Physicsman

Evening Ade. I'm glad you're enjoying the imaging interlude during the modelling hiatus. A while back I felt a bit guilty about doing this kind of thing. But a considerable number of thread-followers expressed a genuine interest in the space-related stuff, so it's been a regular for at least the last 5 years. I haven't had a pause in modelling since the start of Gill Head, so it's a nice change on here. Besides, I have to say that a lot of the larger layout threads are often filled with pages of woffle, so I've no regrets. For an innovative hybridised thread look no further than Clive Mortimore's entertaining Sheffield Exchange thread which blends modelling and a wide-ranging music input!

It can get quite chilly in winter, but at least the observatory blocks out most of the wind. And getting well wrapped-up - especially with a hat - makes things reasonably comfortable. The key thing is that the telescope must be at the ambient temperature, otherwise the images are rubbish. High-res imaging is done by staring at a laptop screen and a link into the house could be built. But the image needs to be continually checked for focus, so better to be on the spot for adjustments. Besides, it's nice being under the stars at night. Doing the job remotely via a wi-fi or other link would be boring, as far as I'm concerned.

No, I like to keep things as simple of possible - and less likely to go caput! See pics and further comments below. The roof slides off to one side. The roof comes in at over 200kg (pretty solid timbers on a metal frame) - no, I didn't build it - but on rollers can easily be pushed backwards and forwards with one hand. The first pic is from December 2020, with the black 8" Celestron keeping the big scope company. The second pic, from the same time, is for David - showing the holes in the floor. They're really there to make it easy for the local spiders to get inside and stay warm! Colin, I can't post you any deep sky views for a couple of reasons. First, I haven't done any - it requires a very different camera set-up - although I can sit a normal DSLR onto the telescope tube and "piggyback" it for longer, wide field exposures. And second, a caveat to the first, local light pollution isn't too bad but enough to restrict me to the brighter nebulae and galaxies - if I ever have a go. There's a lot more to it than my brief comment, and I'd never shut up once you got me started!

Rob, have you been spying on me?

David, whether in humour or in seriousness, your supposition is correct. The floor of the observatory is wood, sat on a row of 4x2 cross joists. Great for normal use but if the legs of the tripod were sat on it then even the tiniest vibration would be picked up by the telescope. The floor has been cut out in the vicinity of the base of the tripod and the legs sit onto the substantial concrete foundation about 15cm below the wooden floor. I can jump up and down in the observatory and the disturbance barely registers (not that I make a habit of doing so!!) John, I'm sworn to secrecy by the Official Secrets Act. The stuff I can see in Moscow.....phew.....!!!!!

Colin, thanks for the heads-up on your layout thread. Really good to see you on here and, as you know, I do like a bit of baseboard construction and you're doing an excellent job with all of this. I rarely stray outside of the S&C in my random visits to the Forum, but I'll keep an eye on this. What you are building oozes quality. If the base isn't properly built, heaven help the rest!! Jeff

A couple of people have asked me what kind of equipment I'm using to obtain my images. This isn't the place to go into immense detail, but here's a couple of pics showing the main beastie in his lair. 2 smaller siblings stand quietly to the side, out of shot. It's a Celestron Edge HD 11" Schmidt-Cassegrain, with all sorts of bits-and-bobs tagged on to the standard outfit. The red "thing" at the left end of the scope is one of my high frame rate planetary cameras. Doesn't look like a camera, does it?

David, do you think anyone would believe me if I claimed that Webb infrared image as my own work? No? Shame. Sums up humans for me. Unbelievably intelligent in evolving from living in caves to today's high-tech achievements. And unbelievable lacking in intelligence for their behaviour on this planet which isn't even the equivalent of a speck of dust in our galaxy alone. Anyway, since I was responding to your post, here's another image from 19th August. It shows the crater Plato (90km wide) and the adjacent (to the right) lunar Alps. These mountains typically reach 3-4000m in height, comparable with our own Alps, but much higher in proportion to the smaller Moon.

