Episode 82 - Io Saturnalia!

 ✨ Agena Astro | 🔭 High Point Scientific | 📦 Amazon | 🌌 First Light Optics

 That's io, as in, EEE OH! "io, Saturnalia!" - shout it from the rooftops! 

WELCOME BAAACK to The Astrocast! Roo is back from having a nasty cold last week, and thrilled to be with you! This week on the show, we talk about some ancient Roman traditions that celebrate the winter solstice and the holidays! We also discuss the "flavor of the week", Veralux Hypermetric Stretch (That's a moutful!) along with many other topics, including an announcement about a change to the shows format starting in 2026!!! I know it sounds scary, but believe me, this is for the best, and will mean BETTER QUALITY episodes, full stop! 

A huge congrats to John Walsh for winning this weeks #socialmediastardust challenge! You can check out his photo here! It's also this weeks cover art, I hope you don't mind John! i did watermark it for ya ;) 

Links from this weeks episode:

Sky Quality Meter (SQM) - https://bit.ly/3MJaDse

Leviathan Optic Spectral Pro - https://shop.leviathanoptical.com/products/leviathan-spectral-pro

Windy (iOS and Android) - https://www.windy.com

Meteor Shower Calendar! - https://www.imo.net/resources/calendar/

Rain Sensor (2 pack) - https://amzn.to/4awuJzQ

Dark Dragon Astronomy - https://darkdragonsastro.com/

If you haven't yet, please consider donating to the show's Patreon and (more importantly) becoming a member of our private, members-only Discord!!! Shout out to our newest member, Jason!  If you just wanna be awesome, you can also show your love by buying me a coffee! This show is 100% ad free because of listeners like you, and supporters like Dark Dragons Astronomy! 

The Astrocast may make a small commission from any affiliate links used in the show notes, thanks for your support! 

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Thanks for listening, clear skies!

Transcript

00;00;24;01 - 00;00;33;07

Captain Cumulus

10 9 8 7...

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Captain Cumulus

You are listening to the Astrocast!

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Captain Cumulus

1

00;00;52;07 - 00;01;23;29

Roo 

Welcome back to the Astrocast. Oh, I'm your host, Roo. Today is Wednesday, December 24th. So we are 20% into a waxing crescent moon.

00;01;24;02 - 00;01;45;00

Roo

I've missed you guys. I feel like we haven't gotten to talk a whole lot lately. Kind of, stuff. It's a little bit out of my control. I, I came down with a cold last week. If you didn't happen to, catch the message that I put up. So I was able to bounce back relatively quickly, which was very nice.

00;01;45;02 - 00;02;11;03

Roo

I started feeling it on, I want to say Tuesday or went. Yes, I think Tuesday. I was just, like, completely exhausted. And I could just tell my body was like, give it a rest, man, because I just been killing myself at work. And just kind of just doing too much. And I must have picked up a bug somewhere because, by Thursday, I was just a zombie.

00;02;11;03 - 00;02;33;22

Roo

You know? I just wasn't feeling great. I went out and got emergency. I actually got a bootleg brand called ecstasy. But it was the same thing, basically. And I took a whole lot of that, and, it seemed to do the trick. I mean, it really did knock it out of me quickly. Normally, when I get a chest cold like that, I'll be down two weeks minimum, you know?

00;02;33;22 - 00;02;59;11

Roo

And sometimes I gotta go get steroids and antibiotics and all that stuff, but taking a lot of, zinc and vitamin C very early on, definitely helped because I started feeling good again by Saturday. And I'd say by Monday I was, you know, 90, 95%. So here we are, happy to be back. Got a whole lot to talk with you guys about today.

00;02;59;14 - 00;03;25;24

Roo

There's certainly plenty to cover in the world of astronomy and astrophotography. But before we get to that, I thought it might be fun. Given that it is the time of year when we celebrate the holidays, that maybe we, take a few minutes and look back on humankind's history and how we have celebrated holidays, throughout the millennia.

00;03;25;26 - 00;04;04;11

Roo

So first, if you notice, the episode title is EOS Saturnalia, and it's essentially a Roman phrase from ancient Rome that, kind of roughly translates to let's go. Nowadays, they would celebrate Saturnalia, right after the winter solstice took place. So we just had the solstice a few days ago. And, if you're into astronomy and even if you're not, you probably know that that is the longest night of the year.

00;04;04;13 - 00;04;28;25

Roo

That's certainly something worth celebrating for us, because obviously, the more dark we have, the more we are able to image. But so many of the holidays throughout humankind's history have kind of tied into one another. And we've taken bits and pieces from this one and given it to another. So I thought it'd be fun to just kind of talk about it.

00;04;28;27 - 00;05;03;12

Roo

So the Romans had obviously long, hard winters, you know, hundreds and thousands of years ago, it was definitely a lot more difficult to get by in the winter times. Because we didn't have things like, you know, heating and medicine and all the things that we kind of take for granted. So, you know, death and hunger were omnipresent, and it was a great way to really bring the community together and help brighten their spirits with a big celebration.

00;05;03;12 - 00;05;31;11

Roo

And they would do things that wouldn't happen any other time of the year. Like, role reversals were actually quite common during Saturnalia. So, for example, masters and slaves would be able to reverse their role for the day so slaves could ask whatever questions they want, when they would otherwise be forbidden to do that. And Masters would actually wait on the slaves for a day.

00;05;31;11 - 00;06;03;21

Roo

So it was truly something, worth celebrating. And, you know, our ancient ancestors, have have known about astronomy and the movement of the planets, for a very, very long time. And we can see that in star charts and calendars throughout all of history. So they knew when it was around, you know, December 21st, 22nd, that that was the longest night of the year.

00;06;03;22 - 00;06;37;27

Roo

So Saturnalia being named after Saturn, Saturn was a god to the Romans, obviously, and a, very much a god of time and also a god of wealth and agriculture and, you know, this this was during a time when people didn't really own property, and still got along quite well. So the, the Roman utopian age, if you will, is whenever this would, take place.

00;06;37;27 - 00;07;03;07

Roo

And indeed there was, gift giving also so small gifts, you know, symbolic think candles and hand-carved figurines, were very present during this time, but it was not a celebration of capitalism. There weren't people going out and spending all their, you know, hard earned ducats throughout the year that they had saved up, to buy gifts from one another.

00;07;03;08 - 00;07;40;25

Roo

They were small, but very meaningful gifts. And there was reason to celebrate because it was essentially the rebirth of the sons of the sun was coming back around again. Days were going to start getting longer. Which is obviously a very good thing if you're in the midst of the freezing cold winter. And while there obviously were still, several hard months ahead, taking out time to celebrate was very important because raising the morale of the people could have just a huge impact on how those following months would go.

00;07;41;03 - 00;08;06;09

Roo

And the Masters obviously knew that they wanted to keep the people in check. And what better way to do that than to give them a huge celebration? So being that Saturnalia was the festival year was the, you know, let's go kind of chant. So you would shout EO Saturnalia and everybody would know it's, you know, equivalent to Happy New Year, essentially.

00;08;06;09 - 00;08;46;14

Roo

And, today's tongue also, find it funny that EO is the specific phrase being that EO is one of Jupiter's moons, obviously not Saturn's. The EO being a, very, very beautiful moon that we can regularly watch transit across, Jupiter these days. Now, another reason that they considered Saturn to be related, with time so heavily is just because of the incredible length that it took for Saturn to rotate in full rotation around the sun.

