Steve Knight

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Viewing 20 posts - 21 through 40 (of 43 total)
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  • in reply to: Crew Dragon launch #582305
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    No breach of causality, the relevance of the ISS pass is that they’ll be on way to same orbit so their path will be same (subject to rotation of Earth over 25 min).  I did see an unmanned Dragon on way to ISS last July, it was fairly spectacular you could see thrusters firing.  Not as spectacular as the 2009 STS128 launch.  Watched it live then went outside and watched the shuttle Discovery and its external fuel tank pass over, they’d just seperated.

    in reply to: Winchester Weekend, Sparsholt, April 2016 #582227
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Managed to obtain a flux capacitor and flared trousers.  Heading to 1975 for weekend.

    Program looks fantastic.

    in reply to: Winchester Weekend, Sparsholt, April 2016 #582216
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Perhaps we should all crowd fund a new jacket for Alan for 2021?

    It’s the least we could do after the stress he’s suffered!

    in reply to: Imaging onto a Mac… #581912
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Hi,

    I started off using my ancient Macbook Pro with an ASI120MC-S camera.

    I used oaCapture, it is fairly good although I have now switched to Windows and use Firecapture which I prefer.

    I don’t know about compatibility with your camera.  Suggest you give it a try.

    https://www.openastroproject.org/oacapture/

    Thanks

    Steve

    in reply to: Vermin of the Skies #581789
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Given the location, number and that they were moving slowly geostationary satellites is my guess. 

    in reply to: LASER experiments and spectral calibration #581609
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Hugh, I’m just impressed that you had actually measured it.  Not surprised though, just impressed!  Also very relieved that my guesstimate was not so far off!

    in reply to: Samyang 500mm f6.3 DX mirror lens #581607
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    in reply to: Samyang 500mm f6.3 DX mirror lens #581606
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Have no experience with the Samyang lens but I have an Opteka 500mm f8 mirror lens and for £85 new on Amazon very happy.  2012 solar eclipse.

    in reply to: LASER experiments and spectral calibration #581605
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    The red laser pointers you see are laser diodes, wavelength not particularly well characterised, it varies with operating temperature, ~0.25 nm / deg.  I would recommend a green laser, these are normally diode pumped solid state lasers.  Wavelength always 532nm, determined by energy levels in Neodymium rather than band gaps in a semiconductor.  Blue lasers are diode lasers as well so again wavelength not well characterised.  An old style red gas laser would be good, these are Helium Neon lasers, wavelength always 632.8nm.

    in reply to: How tall is a giraffe? #580755
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Nick, you should have been at my “Speed of Light” talk to Newbury in January.  I even measured it with some chocolate and a microwave oven.  One of my slides is attached.  Your statement should be 1802.6175 Gigafurlongs per fortnight!

    in reply to: How tall is a giraffe? #580740
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Of course it’s just possible they mean the Elizabeth Tower.  Big Ben is a big bell but not that big.

    in reply to: Lunar Eclipse Tonight #580591
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Total cloud cover was forecast. Outlook seemed better in SE England so at midnight I started driving SE in search of a clearer sky.  Found them at Cobham Services 79 miles later.  Sky deteriorated quickly, intermittent views,  I was taking a sequence of images but clouds intervened about 30 sec before flash.  This is at 5.08, 2 sec exposure with 6D using ETX125, the star on the right that has just been revealed by the moon is 7th magnitude HD 67150.

    in reply to: Which planet is closest to Earth ? #580543
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Think if you elminate time dependency, average distance, it’s Mercury.

    Closest at some time, Venus.

    Steve

    in reply to: Identifying Lunar Features #580408
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Hi Garion,

    Picked up the Philips lunar map that Bill mentioned in TheWorks store for £3 about a week ago. https://www.theworks.co.uk/?q=Philips%20Moon%20Map%202018

    Steve

    in reply to: Occultation of (165) Xanthippe on Oct 29 #580138
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Bad luck.  Managed to get it.  Was going to use a planetary camera but events intervened.  Plan B was a DSLR so lousy timing accuracy.  All I can say is star was visible at 19:19:04, missing at 19:19:07 and back again at 19:19:10.

    in reply to: Dark Skies (or not)… LED Health Hazard #579767
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Here’s what Oxfordshire Council are saying:

    Many thanks for your enquiry,  our current lighting policy is to use 3000K colour temperature LED’s on residential roads and 4000K on traffic routes (which is currently being reviewed as part of this project).

    in reply to: Streetlights in Hampshire #579766
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    I queried what was happening in Oxfordshire.

    Many thanks for your enquiry,  our current lighting policy is to use 3000K colour temperature LED’s on residential roads and 4000K on traffic routes (which is currently being reviewed as part of this project). Our policy is to dim street lights on residential roads by 50% light output from 22:00pm to 06:00am and traffic route to 75% light output from 00:00am to 06:00am.

    This is in Banbury. Not possible to turn lights off because I live in suburban environment.

    in reply to: Will Hay interview #579557
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Glad it was new to you Martin. Wondered if you’d seen it.

    Steve

    in reply to: Ooops! #579303
    Steve Knight
    Participant

    i see Professor Dunsby’s observation has been referenced in this paper. https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.00419

    Steve Knight
    Participant

    Missed the DVD at Astrofest, I’ll look out for it at Winchester.

    Here’s my video of totality through 70mm refractor in a field near Salem, Oregon. Used 550D, as you can see a mod’d camera, Univ retrospect a mistake but I wanted some nice red prominences. Everything else turned out red as well.

    Richard Fleet can be heard on audio as well as “Total Eclipse of the Heart'” blaring out on someone’s car stereo.

    https://vimeo.com/230506993

Viewing 20 posts - 21 through 40 (of 43 total)