Right, I'll subject you to a couple more pics and then disappear for a little while. Here are 2 pics showing how important imaging the moon at a higher altitude can be. The first is a (quite good) image I've posted previously: July 21, moon at 26 degrees above the horizon. The second is from 4 days ago. Similar area, moon 46 degrees up. The increase in detail and sharpness is significant. The large crater is Clavius: about 150 miles (240km) in diameter - about the distance from London to Manchester.... The view is looking south towards the moon's south pole.

Here's an image of the waning crescent moon from early Sunday morning. The image is a mosaic of 15 panes, each pane made up from 800 "stacked" frames - so effectively compiled from 12000 sub-pictures. You can zoom in quite a way, but the usual disclaimer - this is a 2Mb jpeg file, compressed from the original 37Mb TIF. Copernicus crater, that you've met previously, is the large crater half way down on the light-dark boundary (terminator). This area of the moon is dominated by large lava plains which are less reflective than the highland areas. It gives the waning crescent moon an almost eerie, "ghostly" light as it hangs in the sky. Almost getting poetic, there!

Hi Shaun. The light pollution where I live isn't too bad, but views of the Milky Way aren't as impressive as they were 40 years ago. The modern generation, I'm afraid, don't know what they're missing. I did a survey a few years back, when I was still teaching. Only 20% of my sixth-form Physics students had actually seen the Milky Way.... I've managed 2 good moon imaging sessions in the last week, and hope to be outside 2-5am this evening. Friday's exploits produced 275Gb of pretty excellent data - half the storage capacity of my laptop. I'll post some more pics early next week when I've had a good sort-through. No railway work, but I did go into the Bunker yesterday - for ten minutes. The stirrings of desire to get back in there are strong, so something non-astronomical is likely to appear on here in the next........weeks - fill blank with a number 4 or greater! Thanks to viewers for your continued interest in the stuff on this schizophrenic thread! Jeff.

Thanks for the comments, and don't get me started on astrology! I'm just heading out for 3 hours of Jupiter imaging, though I'll nab a few shots of Saturn before I start. John, widefield pics of meteor showers are something I've done in the past and the Perseid shower can be impressive. Unfortunately it's badly affected by the full moon this year. Shaun, if you'd asked if I'd looked at Uranus....which I have, as it's near Mars (oh dear, you can twist that if you like) not too far from Jupiter at the mo. Betelgeuse has actually recovered in brightness from its dimming- down 2 years ago (caused by either giant star spots or an intervening cloud of dust orbiting it). Some thought the dimming a precursor to it exploding as a supernova (one of the nearest supergiants to Earth at around 500 light years), but nope... Or was it just Beetle-Juice on your mind? Folks, modelling has come to a halt for the next ten days or so for obvious reasons. I have a project on the go which will enhance the layout and will be unveiled when near completion - likely early September. I'll update this thread with any decent planetary pics. If it's not your thing then railway stuff will return with a vengeance....eventually!

I see you've been having a bit of fun..... SOME modelling work continues, but these 2 pics are hot off the press having been taken at around 2.20 and 3.08 this morning. Just a quick bit of processing, that will be refined, before I go to bed in order to see what I've "captured".

Evening Ade. In all honesty, the initial crop of Jupiter images are fairly mediocre. Partly it's down to my technique - or lack of - I'm a moon specialist. 60% is down to the atmospheric conditions. A clear sky isn't necessarily steady and the planet is currently still on the way up in the South East at 2-3am. Things will improve over the next couple of months. My attitude is that I'd rather be outside getting some data than waiting and moping for better conditions. The bottom line is that the whole process is very enjoyable, once you get a chance to take data. Last night typifies when it's very frustrating: I set up and was about ready to start when at 2.30am the sky clouded over with very high, thin clouds that rendered imaging useless. I'm hoping to get some pics during this week and my "moon window" starts again at 2am on Sunday morning. I'm well underway with a Gill Head-related project, and that'll be reported on here once complete. I'll keep those of you interested in the moon/Jupiter updated as things progress. Jeff