00;08;46;17 - 00;09;22;04

Roo

Now, Saturn doesn't have the longest orbital cycle amongst our planets. Uranus would have an 84 year orbiting period and Neptune 164 years, and then Pluto even longer at 248 years. But you have to remember, although, you know, Uranus technically being that it's, you know, at a magnitude six is visible to the naked eye at a magnitude six, it would have just looked like another star in the night sky to ancient Romans.

00;09;22;07 - 00;09;53;15

Roo

So Saturn was what they were able to see. And since its orbital period was, you know, roughly 29.5 years, they would take it as an entire generation after 30 years, coming back around again to be in the same spot in the night sky that it was before. So that is one of the reasons, that they associated Saturn with time so heavily is just because an entire generation would pass before it would come back around.

00;09;53;21 - 00;10;24;14

Roo

And that is thoroughly rooted in astronomy. Not astrology, even though back then the two obviously intersected quite a bit. Now there is another ancient Roman festival, that was celebrated for quite some time. That might be even a little bit more associated with modern day Christmas. And forgive me if I completely botch the name on this, but this Nautilus Solus Invicta.

00;10;24;17 - 00;11;00;05

Roo

This was for short, soulless. And Victor, which essentially translates as victory of the sun. And they did this on the 25th because ancient Romans and New the 21st through the 22nd was winter solstice. And it appeared to them that the sun would continue hanging about in the same spot for a few days. But when the 25th came around, that is when it became visually apparent that the sun was once again conquering the darkness and turning into longer days.

00;11;00;07 - 00;11;33;11

Roo

And I believe it actually meant the unbeaten sun, because every year the sun would come back and conquer the darkness, and this was useful to them for a whole multitude of reasons. There was actually an emperor who used the sun as propaganda, with the people. So Emperor Aurelian promoted this festival in 274 C.E. because the empire was at a point where it was very fractured.

00;11;33;13 - 00;12;00;17

Roo

Religions had diversified quite a bit, and the people's loyalty was just very, very fragile at the time. But the sun worked out great for this propaganda because everyone could see it. It basically was a god, to many, to many Romans. And it always occurred in the exact same way, year after year, the victory of the sun.

00;12;00;20 - 00;12;30;24

Roo

So, you know, Roman astronomers obviously didn't have access to, solar scopes, but they did have many ways of tracking the sun. They would use sun sticks. They had temples that were aligned, to the solstice and the sun's rise on the 25th. And obviously they would do, horizon observations as well. He actually printed the festival on a Roman coin, which is quite interesting.

00;12;30;27 - 00;13;01;24

Roo

I wish that I had a, solace in victory coin in my coin collection, because, man, oh, man, would that be cool. So, as you can see, it's it's a lot deeper than just saying that, you know, Christians stole Christmas from the Romans. And I suppose if you're very antithesis, you could make that argument. But I think the reality is actually a lot more, deeper than that, frankly.

00;13;01;27 - 00;13;37;22

Roo

Humans have always taken bits and pieces from other cultures and evolved them to suit their own needs and spirituality. As millennia have gone by. All right. In other news, I have been very, very lucky to have clear skies, for several nights over the last week. So last night was not clear. But I did get five clear nights right at New Moon, which is just always so incredible.

00;13;37;25 - 00;14;00;05

Roo

And I've got some good news, so I, I know I've told all of you guys about my neighbors and their lights. I haven't even talked to these new neighbors yet. They're not very, personable people, I guess you could say, I've seen the, the man of the house several times in the driveway and kind of waved and said hi.

00;14;00;05 - 00;14;23;13

Roo

And he hasn't really spoken back to me, so I'm not going to approach him and tell him, hey, I'm an astronomer. Can you turn your lights off? But the good news is they seem to most nights turn off their back lights around 11:00 at night. And, you know, I, I stepped back and said, you know, let me image with all their lights on and just see how it comes out.

00;14;23;15 - 00;15;01;27

Roo

And to my surprise, as long as I have my, do shield on which pretty much I always do, I'm able to block out a lot of that light. So, like, would it be better if it was off? Yeah, absolutely. But my fence blocks out a whole lot of the light, and I have my telescope low enough, to where I am able to, you know, angle it to where I can miss most of the light with that dew shield being on, so that that's encouraging because, you know, it's it's tough here because we're, we're already, you know, portal seven approaching eight.

00;15;02;00 - 00;15;24;12

Roo

I mean I actually I want to get a, sky quality meter. They look like they come in so handy. I know Parrish, friend of the show, has one, and it really makes me want to get one, because I'd like to be able to actually monitor local skies. And also when I go on, dark sky trips to be able to take one with me.

00;15;24;14 - 00;15;49;18

Roo

They're not terribly expensive either. I was looking on a gene. And there's a company called You Need Your On that sells a very highly rated sky quality meter. It looks like you just press one button and it will give you the readout. You know, depending on, obviously, your skies conditions, those go for a $138.

00;15;49;18 - 00;16;09;26

Roo

So I. I'll link to those into the show notes. Any purchases that you make through the links in the show notes do go to help supporting the show. So thank you so much, for your support. And real quick, while I am on that topic, I just want to, take a moment to thank all of my Patreon supporters.

00;16;10;03 - 00;16;30;07

Roo

We actually did have a few new members, joined the flock, during the little two week break that I recently had. So I just want to take a moment and thank them. Randy, I can't remember if I thanked you last time or not. Forgive me, but if I did, thank you again. So thanks so much for joining in.

00;16;30;12 - 00;17;03;08

Roo

And then we also had a new member by the name of Stardust, joined our ranks, just last week. Justin obviously joined, I think I think Justin on that prior show, but I want to take a moment to thank him, along with all of our other new members. We've had quite a few in the last, geez, just in the last month, we've got Chris, we've got Jason, we've got Lex, John, James, Ray, Randy, obviously, Justin and Stardust as well.

00;17;03;08 - 00;17;26;09

Roo

Forgive me. Stardust. I don't know your name off the top of my head. But thanks so much for joining. And, I really, really appreciate you guys supporting the show. The Patreon channel or discord channel, rather, is doing, such an awesome job lately. I every time I go in here, it just blows my mind. We're always talking about something interesting.

00;17;26;14 - 00;17;51;25

Roo

There's always lots of tips and tricks that are going on. Recently there's been a lot of talk about the the new stretch method in Pix insight. This very Lux hyper metric stretch that everyone's been talking about. It's kind of the, the flavor of the week in the astrophotography community. Now, I haven't actually used this new stretching method yet.

00;17;51;25 - 00;18;19;25

Roo

I did actually find, a couple of reviews on it. I watched a couple of videos. Seems like people have mixed thoughts on it. I don't know all of the details as far as how it works. Compared to something like generalized hyperbolic stretch, I understand it's like a one click solution where you just basically run the script and then it does everything for you.

00;18;19;27 - 00;18;49;14

Roo

I'm not a big fan of these types of processes, because I feel like there is a lot lost that you could be learning, when you do things like that. Like for me, I started with the, easy, sweet, soft stretch and, pix insight. And that was great because it was one click and it would stretch the image and I wanted to know, like, how do they do that?

00;18;49;14 - 00;19;23;28

Roo

So that's when I started finding out about histogram stretching and linear versus non-linear data. And once I figured these things out, I was able to eventually learn g h s and now my stretching, color balance, saturation, pretty much everything is just light years beyond what it used to be. If I look at, my photos from just a year or two ago, I can see just such a huge difference in my, processing ability.

00;19;23;28 - 00;19;55;12

Roo

And obviously I still got a long ways to go. I'm not saying that I'm great by any means. But I can say that, you know, using generalized hyperbolic stretch and, similar tools where you actually have to tinker with it yourself to get it. Just right. It's just so much more satisfying. Like last night, I was actually up till about 3:00 in the morning at my computer desk working on a project.

