Podcaster: Shane and Chris
Title: Guest Conversation with Refreshing Views
Organization: Actual Astronomy
Link : https://actualastronomy.podbean.com/
Description: The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents aGuest Conversation with Refreshing Views. This episode features a special guest, Mark Radichi, from the Refreshing Views YouTube Channel. Mark is an amature astronomer from the UK where he pursues a variety of visual and imaging projects from his home observatory. Join us to learn about Mark’s sketching, imaging and his attendance at a recent dewy star party!
Bio: Shane and Chris are amateur astronomers who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and performing outreach where they help the eyes of the public to telescope eyepieces.
Today’s sponsor: Big thanks to our Patreon supporters this month: Rob Leeson, David Bowes, Brett Duane, Benett Bolek, Mary Ann, Frank Frankovic, Michael Freedman, Kim Hay, Steven Emert, Frank Tippin, Rani Bush, Jako Danar, Joseph J. Biernat, Nik Whitehead, Michael W, Cherry Wood, Steve Nerlich, Steven Kluth, James K Wood, Katrina Ince, Phyllis Foster, Don Swartwout, Barbara Geier, Steven Jansen
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Transcript:
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Chris Beckett: Welcome to episode 162 of the actual astronomy podcast i’m kristin joining me a shame, your amateur astronomers to love, looking at the night sky in this podcast is for anyone else.
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Chris Beckett: who likes going under the stars and today we have somebody who really loves going under the stars joining us as a guest, we have mark radici from refreshing views which is.
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Chris Beckett: A website and a YouTube channel, welcome to the show mark and maybe you can just tell us a little bit about your your online presence and what you do.
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Mark Radice: Oh, thank you, thank you for having me guys i’m really excited to be here i’m sitting i’m looking out the window is a beautiful blue summers evening in England and I guess you guys are just got up, it must be what breakfast i’m in Canada.
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Chris Beckett: Just yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: yo yo and it sounds like we have a similar weather day it’s a blue skies and sunshine here too.
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Mark Radice: yeah i’ve been i’ve been fascinated because when I listened to your podcast we think we have it bad in England.
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Mark Radice: And I am you know the weather’s always changeable and it’s always seem to be wet and cloudy and then I listened to what you guys have to go to with forest fires record levels of mosquitoes minus 30 degrees plus 30 degrees Oh, maybe we didn’t have it so bad in England, after all.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah you know I don’t think there’s a perfect spot you know to do to do astronomy in the world, maybe there’s some that are better you know some of the.
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Shane Ludtke: I think some of the southern US states like Arizona, you know it’s not bad it’s dry I think they’re usually cloud free but you know, I guess, they have the extreme temperatures as well, but yeah I guess we just deal with it and it sort of becomes normal after certain amount of time.
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Mark Radice: yeah, I guess, so I guess I said, well, thank you for having me and I run a YouTube channel which is really just more of a hobby or something I do for do for fun called refreshing views and i’ve always been interested in astronomy I can’t imagine anyone not being interested in astronomy.
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Mark Radice: And there are so many imaging and photography YouTube channels, but what I felt.
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Mark Radice: You know, was what I like to do is go outside and actually look at the night sky and actually go and see you know things on the moon or.
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Mark Radice: Deep sky objects and sketch, and actually have that experience so i’m still learning i’m still trying to work out how to make that come across in the video and, for example, last weekend, we went to the UK biggest star party which is up and killing heath up in Norfolk.
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Mark Radice: So if you are striving for and on the other side of London from me and we had a wonderful time you know serving two or three nights few few cloudy with a few cloud patches they had a really great time, so thank you for having me on the show.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah This is our pleasure um how many people attend that star party.
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Mark Radice: let’s be a few hundred a few hundred i’m guessing so it’s quite big.
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Mark Radice: yeah and then there’s trade stands and secondhand sales and normally there will be talks but.
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Mark Radice: Obviously, this year, no one wanted to be sort of inside in the same room as other people.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah that’s similar to our large summer star party we we have a few star parties in the province throughout the year, the largest one is the saskatchewan summer star party and Cypress hills.
