Episode 52 - Early Mornin' Under the Stars

Welcome BAAAACK to The Astrocast!

This week is a special episode, and definitely one to listen to under the stars! Let's hang out under the night sky and preview the summer triangle from 4 to 6am while gathering data on the N. American Nebula! We talk about quite a few things while we hang out, including a new contender entering the ring in AP! Also...Do we live in a simulation!? All of Roo's crazy 4am ramblings are on full display, and I hope I didn't embarrass myself too much!

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The Astrocast is an Affiliate partner with both High Point Scientific AND Agena Astro now, and as such any purchases made through either of these partners using our links will get you the same great prices you would otherwise get, but The Astrocast will also get a small portion of the proceeds from the sale. Thank you so much for your support! Please feel free to share these links with any friends/family who love Astro!

High Point Scientific

Agena Astro

Coming soon: Adorama! 

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;15
Unknown
Come.

00;00;23;17 - 00;00;55;29
Unknown
Clean energy starts. Can I take some things? For you. You are listening to The Astrocast!

00;00;56;01 - 00;01;09;11
Unknown
Oh!

00;01;09;14 - 00;01;54;16
Unknown
Oh, yeah. Jenny. Craig. How life is. It's so busy. And the older I get, the more I appreciate that time is the only thing we can't buy more of. I can't get more of our time on. This planet is finite. And if we want to make the most of it, that's entirely up to us. So with that in mind.

00;01;54;19 - 00;02;20;02
Unknown
I'm out here at 430 in the morning, looking up at the sky. I was laying in bed last night. I'd finished another really long day at the office, and, I don't know, I just I needed the stars. You ever get there, you just are like. All right, that's enough. I've got to get outside and get under the stars.

00;02;20;04 - 00;02;50;04
Unknown
And that's, That's where I was. Because it had been, nearly a month since I had had a chance to image get under the stars or anything. And I set my alarm for 330 this morning, figuring, you know, I can be up and running by four, and that'll give me a solid two hours to capture data on an early summer target currently pointed at Deneb.

00;02;50;06 - 00;03;15;02
Unknown
But, yeah. So I, I, Wake up. It's 330, and I'm laying in my nice warm bed. I'm thinking of myself. I really want to go outside and, you know, 40 degrees and I know 40 degrees is nothing for some of y'all, but it's pretty cold for us here in North Carolina, especially when you are nice and cozy in bed.

00;03;15;02 - 00;03;48;04
Unknown
It. 330 in the morning. But, I pulled up the forecast and I said to myself, all right, if it's clear this weekend, because New Moon is this weekend, then I will go back to sleep. And I'll do this on Friday night or Saturday night when I can sleep. And the next day, you know. But as fate would have it, it looks like New Moon will be clouded out once again.

00;03;48;07 - 00;04;13;10
Unknown
But, any time you're around New Moon. So, you know, the week before and the week after you, Jin, generally have a pretty good shot at, having a really good session. So I checked, and, you know, I knew the moon wasn't going to even be rising until darn near sunrise. And even at that, it was going to be a tiny sliver of a thing.

00;04;13;12 - 00;04;40;07
Unknown
Actually, I hope I can see it come up, because I'd love to get a photo of it in the early morning hours. That pretty much shielded. So I'm out here under the stars because I didn't want to miss another opportunity. You know, sometimes you just got to take advantage of what you can when you can. And this is definitely one of those circumstances.

00;04;40;07 - 00;05;12;25
Unknown
But I've been rewarded because it is beautifully clear out. The scene is actually not that bad. Got an early look at the summer triangle, which is incredible to see. You know, one of my absolute favorite things about astronomy is watching the constellations change as the seasons go by. Because when I was younger, before I knew anything about the stars.

00;05;12;27 - 00;05;33;20
Unknown
I, you know, we I would recognize formations in the sky, like the the Big Dipper, but I didn't really have any clue how the movement of the stars worked because I never looked into it. Once I started learning how it worked. And, you know, right during the pandemic, started learning some, you know, basic stars. The bright ones stand out.

00;05;33;21 - 00;06;10;27
Unknown
You know, some basic constellations and started noticing them turn. And I started in the winter time. Originally when I got my first Newtonian scope, just a visual scope on an Altos mount. And, yeah, I, I'll never, ever forget what it was like. I woke up on a, September morning. Similar circumstances got up around 330, 4:00 and went outside to, you know, check out the stars.

00;06;10;27 - 00;06;33;28
Unknown
And there was the Orion looking back at me, and I don't know why, but it all kind of clicked for me. And that moment I said, oh, wait, that was what I was looking at last winter when I started. And here it comes again in the East and and then I thought about the Earth's rotation and you know, what's actually happening.

00;06;33;28 - 00;07;03;00
Unknown
And it just kind of all fell into place. And I think that's a, you know, just a eureka moment that a lot of us get, really enjoy. And certainly one of my favorite parts about astronomy. It's funny. Vega tricked me this morning. I've, Obviously, I haven't seen the summer triangle in a while, and it always takes me a little bit to get my bearings whenever it's been a while since I've seen, you know, the summer skies.

00;07;03;04 - 00;07;26;24
Unknown
And, today was no different. I thought that, Corona Borealis had finally gone nova. And I was sitting there like, is that what? And I was trying to get my bearings and I was like, well, wait, there's Deneb. And I realized it was a Vega that I was looking at. So yeah, Vega's a little bit brighter than, Corona Borealis will be when it goes nova.

00;07;26;27 - 00;08;04;12
Unknown
If you somehow haven't heard about it, it's a, It's a star in the Crown constellation, which is, I think the constellation itself. This Corona borealis. And there's a star within it, basically. That is, expected to go nova, you know, any day now. I say any day now, but I oftentimes wonder if, these predictions are as accurate as we think they are, because I can distinctly remember, last year around this time, they started talking about it.

