binoculars- a one trick pony?

iowstarparty report(really, it was that good!)

Look Up!HantsAstro.org

May 2008

news | reviews | views | what’s on | out there

First TypeWelcome to our New eZine ‘Look Up! In little over a month we have

gone from zero to 17 members and growing, with a new web site, forum and now this eZine. Every month this eight pager eZine will aim to show you what’s going on

in Hampshire regarding astronomy, where to go and what to do.

The reviews will find out what’s hot, what’s not and why.

They are unique, independent and unbiased as we want to find out,

like you, how to get the best out of your observing and make what you

already have, even better.Astronomy used to be quite an

expensive past-time, not anymore. With better quality products

at much lower prices, and the advent of digital astrophotography, Amateur Astronomy is now much

more accessible and, dare I say exciting? Yes, Technology is a great

leveller as PC software may help you understand the night sky and help you answer many questions. However, I have found there will never be a substitute for looking

at Saturn through an eyepiece and trying to imagine how to bridge such vast distances. Well, with a

telescope or binoculars you can, on just a Beam of Light.

David Woods: Founder

HantsAstro.org

Contacts and Details

David Woods - Editor & Publisher

Look Up! eZine EditorialDavid Woods - david.woods@hantsastro.org Web Site: - www.hantsastro.orgTel: 023 9261 7092 Fax: 023 9257 0283 Skype: iodesignPost: HantsAstro.org 11 Drift Road, Clanfield, Hants PO8 0JJ

This eZine is published on behalf of the HantsAstro.org. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Editor, Publisher, Sponsors or Advertisers of HantsAstro,org. HantsAstro is a society member of the Federation of Astronomical Societies (www.fedastro.org.uk).

Where Links take you to other sites, the Editor, Publisher and Webmaster cannot be held responsible for the content of those sites.

HantsAstro.org and Look Up! eZine and related devices are protected by copyright ©2008 All Rights Reserved. HantsAstro.org a trading name of I.O Design Limited. No repoduction of any material is permitted without express permission of the owners.

contentsLook Up! May 2008 edition 01

News Page 3What’s in store for you for starters!

Our first Review Page 4Sky-Watcher Collimator

View point Page 5Binoculars, better than a small ‘scope?

IOW Star Party Page 6Short Review of the South’s first major Star Party...

Out There Page 7Round up of Astronomy in Hampshire

Look Up in May Page 8What’s in the Sky tonight for May

Cover: GiantView Binoculars on a counter-balanced Tripod.

Image taken Friday 07 March 2008 at Isle of Wight Star Party (iowstarparty.org) by Graham Green using a Canon EOS 350 DLSR, and a small tweaking session in Adobe LightRoom.

Hampshire is our Playground

02

03

HantsAstro has Launched!It’s only been a month and HantsAstro has already come a long way. With membership now well into double figures we are getting an idea of the sort of activities we are hoping to create. Since the 28th of March we have had over 800 visitors to the website and many requests for the new newsletter. At the same time we also created a Yahoo Forum group for HantsAstro, which still requires some work, but it’s hoped to become active within the next month or so. Some new members have been working behind the scenes and helping out with content for the magazine in the form of reviews and general guidance, for which I am extremely grateful.

Hampshire is our playgroundOver the past couple of months a few of us have been heavily researching the Hampshire County and beyond for dark sky sites. Pretty much every square inch of the UK is owned by someone, and sometimes finding the right person to get permission to gain access can be difficult and time-consuming. However, we have had some success in such a short space of time and have located several sites that meet our criteria. Even in what

seems to be a highly light polluted area of the South of England, we have been able to locate a few sites that can reliably provide Magnitude 20 plus dark skies. As an indication of how good this is, the recent star party on the Isle of Wight was MAG 20.5 on its best night. That was on the south side of the island! To better this on a mainland site in central southern England is almost unbelievable. Interestingly, the geography of the site is what makes or breaks it, insofar as it is more than just being away from a large town or city. Our quest for searching the best dark sky sites is not over, and will probably continue as an ongoing task. If any members are able to assist with this then it would be gladly appreciated so please contact me david.woods@hantsastro.org.

The HantsAstro websiteThe first stage of the web site is pretty much complete and should now give everyone a good idea about what HantsAstro aims to do as a group. Any ideas to improve on this would be more than welcome as it is very much an evolutionary site. The second stage of the site is planned to be rolled out during May to July and will include the launch of our new online store, and a questionnaire will be going out to all members, to ensure that we will be providing a useful range of products, accessories and merchandise. The third and final stage of the site is a much longer term vision. The site acts primarily as a hub to the group, but also as we are finding out, it is becoming a resource that extends far further than our county boundaries. Two new members include one from Bristol and one from Scotland, with visitors to the website from all over the UK.

