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I’ve uploaded an image taken 1 hour ago to my community pages:
https://britastro.org/observations/observation.php?id=20210809_141707_eb50ae4fce13ebe3
Regards,
Martin
Hi,
I’m not sure if this message was intended for me, but as I received a copy as an e-mail, via the BAA (never had that before) I will try to reply. I don’t do outcalls or charge fees! I have never owned a Celestron VX8, but it is quite possible someone on this Forum may be able to help with advice. Maybe you could describe the problem you are having in detail? There are quite a few Celestron videos on youtube which will probably answer your queries. Have you tried watching this one…it looks very relevant….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQCQMx4Er6Q
Regards,
Martin
Hello Charles,
This is the standard failure mode of the Classic LX200 and these failures were very common during the 1990s and early 2000s. The problem is that the drive chain on both axes consisted of a ‘Scalextric’ toy car motor (worth about 50 pence in the 1990s) and some tiny plastic gears (plus encoder wheel) which were very fragile. Despite their fragility the first gear spins around at 14,000 rpm on full slew! Many LX200 users, including myself, suffered failures due to this fragile drive chain falling apart. My own LX200 failed on the second night of use on Dec 26th 1997!! Numerous other failures followed over the years until I dismantled it in 2003. When these telescopes were in mass-production the dealers stocked huge numbers of replacement motor/gearbox units. I think I paid for about half a dozen replacement units in the years of failure outside warranty. The dealers told me that they subcontracted a motorbike restoration enthusiast in Essex to do the repairs (!) because they did not have the time! I wrote a BAA paper 12 years ago about my final solution, but it involved a complete remounting of the tube and the subsequent system was only rigid enough for planetary imaging, not deep sky/comet imaging. There is no easy way to solve the problem now, but many people use AWR technology: http://www.awrtech.co.uk/ih/lx-upgr.htm
My BAA paper is here: http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/2009JBAA..119..183M/0000183.000.html
I have attached a photo of the Classic LX200 motor and gearbox. The whole unit is about the same size as a large matchbox!
Maybe other BAA members have found better solutions for fixing their old LX200s….?
Regards,
Martin
I took some pre-dawn images via T11 at New Mexico (0.51m CDK) a couple of hours ago. The ‘pretty pic’ unfiltered 120 sec image is here.
http://martinmobberley.co.uk/images/v1405cas_20210320_1143_mpm.jpg
I also took some much shorter V filtered images. The brightest pixels in the nova disc were 30% of the way to saturation in a 5 second V shot.
Using the AAVSO chart’s somewhat dimmer mag 9.0 and 9.1 stars gives a V mag of 7.70 at 11:45 UT this morning (Mar 20). JD = 2459293.98958.
Regards,
MartinI wrote about Howard standing down after almost 40 years of service on page 189 of the August 1998 Journal. He also dealt with reports of ‘Fireballs and other transient or unusual phenomena’! There was no obvious successor in Howard’s league (how could there be?) and so the BAA Council decided to disband the Section.
Martin
OK Dominic, many thanks for confirming it wasn’t me accidentally trying to hack your profile!
I will simply keep using Chrome for the BAA pages today and check with Edge again tomorrow.
I just succeeded in uploading an image so that all appears to work fine.
Martin
One oddity that has emerged since the upgrade….If I try to log in using Microsoft Edge I just get Dominic’s profile filling the page as if I am Dominic!!!! I can go no further….. HOWEVER, using Google Chrome I can log in as normal with no problem, as I have done to type this query………..
Martin
Grant,
As you say, Skywatcher and Orion Optics are probably the first choice people. I’m very happy with my 12″ f/5.3 Orion Optics Newt and the 12″ f/4 Skywatcher Quattro, though heavy, looks like an absolute bargain! Have you looked at the Teleskop Service pages? They show a few 12″ and 14″ tubed models. Their ONTC models have 3 mirror positions for moving the focus in and out if required. Focusers and other bits are customisable. Of course, given Brexit looming who knows how that might affect prices/delivery from Germany?! On the same page (at the bottom) they have the Boren-Simon PowerNewts (up to 12″) which are f/4 in length but have a 0.7x reducer to give f/2.8 across a 25mm diameter field. The TS page is here:
Martin
Hi David,
As you say, without more detail on the severity of the visual impairment, it’s impossible to know what might work, but clearly the more light the better…so, a large aperture telescope pointed at the Moon would surely stand the greatest chance of success….Alternatively >Are there any other facilities that a near-blind child might use to get a sense of the planets?< There is this chap, Nic Bonne at Portsmouth Uni, who may (Covid restrictions permitting) be able to offer advice…..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-hampshire-51559823
Martin
Clear overhead last night but quite a bit of haze/low cloud in the direction of the comet. Unfortunately the comet is now just above the orange/yellow glow of Bury St Edmunds some 6 miles away, the worst place it could possibly be. A couple of fixed tripod 50mm f/1.4 shots and a blurry tracked shot with a much slower (f/5.9) Tak FS60c were taken.