00;08;04;12 - 00;08;27;24
Unknown
And throughout the summer it was, you know, any day now, any day now, it's going to happen. And then I remember being disappointed when Corona Borealis, dipped below the horizon. And I said, well, if it happens now, we're not going to see it. But lucky for us, it's come back around. So we should get an opportunity to see it at least.

00;08;27;26 - 00;08;59;14
Unknown
And, other news, we have partnered with Agena Astro so we are no longer relegated to, only High Point Scientific. If you would like to support the show. We are affiliates with them now. So, you know, if you make any of your purchases, for astro gear through Agena, the, show will get a small cut of the profits, to help support the cost of hosting and software, hardware, etc..

00;08;59;17 - 00;09;25;15
Unknown
Which I always greatly appreciate. We've made quite a few of those sales through High Point now, so I thank you guys so much for, doing that. I heard back from my rep at High Point, by the way, and she kind of confirmed my suspicions that the, the price increase on the M5 and other gear is indeed due to the tariffs that are taking place.

00;09;25;15 - 00;09;51;08
Unknown
So those 25% price increases, unfortunately, don't look like they'll be going anywhere anytime soon. Oh, anyway. Shooting star. Oh, man, that was beautiful. I haven't seen one in a while. I know we've got, couple of showers coming up soon. Weaker ones, but a couple of them. I hope we get better luck with the, summer showers this year.

00;09;51;11 - 00;10;21;27
Unknown
Last year, it seems like they all fell around, full moon, which is never a good look. God, I'll never forget those Leonids in 2001. That was really something. If any of you guys got to witness that, shoot me an email through Aster caster gmail.com. I'd love to hear what your experience was like. If you don't know, in 2001, the Leonids meteor shower routes takes place annually in November.

00;10;21;29 - 00;10;46;20
Unknown
It just really went off that year. It was the meteor storm, as they call it. Instead of a shower. And it was like, everywhere you look in the sky, there's one, there's one, there's one, there's one. Literally that quick, there's a lot of video on YouTube that you can find of it. It's odd though, because most of it's from from Asia.

00;10;46;22 - 00;11;12;22
Unknown
I'm not sure why, but I don't know. I guess maybe in 2001 they had more access to digital cameras. That's definitely a distinct possibility. But it's cool being able to go back and witness it. But I do have all of those memories safely locked away in my own internal storage, so I'm not too worried about them. It's crazy how averted vision works.

00;11;12;25 - 00;11;41;00
Unknown
If you don't know your eyes. Actually, most sensitive at the areas around your focus point. So you know when you when you look at a star, for example, you focus on that one particular area and you know everything else outside of that one small area is kind of blurry in your vision. That's the same for everything. Anything that you look at right?

00;11;41;02 - 00;12;05;05
Unknown
But with astronomy, if you need to see a very faint object looking slightly to the side of where it is. So like if you know that a star is right in the center of your field of view, look a couple degrees to the east or west of it, and then you'll notice a lot of times that that object will become brighter.

00;12;05;07 - 00;12;32;03
Unknown
And your periphery, which is really, really cool. That trick works especially well, with visual astronomy, obviously, but when looking through an eyepiece, inverted vision can work, wonders. I was kind of blown away the first time I, saw Andromeda that way from a portal. See, portal five sky, I was I couldn't really see it, but then with averted vision, definitely could see it.

00;12;32;08 - 00;12;57;03
Unknown
So little tip for you there, man. I should have put gloves and shoes on. I am regretting that right about now because my feet are very, very cold. In fact, I think I'm going to posit and go throw some shoes on real quick. Be right back. All right. Found the slippers. Nice warm feet. Unfortunately, I did not find my, hand warmers.

00;12;57;05 - 00;13;09;19
Unknown
I don't know where those are. Probably in the bedroom somewhere, but I don't wanna wake my wife up. She deserves her sleep. She's not crazy like me.

00;13;09;21 - 00;13;35;03
Unknown
I can't tell you how many people have told me. When do you sleep? And I say we can sleep on my dead. I know it's a little bit cliche, but it's true, man. I, I really do like taking advantage of free hours like these. There's a song that 311 wrote on one of, my favorite albums from the 90s when I was growing up.

00;13;35;06 - 00;14;03;03
Unknown
It's on, their album transistor, which, by the way, if you have not heard, is a phenomenal concept album that they did. I think they released it in 96 or 97, came out after the Blue Album. So, you know, their most famous album was down and all mixed up, and all of the songs after that came transistor, and it included the song, Beautiful Disaster, which I'm sure you heard.

00;14;03;06 - 00;14;37;05
Unknown
Well, maybe. But anyway, there's a track on it called, Stealing Happy Hours, and I've always really, associated with that. I, definitely have stolen my fair share of happy hours. So, these are those, you know, I guess when the choices. Do you want to stay up early? Late and, sleep a few hours and then go to work or sleep and wake up?

00;14;37;07 - 00;14;59;22
Unknown
Have fun for a few hours and then go to work. I'll always take the ladder. I don't know why, but when I was younger, I stayed up till 3 or 4 a.m.. No problem. You know, staying until sunrise really wasn't an issue. But now that I'm 40, I find myself in bed at, you know, 1030 most nights.

00;14;59;24 - 00;15;21;22
Unknown
Don't get me wrong. Lay there and watch TV for an hour or whatever, but generally speaking, I try to be asleep by 11. So yeah, there's, Sorry I keep tiring my throat. Guys, I don't know why I got, like, a little bit of a sore throat this morning. You just, Pollen. There's pollen everywhere right now. If you live in the South.

00;15;21;26 - 00;15;52;26
Unknown
Oh, man. You know what I'm talking about. We get absolutely bathed in pollen this time of year. It's just everywhere. So, yeah, we got, hosed down our cars and all that good stuff. There's really no point in doing it right now, though, because you go get a car wash and, early spring in Charlotte, North Carolina, the very next day, your car will be green, regardless of what its original color was green, yellow color of pollen.