00;19;55;15 - 00;20;18;12

Roo

So I told you guys that I had five clear nights here recently at New Moon, and I knew that I wanted to do something Christmasy. And what better object to choose in the night sky at this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere than the Christmas tree cluster? Also, the Cone Nebula is obviously right in the region.

00;20;18;12 - 00;20;43;07

Roo

It's a small cone shaped nebula that's very beautiful, and I'm not sure if they call it the Christmas tree cluster just because of the star cluster that's in the area. I don't know if they call it that, because the nebulosity, the hydrogen alpha signal in the area very much looks like a Christmas tree. If you frame it up that way, which is, I think, upside down compared to what I see in the night sky.

00;20;43;10 - 00;21;16;20

Roo

But I do know that I really, really like the region. And if you can get a really wide shot in that area. So like for me, I am using my Asscher scar 55 and I have combined that with the ASC 2600 and C Pro and I'm using the Leviathan Optics Spectral Pro light pollution filter, and it is just really, really good data.

00;21;16;20 - 00;21;39;10

Roo

And this is one of those objects that really starts to pop after you get 20 hours or more data into it. You know, it's not something that is, it's not something that I can, you know, get 100 plus hours data on, I don't think, I don't know, maybe I could if I just kept going at it night after night after night.

00;21;39;10 - 00;22;04;24

Roo

I'm sure that I could. But what I'm getting at, really, is that 20 hours with a good light pollution filter, even from portal seven skies, will give you some really good results in my opinion. What I've been getting away from this past year is doing the single one night for our integration sessions and then calling it done.

00;22;04;26 - 00;22;29;28

Roo

Let's credit Justin. Big, big friend of the show, member of the Patreon and Discord, as an inspiration to us all. For just deciding to integrate more data. You know, I used to think that, you know, 3 to 4 hours was plenty on a given object. And, you know, I'm here to tell you I was dead wrong.

00;22;30;00 - 00;22;50;11

Roo

To be frank, I don't even think 20 hours is is great. And depending on the object, you know, from skies like mine, that's nowhere near good enough. If you're doing something like the, the squid and jellyfish Nebula. You know, situations like that, the Bubble Nebula, if it's a really faint target, you know, 60 to 80 hours is going to be what you truly want to do.

00;22;50;18 - 00;23;20;01

Roo

I did the, 45 hours on the M45, which obviously is the Pleiades, and I was really pleased with how that came out. That's obviously a very bright reflection Nebula. So I probably didn't need to do 45 hours, but I was able to capture all that beautiful dust in the area by doing that. So, you know, make a New Year's resolution, if you haven't yet to try to start incorporating more data into your sessions.

00;23;20;01 - 00;24;04;14

Roo

I've gotten so good about setting up for the same target night after night. And I just know that in this next year, with the roll off roof observatory finally starting to look like a reality for me and my yard, that there will be no excuse left for me. I mean, even without an observatory. With the zwo setup that I currently have, which is their carbon fiber tripod, the AM3 mount, and then obviously my small refractor, quintuplets scope and the 2600, I'm able to set that thing up in five minutes.

00;24;04;14 - 00;24;33;26

Roo

You know, if that I actually, I recently added a, new piece of kit to that rig, which is the, Zwo Pir extension. So this, basically slips right on top of the tripod and has the really cool interlocking, screws. I don't know what you know. You just have thumbscrews basically that you tighten down and it locks it into place.

00;24;33;28 - 00;24;57;22

Roo

Very much like how the M3 or M5 mounts lock into the top of the tripod with that, that metal plate that they have, the silver plate on the bottom, the, the pure extension does the exact same thing. But you get like four screws instead of just the one, to, to lock it down. And man, oh man, that is a nice little piece of kit.

00;24;57;25 - 00;25;22;22

Roo

You know, $89 is a lot for a pure extension. Then again, it's not terrible if you think about it. In the grand scheme of astrophotography items, God knows they could probably charge $200 and people would still be lining up to buy it. But I really like it. For a couple of reasons. It's going to give me clearance for when I end up putting larger scopes on there.

00;25;22;29 - 00;25;50;00

Roo

I didn't have any trouble at all with my Isca 55, you know, potentially running into the tripod when doing meridian flips and such. But once I put a larger telescope on there, you know, whether it be my 80 millimeter doublet or the C8, which the M3 is absolutely capable of running. Once I put the counterweight bar on, I will be very, very thankful to have that pure extension.

00;25;50;00 - 00;26;16;09

Roo

So I'm still waiting on the counterweight bar. Actually ordered it on the 12th of December. And now we're sitting here on Christmas Eve and it's still not here. No fault of the Gina Astros. They shipped it out the day after I placed the order. It has been just stuck in the USPS mail system, and I check it every day, and it just says it's running late.

00;26;16;12 - 00;26;40;04

Roo

And it's currently going through the US postal system. Have you guys noticed, little sidebar real quick how poor USPS has been in the last year. It's been really awful. Like, my wife runs an Etsy business and she will send things out, you know, the day that someone purchases them or the day after at the latest.

00;26;40;06 - 00;27;24;08

Roo

And she has had people actually give her bad reviews because they choose USPS for the shipping method, and USPS ends up taking forever to deliver the package, even though they say it should arrive in 2 to 3 days. Let me just let you know, if you order I mean, you guys are all smart enough to where I shouldn't have to say it, but just in case someone doesn't know, I will say, if you order something from a company, whether it be a Gina or an individual seller on Etsy or High Point Scientific, wherever it is, if you order it and they send you a tracking number the next day, and you can

00;27;24;08 - 00;27;54;20

Roo

clearly see that the item has been received by USPS, don't knock the seller or the company for it. It's not a Gina's fault that that counter weight bar has taken two weeks to show up, and still isn't here. They send it out the next day. They have no control over what USPS does with their package. You know, if if you have the option to choose Fedex or UPS, you know, even if it is a little bit pricier.

00;27;54;23 - 00;28;13;12

Roo

Definitely consider that. Especially if it's something that is, very time dependent, like, you know, the target that I want to go for, isn't going to be around forever. So, you know, I want to get that counterweight bar. And of course, none of my other counter weight bars, will fit the A and three.

00;28;13;15 - 00;28;40;11

Roo

Does that drive you nuts? How things that should be universal, by all rights just aren't. And astrophotography, it reminds me of, drill batteries. So drill batteries are all proprietary. They only work with their brand. The chargers are the same way. You know, if you have a DeWalt charger, it won't work with their Iottie charger. Same thing with counterweight bars.

00;28;40;11 - 00;29;06;28

Roo

You know they'll have this size versus that size for an IOP tron mount versus a zwo mount. And it drives me nuts. Like if these companies could work together a little bit, it would be so much better for the consumer. Luckily, some counterweights seem to be interchangeable. Always check the diameter, though. You can always obviously go to the website that provided the counterweight and check.

00;29;07;04 - 00;29;31;00

Roo

Or if you have a pair of calipers, you can just slide them in there and check, how many millimeters it is. And then obviously check that against your counterweight bar. Luckily for me, I early on when I was first getting into astrophotography, I bought several counterweights, trying to learn how to balance, the first telescope that I owned.

00;29;31;02 - 00;29;53;14

Roo

And, I still have them all. I didn't send any of them back or anything like that. And, I'm glad to have them, because I can interchange those as needed with, I think the majority of my mounts. So it's a good thing to have, for sure. And, just something to think about. And keep in mind the next time that you are, working on a new build.

