Late Night

[Roy Stewart]

Hey Guys.

What a night last night. I set my alarm for 2:15am,got up grabbed my flask and Scope and headed for the lake in cratloe. All this just to get my 1st images of the Orion Nebula. And boy was it worth it,just seeing it hanging there in the cold dark sky, clearly visible to the naked eye. Even through my modest 5" scope I could clearly see the cloud of gas. Cant wait to get a UHC filter and hopefully see some clearer images of this amazing Phenomenon. Got home about 4:45 after observing the Moon and Jupiter. It was so bright I swear I could see the clouds churning on the face of the Giant. Long story short, my wife thinks I'm CRAZY.

Cheers Roy

[Frank Ryan]

Well, for setting the alarm and heading off till the wee hours, no.
But for going up the the lake in Cratloe at that hour - alone Yes!




Fair play for making the effort,
you do need a dark location to view M42 at it's best.
I've never observed from up there, how dark a sky is it?

[Roy Stewart]

Hey Frank.

Its not as dark as the Burren. But its pretty dark, most of the light from Limerick is cut out from down by the lake. Out of 10,with the burren being 9. I'd give it 5 or 6. No worries about me down there at that hour, I had my friendly telescopic steel baton with me.(Bring em on)

Cheers Roy

[Roy Stewart]

Hey Frank.

I got a question for you.... There's a guy I know selling a Canon EOS1000D DSLR with 18-55mm lens a telephoto len and wide angle lens.. All for 380euro. Do you think that would be a good purchase?

Cheers Roy

[Frank Ryan]

No.
A rip off.
Please text me his number immediatly so I can take them off...
oh.. I mean..
tell him off.

LOL

Jeez that sounds like a cracker of a deal!
What kind of zoom / WA lens is he selling with that?
The 1000D is a slight step behind the 450D in terms of astrophotography
uses.
It's got a nice big screen plus best of all
'Live View' focusing - A HUGE advantage for astrophotography.

I have to say if I had an offer like that I'd snap it up.
I paid close to a grand for my 350D with just 18-55mm lens 5 years ago.

[Roy Stewart]

Hey Frank.

I think its the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6. Is that of any help?

Cheers Roy

[Dave Lillis]

good camera, go for it.
as for cratloe, yea totally nuts for going up their on your own, glad to hear you made it.
the lake is a fab site for observing, pity its a no go area at night.

[Roy Stewart]

I dont know about it being a no-go area. I recken if thier's enough people there nobody would come near us. And if all else fail's I have a tazer and steel baton.

Cheers Roy

[Gordon Lalor]

And if everyone had lasers, you could blind them.

The lenses don't matter for the astro stuff Roy, you just attach the body of
the camera to the scope using an adapter. As Frank says the liveview on the
1000D would be handy for focusing.

[Roy Stewart]

Cheers Gordo.

I went ahead and got it, I'll bring it with me the next time we go observing.
Any1 up for saturday night? According to accuweather its gonna be clear skies, but the moon could be a bit bright. Would that be a problem.

Cheers Roy

[Frank Ryan]

Tisk tisk Gordon.
What about wide angle astrophotos etc?
I use the 18-55 / 12-24 & 150-300 all the time
(putting the camera onto the scope Roy has
won't yield any useable results as it's not an EQ. )
Your scope Roy is excellent for webcam imaging tge Moon / planets.
I've ordered a philips one from EBay I'll
email on the link.
You'll need a small eyepiece adapter and an ir cut filter - all available on eBay.
You'll then need to download 2 progsto capture the AVAi's and process them.
I'll bring them in next meeting for you and give you a run thru if you want

[Roy Stewart]

Cheers Frank.

That'll be great. Thanks very much.

Cheers Roy