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    #31
    Originally posted by Charlie View Post
    Great time for planetary observations right now. Venus is still shining down on us, still looking brilliant for an hour or so after dusk, Jupiter hangs overhead for most of the night, Mars and Saturn pop over the southern horizon in the early hours of the morning, and if you're lucky can just see Mercury as teh sky brightens before sunrise.

    It's been too cold for me to sit out with my telescope, but I went for a 4am stroll in the hills last night and Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and the crescent Moon were all on show. It was magical.
    Make sure you wear 2 pairs of pants if you go out tonight! -6 in central England, similar else wear.

    Good for the mirrors in the telescopes though, or so I have been told.

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      #32
      Originally posted by 'Press Start To Begin' View Post
      Make sure you wear 2 pairs of pants if you go out tonight! -6 in central England, similar else wear.

      Good for the mirrors in the telescopes though, or so I have been told.


      I only break out the extra pants for -20.

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        #33
        Originally posted by Nijo View Post


        I only break out the extra pants for -20.

        Respect due! I can just about handle 0!!

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          #34
          Originally posted by 'Press Start To Begin' View Post
          Make sure you wear 2 pairs of pants if you go out tonight! -6 in central England, similar else wear.

          Good for the mirrors in the telescopes though, or so I have been told.
          Yeah, the colder the air temperature the weaker the thermal currents inside the telescope tube and so the better the image. And it was f*cking cold last night, that's why I went for a stargazing walk, rather than sitting out with the scope. Slight typo in my original post though, I went for a 1am walk, not 4am. I was fast asleep with my hot water bottle by then.

          Jesus, Nijo, that's a scary forecast. Are you in Scandinavia?

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            #35
            Munich. There's at least one Scando on here though - you can tell him from the "suicide" in his username.

            Astronomy: too much light around here to see much, but out in the forest it's apparently pretty good (my mate just got a telescope). Is it possible to see Andromeda at this time of year?

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              #36
              Yeah, but only in the first few hours after dusk. Once Pegasus dips below the horizon it takes Andromeda with her.

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                #37
                It's not the legs you have to worry about but the toes. Spoilt an awesome night stargazing once as I couldn't concentrate or enjoy it because my toes were frozen. One pair of thermal shoes later and I'm all good.

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                  #38
                  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that there were plenty of Photoshop tricks in cleaning up astronomy images but this was still news to me...

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                    #39
                    Nice clear skies here tonight so I spent a while outside taking some photos of the Moon. Fairly pleased with this one:

                    Last edited by EJG1980; 02-02-2012, 22:04. Reason: Boosted the sharpness a bit.. hopefully haven't overdone it!

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                      #40
                      I find it weird how we only see one side of the Moon. Normally Moon's orbit their planets and the surface of the planet will see all of the moon at some point.

                      I read with our Moon we only ever see 1 side. It is like someone trying to circle you and you turn to always face them at the same speed, so they never see your back.

                      Amazing picture!

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                        #41
                        HumanEnergy you got the plain 5 inch or the Nexstar 5 inch?

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                          #42
                          Originally posted by 'Press Start To Begin' View Post
                          I find it weird how we only see one side of the Moon. Normally Moon's orbit their planets and the surface of the planet will see all of the moon at some point.

                          I read with our Moon we only ever see 1 side. It is like someone trying to circle you and you turn to always face them at the same speed, so they never see your back.

                          Amazing picture!
                          Thanks!

                          The Moon rotation thingy is weird, with it taking roughly 28 days to spin once on its axis and also roughly 28 days to orbit the Earth, so we always end up seeing the same side. Something to do with the pull of the Earth slowing down the rotation of the Moon over millions of years so so we've ended up in sync with it... something along those lines, I'm sure Brian Cox talked about it once but I can't remember the exact detail.

                          Originally posted by MisterBubbles View Post
                          HumanEnergy you got the plain 5 inch or the Nexstar 5 inch?
                          I've got the Celestron NexStar 127 SLT Goto Telescope, so.... it's whatever 5 inch comes with that There's another 5 inch NexStar (the 5 SE) which is nearly twice the price of the one I got, so I assume the tube that comes with that one is a better one than mine.

                          I did buy it second hand to save money though and the Goto mount is now very erratic and on its last legs. Probably going to replace it with a Celestron CG5, if I can convince myself its worth the money! The optical tube is great though, good enough for me for a while yet.

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                            #43
                            Yes ive got a Nextstar 5 SE with goto. HumanEnergy do you have an android or ipad??

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                              #44
                              I've got an iPad with quite a few astronomy apps on it, but there's always room for more if you're going to recommend one

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                                #45
                                Sky Safari is the best app out, you can set it up if you buy a special feature , so you can just scroll to objects and the mounting will goto to it.

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