00;29;53;16 - 00;30;22;29

Roo

So the, the Christmas Tree Nebula region, though. Man, oh, man, it's looking great. So I took it into, pix insight. Thank goodness I took flats because I ran into a situation, where I had stolen a spacer from my Sky 55 rig when I was trying to, get the C8 properly spaced out. More on that later.

00;30;23;02 - 00;30;44;21

Roo

And whenever I went to go image on that first night, I went and set the rig up with what I thought was the correct spacer, and I wasn't in focus, and I knew something was wrong because that skirt holds focus like no one's business. So it took me a good gosh, 20 minutes in the freezing cold, switching this and that out until I found the correct one.

00;30;44;24 - 00;31;19;04

Roo

I had misplaced also my 11 millimeter, spacer that comes with many of the smaller zwo cameras, like your 294 and your 585 come with those 11 millimeter rings that are and 42 female to female. They're really good to have. And they put you perfectly at 17.5mm back spacing with a camera like the 294. So you can, you know, naturally put whatever spacers or filter drawers or wheels that you have right after it and keep the numbers, you know, within where they need to be.

00;31;19;06 - 00;31;40;22

Roo

But I couldn't find it anywhere, of course. But I finally did and got it all up and running. While I was doing that, I must have gotten dust on the, sensor window or the telescope. I'm not sure where, but just let it be a reminder. Take your flats. You have to take your flats, guys.

00;31;40;22 - 00;32;06;04

Roo

If you don't, you'll end up with a situation where you have five nights of data and you'll be stretching these huge dust motes over all of them. The, the first night that I ran the data, I very clearly saw two large circular dust spots on the, image. And I was like, oh, no, because I had forgotten to take flats that night.

00;32;06;06 - 00;32;49;29

Roo

So the next evening I went out to start imaging, and I immediately took flats. Luckily for me, there was no new dust that came in during my, whole imaging process, during these five nights. So I was actually able to use those same flats for every night. And that's something that is, very common. I find, whenever I'm using flats, if I am not rotating my imaging train or making any changes, really, to my imaging train, I find that as long as I don't have the telescope in a dusty environment where it's picking up new stuff, I can generally reuse those flats for at least a few nights.

00;32;49;29 - 00;33;16;06

Roo

You know, I'm not saying reuse the same flats for a month. But if you've got, like, a 3 or 4 night session, you should be okay to do that. If you're not in a, super dusty environment. So just a little tip for you there. Once I, unscreened the stars, which, by the way, I started using unscreened stars instead of the simple, pixel math of adding them back in.

00;33;16;08 - 00;33;39;28

Roo

And it really does make a difference in the quality of the stars when you bring them back in, I find, I'm quite happy, with how the stars look on this new image. I was actually, like, I say, I was up till 3 a.m. working on it last night, and I, I had it. Oh, man. I had it in such a beautiful, beautiful configuration.

00;33;40;00 - 00;34;02;23

Roo

As far as the processing is concerned. And then I don't know what I did, but I took it too far at one step or another, and I ended up botching whole thing, which, you know, if you've done this long enough, I'm sure that you have ran into a similar situation as I did. So whenever that happens, I always try to, you know, take a step back and then reprocess the image.

00;34;02;23 - 00;34;36;05

Roo

The next day, another thing that I really recommend doing and Pix insight is just making sanity copies. You know, every few steps as you're going through the process, particularly if you're doing things that are destructive to the image where they actually change the image. If you know that you've got your, you know, nebulosity looking great in the current phase and you're about to do something like, I don't know, stretch the image further or apply something like noise reduction or, you know, whatever it may be, just make a quick copy of the image.

00;34;36;05 - 00;34;58;00

Roo

It's it's really as easy as just clicking on the, the name in the upper left hand corner of the image window. Just click and hold and then drag it over and release. And you have a brand new copy of that image, which I will then usually name, you know, step one, step two, etc. and then just minimize it and kind of put it off to the side.

00;34;58;06 - 00;35;21;24

Roo

So that way I know if I, like, royally botch the next part of the process, it's just as simple as opening up that prior, prior image that I was working on. And I should be good to go. So yeah, the the data, the man, it looks really good. I hope that I'm all done with it by the time it uploads, because I would love for it to be the show art this week.

00;35;21;26 - 00;35;45;18

Roo

I'll have to see. Obviously I've got, a little bit of work to do left on it with, how everything ended up turning out last night. But hopefully I will be able to, because it really is a, beautiful image that I'm quite happy with and quite proud of. And, speaking of beautiful image, this time for social media stars.

00;35;45;18 - 00;36;08;22

Roo

This is going to be a fun one, because I was actually talking with James over at Leviathan Optical, friend of the show, and obviously he sent over the, Leviathan Optics Spectral Pro light pollution filter, which I have been just really putting through its paces, over these last few months. He has sold a few already. I confirmed with him on that.

00;36;08;22 - 00;36;34;05

Roo

In fact, apparently one of our listeners was one of the people who made the first purchase. So I'm very, very happy, for you in that regard, James. And whoever it is out there that made that purchase. Thanks so much for helping out James with his small business. I'd love to hear how you like the filter. I know that I absolutely love the review unit that James has, let me use, for the last couple of months.

00;36;34;08 - 00;37;05;29

Roo

And other people are also doing quite great things with it. So this week's social media Stardust winner will be going to one John Walsh. So if you want to check it out, you can go to Instagram and look up John Walsh Astro. And it is his image of the Horsehead and Flame Nebula. He actually did a, just a really, really great job with it, with a 2600 macpro and then a, 150 PDS.

00;37;05;29 - 00;37;28;18

Roo

So he actually got a top pick on Astro Bin, for this image. So congratulations to you on that, John. That is, very, very, very cool. Certainly something that I hope to get one of these days. But you can really see just the, the fine detail that it's able to bring out in a short period of time.

00;37;28;18 - 00;37;56;05

Roo

This was an 11 hour image in total. And the amount of the, the blue, oxygen, doubly ionized oxygen signal that he was able to achieve and then also the fainter event dust is just remarkable. It's, it's a gorgeous image. And he certainly, deserves the recognition that he has gotten for it. So congratulations to you, John.

00;37;56;05 - 00;38;18;21

Roo

You'll be added in, to the list of winners, for the 12 month cycle. And then we'll end up announcing the winner at the end of 2026. Because I plan on having this be a, you know, year long, contest, essentially. And then hopefully the prize will grow throughout the year as more people learn about the contest, etc..

00;38;18;21 - 00;38;39;04

Roo

And I'm hoping to get a few vendors to maybe toss in a couple of things to go with the, the cash prize as well. So you will be entered into that. And then, like I say, at the end of the year, we will have a, tournament style bracket for voting to determine which image is the viewer's favorite amongst all of them.

00;38;39;04 - 00;39;11;12

Roo

So great job, John. Like I said, you can check them out at John Walsh Astro or just pop over to, Astro bin.com, and, you should be able to find it there as well. So let me take a minute to talk with you guys about something that I have been thinking a lot about lately, and it's a it's a really important and big move for the show that I'm planning to start in 2026.

00;39;11;15 - 00;39;35;09

Roo

Long time listeners of the show may know that next month will mark two years that we have been knowing the Astrocast and the show has been remarkably successful. And the two years we have listeners all around the globe, we have an incredible community that we have built. And, I really couldn't be happier with the show.

00;39;35;09 - 00;40;14;09

Roo

I absolutely love making it. I love speaking with all of our listeners, in the discord and, you know, the emails that I receive and all of these types of things. And the reason, that the show has been successful is because of the community. Without you guys, this show would be nothing. So my heart goes out to you, for all of the support that you guys have shown, whether you've just listened to yourself or whether you've joined the Patreon, whether you've shared the show with a family member, all of this matters, and it is the reason why the Astrocast keeps going.