Update.... I'm not "doing nothing". I've had a few days out of the Bunker, but there are modelling activities for GH that will appear in due course - when they are finished, which may take a while. Jupiter imaging has commenced. The atmospheric conditions have been appalling, aside from the generally cr@p weather. A fast-moving jetstream, no pressure stability, consequent turbulence and the fact that the planet is only 25-30 degrees altitude at 4am all conspire against any decent results. But it's a challenge that's a lot of fun. A couple of pics - from July 27 and August 1 - to show the kind of thing I'm looking at. To put things into perspective. The moon pics I post on here are pretty respectable - but a long way from the best - by any standard. These Jupiter pics are at the 20% level, so plenty of room for improvement. Though imaging planets in the UK, at 54N is a head-on battle as against lower latitudes with stable atmospherics. EDIT COMMENT: The Forum won't let me post a TIF file, so I have to compress them down to Jpeg. The second pic, as an example, was a 5Mb TIF and is now around a 0.1Mb Jpeg. So these pics are illustrative.

Hi Mark. Thanks for the feedback. I hadn't realised it'd been so long since you've been on here. Are you still in the Blea Moor area or back at Hellifield? The layout chugs along with bursts of intense activity - well, "intense" in a reltive way. Underbridge, tunnel, station building etc in a 3 month period. All takes time though - no point in rushing it all in a couple of weeks, getting bored and wanting to get rid of it, is there?

He's wonderful, Rob. There are a couple of threads I'd love to share him with. Excellent. Back to railway matters, I've drawn up the plans for the platform 2 waiting room and ordered relevant Plastruct and plastikard supplies. I may get round to starting that next week.

Well, in these trying times that would be a nice pig me up....... 🐷🐷🐷

Nah, you are both telling porkies and I'm going to lamb-poon you for that. Anyway, I prefer horse radish sauce with my meat.....

Nice to see that a sense of humour is still alive and kicking out there.

"Bloomin' eck Pig, I'm glad wi manujjed te git awff that trane eddin' te Trueplitheren....!" "Yeh, Sheep - it's Troowitheredarm, by te way. And yeh, I didunt fancee avin to stop at the Bewdock depo....too manee diseasals fer ma likin..." "Eneways, Pig, theese duz luk like a nice place..." "Oh, yeh. I urd the old stashun bildin ad been cleend up a bit. Vewy nice job" "Sheep, if yull just wait a WEE bit, I'm gonna chek out da karzy...." "Grate, luvvly and cleen" "Shall wi rest ower paws and av a seet int waitin room?" "Oh, dat woz grate. Thees platfurms a beet bear tho. The geezer dat owns da plaize needs to beeld a sheltur on eer az well..." "Yeh, Sheep.....al be avin wurds...." So you see, I'm in trouble and have NO choice but to get on with the job. On the other hand, a bit of pork and lamb for dinner might not go amiss. Anyone for kebabs?

Update: NO modelling work has been carried out since last Wednesday. I think that's the longest hiatus in the history of Gill Head. Of course, the reason for this has been the hours it's taken to (VERY enjoyably) process the moon data from last Thursday. There are several lunar imaging opportunities in August, and Jupiter starts shortly..... However, I have a few plans in store to run concurrently with the imaging: I need to make some more trees, including one for a very patient customer! I want to make a load of bushy material and stuff for the "hedgerows". This is always a fun job and well worth it. I need to build the platform 2 waiting shelter. I've looked at the old S&C plans and will get going with that in the next month or so. Which reminds me, I need to re-stock with plastikard.... In the meantime, some commentary from a pair of old friends....

Rob, thanks for the images, which WILL prove very useful. I plan to make a few bedraggled hawthorns - the idea's been there since seeing Gordon Gravett's attempts in his wonderful tree modelling books. So your imagery is really handy.

Excellent stuff! And I'd hardly describe myself as your "consultant". You're as fanatical about REAL world, prototype modelling as I am. Even if your loco driver does keep going round in circles! 🤣🤣

For anyone interested in scenic work on layouts, irrespective of scale, please go to the Narrow Gauge Forum (between Site Information and Garden Railways on the Home page), "Narrow Gauge Modelling".... Look at Steve (Ramrig)'s "Beat the Drum" 009 layout, recently exhibited (last weekend). If he gets some recent pics on you'll see a lovely bit of work - loco, tractor, bridge, trees, sheep, vegetation.... Please pop over and have a look!