TheSkySearchers

Congratulations Lyle

I won this hat at my astronomy club meeting triva;
What was the name of the Soviet moon rocket?


N1

I posted a video around 2 years ago showing how the N1 rocket engines operated with their closed cycle combustion chamber which nobody else had done.
Quite powerful engines.

Lady Fraktor wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2023 4:21 am Congratulations Lyle

Thank you!

JSBach1801 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2023 4:10 am One week ago today, I proposed to my girlfriend (now my fiancé) of one year. Wedding's in April,

Congrats to you both!

SkyHiker wrote: ↑Mon Nov 13, 2023 3:01 am I am recovering from minor surgery almost 2 weeks ago. It was performed by an autonomous robot and went well AFAIK, after one night in the hospital they sent me home. The recovery normally takes 3 to 4 weeks. In the meantime, I am not allowed to lift anything above 15 lbs. or do strenuous exercise. Last Monday I hiked Gaviota Peak nevertheless, perhaps not the brightest idea. I feel perfectly normal, just have to be careful to let the innards recover. I am not going to open and close the roof of the observatory for a while. Meanwhile I've started working on the DSS source code where I would like to see some live stacking and editing improvements. I managed to build it and am studying to see how it works. At least that I can do.

Well, be careful and I hope you heal soon!

Went fishing today with my son. It was nice to have a relaxing day. We caught three of these:



Graeme

I ran my last paid gig with my portable Planetarium today...

Over the last decade or so I have travelled all over my home state of South Australia, and visited more than 1/2 of the schools and libraries in the state. Usually I have run 50-60 minute sessions including a 20 minute, 360-degree movie (very popular!) as well as a presentation using the planetarium software tailored to the age group present (covering the curriculum requirements for each year level). I have had approximately 200,000 people come through my 5 metre dome: all ages from 3 to 90, but of course mainly school children. In the same time I have run star viewing nights for approximately 20,000 people (again mainly schoolchildren). Responses have been consistently very positive, and the children have often complained when the bell goes to finish the session (a very good sign!). I even had a 7yo girl come up to me last week to say "This is the best thing that has has ever happened in my life!" !!??

In a few weeks I will take the dome, projector etc. to a science-education mob based in country Victoria (the next state over) and help them set it up for its next life.

Feeling a bit sad at the moment: lots of mixed emotions!, but I guess all things come to an end. Maybe I will get stuck into the imaging and sketching that I have been meaning to do for years, not to mention finally getting around to building that 14" binocular telescope project that has been sitting in my shed for several years!

Hopefully I have excited and encouraged lots of children to explore our wonderful world and universe, and to make a difference as they develop their lives.

- Dean

That's pretty incredible Dean. You truly are a master of outreach! Good luck on whatever projects you end up working on.

Absolutely a horrible morning here, it's going to be hard to continue on...
The coffee maker has died

Back to the 80s, going to see a Pink Floyd laser show at the planetarium with some old friends

I am relaxing this evening after having a great Thanksgiving with the family at our house. I haven't done a lot of peaking through my telescope lately (but I want too). Right now, I am trying to find that life/school balance. I have decided to go back to school for a major career shift after being a Geologist for 15 years. Which path did I decide to pursue you ask? Well, I of course took a challenging one that I think I will find very satisfying and that is electrical engineering with an aerospace concentration. Wish me luck! Hopefully I can get out and view some stars here before too long!

~

Wife took a shot of me at the track the other day.


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Nice that you can still get out on track.
My season ended 2 weeks ago and today the seasonal tear down for inspection and replacement starts.

Lady Fraktor wrote: ↑Mon Nov 27, 2023 4:18 am Nice that you can still get out on track.
My season ended 2 weeks ago and today the seasonal tear down for inspection and replacement starts.

~

Fortunately for me I don't suffer the winter weather you have, my cold sensitivity increases with age.



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Ordered an 8x50 RACI finder for my ST102, moved the 6x30 RACI onto my ST80. I now have a RACI on all three of my fracs.

It's been too cloudy to try out the 8x50, but I might give it a quick look tonight - very quick since it's supposed to be down to 16°F by 20:00.

I moved the AP gear from my 12" GSO to my ED127CF. I haven't used the ole triplet in 7 years or so. I had to figure out how to attach the autofocuser. For this I had to get some screws from the hardware store. What do you know, the bracket fit perfectly. I glued some feet from cut up foam corks to my Pegasus for some traction on the OTA. The Pi on top of it, rubber band around the whole thing and it sits perfectly stable. Instead of the OAG I went back to my SSAG guide scope, with the new QHY guide scope of course. To separate the rings from the old setup I had to use to strap wrenches. It worked fine, thankfully, even on the 2 mm one. I needed a 1.25" extension for my autoguider, thankfully I found one. It took me the whole afternoon to move it over but it is working now, taking some M45 images. It's quite windy so we'll see but I'm happy it is all working.

Here are some pictures. I think it looks pretty clean. The new cork feet of the Pegasus are out of sight but that simple fix completely stabilizes the setup. The Pi sits on top of it. The humongous oak tree is shedding leaves, one of them fell in the dew shield.

Just moved it over to the ED80. That wasn't hard because it has the same Explore Scientific stock focuser. It looks OK, hopefully it will be clear tonight, if ClearOutside is totally mistaken about the 100% clouds.

Ylem wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2023 4:14 pm Absolutely a horrible morning here, it's going to be hard to continue on...

20231122_105339.jpg

The coffee maker has died

RIP