ReviewsWe are currently reviewing as a group over 20 different astronomical pieces of equipment. From telescopes to eyepieces and tripod mounts and on to software and smaller items, and because many of these reviews are written by members, they are quite

independent and therefore unique in the UK market. Therefore, we are developing this as part of a long-term strategy. Most of all it’s quite a lot of fun to play with equipment and learn more about what’s new. Some of this equipment we have bought ourselves and therefore some of the reviews will be much longer-term. This will hopefully help many people understand more about choosing the right type of telescope for the kind of observing they wish to do. It’s something that HantsAstro could become renowned for!

Clear SkiesSeveral members are eager to know when this can be launched. Clear Skies is a new resource that will hopefully embody within time several technologies that will allow an observer to find out the best night for observing and hopefully, where to observe! At present within the UK this is not an easy thing to do. Various dark sky areas have been identified down to a resolution of 1 km per pixel, however when this is translated onto a map this theory does not quite work out. The existing satellite imagery, even from 8 years ago, works on light bounced back from the ground as well as the source shining upwards. Depending on geography and geology, these lines are either well defined or blurred depending on how close you are to a major town or city, and how much direct or indirect shielding you have from that light pollution. Logically, transparency plays a great deal in how long the exposures in astrophotography can take, as this can exacerbate any light pollution that is less than perhaps 30 miles away. In the South of England, as you well know, there are very few places that are far apart. By defining county light pollution and adding resolution far more accurately, we can get a better picture on this growing menace that we face. HantsAstro will have more than one observing site, and is therefore ideally placed to benchmark itself in terms of dark skies. No other group in the UK is structured

NEWS

04

in the way that we are, in being able to escape light pollution simply by moving the observing site. That’s why we concentrate on telescopes less than 8 inches diameter, as they are highly portable, can be easy to set up and maintain, but most of all are affordable to use. The best scope you will ever own is the one you use the most. Hants Astro is geared towards hands-on astronomy.

ApologiesSince our launch the response that I have had to the group has been amazing. However, being a limited resource has meant that the launch of the magazine has slipped by over a fortnight. With this in mind we now have enough material to last us for the next three months so we can ensure that Look Up! is made available to our members on time. As a group we have been concentrating on locating dark sky sites, funding and logistics so we can start the new observing season in September on the right footing. Much work will be done in the background during the summer, and we will be planning a couple of late night test sessions for members to come to. The itinerary will roll out during 2008-2009, in time for the International Year of Astronomy. With this in mind, new sponsors and partners are being sought. If you have any ideas or suggestions they will always be most welcome.Thank you and I look forward to meeting you all soon.

David Woods HantsAstro.org

NEWS REVIEW

The Sky-Watcher Collimator £44.99A Newtonian reflector is in essence a very simple device. It consists of two mirrors, a tube, and a focus arrangement of some sort. Now, light travels in straight lines and basically punishes you in two ways. It doesn’t like being bent or refracted, and photons most certainly don’t do curves. If the main mirror is not lined up with the secondary mirror all sorts of nasty things happen.

There are several types of collimator and basically they are quite similar, but lately the hi-tech fad is to use a laser collimator. Using a sharp small beam of red light reflected back on itself, it will show up very simply how far out your mirrors are. So, what’s it like to use? This collimator comes with a 2 inch adapter which is ideal for the rich kids and their 2 inch Crayford Focuser. The target window is simple and intuitive like most good collimators, but this one differs by having seven different brightness levels which really is quite handy. On my LXD75 Newtonian it just took a few minutes tweaking of the main mirror get the alignment spot on.

That night I used the scope to observe Saturn and also some deep sky and it truly made a massive difference! I knew it was a little bit out before, but seeing Saturn and its moons so pin sharp was extremely pleasing to the eye. I now understand as time goes by how amateur astronomers become very discerning about what they see through the eyepiece.

For the money it feels well built as it’s metal, and the sort of thing you only need to buy once. It was supplied without instructions and I’m led to believe that they rarely come with them, but there are plenty of places on the Web that explain how to use them. But for £45, one would expect something included in the box, like er, how to use it? So, Mr Skywatcher if you’re reading this, please pull your socks up!

There are more expensive ones out there, which is why we are also doing a head-to-head test with the Baader laser collimator. I will try out both on a 6 inch reflector I bought off eBay four years ago and which was so badly out of whack, I thought that the moon had a sister!

Words: David WoodsPicture: Graham Green

Collimators kindly supplied by Steve Graham at First Light OpticsTel: 01392 420 792www.firstlightoptics.com

05

If you ask anybody about their first experience... with an optical aid they would probably tell you that it was with a pair of binoculars. There is a good chance that you would find a pair in every household up and down the country.