00;15;52;26 - 00;16;23;07
Unknown
So it just gets everywhere. Speaking of, you know, I guess not really speaking of, but there is a, a new brand on the scene. I don't know if you guys have seen, but wander Astro has, come out swinging with their line of, astrophotography gear and accessories. In particular, they're doing it looks like rotators.

00;16;23;09 - 00;16;59;16
Unknown
They've had a few different versions, so they've got, like, your, you know, 40. Well, actually, and 92, 68 and 54. So I guess, like, yeah. 54 would probably be the way to go for a small refractor up to a larger one, but 399 for that rotator. Not bad at all. What I'm really interested in, though, is the, automated covers that they sell that include flat caps from the look of it.

00;16;59;18 - 00;17;43;18
Unknown
So they have the, Wanderer Astro Wander cover, and they have it in different sizes, ranging from 80mm all the way up to. Wow, 240, 320, all the way up to 380mm. Well, that's a pretty darn big cap. But anyway, everything looks reasonably priced. With the the flat cap, it looks like you attach it to the front of your telescope, and you can set it to automatically close at the end of the session.

00;17;43;20 - 00;18;23;12
Unknown
And then obviously take your flats for you to light up the panel on the front. I'll drop a link to them in the show notes if you want to check them out. I'm just I'm currently looking at them on a Gina. I have to check and see if high points, also carrying them, but they've got quite a bit of equipment and, beyond that, there's some new AC air competitors that are on the market, including one by Wonder, Astro and, there's this called the Wonder Box Pro V3.

00;18;23;12 - 00;19;13;18
Unknown
It looks like it's actually got a few different versions actually looking through here. And, we're seeing a lot more of this, which I'm super excited about. You know, as much as I like those products, I love competition in the market because that means better options for us, better prices for us, etc.. So seeing some, some new people enter the ring with the, micro PC market slash, you know, Raspberry Pi style is very encouraging, particularly if they function, you know, just like RSI here, but crucially, work with, you know, equipment, other than Zwo is because there have been plenty of times when I've looked at, you know, getting a

00;19;13;18 - 00;19;39;09
Unknown
new camera and said to myself, man, if I could use this with my existing gear, I would certainly consider something other than an zwo camera, you know, like player one or Q y but, you know, the way my setup is, and I'm sure a lot of yours is or kind of in that, zwo ecosystem, you know, kind of like the apple ecosystem.

00;19;39;09 - 00;20;11;09
Unknown
It's a walled garden. It works very well for what it does, but you are kind of locked in to, you know what they want to do. So I or what they want to use rather. You know, it's funny that, zwo draws the line, you know, cameras, but you can use pretty much any amount you want with their equipment, and they'll allow you to connect dSLR cars like my canon R7 in R5, both, or with the ASI or.

00;20;11;09 - 00;20;44;09
Unknown
No. Why not open it up to other cameras? You know, I mean, I suppose you could be cannibalizing some of your own sales, but I would think that the goodwill that that would impart upon the astrophotography community would be incredibly valuable. And I would think that you would push quite a few people, to buy more Zwo products if they were a more open source and, you know, available to work with other manufacturers.

00;20;44;09 - 00;20;51;28
Unknown
So that's just my opinion. But I don't think it's far off the mark.

00;20;52;00 - 00;21;17;12
Unknown
Update on the, Pir situation. Man, we have had the worst luck with weather on the weekends, and I finally had a good weekend last weekend. But unfortunately, the, person who's going to help me with this was unavailable and I definitely need a hand to do this. I did decide I'm going to run a concrete mixer, to actually mix up the bags of concrete just because it's so inexpensive.

00;21;17;13 - 00;21;39;02
Unknown
You can go to a big box hardware store or like, you know, Depot or Lowes here in North America. And, for I think I got quoted $37 a day. I mean, that's nothing, you know, for the amount of work that you, you know, what use to mix all that up hand by hand. So. And it'll save me, a lot of mess.

00;21;39;02 - 00;21;56;25
Unknown
You know, I was thinking, like, do I want to do that on a car, or do I want to do that in my wheelbarrow? And, you know, kind of kicking around ideas for how and where I wanted to, mix up the concrete. I realized, you know, if I mix it up in a, a rented concrete mixer that I don't really have to worry about that.

00;21;56;26 - 00;22;14;28
Unknown
I mean, obviously got to clean it up before we bring it back, but, I don't have to worry about ruining a tarp or something like that, which would nowadays, you know, a good tarp can quickly get to $30 or so. Probably a good thing that I'm running that out. And I wish I could have found those hand warmers.

00;22;14;28 - 00;22;19;27
Unknown
It's chilly out here.

00;22;20;00 - 00;22;33;22
Unknown
I know if we're safely past the last frost of the year. Not yet, because getting down to 40 degrees pretty regularly got sicknesses so beautiful.

00;22;33;24 - 00;23;01;03
Unknown
Really is just looking at Deneb. And I love birds so much. And when I look up it's Cygnus or Aquila or Corvus. You know, any of the, bird constellations, I just I love it, I love it. Is it just, I don't know, takes two of my favorite things and just perfectly puts them together. It's almost like the ancient people who named them knew that one day rule would be looking up.

00;23;01;05 - 00;23;07;24
Unknown
And he would say to himself, there are my birds.

00;23;07;27 - 00;23;15;16
Unknown
Here. Yep. True. They're all around you in the sky.

00;23;15;19 - 00;23;46;02
Unknown
Do you guys see the, the photos of the space X clouds that got left behind? The super cool swirly stuff that, from the rocket separation. Very, very cool. As much as I dislike space X for a lot of the things that they do, including and not limited to putting a zillion satellites in our night sky, it is pretty cool watching the launches and what have you.

00;23;46;02 - 00;24;11;29
Unknown
And ultimately, I think privatizing space travel is the way to go. They can certainly do it a lot cheaper than the government can. I won't argue that. But so yeah, guys, wake up early. Like now is the time of year where you can preview the summer constellations. You know, if you want to get up early and have a look at the, summer triangle.

