Observational Astronomy Live Online

By Ian Kimber FRAS, Minst P, MIET, LRPS

This is a chance to get involved with looking at astronomical objects in a way that few people have done until very recently. The presentations make use of the now, familiar to many, Zoom live video meeting technology  This will be linked with with a locally controlled Unistellar Equinox, video recording telescope, to give live astronomy that you can enjoy sitting at home in the warm, while the telescope is the only thing out in the cold in the garden.  It ma even be at a local "dark sky' location if I can get a good enough internet connection to run the Zoom meeting.  

There is no queuing up to peek through an eyepiece (the telescope does not even have one!). Eyepieces do not work very well if you wear glasses.  The telescope creates its own local open access Wi-Fi network and produces images in smart phones and pads that log into its application which is suitable for both Mac and Android devices.    

The telescope can produce colour images of the moon and planets.  Although because it is not a large telescope (4 1/2 inches) the resolution is limited but is what you would expect to see looking through a telescope.   Mind you this limit to about 2 seconds of arc this is about the limit of the normal “seeing” conditions around the UK on normal clear nights without using specialist image capture and processing techniques.   

Where the Equinox really comes into its own is with the faint objects and star clusters that only appear as disappointing dim fuzzy objects in most amateur astronomical telescopes even to well dark adapted eyes with good vision .  Its “enhanced vision” capability of integrating a series of exposures gives it the capability of a telescope more than ten times its size.   Five minutes of light collection will show you images of faint galaxies down to the 15th magnitude and beyond.  Stars can be even fainter.  that is more than 100 times fainter than you would see looking through a telescope of that size

This capability also does not even require super dark sky conditions.   The telsecope can be operated successfully in normal street lighting conditions! The brighter and nearer galaxies are spectacular and show the different colours of the star forming areas.

These meetings will only take place at times when conditions are suitable to do Astronomy that is late at night and with a clear sky.   There is also likely to be very little notice when I will be able to hold a meeting.

You will be able to watch online while the images are developing from very faint start to their fully developed glory as they develop, and while the telescope is moving between our choice of things to look at.  I will be able to tell you more about the object that we are observing and answer questions on a very wide range of astronomy and physics subjects.

Observers will be able to drop in and out at any time while I am holding an observing session. Members will also be able to talk among themselves

I wish to build up a list of email addresses of people who may be interested in coming to these online “star parties” All who are interested in taking part in this new venture please contact me by email at ianksoulsurfer@gmail.com.  Please can you include the words “Star Parties” in the heading of your reply.   This will make it much easier to see your applications in my many emails and reduces the risk of me missing your message.

On these pages you can also join the group by adding a comment to this page and I will send you an email

Meeting times will also be posted here 

Observational Astronomy Live Online

This time we will be using a new location with a view to the south and east and will be looking at the spectacular winter constellation of Orion among other things

The next meeting will be  :-   Time: January 13 2022 19:30 London

I have booked in from  19:30 pm  to  22:00

My phone number is 01884 252460 if you have any problems.

You can drop by any time you like although I might pack up early if conditions deteriorate in Tiverton

Here is the zoom link

Ian Kimber as   vU3A Host is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Observational Astronomy OnlineTime: Nov 4, 2021 19:30 London

Join Zoom Meeting  As this is in effect a public website I will not publish the link here  but this 

https://

Meeting ID: xxx xxxx xxxx

Passcode: xxxxxxx

Logging into the meeting during the session will take you directly there and you will in effect be looking through the telescope which will be a screen share on a large iPad you should be able to see and talk to other members of the observing group

Ian Kimber

I plan to post some of the resulting images in pages linked by date with details of what the image contains.  on the other pages in this folder  they will be openable via the links in the box in the right hand column called "Navigator"