My first experience with binoculars was during America’s new era of lunar exploration of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. My dad had a pair of 12x50s (twelve by fifty),12 being the magnification and the 50 bit being the measurement of the objective lens in millimeters (the front bit). Although these were quite heavy and difficult to keep steady, it was common practice to rest them on the window sill to give a steady view of the moon (I couldn’t quite see the lunar landing module or the astronauts but I knew they were there!).

There are two kinds of binoculars. There are the compact roof-prism style that are mainly used for wildlife observations or the classic porro-prism which are the preferred choice for astronomical use.

If you feel that you need to buy yourself a pair then here is the way to go about it! First decide how much you want to spend. For a pair of 7x50 binoculars expect to pay any thing from £20, and over £200 for a much larger pair such as 20x100. You need to look for a pair with an objective lens of at least 50 millimeters (this is the bit that collects the light, the more light you get the better the image) don’t worry too much about the magnification. For under £150 you will find binoculars much larger than the trusty 10x50s, for example a pair of 15x70s or 20x80s. You will

notice that the lens or optics will be classed as “Multi-Coated” or “Fully Multi-Coated”, multi-coated are good but fully multi-coated are better by far, the lenses are coated to give a greater light transmission.

A heavy pair of binoculars or ones with magnifications above 10x will need to be mounted on a tripod, this will eliminate any hand wobble that would otherwise make viewing almost impossible. On the larger binoculars at the front of the focuser, you will find a built-in thread so you can attach a tripod adaptor, this adaptor can then be fitted to a standard camera tripod. This is useful until you want to view the sky at the zenith (the bit of sky directly above your head). To overcome this you could use one of those garden recliner chairs and steady your elbows on the arm rests, otherwise a more expensive mount can be employed; more on this type of set up another time!

And now the flip side Graham.

As much as I love binoculars I also find them a little limiting which is why I believe there is a current fad for these funky little short focal length, highly portable (and sometimes quite expensive!) refractor telescopes. With a telescope you can change the eyepieces and alter the magnification. They are much easier for astrophotography and depending on your budget can work out to be just as cheap as a decent pair of binoculars at £150. SkyWatcher for instance, produce a 114mm diameter Newtonian Reflector with a single axis motor drive and a sturdy mount,

VIEWS

so you can track the stars for under £150.

The down side is that it can be a lot of gear to set up, and in a later test we will be pitting a pair of Revelation 15 x 70mm binoculars against a good old-fashioned epic f12.9 A70LF Vixen refractor, and also the latest darling of the little ‘scopes - the William Optics Megrez f5.6 72FD. The Vixen retails at £69 and the William Optics starts at £299 and is renowned for having superior optics.

Now some people might call this a little unfair, but it isn’t always just about opening up that cheque-book in order to get a nice view. As is so often the case, the British weather makes getting out and observing, during the winter months and early spring sometimes the most frustrating pastime. But when the clouds clear and the sky is dark it doesn’t really matter what you use as long as you observe. I must confess that I own several different sizes of binoculars and I use my 10x50mm the most.

If you think of binoculars as two small refracting telescopes, they are quite useful instruments. Regardless of what kind of astronomy you eventually end up doing, a good pair of binoculars is a really good way of getting to know the night sky, and to help you search for that elusive target without major expense.

So in answer to the original question, is a pair of binoculars a one trick pony? In short yes, but boy what a trick!

Words: Graham Green & David Woods

06

REPORT

Top: Some serious imaging was taking place under the

Mag20+ dark skies...

Right: Stephen & Lucy’s wheel’s + a small grab’n’go ‘scope!

Below: Ian talks and people listen. Explaining the virtues of an Meade

ETX Goto Scope

Words: David WoodsPictures: Graham Green

IOWSTARPARTY.ORG

6th-10th March 2008Location: Brighstone,Isle of Wight, Hants.

Being a star party virgin it would be easy to say that this new event was a memorable experience.

It goes far deeper than that. Camaraderie. Nearly 40 people braved the elements on the south-west side of the island and even though there was some wind and rain, in the clear and darker p e r i o d s many people marvelled at the potential venue of the first Isle of Wight star party. When it is possible to see the different colours of the stars, then you know that it’s a special night indeed. There were many different types of telescopes and many interesting people to meet.

Stephen Griffiths and Lucy Rogers are the ones to thank for what could become in the years ahead, something quite unique in the South of England. Again, thank you. Events like these take the lot of dedicated organisation and first-time out they did really well. Next year, it will be held a little later in the month and details will be found on their web site. It is vital that there is something like this down here in the South if astronomy is to prosper.

A full eight page report will shortly be published in the ‘SAGAS Reporter’ eZine which is available as a free download.

www.sagas.org.uk

David Woods

07

WHAT’S ON Border+May 2008

Talks & Events across the county line. Please check relevant website for updates and contact details.

