Townsville Astronomy Group

Mercury and Moon conjunction June 2010 Mercury and Moon conjunction June 2010 gstar-ex moon images gstar-ex moon images gstar-ex moon images gstar-ex moon images Mercury and Moon conjunction June 2010 gstar-ex moon images Donnington Airpark 120610 gstar-ex moon images
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Light Pollution Problem PDF Print E-mail
Written by Lex   
Wednesday, 16 June 2010 23:32

Light Pollution Problem

I was reading in ‘The Sun’ news paper (which we receive a couple of times a year – but that’s a delivery problem) that a Cairns company has developed a wrap-around skin for low power ‘light poles’ with imbedded photo voltaic's as an earth friendly way to generate ‘clean’ power and good for them, well done!

night_450-2

Our electricity distribution people have suggested that they will wait a year to see how it goes (very admirable) considering that in our end of Cambridge Street, Gulliver alone there are no less than thirty (30) street lights in around 1km and by their own admission there are millions of the things throughout the country, a fact that any ‘lover’ of the heavens knows only too well.

These lights are all unshielded lights with only a small amount of their radiated light doing the job they were supposedly designed to do, the rest is scattered in every direction including up.  Now we get to my point as a ‘stargazer’ or amateur astronomer hopeful!

Folks, we have lost our beautiful skies.  There is no longer a lovely ‘Milky Way’ above our cities and large towns.  If we have lights to light up our streets

Last Updated on Wednesday, 16 June 2010 23:34
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Filters PDF Print E-mail
Written by Vince Legge   
Monday, 15 March 2010 11:44

Some Notes on Filters


Introduction:

Essentially a filter is an optical device that blocks undesirable wavelengths of light and therefore only allowing light of desirable wavelengths for a given target, therefore "enhancing" that target. However a filter does not increase available light: it decreases the total light passing through the light path of your telescope and eyepiece configuration

A filter is not a magic wand.

Last Updated on Monday, 15 March 2010 12:37
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Cleaning your Optical Components PDF Print E-mail
Written by Nic Priest   
Sunday, 21 February 2010 23:38

This article is for reflector type telescopes as I have and am only comfortable servicing my Dobsonian.

With lens's if it is only dust on the lens surface itself try blowing lightly on the lens, if no joy a camera blower brush is the next step blowing across the face of the lens the same way you would with a camera lens. If the mark still persists, try cleaning the lens with

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 February 2010 22:39
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Mars - Here We Come PDF Print E-mail
Written by Lex Howard   
Tuesday, 23 February 2010 22:53

MARS – Here We Come???

mars1Our near neighbour Mars (The Rusty Planet) a rich ochre colour very similar to our countries (Australia) west coast and interior in colour and never very large in the eyepiece when viewed from Earth.  Best at times like now with opposition just past.  Its size varies over the years from around 4 arc/sec to 25 arc/sec at its closest approach to our home world for this year 2010.  In January it achieved something like 14.5 arc/sec angular diameter and -2.8 mag.

The little planet begins its celestial show low in the eastern sky and does its ‘jitter bug’ journey across the heavens over a few months only to

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 February 2010 23:07
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Polar Alignment without Polaris PDF Print E-mail
Written by Vince Legge   
Saturday, 30 January 2010 15:24

scAn updated tutorial by Vince Legge

I am referring throughout to the use of a German Equatorial Mount (GEM).

You will need a magnetic compass, one that you can read down to 1° increments, a device for measuring angles, and a little basic handyman skill but we’ll get to that as we work through the technique

Also you will need to determine the Latitude and

Last Updated on Sunday, 31 January 2010 08:26
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