Rethinking MSFS 2024

[jpreou]

Ever thought of getting into RC model flying Rob?

Me...distant memories...

Balsa wood, glue, propeller, and a long elastic band... ...!

..... ...!

Paul.... :UK: ...England... ...!

All "plastic fantastics" now ... traditional balsa much harder to find, and typically quite expensive to finish.
My little fella races FPV drones, and I'm thinking of getting a small fair-weather 'park flyer' type so I have something to do for the 3-4 hours he is droning on an on ... !

[toprob]

My little fella races FPV drones, and I'm thinking of getting a small fair-weather 'park flyer' type so I have something to do for the 3-4 hours he is droning on an on ... !

Now that's something that I could enjoy, except for the 'one slip and it's over' part.

[jpreou]

My little fella races FPV drones, and I'm thinking of getting a small fair-weather 'park flyer' type so I have something to do for the 3-4 hours he is droning on an on ... !

Now that's something that I could enjoy, except for the 'one slip and it's over' part.

That was my concern too, but these things are remarkably durable. Not to say they can't get damaged, since they are moving at a fair pace, but they bounce real well

[toprob]

I've had a couple of clear nights with the telescope, it's very much a learning curve, and I've ended up with a huge list of things I need to buy.
One of my first purchases was the reducer lens, which improves the speed of the scope and widens the field of view to fit a lot more in -- with just the scope and camera I can only get a section of most nebulas. However I am awaiting an extender so it can work with my camera, so I can't use it yet for photography. However with the normal scope/camera combo I managed to get a section of the Eta Carinae nebula:

Last night I managed to image a galaxy, very faint, so I'll extend the exposure time a bit and take a lot more shots next time -- I took 50 shots to build the image, but really I need 500.

[SA227]

excellent

[Fozzer]

My little fella races FPV drones, and I'm thinking of getting a small fair-weather 'park flyer' type so I have something to do for the 3-4 hours he is droning on an on ... !

Now that's something that I could enjoy, except for the 'one slip and it's over' part.

That was my concern too, but these things are remarkably durable. Not to say they can't get damaged, since they are moving at a fair pace, but they bounce real well

Talking about Balsa Wood Aircraft...

Howz this for a fantastic home-built model

...ready to fly!...>>>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dipu-XzbGGo

Piper Cub!
One of my favourite ultralight aircraft in my FS2020 Flight Sim!

Paul... :UK: ...England.... ... ...!

[Fozzer]

I've had a couple of clear nights with the telescope, it's very much a learning curve, and I've ended up with a huge list of things I need to buy.
One of my first purchases was the reducer lens, which improves the speed of the scope and widens the field of view to fit a lot more in -- with just the scope and camera I can only get a section of most nebulas. However I am awaiting an extender so it can work with my camera, so I can't use it yet for photography. However with the normal scope/camera combo I managed to get a section of the Eta Carinae nebula:

Last night I managed to image a galaxy, very faint, so I'll extend the exposure time a bit and take a lot more shots next time -- I took 50 shots to build the image, but really I need 500.

Well done!

The stuff out there never ceases to amaze me, Rob!

https://spacecenter.org/what-is-a-nebula/

You explore the Galaxies with your Telescopes, as I explore the wonderful scenery in the Southwestern USA in my Flight Sim Aircraft!

Exploring stuff is my greatest delight!

Paul.... ... ...!

[Charl]

Haha Robin you have an unreasonable amount of views on this astronomy thread!
Feeling left out in flightsim world, I am going to attempt gaining back readership by titling my next topic
Why is my FS2020 getting less and less Sexy, and will FS2024 give me More Satisfaction

[Charl]

...on a more astronomical note, I see Saturn, Neptune and Venus occupy the same bit of sky in the early morn.
What would a telescopic photo produce there?

[jpreou]

I can't believe there have been 29 (now 30) posts on this astronomical thread and no one has yet made a Uranus joke .... very disappointing.

