Osbourne One-Nil

Please note, the smaller regional groups are about to reopen, because those weather boffs say it's about to get cold. This thread will lock shortly. Hope no one gets lost.

I suppose this is Northants up to Derbyshire and that one next to Wales over to Leicestershire?

As Alan Partridge would say "Poringland, Stoke Holy Cross, Framingham Earl, Rockland St Mary, Caistor St Edmund - this is the regional discussion thread for East Anglia and some other counties that no one's ever heard of.

Please note, the smaller regional groups are about to reopen, because those weather boffs say it's about to get cold. This thread will lock shortly. Hope no one gets lost.

Three new threads from south west to south east with something in between.

Ginsters

I think that's sort of Hampshire way isn't it? Never really been there.

Keep calm and carry on.

Please note, the smaller regional groups are about to reopen, because those weather boffs say it's about to get cold. This thread will lock shortly. Hope no one gets lost.

Apparently the loud bang I heard this afternoon was a controlled explosion at the Warcop firing range. Must have been one hell of an explosion!

Wet snow settling on the car and grass as I let the dog out a few minutes ago.

There appeared to be lightning to the south of Great Asby on the way home tonight - I could make out anvil clouds (or what looked like anvil clouds anyway) silhouetted against the sky at around 8pm, and there was numerous very bright flashes in the far distance. It wouldn't be anything like railway lines, as the only electrified one in the area is not in that direction. Also, at around 4pm, there was an almighty bang which sounded like it almost broke the glass in my windows. I was in Appleby but it was also reported in Great Asby, 5 miles away. I wonder what that was?!

The best way to take photos of planets is actually to slip a webcam into the bit where the eyepiece goes, take a video and use some free software to stack the individual images. People obtain some incredible results that way, Calling astronomy "astrology" is like referring to a steam locomotive as a "train"...everyone knows what you mean, but it upsets the nerdy pedants (ie. myself).Stellarium's great, and there's another good free one called Carte du Ciel...really helps you see the stuff you want to see.

I inherited an Olympus E400 and sold my Canon as a result, which turns out to have been a mistake because Olympus now seem to be running down their four-thirds range and lens choice is now very limited.

Up to 2.5º now so rising steadily.

That's amazing value. That scope will have far better quality optics and a far strudier mount than one costing £300 with a fancy computerised mount. It'll also teach your son to learn where things are, rather than relying on a computer to tell him. Just remember that the only things you'll be able to photograph on a mount that isn't driven is the Moon and the brighter planets, but that's a great start. As for you Canon camera, they're by far the best for astrophotography - something to do with the type of sensors they use. Bung it on a tripod, point it towards Polaris, open the shutter for an hour, and see what you get!

Not 600ft - I live at 600ft. I meant 800ft....or whatever height my mum and dad live at, as they've got snow in their garden this morning.

1.3º here, heavy sleet and snow settling above about 600ft this morning. Dropped to -0.9º last night.

There isn't an infinity marking on the lens, and it goes on to focus beyond infinity. The only way I can do it is to try and focus on Jupiter and check the result - the stars are just too faint to focus on in the viewfinder, and it hasn't got live view, so it is a problem. Longer exposures are going to bring out all the nebulosity. Even last night I took an exposure directly overhead (towards Perseus) and there were tiny faint clouds which aren't even in the Messier catalogue.

For less than £100, I don't think you could do better than this. The single most important factor of a telescope is its aperture; the larger that is, the more light it collects, the more detail it will resolve and the more is will show you. That scope gives you a 3" aperture (the telescope I use the most is "just" a 3.5"), and will show the rings of Saturn, Jupiter's moons and cloud belts, bright nebulae and the Moon will look stunning. Almost as importantly, its mount is stable and if the mount isn't stable, you can't see a thing. The main downside is it doesn't look like a "proper" telescope, but it is! Everything but the moon will look very small through it, but then most things look very small through any telescope - the photos you see on TV are very misleading. If there's any money left over, I'd also recommend this book. It aimed to accompany a small telescope and describes what you're looking at in a way which actually allows you to comprehend what you're seeing.

You can get some fantastic telescopes for far less than the Astrotrac - you'll get him hooked. Here's the Orion Nebula....quite pleased seeing as I haven't learnt to focus properly yet, the exposure's all wrong, I don't know how to process and was limited to the worst possible settings on the camera. Looking forward to getting out of the village with it.

Air frost here tonight; currently -0.3º.

You don't need a telescope for photos like this though. In fact, I'm tempted to sell one of my big telescopes. I bought a very compact, collapsible 10" reflecting telescope a couple of years ago, mainly so my son and I could walk out of the village and have an evening out in the surrounding fells. However, my new mount and camera is even more compact and transportable, and you come home with a momento. I could invest that money into a lovely nice prime lens....or I could keep it all and be greedy.

Oh yes, but I don't have one. It's on order though and should be here tomorrow. Tonight, therefore, I'm still restricted to 1min exposures, but have already managed quite a nice one of the Pleiades again, and one very quick one looking towards Orion with a 28mm lens and trees in the way, but you can still see the Orion Nebula (M42). I'll zoom in later and try again once it's cleared the trees. I've also attached a 1min exposure of the Pleiades without the mount tracking, to show what a difference it makes, even over a short time-span.

Heading out in a moment and going to aim to get a 5 min exposure of the Pleiades and directly overhead where to double cluster is in Perseus. That's assuming it stays clear and I can find a way to hold the shutter open for a few minutes.