00;24;12;02 - 00;24;51;07
Unknown
Oh, there's a bright satellite right there. It's moving. Northeast. Right past. And, it's really bright one, too. I mean, that's a. Yeah. About the brightness of Polaris. Looking at the two spout now 35 degrees away from Polaris, it's just so that right now got all of that. It's funny, when I was a kid, I would hear people talk about, you know, counting satellites and watching satellites.

00;24;51;07 - 00;25;08;29
Unknown
And I never saw one as a kid, never saw one. Don't know why, I don't know, maybe no one pointed one out to me. Oh, you're looking up at the stars. But whenever I, started looking as an adult, you know, when I got into astronomy, I was kind of taken aback by how often you can see them first.

00;25;08;29 - 00;25;34;29
Unknown
Then again, as a kid, there were a lot less satellites in the night sky. And how many there were in the night sky in the 90s? Early 90s, mid 90s. Around then. Sure. I could find out if I looked it up and say, beautiful. I wish I could see the Milky Way from my house. Oh, look at Scorpio.

00;25;35;06 - 00;26;04;02
Unknown
It's wow, I've actually got a decent view. So to give you an idea of my peer situation, right now, Scorpio is just straddling the tree line, so that's kind of about as high as I can get in the, southern skies. But it's not bad. I mean, I can get the majority of the, targets that are higher than 30 degrees, you know, on all sides, for the most part.

00;26;04;04 - 00;26;27;23
Unknown
But boy, oh, boy, what I would do to live under truly dark skies. I've told my wife, she's an animal lover, as am I. And, if it were up to her, we would have all the animals, you know? For example, last week we were, last weekend, actually, we. Well, it wasn't the week. It was, like, three nights ago.

00;26;27;24 - 00;27;06;17
Unknown
I'm crazy. Anyway, we were, sitting on the couch watching TV, and I was going to let the dogs out. And I come in and she just says, let's go get him. And I was like, oh, Lord, here we go. So I figured, oh. And, she shows me a picture of this dog that is tied up outside of a Dollar Tree and just left there, and it was posted on a, local page that me and her run for the only town that we live in here on Facebook.

00;27;06;20 - 00;27;31;11
Unknown
And, you know, people share local tips. I'm sure you've seen those kind of pages. But anyway, someone had posted the, the dog there and, you know, my wife being the person she is, she can't stand to think about a dog sitting outside, tied up all night, scared and alone. You know, I say we don't deserve dogs or animals in general, but that's a topic for another day.

00;27;31;11 - 00;28;03;24
Unknown
So we, and get in the car. Of course. And, it was only about ten minutes away from where we were. So we, head on down the road and she's like, check in for updates on the Facebook page and not seeing anything really. Anyway, we get there, the dog's not there. Come to find out, it was just somebody shopping in the store, and they had tied their dog up out front while they were, doing their shopping.

00;28;03;24 - 00;28;35;17
Unknown
So dog was fine. I personally would never leave my dog tied up out front of the store, but I'm not going to judge somebody because I don't know what their situation is. And for all I know, they're, you know, living by themselves and literally don't have anyone that can watch the dog otherwise. So don't judge people. Situations like it's one of the most important lessons I've learned in life is to not make assumptions about people with their situations in life, because you just you never know.

00;28;35;17 - 00;29;07;12
Unknown
Everybody is going through something. Everyone. Sorry. That truck just drove by. But yeah, we're all going through something in life. We've all dealt with trauma at one point or another. And for all you know, the person that you're looking at is dealing with it right now. So just keep that in mind. Try to have a, pretty zen outlook on life personally.

00;29;07;14 - 00;29;29;17
Unknown
I don't get into religion early on the show. You guys know I'm not a very religious person personally, but I will say I'm spiritual. And I try to treat people good. I figure if there's a God out there, as long as I live a good life and treat people well, I'll be all right. I guess I'm agnostic.

00;29;29;19 - 00;30;08;01
Unknown
I feel like we've only scratched the surface of what the universe is hiding from us. You know, I often wonder, I may throw this out. There is kind of an out there idea. Do you guys think. Do you know what the Kardashev scale is? First of all, you know, type zero, type one, type two civilizations, type one civilization, if I remember correctly, is one that as a harness to the full power of their host star, like a Dyson sphere, for example.

00;30;08;03 - 00;30;37;26
Unknown
If you've ever heard of that, they're very cool. Look it up. But I wonder if there were intergalactic, you know, space traveling civilizations out there. And we we the big question is, where is everyone? Right? That's the, the paradox. I can't remember the particular paradox, but the dark forest theory, right. And I have this theory that I know is held by others.

00;30;37;26 - 00;31;10;13
Unknown
And I'm not, like, the first person to have this idea or anything, but, I feel like if you were a, like, type two civilization on the Kardashev scale, that it would probably be a cakewalk for you to block all radio, microwave, etc., transmissions from entering into our solar system. I could be wrong about that, obviously, but maybe not.

00;31;10;15 - 00;31;42;28
Unknown
And maybe they're waiting for us to, physically get somebody past the Oort cloud before we get, you know, welcomed into the the, Galactic Federation, if you will. I don't know. It's just the theory that I have that wouldn't surprise me if it turned out to be true. I personally think the, simulation theory is definitely my strongest bet, and it doesn't take away from anything in our universe.

00;31;43;00 - 00;32;15;27
Unknown
As far as astronomy is concerned, science is concerned, etc.. But we could absolutely be living in a simulation. We have no way of knowing. And, if we were, it would merge the Creator God hypothesis, if you will, with science. How crazy would that be? Now would be the Creator God that we all, you know, or among the creator gods that we all talk about on earth.

00;32;15;27 - 00;32;45;17
Unknown
Throughout our history, there's been over 4000 of them, after all. But, it would be a creator God nonetheless, somebody who could control our entire universe. I mean, we could be sitting in a on a glass ball on somebody's shelf for all you know. Yeah, SimCity 8000. SimCity 2000 was a phenomenal. And I play that all the time.

