00:23:17 Tom Trottier: Does a "computerized equatorial mount" track in 2 dimensions? 00:26:40 Tim Cole: Yes, equatorial mounts track in two directions. In principle, you could just use a single drive motor, but that implies perfect alignment and setup. 00:31:26 Timothy: Note the big battery under the mount. 00:32:51 Chris Taylor: @Timothy - The size of the battery is secondary to the size of the mount itself! 00:33:25 Tim Cole: RA - Right Ascension: rroughly equivalent to longitude 00:33:47 Mark Cayer: Will we be given any idea how much it would cost for a beginner to get started ?? How much computer power do you require? 00:33:49 Tim Cole: DEC - declination: roughly equivalent to latitude. 00:35:59 Tim Cole: Starting costs are always difficult to estimate.. As a general rule of thumb, figure it'll cost what you'd pay for a decent laptop. 00:38:09 Tim Cole: Computing power -- to run the mount, you don't need much -- a basic tablet will work well. Image processing can take a fair bit of horsepower; I do mine on a desktop PC with a mid-line graphics card. 00:39:03 Tom Trottier: Why stack? 00:39:43 Chris Taylor: Each image in the stack is dim. Add them together and you get a bright image. 00:40:35 Tom Trottier: Warmer..... 00:40:43 Tom Trottier: ...inside 00:40:53 Tim Cole: There are several reasons to stack. Short exposures are less likely to suffer from tracxking error. 00:41:27 Chris Taylor: Ah, so the stacking can also align the images? Cool! 00:42:21 Tim Cole: Stacking software can handle small errors intracking, but there are serious limits to what it can handle. 00:42:30 Ben Houston: ASIAIR is running internally a Raspberry Pi inside I believe. So it is quite low power. 00:42:39 Alan German: https://telescopius.com 00:43:11 Tim Cole: Yes, ASIAIR uses an RP 3. I'll mention an alternative for homebrewing. 00:45:49 Tim Cole: That's the Veil Nebula. 00:45:49 Tom Trottier: So, targets mainly moon, nebulae, planets? 00:47:14 Tim Cole: There are a llot of different types of nebulass, and there are are also some lovely double and multiple stars. 00:48:13 Tim Cole: It's not terribly obvious, but stacking images improves the signal to noise ratio -- for digital images. 00:48:33 Tom Trottier: Is It good to move objects around the image frame so that sensor noise does not accumulate? 00:49:58 Tim Cole: You don't need to worry too much about sensor noise accumulating. Effectively, each image "resets" the proces. This is part of the reason that stacking improves the signal to noise ratio. 00:50:54 Tom Trottier: Is final result a big print on your wall? 00:51:36 Tim Cole: The prints on my wall are actually shots from the summit of Mauna Kea. 00:51:48 Tom Trottier: Can stacking improve resolution? 00:52:19 Alan German: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Ottawa Centre http://rasctest.ca 00:52:59 Tim Cole: No, you can't improve spatial resolution with stacking. You can increase pixel depth. 00:53:03 Tom Trottier: Are any particular cameras good, eg, can run while powered? 00:53:23 Tim Cole: What do you mean, by "run while powered?" 00:53:45 Ben Houston: How does one buy anything these days? It seems most everything is sold out. 00:53:56 Tom Trottier: I think my Canons cannot take photos while USB plugged in 00:54:13 Tom Trottier: or does not take power from USB 00:54:31 Tom Trottier: Solare eclipse in a few years, total S of here 00:54:33 Alan German: Join the Ottawa Centre Join our community of astronomy enthusiasts. The only requirement is a love of the skies! http://rasctest.ca/content/join-ottawa-centre Regular $88.00/ year Family $82.50/ year plus $15.00 for each adult plus $8.10 for each youth Youth $53.30/ year 00:55:20 Glen: Do you have much light pollution (street lights) where you live? 00:55:32 Timothy: is it the length of 7 from the 2 stars of the big dipper, that is also used to get to the north star? 00:57:57 Elizabeth: Excellent presentation. such great photos ! 00:58:34 Tom Trottier: https://www.cleardarksky.com/ 00:58:43 Andrea Girones: I don't know about the length of 7. if you follow the two stars to the north the north star is the next brightest one 00:59:03 Tom Trottier: Is there a Google Moon? 00:59:09 Mark Cayer: I remember my kids shock looking at the night sky during a camping trip at Murphy's point provincial park. Light pollution is a bitch. 00:59:34 Chris Taylor: Virtual Moon Atlas - https://sourceforge.net/projects/virtualmoon/ 00:59:59 Tom Trottier: Very very dark N of Ottawa in La Verendrye park 01:01:07 Timothy: Does it show all the moon landing sites? 01:01:14 Chris Taylor: Stellarium Web - https://stellarium-web.org/ 01:01:37 Tom Trottier: No, no, we program in machine language, flipping switches! 