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Shane Ludtke: And we I think there’s usually about 300 astronomers that will show up for that and same thing, usually there’s talks, but not this year it was just you know observe and that was kind of it so.
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Shane Ludtke: But that’s really what you’re there for a my opinion, I sometimes never attend the talks anyway because i’m too busy sleeping trying to catch up on sleep from the night before.
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Mark Radice: yeah we can hope but I actually made my first to the proper astronomical observation in your part of the world well.
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Mark Radice: A few hours down the road in St catherine’s in Ontario Toronto.
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Chris Beckett: to perform their.
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Mark Radice: duties were about him well.
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Chris Beckett: Well, well, I lived in from the east coast, but but I lived in kitchener Waterloo area for a while, which is just a boat like maybe an hour and a half north.
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Mark Radice: Yes, we I went to the boarding school, so I left school at 18 and didn’t want to go to university, and so I went to and got a job at a boarding school in St catherine’s in Ontario and we can kind of talk from talents Dickinson.
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Mark Radice: Okay, the other, the writer, and he came to the school and gave a talk and he said, this is it going to be amazing, he said, this is.
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Mark Radice: You know astronomers wait for for decades so bright comments to come around and to to came around at the same time, so we had high Qatar key in 1996 and then help up the following year in 1997.
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Mark Radice: I got a.
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Mark Radice: pair of binoculars and found you found the plow and put out how to find these comments and yeah that’s that’s really what kicked me off as a sort of an active observer.
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Chris Beckett: wow that’s cool yeah sort of the same I started observing about then and actually listening to turn stick and send that talking and he actually wrote a column in in the I think was a global mail or.
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Chris Beckett: Something like that here and yeah you could you can kind of print out or or cut out the star charts that he was he was talking about really cool.
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Shane Ludtke: Yes, yeah yeah so what’s your what’s your main telescope work what, what do you like to observe, with.
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Mark Radice: So I have a restaurants 11 which I bought secondhand from from a chapter in the astronomy club and he got done that classic route of trying to use an effort and instruments for astro photography for imaging.
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Mark Radice: And then he realized actually he was using it as a guide scope one the wide angle short F ratio telescope was on top, with the camera attached.
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Mark Radice: And that was actually the world’s most expensive guide scope see if it is up for sale.
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Mark Radice: And I snapped up because I really love, looking at the well I love all of it, but I really love, looking at the moon in the planets I love the solar system imaging The very fact that you got this dynamic world and features that are coming going.
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Mark Radice: And then, a few years ago, why i’m melted my credit card and paid for a.
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Mark Radice: shed to be built in over the roll off roof to another old House we modified friend couple of friends, we modified a.
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Mark Radice: Just an ordinary b&q share just an ordinary yeah home improvement shed made us into a robot off with my wife my wife took the kids to play for the weekend, and so I put them in and she was absolutely furious when she got back at it you’ve done was in the garden and paste the ground.
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Mark Radice: How does a really enjoyed that but I really love it because it’s got the.
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Mark Radice: convenience so when it’s you know it’s a night that’s a bit iffy or it’s like that yeah can you be bothered me for lunch.
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Mark Radice: Outside for an hour or two and you don’t have you know takes me longer now to put my coat on and make a cup of tea than it does to just set up.
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Mark Radice: And then, more important when you’re tired and you’re ready to come back in and all you got this but that’s covers off just kept us on.
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Mark Radice: All the reef back and you and your back end side five minutes later, none of this you put the tube into the garage put the mountain put the counterweights in roll up the extension cable put the children table away, you know it’s it’s just brilliant I love it.
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Chris Beckett: With sighs what sighs is your ruler Observatory.
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Mark Radice: Oh crikey hometown sequence of my head I think it’s 12 by 12.
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Mark Radice: With a little warm room on the side so yeah we had a good plot of land that I cleared my luckily neither of us are into our gardening say.
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Mark Radice: When we bought the House, there was a greenhouse there, so we gave that away to a friend and then I converted the plot of land.
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Mark Radice: And it’s been a lifesaver because it for the night I didn’t want to be like in your part of the world, but seth and when we’ve had to two or three lockdowns now over the last year.