00;32;45;17 - 00;33;09;11
Unknown
When I was a kid, and I was so excited when they, announced in the I guess it was around 2015 when the, the new SimCity game came out. Might have been later than that, but it was around that and I was so excited for it. And then I realized they microtransaction dead and ruined it. And if it was not SimCity, so.

00;33;09;13 - 00;33;13;05
Unknown
That was a good.

00;33;13;08 - 00;33;40;07
Unknown
So I'm looking over this, wander box looking at the specs, and I'm kind of blown away like, holy hell, this thing destroys. Yes, I hear in terms of connectivity. 123456789 power outputs.

00;33;40;09 - 00;33;49;19
Unknown
On that 345 USPS 4566 units. Piece of that. Right.

00;33;49;22 - 00;34;28;24
Unknown
Zooming in on the picture here. Yeah USB 1234567899 USB ports. Wow. Intelligent do heater controllers. I mean good lord, what more do you need? If the, if the software on this box is good, this might be the one guys like. Especially they'll works with everything. I haven't watched too many reviews on them yet, but I'll tell you, full review coming on that soon.

00;34;28;26 - 00;34;52;19
Unknown
I might have to order one of those. It looks really, really cool. I don't know if that's the same one that, Luca mariko had all the issues with not too long ago. I think it is. Let me check. That was not the wonder box. That was, stellar Vista, I believe, is the manufacturer of the one that he had all the issues with.

00;34;52;19 - 00;35;27;14
Unknown
So there's a few new boxes, like I say, hitting the market that are looking to dethrone the ACR. But in terms of, functionality and what have you, this, a squandered or box man move, it might be something special for $169. So obviously a little bit more expensive. I believe you're. Yes. Or plus. Well, last time I got one or pro rather, it was, I believe, 299 oh, let me see here.

00;35;27;16 - 00;35;58;28
Unknown
Yep. Still to 99, you can get the more money for 349 you can get the mini for 249. And so you know prices vary a little bit, but wow, I'm, I'm excited about that. So definitely going to be picking one of those up. Speaking of loco Moco, he is somebody that I really want to interview on the show, but I have not had any luck getting in contact with him, unfortunately.

00;35;59;00 - 00;36;19;29
Unknown
I found that the email address on his YouTube channel, but it's a Hotmail account, and I don't know if it's a, you know, a real email address or not. I certainly didn't get a response from it. But, you know, that was just a few days ago, so it could be early still. But if any of you guys do, have contact info for him, or I could shoot him an email, let me know.

00;36;20;01 - 00;36;44;28
Unknown
Rooster caster gmail.com. He taught me how to use pix insight, through his excellent tutorial videos with, the Pleiades and Andromeda and what have you. And, I'm indebted to him for that, so I'd love to talk to him and get his background and, you know, all that kind of good stuff. Looking up at the,

00;36;45;00 - 00;37;23;18
Unknown
Constellation. Aquila. It's crazy. Once you kind of memorize Cygnus and the shape of it, and you see it as a bird flying through the night sky, and then you look over at Aquilla and you pretty quickly realize it's very similar, except the tail stretches out a little bit further, but it's got a very similar shape with, you know, very bright star in the middle and two on the side, and then the star on the back for the, well, I guess on Cygnus, technically that's the neck of the Swan, but yeah, very, very similar.

00;37;23;20 - 00;38;03;23
Unknown
Guys summer's coming. Nebula season's coming. We talked about the, The really cool photo that you can take of galaxies during galaxy season. And I'm definitely going to do another one of those shots, before Galaxy season is out. Now that my peer is coming together slowly, albeit, I'm able to set up a lot quicker, even with the more temporary setup I have right now with cinder blocks, I can still set up in about five minutes, which is great.

00;38;03;25 - 00;38;33;13
Unknown
I love it, I just can't wait to, pour the concrete. Gosh, we're so close. Got the bags of concrete just sitting there driving me nuts. Maybe this weekend I can just see, you know, another really cool, somewhat newer product. I guess it got announced at Neath last year, the, Northeastern Astronomical Forum. But I didn't hear a lot about it until then.

00;38;33;13 - 00;39;01;17
Unknown
But it is for sale now. You can actually go purchase one. And it kind of blends visual with AP in a way that I have not seen before. And I love it personally. I don't know that I would purchase one because I don't know that I have a telescope that can really do it justice. Frankly. But have you guys heard of the, Pegasus Astro smart.

00;39;01;17 - 00;39;38;17
Unknown
I very, very cool device. So it essentially is an IPS that integrates imaging technology and an OLED screen into the eyepiece. So if you can picture a two inch IPS with a OLED screen, when you look through the eyepiece that continuously live stacks while cooling the camera, then you kind of get the idea it's, you know, very, very cool.

00;39;38;17 - 00;40;05;28
Unknown
It's got a, IMX five 5533 sensor in it, which is the, you know, really popular nine megapixel, square sensor by Sony. So, you know, really good quality for, for visual astronomy. More than enough, falls to 30 below. Like most cameras do these days. But, you know, like I say, the really cool part is that it can auto stack the images.

00;40;05;28 - 00;40;49;21
Unknown
So imagine having like a let me see here, let's say the, you know, 15ft tall, Newtonian scope that we have at the, at the club. It's a, you know, a huge nude that is motorized, that can track stars, and it's used predominantly for visual. If you were to take something like the smart eye and pop it in there and then, I don't know, let's say slow over to oh, oh, that you saw a really bright flash right below Cygnus, maybe an iridium flare.

00;40;49;24 - 00;41;15;02
Unknown
It was quite bright. Whatever it was. But anyway, the smart eye, if you were to, put it on a telescope like that. You would get a pretty incredible view. No doubt about it. I'll never forget, the first time. Well, not the first time, but one of the first times that I looked through that telescope on, really good new moon night.

00;41;15;05 - 00;41;43;28
Unknown
We were looking at the Cygnus loop and, specifically the, eastern Veil Nebula. And it's just so ridiculously close up. The view. And when you when you see it visually like that, it is, truly breathtaking. Obviously, you need a lot of aperture, a lot of light gathering ability, to really make something like that look special.