00;40;14;11 - 00;40;38;13

Roo

Now, that being said, I have been, I would say, extremely consistent. For the most part, with a few exceptions here and there, you know, taking a holiday or getting sick or just having a really busy week, which happens quite a bit in the last few months because I've been just extremely busy with my, full time job.

00;40;38;15 - 00;41;06;11

Roo

Other longtime listeners of the show probably know, that this is a one man operation. I do all the research for the episodes myself. I record everything myself. I edit and master everything myself. I run the merchandizing store myself. I run the website, the podcast hosting. I mean, it's it's a lot. There is a lot of work that goes into this show to put out an hour long episode every single week.

00;41;06;13 - 00;41;28;06

Roo

I think, currently the only, you know, help that I have and really the only help that I need, frankly, is going to be Tim on the discord. He's been an absolute godsend. He has been super helpful being our, Astrocast moderator on the discord. So big, big thank you to you, Tim. And then everybody else, obviously, for all the help, within the discord.

00;41;28;07 - 00;41;54;22

Roo

But I was thinking about this, and I really want to focus on quality in the next year. I've got a, a pretty large project planned for 2026. It's going to be a three part series. Happy to announce that I am currently working on it. I'm doing the research and gathering all of the data. I'm not going to tell you what it's about yet.

00;41;54;24 - 00;42;24;15

Roo

As we draw closer to that release, obviously I'll be happy, to give you some more hands, but it is going to be a pretty ambitious project. The scale is going to be a lot larger than Swan Song, and I think ultimately, it'll be a lot better than Swan Song. And I say that as, you know, that's my favorite episode that I've created by far, and I want to do more stuff like that.

00;42;24;15 - 00;42;54;19

Roo

I want higher quality content. And I've realized that putting out a show every single week, that is an hour long is exhausting, and I do not want to put myself in a position where I feel like I am getting crushed and overworked. And I feel like if I continue to try and maintain this current schedule, it's untenable.

00;42;54;19 - 00;43;25;10

Roo

I will end up cracking and not being able to produce. And I do not want to disappoint you guys because, again, we've built an amazing community around the Astrocast. So that being said, I am planning to move to a two week schedule, starting in 2026. This is ultimately going to give me more time to prepare each episode, do more fact checking, do more research, and just generally have higher quality episodes.

00;43;25;10 - 00;43;47;06

Roo

Now, that's not to say that we won't ever release a new episode, you know, every week. Of course we will still do that, depending on what the situation is. But a lot of times I can't get things like interviews lined up because I, you know, have to work at, you know, people's behest whenever they're going to join me for an interview.

00;43;47;06 - 00;44;11;23

Roo

And it's hard to line that up when I only have one evening a week where I can realistically record. And if I'm having to put an episode out every single week, it's hard to line up things like interviews with people that I really, really want to talk to and conversations that I know you guys want to hear. So we will be having a lot more of that, in the coming year.

00;44;11;26 - 00;44;35;24

Roo

I've actually got a really great interview lined up with two people that you know from the show, that we're going to be doing in the next week or two. So, you know, I, I, like I say really what it is, guys, is I just, I can't keep up this pace. It'll kill me. You know, if I was making a full time living off of this show, obviously that would be different.

00;44;36;00 - 00;45;12;20

Roo

But I work 50, 60 hours a week at my full time job. I have a family that I have to take care of. I have pets that I have to take care of, etc., etc. I'm not going to tell you all my problems, but I just. I want the Astrocast to be a long term, successful project. And as I step into the third year and I'm seeing all of the growth that the show has had, I think the only way that I can realistically do that and maintain the level of quality that you deserve to hear, is by moving to that two week schedule for the time being.

00;45;12;24 - 00;45;36;00

Roo

Now, that might change in the future. You know, I'm not saying that that's set in stone. And obviously, like I say, if I have other things come out, I'd like to put out more shorts. I'd like to put out, you know, occasionally, like 15 minute tips and tricks type episodes, just, cover one quick topic. And by moving to a biweekly schedule, that's going to just allow me a lot more flexibility to do things like that.

00;45;36;00 - 00;46;02;04

Roo

So I hope that you will stay with us. I know it's disappointing because I love putting out an episode every week, but as I've said on this show countless times before, I am a person who very, very much, enjoys quality over quantity. And if you're like that and you're with me, then let's keep on riding this train until it falls off the rails.

00;46;02;06 - 00;46;28;14

Roo

I'm not going anywhere. Just to be clear, I am very, very, very excited for 2026 and the astro gas. I am planning a big get together for us next year, which I think is going to be awesome. It's going to be open to pretty much all listeners of the show. So if everything ends up lining up correctly, we'll have our first true public North American meetup in 2026.

00;46;28;14 - 00;47;09;12

Roo

So you definitely don't want to miss that. And if you want to stay abreast of all of the information regarding such things, please feel free to support the show by going to Patreon.com forward slash the Astrocast. So something to talk about going into 2026 that I thought would be, fun to mention. I know I said on the show, a few episodes back, that it seems like all of the meteor showers that we've gotten in the last couple of years have been in the midst of full moon cycles, or are very close to it and just haven't been optimal viewing.

00;47;09;12 - 00;47;35;25

Roo

I know I personally haven't seen a great meteor shower in a few years now. And man, I, I sure missed that because I love a good meteor shower. There's nothing like it. I think very early on, one of the very first episodes that we recorded, I talked about, viewing meteor showers and getting zero gravity lawn chairs so you can really lean back and and truly enjoy the show.

00;47;35;27 - 00;48;02;08

Roo

That's something I still recommend to this day. Zero gravity chairs are incredible for observing. Anytime me and my friend go down to the, Charlotte Observatory down in Kershaw, South Carolina for the Charlotte Amateur Astronomer Society. We always like to bring our zero gravity chairs, because after we get the scopes up in imaging, we can just put on some pink Floyd, sit back and look up at the stars.

00;48;02;08 - 00;48;29;11

Roo

There's nothing like listening to animals at 2:00 in the morning while meteors kiss the sky. It's just it's incredible. So I thought it would be nice, to look ahead to 2026 and see if we might get a little bit more lucky this year. So the good news is, it looks like we've got some bangers lined up for this year, so they're not all going to be great.

00;48;29;11 - 00;48;59;00

Roo

Obviously, they can't be with the way that the, phases of the moon work and when meteors, meteor showers fall, each and every year. But that being said, we've got some, some really, really cool stuff to look forward to. So just to give you an idea, the southern tour is a really beautiful show that is known for its fireball meteors, and it usually peaks in early November.

00;48;59;00 - 00;49;34;10

Roo

So November 4th through the fifth of 2026, the moon will only be 18% full. So we will have a very, very fine crescent moon. That will not be up in the night sky around the time of the peak of the tornadoes. And this could really be a beautiful show to watch. Now, the northern tour is take place just a few days later on the 11th through the 12th, and the moon will only be 7% full at that point, so it will also be an excellent opportunity.

00;49;34;15 - 00;49;56;00

Roo

November in general is shaping up to be just a really great chance to see some incredible meteor showers. And you know, if you're in the Northern hemisphere, obviously November can be chilly, but to me, there's nothing better than a cold nights meteor shower. So right after that, we'll have the Leonids and the moon will still be less than half full.

00;49;56;00 - 00;50;23;04

Roo

So 45% for, the Leonids famously come from Temple Tuttle, which is a, periodic comet. And the Leonids, you know, every 30 years or so, they have what is called a meteor storm, which I know I've mentioned multiple times on the show in the past that I was able to see back in, 2001 with very close friends of mine.