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Mark Radice: And we’ve got two children upstairs yeah homeschooling doing trying to do their lessons online my wife and I both trying to work and so luckily I could use the warm room is my.
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Mark Radice: Network office.
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Mark Radice: While you’re doing that so it’s been a bit of a lifesaver over the last year, not gonna be new that’s, of course, when we had it built yeah.
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Chris Beckett: How dark is that at your at your location, that we have your role.
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Mark Radice: yeah space it’s not too bad I can’t complain, because we We live in a village near Salzburg, which is not a big town anyway.
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Mark Radice: But this you still got neighbors lights and they’re still street lights and yes.
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Mark Radice: it’s a big sort of army military training area on source replaying that’s where the army go and train.
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Mark Radice: And so you still got all the towns and the garrisons and stuff so it’s better than living in the big city, I can imagine, but.
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Mark Radice: You know, when I go to places like killing he’s, but when we go up on the plane itself that’s where its proper dark you know you get away from all the streetlights so now, I mean.
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Mark Radice: you’re probably going to laugh at me now, but you know I say it’s not too bad, but you can see, Kim a very nice is, you can see the beehive cluster.
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Mark Radice: So yes, I say well it’s not the best when people say what do you see the beehive so from your garden.
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Chris Beckett: yeah that’s that’s the so that’s kind of like the town I I grew up in yeah you can see those those brighter you can probably see like andromeda maybe naked on here.
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yeah.
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Mark Radice: yeah so what they call it.
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Mark Radice: A green green zone or something like that, like.
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Mark Radice: So yeah in the sky rating.
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Mark Radice: yeah So you can see the clouds in the Milky Way like a skeleton out and stuff like that.
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Chris Beckett: Oh wow.
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Mark Radice: So yeah so.
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Mark Radice: The sickness lane say, and when we used to live in the town, so we moved out here a few years ago, you know, there was literally was a street lights behind a tree at the end of the garden that shawn into the shed.
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Mark Radice: And I had to I bought some wooden boards and have them sticking up on Poles so just to chump block off the street lights, at least I haven’t done a bit of shadow.
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Shane Ludtke: You know I don’t know if i’ve told this story on the podcast or not, but the the House that my wife and I currently own.
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Shane Ludtke: We we prior to buying it we probably looked at over 50 other houses trying to find the right one, and we had a list of you know, must haves and another list of deal breakers.
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Shane Ludtke: and on my must have slash deal breaker was like it has to have an observable spot like a place to set up a telescope.
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Shane Ludtke: And I have to be able to see the southern skies and preferably also the eastern skies and.
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Shane Ludtke: So, like I say we were looking at dozens of houses and we were very picky we were not finding anything that met our criteria.
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Shane Ludtke: Until we found the dream house, it was perfect, it had everything and then some except to the south, was a streetlight right at the end of the driveway and I said sorry.
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Shane Ludtke: We can’t buy this House and.
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Shane Ludtke: we’re still married so that’s a good thing.
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Shane Ludtke: And we found another house that.
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Shane Ludtke: That met a lot of their criteria, but I can relate, you know, having a having a spot in the yard, to observe is important and.
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Shane Ludtke: And you do what you have to, and you know, especially in the city nothing’s perfect, but you know, sometimes you know, setting up a few light sort of blocks, or you know shades really can improve the backyard observing to.
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Mark Radice: And I always say that you know it could be worse, I could be in the pub the snow, where I am and i’m not saying I could spend a small fortune.
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Shane Ludtke: that’s really yeah.
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Chris Beckett: Exactly exactly yeah I barely drink anymore, because I don’t have any money.
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Mark Radice: To get your kids into astronomy they wouldn’t have money featuring contracts.
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Chris Beckett: Exactly exactly yeah well it’s it’s really cool like i’ve been watching your videos and.
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Chris Beckett: yeah it’s amazing to see somebody else actually talking about visual observing.
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Chris Beckett: In the digital age, because it, although it seems very popular now for people to have.
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Chris Beckett: You know, new YouTube channels or podcasts either about astrophysics or astor imaging or a little bit of both and then kind of the visual stuff just gets tagged on at the end if you’re if you’re lucky.
