I already have a pair of 18mm BCO's for my bino.

Unfortunately the weather's a bit pants at the moment to do any further dress rehearsals with the Catmobile, but the weather is supposed to improve drastically in a bit. I did manage to test transporting more of the BC including a collapsible table that I'll need. So I've practised a fair bit manoeuvring the Catmobile with a payload. I feel quite confident that it will be operational very soon.

 

Another book people swear by is "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards. I don't think this book is available in the US, though. It bloody SHOULD be! Maybe you can bribe MTN to mail you a copy?

It's said to be the most lucid and informative treatise on beginning astro-photography of all time.

Good luck -

Dave

 

I believe it can be ordered from the US though, mind you, it'll cost thirteen and a half quid to ship lol.

http://www.nightskyimages.co.uk/making_every_photon_count.htm

 

Brexit has benefited the exchange-rate - for us in the US - of £ - $ quite nicely!

Ah well, another day, another £.....er.....$,

Dave

 

Don't get me started about Brexit!

 

No worries - I, as an activist, am fully cognizant of the difference between 'The People' and 'The Government' that rules their roost.

Ack!

Dave

 

I'm just annoyed that Brexit has been an excuse to raise prices of astro gear.

 

You can stake your life on it lol.

 

Heya Ray -

As you're out-of-the-loop in SGL these days, I'll tell ya!

___ is now 'following' me about, and giving me lot's of 'support' regarding threads I post and generally puffing up my 'ego' - patting me on my cyber back and such. It's scary!!

This leaves me wondering when his next convoluted boot shall fall.....

As someone who trained a squadron of moderators in a multi-million member international website - rather like running the United Nations - I can honestly say I've seen most everything that can befall a 'mod.' The crew over there is sliding rapidly towards a massive defection of the membership. The usage has dropped to an extreme low. The current staff are agressively crowing about their 'vast wealth' of knowledge. And this shows their 'invincibility - complex.' Which translates to they're losing people's concern of posting in the fear of ticking-off these invincible deities. This is when a gong would go off in my mind and I'd send the 'mod' off for a vacation.

Several valued and very helpful members have vanished - including you, Ed, Mak, and now Luke in Ireland. And these are just the obvious members. Running a large forum requires an upper-tier of accountability and people watching the site. Someone to pull aside a 'mod' and explain what their main focus is designed to be - to provide aid and care for the members utilizing the site. SGL, by & large, doesn't have this. And this lack leaves the barn-door wide-open to power & ego-tripping of those who should be guarding their membership from what sociology and psychology indicate the outcome will be - exactly what they're supposed to prevent. Blame the ensuing mess on 'Human-Nature.'

Words fail me to express my happiness that you and Mak have happily taken to this place! I tossed you a messege cautiously saying it existed - cautiously out of concern the 'Mod-Squad' would be reading my PM's. From what they've told me (on-open, which likely served to cause others to beat a hasty retreat) if I should dare to badmouth MicroSoft ever again (in a thread asking for opinions of them) - I would be treated like a dog that 'messes up the floor' in the owners' house.

There's your update, folks. Me thinks I'll be sending out more links to people pretty soon.....

Take care, my friend -

Dave

 

I observed the Waning Gibbous Moon for around an hour from 02:15 BST. Azimuth 305.4°, altitude 33°, illumination 73.5%, 367, 501 km distant (Pisces). Transparency was above average although there were occasional clouds. At one stage I got 166.6x but the clarity was brief.



Telescope: 90mm MightyMak, magnifications included 52.7x, 58.8x, 66.6, 117.6x, 133.3x and 166.6x. Eyepieces used were a 19mm TeleVue Panoptic, 15 & 12mm Celestron Omni Plossls, a 17mm Celestron Plossl and a customised Celestron Omni 2x Barlow.



Highlights included the Sea of Tranquility and Theophilus, Cyrillus and Catherina. The walled plains of Posidonius were dramatically highlighted by the Terminator shadows. Images by courtesy of VMA.

 

Great captures! You captured the terminators' stark detailing of the view beautifully.

Thank you for posting these, MTN!

Dave

 

___ has been stalking, *cough*, I mean following me around as well. The trouble with SGL is that there's an enforced friendliness which seems artificial and actually creates a negative atmosphere.

I knew when Ray mentioned Brexit that it would be moderated in some way, I thought I'd been subtle in mentioning to Ray that political subjects are viciously moderated on SGL. I understand the need to stay on topic on an astronomy forum and not to meander into partisan politics, but Ray's question (which was more of an economic than political query) was quite apposite and relevant to the thread. Unfortunately the moderators on SGL (I'm talking about you ___) don't seem to be able to understand or recognise semiotic subtextuality or to discriminate between a political debate and one which is relevant to the topic in hand. SGL seem to have adopted a scorched earth policy to moderation.

___ likes to claim he's an expert, although in my opinion 'X' marks the spot and a spurt is a drip under pressure. I think he needs a long vacation. Preferably on Pluto.

 

You're welcome Dave. I did tweak them a bit with GIMP.

http://www.gimp.org/

 

I mentioned Brexit in this thread, MTN. I know better than to mention UK-Politics in SGL. I'd be shot! And never mind Pluto - I'd drop him on Triton - large Moon of Neptune. It has a surface of frozen Nitrogen. A human setting foot on it would immediately liquify the frozen N2 - and they'd sink like a hot-knife-through-butter, and continue to sink until they freeze solid as granite: Ta Da! A Human-Popsicle!

Good job on those idiot's parts - go after a political-activist with a record for taking down all sorts of firmly entrenched corporations and governmental-agencies!

I have GIMP to play with. But my main 'puter is off being fixed so I have to put my photo plans on hold for this season. MSN blew up my 'puter I use for such ventures. Naturally! And I run some high-security software, and I'd LOVE to find ___"following" me off-site (and I would!). I'd scare the living daylights out of him!

This site is steadily gaining membership, I'm happy to say. The Mods and admins know how to involve the members in the decision-making process, and that's why I believe it will soar. 'Egotistic' crud has been bypassed - which is a big leap foreward!

Keep on going all!

Dave

 

Neptune sounds good, it's four light hours away I think. It would take ages for him to log in lol.

 

I observed the Waning Gibbous Moon at 01:15 BST until around 02:45 BST. Azimuth 277.9 ° E, altitude 20.4°, 63% illumination, 368, 676 km (Taurus). Transparency was better than expected and actually improved until about 02:30 when a cloudy haze appeared.



Highlights include Mons Hadley, Plato, Mons Pico and Clavius. Maurolycus was particularly striking with its very high walls spectacularly in relief and its off-centred mountain quite prominent.



Telescope used was a 130mm Newtonian on a manual EQ 2 mount. Eyepieces used (with Baader helical focuser) were a 5mm Sky-Watcher (Barsta) UWA, 6mm Baader BCO, 6mm Astro Hutech orthoscopic and a TeleVue 2x Barlow. Magnifications were 150x, 180x and 300x. Images from VMA.

 

One can but only hope he has dial-up.

Woof!

Dave