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Post by davy on Jan 7, 2015 18:52:11 GMT
Hopefully all will be ok..booked the trip for 24th for me n uncle john to visit the obs ..chrimbo pres from carol.. asked if its ok to use scopes.. taking them anyway lol..
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Post by Dragon Man on Jan 8, 2015 12:40:25 GMT
We will want Photos
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Post by davy on Jan 8, 2015 13:04:29 GMT
Waiting on coaxial cables getting delivered. ..weather going to be bad over weekend. .I need testing. .aargh
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Post by Rick in NWArk on Jan 9, 2015 17:16:53 GMT
Wow, what a great place! www.scottishdarkskyobservatory.co.uk/ and very reasonable rates, too! I'd be drooling over that 20" Planewave CDK... well not literally!! I would love to be able to do something like this or build and run an astronomy village.
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Post by davy on Jan 11, 2015 16:37:29 GMT
well looking forward to it rick,,uncle john struggling a bit with illness from before new year but he's pretty excited and want to travel down to the campsite that does the starcamp in feb,,this will probably be the next outing..equipment wise trying to do the checks and stuff..got a cheap 2nd hand laptop off ebay at chrimbo ..loaded ascom drivers and cartes du ciel on it,eqmod and sharpcap still to load in..will order a new battery for this laptop as it's not holding a charge..12v laptop adapter ordered..will add a second battery to the portable array to double up on the amps although it is 22 amps which is higher than the skywatcher power tank so mmm swithering.. so uncle john trying to source a mother board for his meade lx90 in uk..any suggestions welcome. if its a no go..were looking at my kit to go.. skywatcher eq3/2 pro,skywatcher ed80 /flip mirror /6mm lens/samsung scb2000 four fan mod camera. portable array. skywatcher az3 / skywatcher startravel st102 ad lens's for visual use. laptop to control eq3/2 /cartes deu ciel and sharpcap
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Post by davy on Jan 15, 2015 22:24:01 GMT
few problems but finaly sorted out,my email never arrived and had probs with the message I left to confirm booking. few bits that prob needs clearing up on there site ,I asked about using our equipment but not possible due to numbers ect,,I mentioned I was admin of the forum and was going to review the site and do a write on here about my visit,,they have kindly told me that there would be a bit we could use ,,very happy with with there help..makings of a good trip,,hopefully the bad weather we are having will clear before then.
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Post by Rick in NWArk on Jan 19, 2015 16:03:27 GMT
Hoping for clear skies for you, Davy!
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Post by davy on Jan 20, 2015 23:27:17 GMT
Cheers rick reset laptop last weekend. .uploaded drivers, cartes de ciel, ascom platform, eqmod, sharpcap and set up eqtooth..hopefully its ok on the night..still the array to test taking eq3 pro ,ed80, camera array and sammy mod camera ..
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Post by davy on Jan 25, 2015 1:41:05 GMT
Hi folks. .went to the Scottish dark skies observatory. . Road in was iced over, had to do a bit of walking up and reported to david the resident astronomer situation he organised 4x4 help ..walk back down to get uncle john phew mountain goat stuff got a lift back up by one if the voluntary astronomers ..nice chap as were they all. great intro and talk..cracking scopes but you probably guessed weather killed it off scope wise..but introduced myself and spoke to the guys and i think we could help them out by teaching them video astronomy i can see it a help to them outreach wise..i have invited them to our forum verbaly and will email them tomorrow.
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Post by Dragon Man on Jan 25, 2015 5:56:58 GMT
Good stuff! I hope you got some photos davy
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Post by davy on Jan 25, 2015 9:10:01 GMT
Dont even ho there ken ..spent all of friday night sorting out the array.new av cables .cameras played up switched lenses.the screen detatched from inside lid had to put stand back on ..fitted in a jump lead to piggy back in power via a leasure battery fitted it in and tested ,, no power down male cigarette plug..built in diode..so had to splice in another cable with twin female cigarette sockets to power the mount then splice in a camera connection for my scope sammy..5 hours I spent on it..loaded all my kit into uncle John's scopemobile but we could not get near observatory the track was iced up..we had terrible weather very low clouds and just would not give us a break..a scope would slew to the moon then it was gone in seconds. .but still a good trip made good contacts with the guys down there..before hand we travelled down to the galloway star camp site a further hour or so away to check it out..nice views ect ..star camp on end of February going to see if they have any electric hook up spaces left a try and book up...
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Post by Dragon Man on Jan 25, 2015 10:17:18 GMT
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Post by johnno on Jan 29, 2015 13:40:38 GMT
What a bummer, know how ya feel Davy, same happened when I went to www.astronomycentre.org.uk/ which Peter kindly organized for the video section on SGL to go to his club. I'd like to join but it's a pain to get to, would love to use their tackle. any photo's davy
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Post by davy on Jan 29, 2015 17:34:48 GMT
The sky was washed out with clouds couple of breaks in the clouds time the scopes slew round and focused clouds rolled in..was a great place to visit , pretty new couple of years old..I have offered our help with video tech stuff..they havent done any but have usb cabling linked to a controll room that can go to a projector. .waiting on them getting back to me..emailed them today..
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Post by Rick in NWArk on Feb 5, 2015 22:35:28 GMT
Just gotta show em what you can do!!
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