Martin
Similar experience to Stewart. Third consecutive night. Observed before midnight UT to take the pics just before moonrise. Comet looked a bit weaker, but may have been poorer transparency, or even the sky glow from Bury St Edmunds (6 miles away) which is not far from the line of sight now…… Same procedure as before. Canon 300D + f/1.4 lens on a fixed tripod. 10 secs single frames and a 12 x 10sec stack… Observed with 10x50s as well. Could not see quite as much tail, possibly for the previously mentioned reasons…..haze, Bury St Eds glow……. Grunting, bellowing animal of the previous night had gone….maybe someone shot it?
Martin
This morning’s pics. Moon less of a problem. Some cloud at first. Another nice view in 10x50s. 10 sec shot with 50mm f/1.4 on a fixed tripod in the farmer’s field. 12 stacked for highly stretched second image. Horrendous grunting/howling noise throughout the session from the direction of the Moon…..Only sheep (as far as I know) in that direction but it sounded like an angry wildebeeste heading my way….. As soon as I had finished I got the hell out of that field ASAP….
Photographed the comet from the field at the back of the house. Fortunately the farmer had mowed it a few days earlier. Used my ancient (2003 vintage) Canon 300D DSLR and bog standard 50mm f/1.4 lens on a fixed tripod. A highly distorted Capella sits in the top right hand corner. (Took some other shots with a 1982 vintage Hanimex 300mm mirror lens although they don’t show any more detail.)They all look a bit pathetic compared to Michael Jager’s extraordinary shots from Austria but at least I have actually seen it now. Nice view in 10x50s. Pity the Moon was up, but at least it wasn’t full!
Martin
Hello Ray,
Apologies. I didn’t spot your post two weeks ago! The link seems to work for me. They sent me a complimentary shirt which arrived today. Quite possibly, re. Patrick….it rings a bell somewhere…. The Melies film was mentioned in the Sky at Night with Michael Bentine – Suns, Spaceships and Bug-Eyed Monsters, on 16th Dec 1977.
Regards,
Martin
I filmed Dave talking about his discovery one year later, at the 1989 TA AGM on 1989 June 24 at Basingstoke. I’ve just uploaded the short clip to youtube. No smartphone videos then… A huge shoulder mounted camera and a heavy VHS recorder slung around my neck! Nick conducted the interview. You’ll find it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxfzpvN3oF0
Seems like yesterday!
Regards,
Martin
Jack,
Yes, the notebook is fascinating. Hay was a highly intelligent man, a perfectionist in comedy and astronomy, and totally different to the bumbling characters he portrayed in films. Unfortunately he became so busy with films in the 1930s that astronomy had to take a back seat and then his health declined just as WWII ended, and just as he was elected to the BAA Council. See: http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/2009JBAA..119…67M/0000067.000.html
Regards,
Martin
Denis, if you mean the e-bulletins there is an archive here:
http://lists.britastro.org/pipermail/baa-ebulletin/
Mark was back on a few weeks ago repairing a juke box:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000gppb/the-repair-shop-series-6-episode-2
Martin
Geoff Buss seems like a very good fit Alan. I certainly remember now that he did look like that when he replaced Phil Ringsdore as BAA Lunar Sec Circulars Editor in 1973. I recall talking to him at an Ipswich Lunar Sec meeting around that time. In my mind he looked a bit older than he looks there, but then he would to a 15 year old! I can see the Seiden resemblance too. Can’t recall what Mr Vince looked like. My first thought was maybe Howard was talking to H.Robert Mills…the Stonehenge enthusiast?
Martin