Intech Planetarium + Science Centre,

WinchesterVarious Monthly Shows up to

6 per day over the weekendCheck site for details + times

Cost - £8.95 Adults £6.65 under 14’s

www.intech-uk.com

Southdowns PlanetariumChichester

02 May - 30 MayVarious Monthly Shows

Check site for details + timesCost - £6 Adults

£4 under 16’swww.southdowns.org.uk

Farnham ASFarnham, Surrey

www.farnham-as.co.uk

Guildford ASGuildford, Surrey

www.guildfordas.org

Newbury ASNewbury, Berkshire

www.newburyas.org.uk

Southdowns ASChichester, Sussex

www.southdowns.org.uk

Worthing ASWorthing, Sussexwww.was.org.uk

Talks & Seminars

May 2008 Hampshire

Interesting local Astronomy talks take place in the County nearly every month, so please check the relevant website for any updates and contact details.

Southampton Astronomical Society08 May - So you want to be an Astronomer?Speaker - RF TurnerEdmund Kell Unitarian Church Hall,Southampton - @19:45pm www.southampton-astronomical-society.org.uk Cost £2 Non-members

Hampshire Astronomical Group09 May - Deep Sky Imaging from a Brockenhurst GardenSpeaker - Professor Greg ParkerClanfield Memorial Hall, Clanfield - @ 19:45pm Cost £2 Non-memberswww.hantsastro.org.uk Solent Amatuer Astronomers Society20 May - TBA Derek Haselden, President Solent AASOaklands Community Centre, Lordshill, Southampton - @ 20:00pm Cost £2 Non-memberswww.delscope.demon.co.uk/society/home.htm

Vectis Astronomical Society23 May - The Outer Solar System - Speaker Mike LeggettNewport Parish Church Centre, Newport IOW - @ 19:30pm Cost £2 Non-memberswww.vectis-astro.org.uk

Hampshire is our Playground.

Planet+May 2008

Where the Planets are in our Solar System in May.

Table KeyRA - Right AscensionDec - DeclinationConstell. - ConstellationElongation - Angle between Sun & Planet as seen from EarthDistance - From Earth in Astro-nomical Units (AU) = 149.598M KmMagnitude - Brightness Diameter - in ArcSecondsPhase - % Visibility of object disc

All Data is based on 15th

of the month.

08

OUT THERE...Our Hampshire Sky - May 2008Astronomy is getting later in the evenings, but there are still opportunities to see Saturn before her rings turn edge on to us.

This month we will focus on the Planets...

Mid Month - you should be able to see the Moon (near Virgo) Saturn (in Leo) and Mars (in Cancer) all South to Southwest before setting early morning. Mercury will be bright 06 May West-Northwest, near the Moon, which will be barely lit. Jupiter is for the early risers but quite low in the South. Uranus is still low and early this month and Venus is too close to the Sun for now.

For variety, why not try some Messier Objects such as the Galaxies M101(Pinwheel) and M51 (Whirlpool) which can be seen over by region of Ursa Major . The Beehive Cluster will follow Mars down setting into the West.

All these should look great though binoculars or a small telescope.

Something else to look out for when very dark are the Eta Aquarids. This meteor shower comes from the Comet Halley, and will be active from 19 Apr to 28 May but peaks at 08:38am in the morning with one strike a minute. Earth will pass though it’s path on 05 May, if you look NE below the Constellation Lyra, (if you are still up!) you can see it near the horizon from 01:00am until dawn. The darker the skies the better.

Most of the other crowd pleasers are still too low (and too late) to be seen until later in the year.

Hampshire is our Playground. Now it’s yours...

Objects

RA

Dec

Constell.

Elongation

Distance

Magnitude

Diameter

Phase

Sun

03h28m43s

+18°54’14”

Bull

-------

1.011 AU

-25.98

31’38”

-------

Mercury

04h58m55s

+25°03’32”

Bull

-21.8°

0.818 AU

0.61

08”

34%

Venus

03h02m14s

+16°16’20”

Ram

6.8°

1.717 AU

-3.79

09”

99%

Mars

08h21m53s

+21°10’18”

Crab

-68.2°

1.751 AU

1.35

05”

91%

Jupiter

19h36m28s

-21°38’58”

Archer

122.2°

4.588 AU

-2.32

42”

99%

Saturn

10h17m49s

+12°29’11”

Lion

-97.3°

9.120 AU

0.61

18”

99%

The Moon

11h46m23s

-02°35’31”

Virgin

-123.3°

0.394 MKm

-11.07

30’20”

77%

Solar System Data for May 2008

Next Month.Reviews of the Revelation 15x70mm Binoculars and the William Optics Megrez 72FD.How to use a Collimator.News, Views and more info on our web site.www.hantsastro.org

If you have any suggestions for improving this star information then please e-mail:david.woods@hantsastro.org