00;41;43;28 - 00;42;06;02
Unknown
But when you're looking through a telescope that you quite literally have to climb up six stairs, to get to the eyepiece, you, you know, it's going to be a really cool view. So this is kind of a reminder that if you haven't joined your local astronomy club yet, make sure you do. Although, I gotta say, I'm kind of sad.

00;42;06;04 - 00;42;40;02
Unknown
I say quite a few people, that I've spoken to, don't have access to astronomy clubs. So like a few people in our, member's only discord chat, that the Patreon members are, subscribers to watch. If you would like to join, shameless promotion. Patreon.com forward slash the Astro cast and, I'll give you immediate access to the discord where you can join us for conversation and, impromptu star parties and answering questions.

00;42;40;05 - 00;43;02;01
Unknown
Demos, etc.. But anyway, quite a few of those people do not have access to an astronomy club, which really stinks. And then a, kind of a newer friend that I met while I was down in Florida last time. He was telling me he doesn't have access to a club either. And, what a shame that is.

00;43;02;03 - 00;43;36;19
Unknown
You know, don't be afraid to start your own club, guys. That's how it that's how it starts. All it takes is, you know, one person meeting another person and saying, we're starting a club, you know? And then you will very quickly find if there is not one in your area and it's a relatively populated area like I'm talking about, you know, down in Florida, I was near Daytona Beach and they didn't have a club, according to, my new friend that I met down there, I haven't researched it myself.

00;43;36;22 - 00;44;01;04
Unknown
But anyway, that would be like a perfect example of a place that could definitely have a club if somebody just started one, because there's certainly enough people down there, you know, now, if you live in the middle of nowhere, first of all, lucky you, because you probably have amazing skies. But you might have a harder time finding people that, want to join up and, and, make an astronomy club.

00;44;01;04 - 00;44;22;03
Unknown
But definitely something to consider if you don't have one in your area, maybe think about starting one. If you do have one in your area. Join join your club because it'll open up a whole lot of opportunities for you. And, so, like, I'm one of the back.

00;44;22;06 - 00;44;53;05
Unknown
There, hang on a second. I gotta check something. Not sure what that was, but. Oh, that's all right. Anyway, clubs are great because they just give you access to, you know, like minded individuals, predominantly. That's what I really love about my club. But also, obviously, you get access to, a lot of great equipment. Like, we are so blessed here in Charlotte to have the club that we do that's been around for, you know, decades.

00;44;53;12 - 00;45;18;22
Unknown
And Gayle Rigsby, the great man who started the club, we're all in that event for it because it really is, a special place that we all get to go and hang out. I hope it will be the location of our first, astro guest star party in person. We'll see. I'm still working on, ironing out details.

00;45;18;22 - 00;45;49;01
Unknown
There's another spot of light. Oh, man. You can tell sunrise is coming when, the satellites start flying. If you didn't know, just a quick little, tip for you. You only see satellites before, sunrise and after sunset for a couple hours. And the reason for that is you need the sunlight to reflect off of the satellites in order to see them.

00;45;49;03 - 00;46;09;18
Unknown
And in the middle of the night, that, angle is not there to where the sunlight can reflect off of them. So that's why we don't see satellites at 1:00 in the morning. But we do see them at 530 in the morning, if that makes sense. So that's a really bright one. That blows me away how bright that one is.

00;46;09;18 - 00;46;36;18
Unknown
It's not the i.s.s. because I have an app on my phone. And again, maybe it is. I need to, update my app. That, device I was talking about earlier, the Pegasus, astro smart I it also integrates with, skysafari. So you can use that for controlling it, which is really cool. I love Skysafari, it's a great app on Android and iPhone.

00;46;36;20 - 00;47;00;28
Unknown
Now that I'm back on iPhone again, God, I'm so happy to be back on iPhone again. I say that as somebody who used Android for ever, like, you know, since it came out, but I don't know what happened to me. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, but I definitely prefer iPhone now. But anyway, skysafari is an excellent, excellent app.

00;47;01;01 - 00;47;35;07
Unknown
One of the things I want to learn how to do, this summer is use the. Oh, there's another satellite. So that's three so far. I want to use the built in Wi-Fi on my Star adventurer guy more often, because there are a lot of times where I just want to throw my R5. On the mount, it just take photos unguided 62nd exposures after a good polar alignment.

00;47;35;07 - 00;48;00;24
Unknown
But I do want to have that go to functionality still. So I'm going to poke around with that and see how it works. If any of you guys have had experience using the built in Wi-Fi with something like the GTI or any of your other mounts, let me know. I'd be curious to know what your experience was like, because, you know, sometimes you don't want to get out the AC air and the guide scopes and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

00;48;00;24 - 00;48;21;03
Unknown
And I kind of feel like you have to if, you're using the AC or there's another one. Good lord, they're everywhere. Now, that's five that I've seen. It's funny too, because they're all in the same part of the sky and moving in the same general direction. They're all moving east, northeast.

00;48;21;05 - 00;48;31;13
Unknown
Now it's not as bright, but good fun looking around and wondering how many more passes by right now.

00;48;31;15 - 00;49;14;28
Unknown
So many satellites. The, speaking of iPhone and technology and the satellites, the, the new iPhones, the 16, they have a, a built in, I don't know, satellite transponder. I don't know if that's what you call it, but basically, if you are in an area where you do not have cellular service and you have an emergency and dial 911, your iPhone will actually connect directly to a satellite and allow you to send, I believe it's text messages, your emergency services, including your location and what the emergency is.

00;49;14;28 - 00;49;47;00
Unknown
So, like, you know. Oh, there's another one. Geez, man. And that one's in the exact same line. The prior one was guarantee. That's a Starlink satellite. Guarantee it. I mean, 95% of the time it's going to be a Starlink satellite in these conditions. But, what was I saying? There's another one. Good lord. Is this a chain? Maybe it's a launch chain because you know how you can see the big group of them together?