00;50;23;06 - 00;50;52;04

Roo

So definitely, worth keeping your eyes out for that. The Geminids will only, have a 20% moon when they take place, which is December 13th through 14th of 2026. And then the Earth is, which are currently active right now. But next year will only be taking place with a 3% full moon. So definitely a lot to look forward to.

00;50;52;04 - 00;51;20;20

Roo

And, I've actually saved the best for last. So it looks like the Perseus, which are a summer meteor shower. And it's probably the most popular among all meteor showers because they peak on, you know, warm August nights in the northern hemisphere, which is obviously a great time to be outside. If you're lucky enough to have clear weather.

00;51;20;20 - 00;51;50;14

Roo

August is kind of notoriously muggy here in Charlotte, North Carolina. But it can put up quite a beautiful, you know, 30 to 50 meteors per hour, type show. And we will have a completely new moon on August 12th through the 13th when the Perseids are peaking. That comes from Swift-Tuttle, which is another famous periodic comet.

00;51;50;17 - 00;52;18;17

Roo

And it's going to be quite the show. If we end up with clear skies. So definitely, mark your calendars. If you have an astronomical calendar, it's something that I would highly recommend that you get. This is the time of year when many people, purchase a new calendar to go into the next year. And if you're like me, I like to have an astronomy calendar that is just your normal, you know, month by month page calendar.

00;52;18;17 - 00;52;43;01

Roo

You can pick one up at, you know, Barnes and Noble or Amazon or wherever you shop. Lots of artists sell their astrophotography and calendars. It's something I've consider doing, but frankly, I don't think I have enough good images to make a pole calendar yet. But, what you can do is you can mark things like meteor showers and, you know, comet appearances.

00;52;43;01 - 00;53;06;01

Roo

And when nebulas start to come back and when they go away and these types of things and one of the calendars and most calendars even have the, current moon phase listed on them, if you get a good calendar, it'll generally have the moon phase. So that's another thing that is, just really, really handy to have. Something else that I always purchase is a moon calendar for the year.

00;53;06;06 - 00;53;27;04

Roo

I think it's a great thing to have up on your wall of your observatory or, you know, your home office, wherever it is that you do your work from. It's just a great thing to have because you can just have a quick glance and always know exactly what the moon is going to be like on any given night, which is something that I always strive for.

00;53;27;04 - 00;53;59;13

Roo

So definitely, you know, look forward to this year's meteor showers. It's not going to be bad like it was for most of this year. And we actually have some really great opportunities from, you know, late summer through the end of 2026. There's going to be lots of opportunities for us to see just amazing meteor showers. So make sure that you plan ahead and get to very dark skies, because if you can get to darker skies, you can see the fainter meteors.

00;53;59;15 - 00;54;29;28

Roo

And if it's a shower like the Perseus or, you know, the peak is, you know, 50 per hour, if you're in a place like I am under board or Seven Skies, you'll be lucky to see, you know, 10 to 20 an hour because the light pollution is so bad. Whereas if you're somewhere really dark and you let your eyes get well adjusted and you're sitting back in a zero gravity chair, I guarantee you you're going to see 2 to 3 times as many as you'd ever see, from your home address.

00;54;29;28 - 00;54;49;27

Roo

So I think a lot of people make the mistake of just walking outside for 20 minutes and looking up at the sky whenever it's a meteor shower night. That's not the way you want to do it. Like, don't get me wrong, if you can't get out and that's all the opportunity that you have, I definitely understand and empathize.

00;54;49;27 - 00;55;21;26

Roo

But if you can plan ahead a little bit and make an evening of it, it can be just a magical experience. And you never know when a meteor storm could occur because they do happen. Through lots of different showers. And when they do, it's insane. I mean, there have been people throughout history that legitimately thought the world was ending during meteor storms because it is such a spectacle to behold.

00;55;21;29 - 00;55;46;08

Roo

I just I pray that I get to see something like the 2001 Leonids again, within my lifetime, because man, oh, man, was that incredible. I mentioned earlier, that I will be working on my observatory building this year. I've actually got a friend who is going to be helping me build it. Quick shout out to Chris.

00;55;46;08 - 00;56;10;19

Roo

Thank you so much for offering to give me a hand with it. And since I've been setting up a lot more regularly and I frequently check weather applications, because what I like to do is if it's going to be clear all night with 0% chance of precipitation, I will just leave my scope out running all night long with a camera on it.

00;56;10;22 - 00;56;37;05

Roo

And that way, you know, I know if somebody tried to come into my locked yard, which no one ever has and probably never will knock on wood. That I'm good to go for the night now, I use a multitude of apps before I will leave my scope sitting out all night. I have to be extremely confident that there will not be any rain because we get sudden pop up storms in North Carolina.

00;56;37;07 - 00;57;02;22

Roo

I don't think I would do it in the summertime, just because the frequency with which storm clouds just appear out of nowhere, seemingly, and then just pour down rain is way too frequent in the summer, but in the winter time, if you plan accordingly, you you generally can have better results. So I use a few different apps. Obviously Astro Spirit is a great one to use.

00;57;02;22 - 00;57;26;06

Roo

It lets you, see what the scene conditions are like, the transparency when clouds, even gives you the CP scale if you're trying to, you know, see if you can see the northern lights on any given night. So that one and then another one that I found recently is cold. Windy, like it's windy outside. If you go to windy.com, you can check it out.

00;57;26;06 - 00;57;53;07

Roo

But their mobile app is excellent. And I think they make this for people who are like, they're interested in the winds. Like if you're a sailor or a surfer. But what I like about it so much is the clouds feature. It gives you just a very, very accurate look at the clouds and which direction the wind is coming from, and therefore where the clouds are going to be blowing in from.

00;57;53;07 - 00;58;11;13

Roo

So I really like windy. I would highly recommend checking it out. It is a paid app, I believe, on the App Store. I'm fairly sure that they do have a free version as well. I ended up getting the paid one just because I liked it so much. But check out the free one. You can get it on Android or Apple.

00;58;11;16 - 00;58;37;21

Roo

Like I say, it's called windy. The other one is Astro Spirit. So between the two of those and then obviously the local weather report, I usually can gauge out how it's going to be, but I still always have this worry about rain popping up, obviously. And there's a lot of different ways that you can approach, how to be notified about rain in the event of an emergency.

00;58;37;21 - 00;59;21;15

Roo

Now, obviously, once I have finished the observatory, the plan is to have a Dark Dragon's Astro automated roll off roof for my observatory, and I will set up a sensor that will be able to detect if a single raindrop falls, and then automatically close the roof. However, there has to be hardware that determines that, whether it be a weather station which can get fairly expensive, you know, you can pay three, $400 and up to a whole lot more if you want to get into the, prosumer side of things.

00;59;21;18 - 00;59;41;16

Roo

So it got me thinking, like, how can I notify myself right now if it starts raining at 3:00 in the morning and I am dead to the world, asleep in my bed without having to go out and spend $400 on a weather station that I may or may not be able to incorporate properly to wake me up.

00;59;41;18 - 01;00;14;01

Roo

So what I did actually is I went on Amazon.com and I searched for rain sensor and I found a few different returns, including things like weather stations. But to my surprise, maybe not too surprised, but to my joy, I found that they sell rain sensors that work directly with Arduino and Raspberry Pi boards or Esp32 boards, depending on what you call them.

01;00;14;01 - 01;00;37;14

Roo

But small single board computers like the Raspberry Pi, and they sell these for a two pack for just $7. So, you know, if you end up botching the first one and breaking it, you have a second one. That's one thing I love about development boards like Arduino. Usually when you buy things, they give you a few of them, because they know.