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Chris Beckett: 45 minute podcast might have three or four minutes of visual observing content, so your your your presence as well named refreshing views I thought it.
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Chris Beckett: Okay, so yeah congratulations on the Channel very nice.
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Mark Radice: Oh, thank you well and that’s where like I say lucky to have a hobby where we can go outside and see these things for ourselves, you know we.
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Mark Radice: are trying to think of the equivalent you know if you’re a fossil hunter or historian you can’t go back and see these things are real yep we can wander out into the garden and.
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Mark Radice: I tried to think back to the observations what I did one called observation of earlier this year, which was the globular the big bright Club in the andromeda galaxy.
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Chris Beckett: Oh yeah.
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Chris Beckett: g one yeah so yeah yeah.
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Mark Radice: And it’s what they recommend could be.
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Mark Radice: A global leader or it could be the core of the galaxy that’s been swallowed up.
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Mark Radice: By the andromeda galaxy and it’s lost its how to stuff.
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Mark Radice: And regardless whether it’s a galaxy or the core of the.
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Mark Radice: Sorry, I copied over all the core of an ancient galaxy I think that’s amazing you actually go out and see this firsthand you know there it is in the night sky and it’s so much better than just watching telly or.
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Mark Radice: Being on Ted talk or whatever kids do these days, but you know, I find it very refreshing quite literally a refreshing view you know you can ask and see this stuff firsthand yeah that’s.
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Chris Beckett: that’s pretty good I saw how you hunted down and I first up I only know one other person who hunted down and he showed it to me and that person is shane.
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Chris Beckett: Certain niche but, but you hunted down using sky safari instead of star charts so.
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Chris Beckett: yeah I was just kind of curious about about your method.
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Chris Beckett: Actually, for finding stuff in the in the nighttime sky because.
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Chris Beckett: I noticed that the you’re using more the digital assistant technologies, then, then I do, for example, so just wondering if you could kind of tell us about your process of finding stuff and then maybe we can talk about some sketching.
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Mark Radice: Oh sure, so I keep a little list of my iPhone of interesting things I want to look at and that’s made up of things on yeah, for example, the herschel 400 i’m still still years later, working my way slowly through that.
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Mark Radice: And I go through it with tremendous enthusiasm and then get bored of it and the star clusters and sickness or in this thing galaxies in virgo.
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Mark Radice: But also read the forums and read the magazines you think oh that looks like an interesting target I haven’t seen that, so I maintain this list of things I want to go and look at it in whatever that when the next got a nice clear sky.
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Mark Radice: And so I use, I still have my star charts and I still use them when I got my binoculars, for example, if i’m using my tripod mounted binoculars.
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Mark Radice: And so I still know how to stop, but I must admit, having sky safari and linking it over the wi fi to the telescope does make things so much easier.
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Mark Radice: Because you say right i’m going to take a look at the ring nebula, for example, well, first of all i’ll swing it over to the nearby was it there you go.
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Mark Radice: And you pointed putting telescope de Vega lined it up Center in the crosshairs brilliant aligned swimming across to him 57 bang there it is in the ips.
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Mark Radice: And what we’re take I know that’s quite an easy target to find with a bit of practice, but what you should take a while to hunt these things down now takes yeah matter of seconds.
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Mark Radice: And the other guessing as well as when you do a big long go to is you can then put your right to the eye.
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Mark Radice: And it’s like being in a spaceship because all the stars good whizzing past, you can just follow the eye on they used to do spend more time looking I find I spend more time looking at an object now than I do, hunting it down.
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Mark Radice: And then.
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Mark Radice: i’m trying to think of that yeah I used to call it my nemesis objects there’s a thin edge on galaxy.
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Chris Beckett: 8910 i’ve been in more amateur.
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Chris Beckett: isn’t yes yeah.
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Mark Radice: We know surface brightness.
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Chris Beckett: yeah.
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Mark Radice: I really struggled to find it and I didn’t know if i’m sticking exactly as it used to my paper charts was in.
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Mark Radice: Right guys.
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Mark Radice: yeah back start again yeah and, of course, was Christ bar if you’ve done the alignments bang there it isn’t a central authority.
