Limerick Astronomy Club

There are plenty of dark areas, although probably not as dark as the Burren, but at least better than Boher I would say. The trouble is I have no car -- still not :-). I have a friend who lives on a farm far away from anything. Next time I visit him, I'll bring the whole shebang. Anyways, I'm quite ...

Hi guys, Just to let ye know that I'm not all comfy in my warm armchair over here in Denmark. I went out with a friend, just to my back yard, but it is really nice a dark to the south and west of my place. The east is not so good, but it is certainly okay. Much better than Corbally :-) Anyways, I se...

Congratulations. Glad to hear it went very well. You did a great job in a very short time. I really really hope I can make it next year.

Hi Frank,

Sadly I haven't had time to unpack my AstroTrac yet, and the weather has not been too good lately either.

However, I do remember having the same kind of aligning problems with the polar scope, and I was also somewhat disappointed about it.

I've been following the thread on the IFAS boards. It sounds like you had a very very good trip. The beginning of a tradition maybe.

I won't be here for the meeting next month. I fly to Denmark on the 1st of August, so I hope you'll post some more photos.

Instead of a Sigma lens (which I would be able to use in daylight as well), I am thinking about a small APO refractor. Do any of you have experience with APO refractors in the range 66mm to 80mm apeture? Specifically, I'm looking at these: William Optics 72mm William Optics 80mm Orion EON 72mm ED AP...

Yeah the lens does have some CA. I stopped down two stops (from f/2.8 max aperture to f/5.6) but I may have to stop down even more. But that makes it rather useless, if I have to stop down to f/8. I'm looking at getting a Sigma 400mm f/5.6 APO for the AstroTrac. They sell used for around $400. The S...

I'm using the manual focus ring on the lens to focus. My 180mm lens is really smooth and the FOV with an 180mm is good for focusing. I had more problems with my 35mm lens. I couldn't judge anything through the viewfinder. The right angle (RA) finder adds another focusing factor, but it is easy to ju...

Here a few of my shots from the Burren using my brand new AstroTrac . I really haven't had much time, so I haven't even stacked or properly processed the images, so what I show here is only the tracking accuracy of the AstroTrac. I am very impressed with it. I had far more problems with focusing and...

Sure, I'm uploading the changes as I write this.

I went to Maplin and bought DIY items for a battery holder and cigarette lighter adapter PLUS I bought a 12V rechargeable lead battery + charger. But I don't know if I can charge the battery in time or if I can DIY the battery holder so it connects to the cigarette lighter plug, but I'l give it a tr...

Hey Frank, I'd be able to go Saturday & bring the club's 12'' Dob for the members without scopes. Weather looks promising for tonight, can you make it tonight? Does anybody have a 12V power pack or a 8xAA battery holder I can borrow for my new AstroTrac? Otherwise, I can't track anything :(. I didn'...

I'm so glad I asked
Thanks a lot both of you.

I've been using met.ie. Not because it is good but because it is the one I found
Sometimes I also use the Danish national service http://www.dmi.dk/ as it covers most of Europe.

The Right Angle Viewers come in two flavours -- camera brand (better and more expensive) and generic with a multitude of adapters. I got one of the Nikon brand ones, but I might as well have bought a third party one. The only tricky thing is that now you have to focus TWO places, as the Right Angle ...