01;00;37;14 - 01;01;00;21

Roo

Chances are if you're like soldering and messing about and, you know, prototyping, you might end up breaking it. So yeah, a two pack can be had for just 699. And man, I'm just realizing they sell a five pack for 899. Go figure. I will link these in the show notes. And if you guys want to check them out, you're welcome to.

01;01;00;21 - 01;01;27;06

Roo

But the plan is to have a Raspberry Pi, out in the observatory. That will be essentially a weather station. I want it to be able to recognize things like raindrops. It could run an all sky camera as well, because Raspberry Pi makes an excellent wide angle lens that you can put a dome on top of and waterproof it.

01;01;27;08 - 01;01;53;28

Roo

And there's just there's a whole multitude of things that you can do with it. But in its most simplest form, I can use it along with a program, that I have called Home Assistant at home that I run on a, Docker container, to send a notification to my smart home assistant that I have in the bedroom to basically turn up the volume, to turn and say, hey, ru, it's raining outside.

01;01;53;28 - 01;02;12;05

Roo

Get your butt out of bed. And that's exactly what I'm planning on doing. So the key will be able to, turn it on and off easily. I have to be able to do that for the nights when I know I'm not setting up. I obviously don't want to be notified at 3:00 in the morning that it's raining again if it's been raining all week.

01;02;12;05 - 01;02;40;15

Roo

So I'll have to, make sure that it is extremely dependable. In fact, being that they're sending me two of them, I might actually end up setting up two different sensors. So if one of them fails, for whatever reason, I will always have a backup. And these are very low power devices. So you can run something like an Arduino with a rain sensor with just a solar cell.

01;02;40;15 - 01;03;07;26

Roo

So you don't necessarily have to have dedicated mains power for it because they just take up very, very little energy. So I thought it would be a really fun project, that I can start working on now that will directly tie into the observatory as we began building it. And I just wanted to share it with you guys in case you, are like me and like to tinker with Raspberry Pi's or Arduinos.

01;03;07;28 - 01;03;32;17

Roo

You can certainly check them out. So I, like I said, I'll link those in the show notes and if you want to check them out, definitely give them a look. You know, another thing that I want to mention to you guys, is just the absolute awesome time I have had as of late, using my iPad Pro with the, Apple keyboard attached to it to run the AC air.

01;03;32;20 - 01;03;59;16

Roo

Man, it's nice. And I mention this because it's just such a good user experience to have that trackpad and be able to use an actual mouse and to have a nice, clear, large screen when I'm doing things like polar alignment, whenever I'm setting up plans, it just makes things so much easier. And you don't have to have an iPad Pro in that, you know, Apple one.

01;03;59;16 - 01;04;35;08

Roo

I know that those are pretty expensive. But even, you know, an entry level, $300 iPad could do this excellently with like a Bluetooth keyboard. I highly recommend the folio kind because you can, you know, actually have the screen fold up like a laptop would and then set it beside you while you're working. Another cool thing I noticed about the, the Zwo Pir extension that I mentioned to you guys earlier is you can actually, kind of slot your phone into it while you're doing your polar alignment, and that way you have the screen right in front of you right there.

01;04;35;08 - 01;04;57;11

Roo

And it's super easy to read while you're, you know, fiddling with your alt and as, knobs to get everything lined up perfectly. But yeah, the the iPad Pro has been a revelation, to me. Like, I always, knew Apple made great tablets and I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 that I've had for years now.

01;04;57;13 - 01;05;21;20

Roo

Also with a big OLED screen. That's gorgeous. But I have gotten sucked into the Apple ecosystem, and as such, I knew that an iPad would be more productive for me. And I'm actually using a Logic Pro on it. They actually have an iPad version, which is really cool because I'm starting to produce more music again, and that's another thing that will be going in, to the new show in 2026.

01;05;21;20 - 01;05;47;20

Roo

I see the new show, it's the Astrocast, but the new format, if you will, which is going to be a little bit more quality, is I hope to have more music involved and I'm able to do that. So if you've got an iPad laying around, definitely give it a try with your AC air, particularly if you've got a, like a keyboard folio that has a built in trackpad because man, oh man, it sure is nice.

01;05;47;22 - 01;06;17;27

Roo

The other thing that I got, which is directly related to my observatory, is I purchased a drill press. So this is something that I've wanted for a very long time, but have hesitated to pull the trigger on because they are pretty expensive, power tools that for me at least, only will have one main use. And I'm sure I can use it for lots of other things as well.

01;06;17;29 - 01;06;51;12

Roo

But what I really needed for is to drill very accurate, precise holes into square steel plates, because I don't want to spend $200 on every single power adapter for each one of my mounts. That's just not something I'm interested in doing. Whenever we installed the pier last summer, I set up the, Star Adventure GTI as the first mount on the pier.

01;06;51;15 - 01;07;23;09

Roo

And the reason I did that was because it only needed one 3/8 screw, to screw into the little pier extension that that one has, to hold it in place. I didn't have a drill press at the time, and we basically manually drill press it, which was not an easy thing to do. It, consisted of using clamps and a vice grip and holding the plate in place while me and my brother took turns pressing into that drill and pouring three and one oil.

01;07;23;09 - 01;07;44;22

Roo

Because that's what we had to keep the thing from burning up. And I did it one more time when I needed to drill another hole in a plate for my, chem 26 mount and decided then and they're like, this is not for me. It's not fun to manually drill these holes. And it is just just hell on your arm.

01;07;44;22 - 01;08;05;08

Roo

So the one that I got and the reason I got it finally is because it was such a good deal, I just didn't I didn't see a reason not to get it for $90, especially when you consider that, you know, a regular pure plate adapter. Like, let's take the, the Z1 that I just got that was $90 on its own.

01;08;05;08 - 01;08;35;18

Roo

So now I can buy square steel plates that have pre-drilled 3/8 holes in the corner that fit my pier. Exactly. Because I have four, posts that come up for my period that I can slot them on to, and I can drill any hole that I could ever need into those plates, and then immediately adapt any mount. And the first one that I'm going to adapt is going to be, my AM3, because I have that counterweight bar coming as well.

01;08;35;24 - 01;08;57;05

Roo

And the goal ultimately is to get that counterweight bar bar installed, have it on the pier, and then get the C8 loaded up on it, because the AM3 should absolutely be able to handle it. And I finally got the spacing correct on the C8. I had a lot of trouble with the, the back focus and getting to that 105mm perfectly, but I've done it.

01;08;57;12 - 01;09;18;00

Roo

I've got the filter drawer installed. I'm using, basically everything that I need to get quality images at this point out of it, including the off axis guider. So I'm really hoping, I can do that soon. Now, I installed, there's these things called Bob's Knobs, and I might have mentioned them on last week's episode two weeks ago.

01;09;18;03 - 01;09;40;04

Roo

But those are great. But unfortunately, it threw the whole scope out of collimation. So now I gotta remove the secondary and get it relatively even. And I already told all that to you guys, but the C8 is coming along and we are definitely going to have new content out of the C8 when we move in to 2026, so definitely have that to look forward to.

01;09;40;04 - 01;10;00;10

Roo

And just stay tuned for more on that to come. If you guys are interested in the particular drill press that I got, like I said, I got it from Harbor Freight and it's, five speed eight inch swing drill press, just $89. I will link to it in the show notes. It's not an affiliate link, just to be clear.

01;10;00;12 - 01;10;16;22

Roo

But if you have a local harbor freight in your area, you could probably go up there and pick one up if you wanted to. For 90 bucks. Why not? They even give me a free bucket. The other day when I picked it up and I was just like this is awesome. It took me about ten minutes to put it together.