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Mark Radice: yeah and you know you can then cross reference to star star charts always rotated to the right field of view you can overlay it with circles i’ve got nine piece view and i’ve got my find a view.
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Mark Radice: So it does and then of course cuz i’m using a dial in the sea 11 you can just press a button and it flicks it left to right.
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Mark Radice: So it makes sense, so so so much easier.
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Chris Beckett: If you if you want a similar galaxy now that you’ve seen that.
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Mark Radice: yeah OK cool.
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Chris Beckett: Go for because that 891 is like classic for being so difficult to spot the first time and then what’s strange buddy one is once you’ve seen it then it’s it becomes kind of easy to see in a way i’ve gone back and revisit it at all.
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Mark Radice: yeah I didn’t know what you mean i’m gonna see what you put up on the screen 43 six, this is.
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Chris Beckett: sort yeah ngc four to 36 this, this is my new ngc eight nine when.
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Mark Radice: When you nemesis objects.
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Chris Beckett: yeah this I don’t know if you’ve seen that it’s up in draco and it’s part of the M ED one group so it’s and it’s pretty close to me at 1am et tube, and so the really frustrating thing about this object is the field is very easy to find.
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Chris Beckett: So the field is super easy to locate so you think great no problem i’ve got the field in the Finder or whatever, but then seeing the object is it’s maddening anyway.
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Mark Radice: i’ll just do that what is it then that when I was starting out you see your show you say try and find them 33 and a pair of binoculars yeah and it says, make the two day is it meant to date, something like that isn’t it.
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Chris Beckett: six.
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Mark Radice: me, let me go I can’t see anything.
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Mark Radice: Nothing there, and of course it spread out over such.
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Mark Radice: A large area, although it’s a you know relatively magnitude it’s really hard to see.
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Chris Beckett: yeah, so this is only 10.
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Chris Beckett: And you think 10th magnitude and 11 inch that’s going to be easy, but yeah I thought I saw it in my in my four inch and then I.
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Chris Beckett: had my friend mike’s 12 inch the next name and we handed it down and and it seemed like it was more difficult in the 12 inch I mean it’s just this maddening.
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Chris Beckett: I don’t know why it’s so difficult but but it’s a little low rate now, of course, because in the evening ursa major and draco are are fairly alone, this is great about the bowl of the big dipper as tourism, so so maybe as as winter kind of swings around could be could be a good idea.
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Mark Radice: yeah it’s on the list it’s got on the phone.
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Chris Beckett: There you go there you go.
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Mark Radice: But also, do you find it because I like to write things down and put things in my logbook that I remember observing objects, because you know the situation.
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Mark Radice: So I always have object sets yeah some of these nemesis objects from these challenge objects, I think that was a night, you know I saw were seven so GG get that as well, because if you lock things down and record them, you have that association.
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Chris Beckett: wc.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah you know I like when it comes to logging.
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Shane Ludtke: I don’t do it enough but.
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Shane Ludtke: If my memory isn’t very good, so if i’m not logging and writing down objects like your nemesis objects or just my whatever my observing project might be.
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Shane Ludtke: I do have a tendency to kind of forget if i’ve actually observed.
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Shane Ludtke: Something or not, and what it looked like so.
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Shane Ludtke: You know I do like to sketch not sketch, but, like, I have a notepad with me typically at the eyepiece and I do like to drop my notes down about what I saw with the object, as well as you know, eyepiece and any filters that may have been involved.
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Shane Ludtke: I like the idea, though, of the nemesis list I don’t actually have one, I just have a number of you know, various kind of lists, that I am working on, and one of one of these projects may turn into an entire list of nemesis objects because.
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Shane Ludtke: it’s the the o’meara hidden treasures list he observed all of this stuff with a four inch refractor from mount to kill away.
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Shane Ludtke: somewhere on kill away, I think, on the big island of Hawaii so very dark place and I was trying to do some of this stuff or trying to see some of these objects.
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Shane Ludtke: Just last weekend not far outside of our city, but very similar conditions to what you described mark in your backyard, where you know you can see the Milky Way overhead you know the the sky is probably a green zone.