00;49;47;00 - 00;50;10;29
Unknown
Whenever a Starlink launch happens, they're more spread out than that. But, man, they're coming to one after another. Let's see if another line shows up. Yup, there's another one behind it. So yeah, I think this is a, a Starlink launch. Let me see. All right. Here, I'm going to pause for a second just so I can record a couple of these.

00;50;11;01 - 00;50;43;13
Unknown
Yeah. That is so crazy. I just, took a six minute video of satellites in the exact same spot in the sky. One after another after another, and they're still coming. I was just like, my hands are getting tired from holding this camera, but here's another one. They're all, just east of Deneb. Falling out of the sky, one after another, heading towards the horizon.

00;50;43;13 - 00;50;56;25
Unknown
That's so crazy. So crazy. How they just keep keep coming. There's another one.

00;50;56;28 - 00;51;22;24
Unknown
It's funny, though, when I've seen, Starlink constellations in the past, they haven't been this spread out. I mean, that's they're about 25 degrees apart from one another right now, but they all have to be in the same pack. There's no way they're not just the way they're tailing each other, one after another, like, and all appearing around the same part of the night sky.

00;51;22;24 - 00;51;27;14
Unknown
It makes me think, oh, there's another one.

00;51;27;16 - 00;52;12;25
Unknown
Oh, goodness. I've seen 25 satellites in the last ten minutes. Like they just keep coming. Gosh, that's disturbing, you know? Do you guys ever wonder who is going to say enough's enough? Or, like, if that person even exists who's a who's like, protecting our night sky against Kepler syndrome? Is there anyone doing it? Like truly doing it? I know that there's plenty of astronomers calling for, you know, more regulation and more care and thought to be put into launching these thousands and thousands of satellites.

00;52;12;25 - 00;52;20;03
Unknown
But, you know, good luck.

00;52;20;05 - 00;52;34;24
Unknown
I just think, though, like if we continue on this path, if, you know, they're already talking about putting advertisements in space, they have the technology to do it.

00;52;34;27 - 00;52;50;19
Unknown
They have the technology to literally have a billboard in space. So picture, spelling out a brand name and satellite.

00;52;50;21 - 00;53;22;15
Unknown
That's disappointing. It's crazy because we can put, you know, all these satellites in the night sky. But we can't combat light pollution. And that crazy, like where our priorities lie as a civilization. Sorry. If you hear me swishing around on my chair a little bit. There's still coming, though. One after another, 25 degrees apart. I kind of wonder.

00;53;22;17 - 00;53;55;06
Unknown
I'm trying to do the math in my head. If if they're circling the entire globe, which they are. I'm wondering how long before I see the same satellite. Just a quick search. Turned up 92 minutes. But, man, looking at the speed that these are traveling across the night sky, I mean, they're in and out of the entire.

00;53;55;08 - 00;54;16;07
Unknown
Night sky and, you know, under four minutes. So I'm not sure how that works, but how does that work? I guess technically this is only. Wow. I don't know, it's too early in the morning for my brain to figure that out.

00;54;16;10 - 00;54;26;13
Unknown
But it sure is pretty. The night sky, not the satellites. Are. They've only stopped.

00;54;26;15 - 00;54;31;05
Unknown
I think they did.

00;54;31;07 - 00;54;56;25
Unknown
Yeah, I think they finally stopped. So thank goodness for that. It's such a lovely thing because, like, yes, I, I hate the the thought of Kepler syndrome. It scares me if you don't know what Kepler syndrome is, by the way. I because I realize that I've said that term like five times now, and I also realize I've been saying it wrong.

00;54;56;25 - 00;55;35;06
Unknown
I've been saying Kepler, it's Kessler. Kessler syndrome. Anyway, Donald Kessler, who, worked at NASA, proposed this, thought experiment, if you will, in 1978. And essentially it describes a scenario or situation, whatever you want to call it, where you have a whole lot of satellites and space that are in the same vicinity as far as altitude is concerned, which we definitely have that going for us already.

00;55;35;08 - 00;56;10;23
Unknown
And one of them, for whatever reason, gets destroyed by space debris. Okay, now we know that the I.s.s., for example, has regularly had, you know, make maneuvers to avoid potential collisions with space debris and satellites. Right. So imagine that one of those satellites strikes and ends up breaking up into, you know, a million little pieces that are flying around space at thousands of miles per hour.

00;56;10;25 - 00;57;07;12
Unknown
Now, imagine those million little pieces all eventually running into another satellite, and then those break up, and you have twice as many pieces of space debris. And this continues and causes a chain reaction that ends up eventually destroying, you know, the vast majority of things that we have orbiting in space and when that happens, you end up with a situation where you literally might not be able to launch rockets into space anymore because you don't know if you're going to go through a debris field during a launch because there's so much stuff up there that there's a very real possibility that your rocket could be destroyed.

00;57;07;15 - 00;57;59;25
Unknown
It's, it's definitely a scary thought and, one that definitely weighs on my mind a lot, especially when I see, you know, 30, 40 satellites all passed by within a ten minute time frame. I mean, there's another one. You know, they're literally everywhere right now. If you go to, you know, certain parts of the night sky, particularly like near the meridian and the galactic equator, you will see, lots of satellites passing by, like in particular, Orion M42 in the winter time is kind of notorious in the, it's part of the sky that it's in for constantly getting lots and lots of satellites in frame.

00;57;59;27 - 00;58;22;16
Unknown
There are some of the, geosynchronous satellites which appear to move much slower. There is a group of three of them in particular that come to mind, and I can't remember the names of the satellites. Forgive me, but I've had them show up in my Orion photos just countless times. Look at that. I just saw another iridium flare that was.

00;58;22;16 - 00;58;48;06
Unknown
Oh, wait, it flashed really bright once. And then a few seconds later, there was another little flash. Now I'm watching to see. Will there be another? You keep my eyes on it. The first time I saw an iridium flare, I was like, what the heck is that? It was so crazy watching it light up the way that it did.