[toprob]

That's a very, very good question. Here's how it appears tomorrow morning around 5am, the circles and rectangles represent the different views through my telescope -- the circles are through my 2 different eyepieces, and the rectangles are through the camera. The bigger rectangle is using a reducer lens, and this just fits both Neptune and Saturn. However I can't attach my camera to the reducer yet, as I'm waiting on a connector from Aliexpress, maybe next week.


So here's how it'll look on the 23rd, when I may be able to capture it. BUT... the moon is too close, and it'll swamp the view. I check other mornings, and maybe I might manage to get up early one day!



I see that there's a drive to rename Uranus. Any suggestions? Keep it clean. Actually, that would work, 'Keep It Clean".

[emfrat]

I can't believe there have been 29 (now 30) posts on this astronomical thread and no one has yet made a Uranus joke .... very disappointing.

Well, you asked for it My late Master Mariner big brother captured this, a couple of decades ago.

[toprob]

Here's the petition to rename Uranus. A good read.

"The name has often been ridiculed due to its pronunciation in English. This not only detracts from serious scientific discussions but also undermines the majesty and importance of this celestial body."

[Charl]

Well, you asked for it

And thereby hangs a tale, I am supposing.

Robin, renaming Uranus will not easily happen soon.
We are still reeling from Pluto's loss of status...

Is Venus not grouped close enough to frame all in one shot?
Or is it too bright for Saturn?

Falling down the rabbit hole in above link:
You are all invited to sign the petition to stop helipads in urban Auckland.
It seems that every yahoo with a few million wants to fly to their inner city doorstep.
At present the ACC does not acknowledge the existence of previous consents when considering applications
It will be up to the citizenry to stop the aerial traffic jam.

https://chng.it/6MgzmF6DXW

[toprob]

On some scopes it should be possible, and with binoculars it should work great. Here's the current alignment, although Neptune and Saturn are moving closer, Venus is heading away. The rectangle is my widest camera view.



I might take a NIMBY view with the helipads, as long as they are paying for them to go into Auckland, they won't be coming here!

PS I'm still marveling at this app, SkySafari, just does everything for me, including controlling the scope's mount, so I can just click 'go to' and it'll find and track anything. Having the choice to show my equipment views overlaid makes it real easy to choose the best way to view different objects.

[toprob]

I did just have a thought, I created a custom view based on my camera plus zoom lens, here it is at 100mm. I can just get the three planets in and could go wider. Of course they will be pretty small.

[jpreou]

Well, you asked for it

You are all invited to sign the petition to stop helipads in urban Auckland.
It seems that every yahoo with a few million wants to fly to their inner city doorstep.
At present the ACC does not acknowledge the existence of previous consents when considering applications
It will be up to the citizenry to stop the aerial traffic jam.
https://chng.it/6MgzmF6DXW

Which is why I personally don't believe 'flying cars' will ever be a real 'thing' ... at least not until they are fully controlled and automated, totally autonomous and proven safe, without any human intervention required to drive\fly from pickup to destination, with all the supporting infrastructure, systems and capabilities that would entail .... so, probably never then ... or at least not for a heck of a long time. In my opinion, of course.

[toprob]

Last night started off clear, but ended with cloud. As usual. Before the cloud obscured everything, I too 400 photos of a nebula forgetting to refocus the scope after switching from the eyepiece to the camera. That's 2 hours down the drain.
Before that, though, I got this image, starting with 300 photos whittled down to 117 because of the clouds. All the images are 'stacked' which pulls out detail that you wouldn't see in a single image, and then highly processed. The original is 4825x2714 pixels (cropped from 6000x4000).

[Splitpin]

This has turned into an amazing thread.
Loving the photos Rob, when I look at all that stuff out there, everything here seems to pale.
Do you take requests for Steller photos ? I've always been fascinated by Antares (Alpha Scorpii) and Antares B ....a super giant binary .

[toprob]

That's a great target, Antares is one of those objects which can scare the #### out of you when you really think about it. 10,000 times brighter than the sun in the visible spectrum, and if you include infrared it's 100,000 times brighter -- you wouldn't want to get close.
I would give it a go, but I don't know if I'm capable of bringing out the dust clouds, as the stars are so bright they tend to blow everything out.