01:03:04 Chris Taylor: Stellarium at GitHub - https://github.com/Stellarium/stellarium 01:04:01 micheline: Tom - is there a Google Moon? see https://www.google.com/moon/ 01:06:29 Tom Trottier: not a globe 01:17:49 Chris Taylor: https://www.stellarmate.com/ 01:18:57 Chris Taylor: KStars https://edu.kde.org/kstars/ 01:20:31 Tom Trottier: https://onstep.groups.io/g/main/wiki/16270 01:23:58 Ben Houston: Is there any way to rent high end stuff for a few weeks? 01:24:36 Glen: Can stellarium adjust amount of light pollution in the simulation? 01:25:41 Glen: If so, are paramaters available for light pollution in Ottawa or even specific neighbourhoods in Ottawa? 01:26:11 Chris Taylor: ITelescope - https://www.itelescope.net/ 01:26:20 Jocelyn Doire: is there project that amateur can contribute, a bit like bird watcher can help counting birds into an area? 01:26:36 Alan German: https://www.itelescope.net 01:27:17 Andrea Girones: if you are a member of the RASC you can be trained to use the Club telescopes 01:28:03 Andrea Girones: Google light pollution map 01:28:53 Chris Taylor: Stellarium - https://stellarium.org/ 01:29:15 John Fleming: is Stellarium best free app for android phone or is there another app that better helps orient one when stargazing? 01:29:24 Tom Trottier: https://www.cleardarksky.com/maps/lp/large_light_pollution_map.html 01:29:29 Andrea Girones: Also www.telescopius.com 01:29:51 Andrea Girones: I like the Stellarium App 01:30:56 Jocelyn Doire: The Champlain Lookout can be an interesting place to go to look at the sky, sometime events are hold there 01:30:57 Andrea Girones: Also Star Walk 2 and Star Safari 01:31:31 Andrea Girones: The RASC has star parties in Carp in the Spring and Summer. They should be back on in Spring 2022 01:32:01 Jocelyn Doire: thanks for the info! 01:32:29 Chris Taylor: Sky Tools 4 https://www.skyhound.com/index.html 01:32:30 Tom Trottier: https://djlorenz.github.io/astronomy/lp2016/overlay/dark.html - dark sky map 2020 01:34:00 Karen W-G: Thank you so much for the presentations! 01:34:04 Bill: wonderful presentations.....thank you so much for spending your valuable time with us...greatly appreciated 01:35:42 Coreen: Just wondering about watching the International Space Station as it streams across the sky 01:36:09 Gail: Thank you both. Great presentations! 01:36:10 Andrea Girones: Several Apps will tell you when the ISS is crossing the Sky 01:36:55 Timothy: it's crossing over central America now. 01:37:03 Chris Taylor: Galaxy Zoo https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/zookeeper/galaxy-zoo/ 01:37:10 Tom Trottier: What methods do you use to reduce noise in pictures? 01:38:11 Chris Taylor: BackyardEOS https://www.otelescope.com/store/category/2-backyardeos/ 01:38:13 Andrea Girones: Stacking is the best way to reduce noise. Some people use Topaz denoise 01:38:32 Chris Taylor: BackyardNikon https://www.otelescope.com/store/category/4-backyardnikon/ 01:38:46 Andrea Girones: I use the noise recudtion tools in Pixinsight 01:39:26 Andrea Girones: Astrospheric- will give weather info and Iss transit info 01:39:44 Tom Trottier: I'm on the spectrum.... 01:39:48 Chris Taylor: Starry Night https://starrynight.com/starry-night-8-professional-astronomy-telescope-control-software.html 01:40:03 Coreen: Thank you for expanding the universe! Excellent presentations. 01:40:42 Stephane: Great presentation 01:41:02 Timothy: This was a great presentation. I still use my telescope that I bought 51 years ago. I may now have good reasons to upgrade. 01:41:52 Jocelyn Doire: A type of telescope that is at the edge of the technology is the Event Horizon Telescope, the whole project is amazing stuff. Another type is the LIGO. 01:42:15 Denis Therrien: No not boring - mesmerizing! 01:43:16 Tom Trottier: How does Topaz compare with DXO for noise reduction? 01:44:53 Glen: Would the Pi Camera work for astro photography? 01:46:55 Chris Taylor: RegiStax for Windows https://registax-v3.en.uptodown.com/windows 01:47:45 Chris Taylor: DeepSkyStacker http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/ 01:47:51 Wayne H: Excellent presentation. Thanks for the great links. 01:48:13 Bob Herres: Great Presentation! Informative & Entertaining! We appreciate all the software tips that allow everyone to "get started" instantly! 01:48:45 Etienne Gibeault: Thank you. Awesome presentations. 01:49:11 John Fleming: Super interesting presentations. Thanks! 01:50:11 Robert Benson: Thank you for the presentations. 01:50:14 Bob Gowan: Great presentations ! Lots of great info for newbies ! 01:50:20 Tom Trottier: Out of this world!!!!!!!!!!! 01:50:33 Allison: Great presentations and info - thank you! 01:50:33 Glen: Thanks, Excellent Presentations! 01:50:35 Tom Trottier: Great for nite owls! 01:50:45 bea: Amazing information 01:50:54 Mark Cayer: Great presentations. Thanks. 01:51:36 Claudette: Two people here enjoyed. Thank you. 01:51:43 Claudette: Martin and Claudette