00;58;48;06 - 00;59;09;07
Unknown
And, it got brighter than Jupiter. The one that I saw or Venus. I mean, it was the brightest thing in the night sky for a few seconds, and it's crazy, you know, certain ones will they'll start really faint and then get brighter and brighter and brighter and then slowly fade. I see some weird stuff in the night sky over the years.

00;59;09;07 - 00;59;34;02
Unknown
I don't know about you guys. I think 99% of it's explainable, but occasionally I'll see something really weird and I'll be like, what the heck is that? Not too often, though. I haven't seen one in a while. Probably because I haven't been able to get out under the stars enough. So to be frank.

00;59;34;05 - 00;59;45;01
Unknown
God, it's beautiful out here watching this, ever trying for eyes to get any better than that.

00;59;45;04 - 01;00;13;28
Unknown
Oh, yeah. I never finished my anecdote earlier. I was telling you guys about the dog for the reason that I said that was. I wanted to tell you that my wife, being the animal lover that she is, we have a deal in place where, listen to this. If she is willing to, I will use the phrase because it was a swear word, and I don't want to.

01;00;14;00 - 01;00;42;13
Unknown
I don't want to do that. But anyway, leave town and move out to the middle of nowhere and basically let me live in my dream area under, you know, portal one skies hack. I would take portal three. You know, I'm not greedy, but if we could do that, then we would, I would imagine, be on a pretty large piece of property, because around the middle of nowhere you can get more land.

01;00;42;15 - 01;01;07;09
Unknown
And I told her she could have all the animals she wants. We could start a sanctuary if she wants, you know, get dogs, goats, chickens, horses or whatever you want. It's on the table. So we have that agreement in place. She's a city girl. She loves living in the city. You know, right now we have family, obviously, that lives in the city, including her parents that live just a few houses down from us, which is wonderful.

01;01;07;12 - 01;01;29;01
Unknown
But one day, one day, I would like to move away from here. And somewhere a lot darker. She wants to live by the water. She told me if we could find somewhere where she could, you know, walk along the shore. She really loves sail On when we were up there in the fall. And, I mean, I agree with her.

01;01;29;01 - 01;01;58;06
Unknown
It was absolutely beautiful walking along the, the wharf and the coastline up there. That's something I could definitely see myself doing, but I would need to find an area that is darker than that. Or there's another satellite coming from that same spot that I saw. The 30 plus satellites earlier. You think it could be them coming around again?

01;01;58;09 - 01;02;26;03
Unknown
Because that would be about the time frame. I would imagine, for them to circle back around. But again, I read 92 minutes for the faster moving object. So I'm not sure I'm going to read up on that later and find out. We have a, the high point rep, the confirming the tariffs. They said that, you know, other companies will soon follow suit.

01;02;26;03 - 01;02;50;14
Unknown
So if you've been on the fence about buying something like an five mount and you can still find it for the original $2,000 price, I would jump on that right now because they are going to go up 25% price, whether you like it or not. So you got all of that or already expensive gear getting more expensive for no reason.

01;02;50;17 - 01;03;22;28
Unknown
If I challenge you guys to wake up early at some point in the next couple of weeks while we're still around New Moon, if you can. You know, I would say ideally, you know, this weekend, if you can pull it off, will be a great time to do it because it's a new moon on Saturday and it's, yeah, depending on where you are, obviously it's going to be cloudy and rainy here, but we can can't do anything about that.

01;03;22;28 - 01;03;40;12
Unknown
But if you do have clear skies this weekend and New Moon, set your alarm for three. Wake up, get outside. Preview this beautiful summer triangle. Take a few photos.

01;03;40;14 - 01;04;08;12
Unknown
I need to get the, Astro mind done on the canon R5. I think I've made my mind up. I am going to do that. I still haven't decided who I'm going to get to do it, but I can't remember the name of the company. I'll stop in my head, but I think I've got one booked out. I've emailed with them back and forth a few times, and they've been, very helpful in answering my questions and assuaging my fears, which is very nice of them.

01;04;08;14 - 01;04;38;29
Unknown
So when I do get that done, I'll definitely you guys know how it went. You know, if you've got a dSLR or a mirrorless camera, you can absolutely use it for astrophotography, you know, and depending on the camera that you have, if you want to send it in to be astro modified to remove the, infrared cut filter that blocks out a lot of the hydrogen alpha signal that we miss out on with a dSLR.

01;04;39;01 - 01;05;08;29
Unknown
You can, you know, pop a filter back in so you can still use it as a regular terrestrial, photography camera. And the results? You'd be impressed. I watched a few videos out there. I think I think, Trevor from Astro Backyard did one or he compared a, like, a zwo cooled camera to a dSLR and was really blown away by his results.

01;05;09;01 - 01;05;31;12
Unknown
He was shocked by how great the mirrorless camera looked. And it wasn't noisy either. It was not a super noisy image by any means. So definitely, worth looking into. Particularly, like I say, if you've already got one in your thinking, like getting into astrophotography and thinking about, how you want to go about it and those sorts of things.

01;05;31;12 - 01;05;36;03
Unknown
So.

01;05;36;06 - 01;06;03;13
Unknown
Anyway, guys, the, the dawn is starting to crack. I'm starting to see those first few light blue waves coming over the horizon. Which means that my imaging session is going to wrap up very soon. Here. And, I'll probably do Sky flats this morning just because I try to do Sky flats whenever I have the opportunity to.

01;06;03;15 - 01;06;34;26
Unknown
They're very easy to do. If you don't know. We've talked about flat caps over the last couple of weeks, but in the morning, whenever the sun's coming up, it's not bright out. But, you know, cut it. There's the first wrapping. I don't know if you heard that or not. First bird songs. God, I love it. I love it again, combining two of my favorite things into one special moment.

01;06;34;28 - 01;08;50;01
Unknown
Thank you guys so much for tuning into the Astro cast this week. I'm your host guru and as always, Clear skies.