01;10;16;24 - 01;10;36;26

Roo

Super easy. It appears to work quite well. It's got a very high rating on their website, so I'll let you know how it goes. I haven't made a pure plate with it yet, but I am planning to this week, so I will, definitely keep you guys posted on the drill play our drill presses progress. All right, so let's do a recommendation.

01;10;37;03 - 01;11;03;10

Roo

And this is going to be the last recommendation for 2025. So let's make it a special one. I was trying to think about like a game or a TV show or movie. Man, are some really good TV shows out lately. I'm going to give a I'm not even going to see an honorable mention. It's just going to stand shoulder to shoulder with the recommendation I'm going to give you.

01;11;03;12 - 01;11;35;05

Roo

But I will tell you guys, welcome to Derry on HBO, which is the, the prequel to the it's story is incredible. If you haven't watched it yet, go watch it because it has some of the best production and cinematography I have ever seen in a horror show or movie for that matter. Bill Skarsgard reprises his role as it and it's incredible.

01;11;35;05 - 01;11;57;04

Roo

So I highly, highly, highly recommend that. That being said, that's not going to be the official recommendation of the week. Although I highly recommend you go and watch it. The recommendation is actually going to be a new show. I don't know if I've mentioned it or I actually, I did mention it because I remember talking about the, the signal that was sent.

01;11;57;04 - 01;12;30;14

Roo

It's, it's Pluribus, which is a new show that is on Apple TV. They're up to eight episodes. I believe the ninth episode might have just came out, and I haven't watched it yet. But it's it's a really good show with what I think is a very plausible, dystopian sci fi future. And if you are watching Pluribus and you haven't seen episode eight yet, there will be some minor spoilers, for it, that I'm about to discuss.

01;12;30;14 - 01;12;52;21

Roo

So feel free to, you know, skip ahead a few minutes, if you want. But they did something in the show that I thought was just super, super cool. Not the least of which because I had seen an astronomy related thing in Welcome to Derry recently, that really bugged me because they were, I believe it was.

01;12;52;21 - 01;13;12;22

Roo

And welcome to Derry. They were looking through. Yeah. It was. I remember the specific scene. Now, one of the characters will, is looking through his telescope at one of the neighbors, and you can very clearly see that they don't have an eyepiece in the telescope. And I know most people don't care, and they wouldn't even notice something like that.

01;13;12;22 - 01;13;35;28

Roo

But I immediately noticed that I said, there's no eyepiece in that scope. What's he looking at? But anyway, Pluribus, very, very much did justice, to the astronomical community. So I figured it was only a matter of time. If you seen the show, you know that it is a hive mind of, essentially that has conquered Earth.

01;13;35;28 - 01;14;02;02

Roo

I wouldn't say invaded because no one actually came. They sent a signal, excuse me. And it was basically, to genetically engineer a virus, and then the virus spread, and then everybody on Earth, except for, I think, eight people basically became part of the hive mind. And the main character, is trying to return the world to normalcy.

01;14;02;02 - 01;14;48;00

Roo

And get everybody back. And she's gathering information on how to do that. But while doing that, she befriends one of the hive mind people and during the particular scene in question, she is hanging out with, this woman who she has, feelings for, even though the woman's part of the hive mind. Anyway, they're outside together, and the main character, Carol, she is asking about what planet they came from, and she actually shows her that it is, Kepler 22 b, which is a real exoplanet.

01;14;48;03 - 01;15;12;20

Roo

And it is in their region of Cygnus. And they have the telescope actually pointed up in the night sky. And the main character said something about how, I could see it better if it weren't for all the light pollution. And it was so full. It was like a wet dream for astronomers. The hive mind heard her say that because, like you say, they're all connected.

01;15;12;23 - 01;15;38;28

Roo

And they instantly turned off all of the city lights in the surrounding area. And the Milky Way just instantly became visible overhead. And what I really, really dug about this scene is that they actually had Cygnus in the correct part of the night sky. They were looking at the correct area where Cygnus would actually be. They referred to it as the Swan.

01;15;39;00 - 01;16;05;02

Roo

Kepler 22 B is indeed right in that area. Kepler 22 is like a magnitude 11 star. So you can pick it up with a large telescope. So it was all just very, very scientifically accurate. And probable, which most of the show has been from everything that I've been able to see. Obviously, I'm not a scientist, but I have a lot of interest in science and I pay attention to things like that.

01;16;05;02 - 01;16;31;10

Roo

And man, it just made my day. I looked over to my wife, Jess, and I said, I've got to talk about this on this show because is it just so cool? So if you haven't seen Pluribus yet, that is probably the most unique and coolest fresh idea I have seen on any show in years, so I highly recommend that you guys check it out if you haven't already.

01;16;31;12 - 01;16;49;23

Roo

And, if you have, don't spoil episode nine for me because I saw it pop up in the, the previews of Apple TV, so I'm going to be watching that very soon. But definitely check out Pluribus. It has been an absolute highlight for me for the year in terms of, all the productions that have come out.

01;16;49;25 - 01;17;12;15

Roo

All right, guys, I think that is going to pretty much do it for us this week. I appreciate you bearing with me while I got through my bit of sickness that I had to deal with there, but we all got to go through it occasionally. I hope that no one is too upset about the change to the format of the show that I'm going to be making going into 2026.

01;17;12;15 - 01;17;35;10

Roo

I hope you understand. I'm a one man army, and I love making this show. It means everything to me. But if I want to keep doing it well into the future, I feel like this is the change that I have to make. So thank you so much for tuning in to all of 2025 Astrocast. I can't thank you guys enough for that.

01;17;35;12 - 01;17;44;16

Roo

I am your host, Roo, and as always, clear skies.

01;17;44;18 - 01;18;01;01

Speaker 3

Wednesday evening the feed goes live. Rue's voice cuts through the dark like 135 from backyards goes to mountain peaks. We're all tuned in. No time to sleep. Red dot finders. Come on.

01;18;01;01 - 01;18;05;00

Roo

Correct his game. He breaks it down like a simple never pain.

01;18;05;02 - 01;18;35;15

Singer

Comets, rising planets in the frame. Every week we chase the sky by name. Pixels glowing hearts of lions. Thousands of miles. One state of mind. This is the astro chaos. Where the dark brings us to the light. Before I tell you, Kayla is wide awake under the same sky. That's the thing. It never quiet grows on the night.

01;18;35;15 - 01;18;48;03

Singer

The whole world's invited. This is the astro cats. Yeah, this is the Astro guys. I.

01;18;48;05 - 01;19;12;21

Singer

Oh, someone in Texas just snapped the horse. Had a guy in Chicago stacking flats till dawn. Belgium sharing deep sky gems, while Switzerland saw this ain't the roar of bombs. Beginners asking which way is north? All time is up and wisdom back and forth. Real life, you'll get it. Just wait and see. Welcome to the family 24 seven.

01;19;12;21 - 01;19;42;00

Singer

The channel's ever sleep showcase. Blowing up the feed me the 3 a.m. coffee at noon. Someone's livestreaming the rising moon. Where different flags, same obsession. So what I be a dark sky set. So this is the astro gas. Where the dark brings us to light. From the ceiling to the Canadian I swear wide awake under the same sky.

01;19;42;03 - 01;20;05;12

Singer

No borders in the fold on fire crews on the mic. The whole world united. This is the astro gas. Yeah, this is the astro gas. So here's the roto crew to the glow. What? It is burning. Where the wild stars go. Wherever you are, whatever you shoot, you're never alone.