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Shane Ludtke: And I couldn’t see any of these o’meara objects, they were invisible to me, so I think I will need a very dark sky and even then i’m you know i’m kind of questioning whether or not i’ll see this stuff as well as i’m hoping to see.
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Mark Radice: And she needs a trip to Hawaii then.
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Shane Ludtke: Well, you know if that’s what I have to do, then I guess that’s what I have to do.
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Mark Radice: have no choice.
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Chris Beckett: i’ve gone in.
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Mark Radice: theory is good oh sorry Chris.
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Chris Beckett: Go ahead.
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Mark Radice: Go for it, I was gonna say a few years ago we had a trip to generate we had a club trip up to the observatory on Tenerife up in the mountain.
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Mark Radice: And of course we were a lot further south, I think, was 28 degrees North so hold on the southern stuff Sunday Nice and high up in the sky.
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Mark Radice: But what really made a difference was just the answer cheated because suddenly we were whatever it was two and a half thousand meters.
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Mark Radice: And you can see the clouds underneath with all the humidity, so we are up in the drop zone.
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Mark Radice: And I made such a difference one one of our club members, he he didn’t like the drive because it’s literally straight up the mountain.
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Mark Radice: And sort of switch that switch back switch back all the way up this mountain for ages and he said I can’t face driving up tonight and have a chill out back in the hotel and he lent me his 80 millimeter.
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Mark Radice: refractor we had that with a 31 millimeter magma magma a piece and Oh, my goodness, on a dark sky you know up in the Canary Islands, on top of the mountain looking through sickness and down into scooters and sagittarius Oh, my goodness, are there are lots of stars.
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Shane Ludtke: wow yeah that would be amazing.
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Shane Ludtke: You know the the altitude really does make a difference, I haven’t even noticed that around here.
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Shane Ludtke: You know our province is quite flat it’s you know a lot of agricultural land, but the further east you go you gain quite a bit of altitude and it really does make a difference, substantial difference, what are you looking up there, Chris.
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Chris Beckett: This is, I went here few years 2015, and these are the what.
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Chris Beckett: let’s see be, this is the pan stars telescope year of the the pan stars comment that was discovered and then this is the new big solar telescope on haleakala.
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Chris Beckett: there’s there’s a gate here, and so, if you want to observe here, you have to make the previous arrangements, you can see there’s a gate here.
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Chris Beckett: And there’s a gate here and the gate here goes down to a military Institute, and so I was told to meet a certain person at a very specific time do not come one minute early and do not come one minute late.
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Chris Beckett: I thought and actually we started talking before this this recording right, I said i’m always like five minutes early they were like no no don’t come early.
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Chris Beckett: what’s the big deal, so I show up like maybe a minute or two meet this guy and I show up here and then as soon as I Park, I can see this guy walking from here this way, and this gentleman is carrying a gun and.
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Chris Beckett: The real what what happens up here, apparently, is that you’ve got.
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Chris Beckett: it’s a secure military facility and they were just coming over to check if I have my pass.
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Chris Beckett: But I was like whoa this is getting kind of scary up here so anyway yeah I was able to go up and observed in in behind the pan-starrs.
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Chris Beckett: telescope just with my binoculars they had some other telescopes there and that sort of thing but that’s at 10,000 feet and that is into that zone where your your brain stops functioning as well as as you would like it to.
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Chris Beckett: You guys up there, looking at these pictures.
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Chris Beckett: yeah pretty wild day so let’s see let’s talk about sketching so I was looking at some of your sketches I have to ask your some of your sketches are it looks like white chalk or white charcoal black paper.
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Mark Radice: So yes, I was i’ve always sketch traditionally with you know the conventional black paper black pencil sorry on White Paper the ordinary way, if you like, and then you.
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Mark Radice: said last month, I met a space artist and astronomer artist and she was showing me how she draws on with black paper and white, pastels.
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Mark Radice: Okay, and it really makes a difference it’s a much more natural way of touring so i’ve started taking that on that i’m still trying to get used to it, because of course it’s a different medium a different approach.
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Mark Radice: That means you don’t have to then convert it on the computer making negative image and you literally are drawing what you can see.
