Prompted by a comment a couple of weeks back (Philip A Cruden at AstroGab) I decided to expand on the Steve Chambers long exposure SC1 LX-mod I have done previously to my SPC900NC webcam, by making the necessary change to allow the Amp-off mod (known as the SC1.5 mod).
The webcam electronics normally use an “amplifier” [...] Read more »
At the Kelling Heath Star Party there were many hundreds of telescopes, from little Meade ETX90’s through to giant 24inch Dobsonians, and gorgeous high tech Refractors setup for astro-photography with some very expensive looking cooled CCD cameras and guide scopes.
One of the big Dobs that really caught my eye was Fossil Light, constructed entirely by [...] Read more »
Well, maybe I’m slow on the uptake, but while experimenting with my iPod Touch more over the last few days to see what other astronomy related apps I can find (Star Walk, Starmap Pro, Moonwalk, etc), and the excellent NASA App being a fantastic resource, I have taken the time to find out more about [...] Read more »
Recently First Light Optics inadvertently delivered two telescopes to me, which was quite amusing, but needless to say I did the right thing and returned one to them.
But as a thank-you for being honest, FLO very kindly sent me a freebie to use with my new C6-S telescope, and asked me what I thought of [...] Read more »
Do you remember a wonderful melancholy old film called Silent Running starring Bruce Dern released in 1972?
I came across it in our local supermarket bit bin for 2 quid, and I can remember loving the film when it first came out (I was 10 years old then), so thought what the heck, why not get [...] Read more »
After the shennanigans of receiving two of the same telescope, and regrettably having to return one of them back to First Light Optics, I spent the first evening reading through the manuals. There’s no hurry because bad weather is forecast for the next few days, so I’ll just get used to learning about it and [...] Read more »
Hey hey - I’ve hit the jackpot!
Yesterday I said I was hoping to receive my new Celestron C6-SGT XLT Schmidt-Cassesgrain Telescope.
Well when I got home this is what I found….
How neat is that eh? I didn’t realise my purchase was a Buy-One-Get-One-Free offer!
I was supposed to only get 2 boxes, but as you can see [...] Read more »
A Tribute to John Ellard Gore - Astronomer
Whilst putting the Christmas deccies away in the attic today 3rd January 2009, and rummaging around in a box of old photos, I came across two old astronomy books, which I cannot for the life of me remember their origin; possibly my uncle gave them to me, or [...] Read more »
I have just finished reading the book Humanity: The Chimpanzees Who Would Be Ants by Russell M. Genet, Ph.D.
This fascinating book is the science-based story of how, in a remote corner of an ordinary galaxy 13.7 billion years after the Big Bang, the descendants of a third line of chimpanzees evolved into millions of humans [...] Read more »
The review of my Adler Optik Jupiter 20×80ZCF Giant Observation Binoculars which I have provided on my web site is now complete, and also includes an excerpt from Sky At Night magazine, September ‘08 issue, which did a group test on six pairs of binoculars, one of which was almost identical to my binos.
Overall I [...] Read more »
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