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Mark Radice: yeah so you know, rather than trying to do it the other way around, which is, which is a hard way if you know if you’re if you want to put a bright galaxy in.
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Mark Radice: And you just put more and more white passed along then match it with your finger so it’s a much more natural looking medium so i’m still going to use that and still quite enjoying that that’s good fun.
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Chris Beckett: What have you looked up and I guess you seem new to it, I haven’t tried it well i’ve tried it a little bit long time ago.
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Chris Beckett: Just for sketching the moon, but haven’t tried it as much time on deep sky objects, I was wondering Have you looked up like the militia technique or anything like that.
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Mark Radice: yeah so that’s what this lady was time this morning, I can tell, is telling me yeah so you, you find a little bit off onto a piece of sandpaper and then using a blending stump or the cotton buds you can then apply the dust as if you’re.
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Mark Radice: You know.
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Mark Radice: Building up layers.
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Mark Radice: To using white past or dust.
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Chris Beckett: So what did you sketch so for us and.
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Mark Radice: So i’ve practiced what have you done to be done, the ring nebula did, that the other day, and the sm six that little dumbo up in perseus.
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Mark Radice: What else, what else Oh, and the big one, I did at killing, so we have a good night tonight on the Friday wants to hold of the sort of around, so I borrowed from take my telescope.
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Mark Radice: Out of the Observatory take the mountain counterweights off and then have to set it up there, then bring it back and tested on back in the Observatory I borrowed a friend’s telescope but a little wide angle 80 millimeter apo.
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Mark Radice: And without you get a hold of the sort of orion into the IP so that was quite cool and then also the North American editor and doing the cygnus wall.
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Mark Radice: And you can see it, you could see the curve of this Central America region in the North American nebula and then the brighter part of the sickness wall with it with a filter so I did that, though, that took that took too long about an hour and a half.
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Chris Beckett: Or, I noticed that you looked like I watch part of that video actually I watch the whole video but.
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Chris Beckett: for whatever reason, I call them and listen to some of the sound I was doing something else, and I noticed that you’re also a binary view user we’re using the bottom viewer to do those sketches.
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Mark Radice: So what we have this tremendous team so i’ve never experienced jude like this, it was because it was about a mile from the sea mile from the coast.
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Mark Radice: And the G was something out, I mean it was even be could have been in the rain forest everything was just dripping wet.
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Mark Radice: My friend didn’t have his do heaters actually swapping do heater from by eyepieces to his say I have to swap I had to spare 20 millimeters.
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Mark Radice: So without the binary here but it’s the sort of aroma did with the by interview, and I must admit it is such a lovely way to observe, because you get to use both eyes.
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Mark Radice: You you is a much more natural way you’re not trying to cover one eye and screen to you do I guessing it maybe lose half a magnitude or something like that, but I think you gained a lot back by that sort of sheer comforts and the pleasure of using using times.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah i’m glad you mentioned that i’m just getting into vinyl viewing again I tried it once before, and I really I really doing.
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Mark Radice: China at three times before shame.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah yeah to two or three times for sure, and the thing is is is I really didn’t try in either of those attempts, you know, like I.
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Shane Ludtke: What I should say is i’ve owned a Bible viewer multiple times and I really didn’t use it enough to to really get a good feel for it, so this.
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Shane Ludtke: This current run at it i’ve committed to basically final view exclusively now there’s a few exceptions to that and i’ve really been enjoying it now i’ve only done it in the backyard I haven’t done it under a dark sky yet.
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Shane Ludtke: So that that’ll be the next test, but I tell you in the backyard, it has extended.
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Shane Ludtke: extended the amount of time I do spend observing like I don’t think my sessions are any longer it’s just during that session.
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Shane Ludtke: i’m observing almost 100% of it, because the comfort level is so much better like I don’t have to take a break to like just give my I a bit of a rest because you’re squinting you know the whole time.
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Shane Ludtke: it’s just a wonderful way to observe and i’m like I I think this might be the way I just proceed on a go forward basis is primarily by interviewing.
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Mark Radice: And I definitely find it less fatiguing yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: And you have um what what kind of bundle viewers, do you have because the ones you have I don’t I think they don’t like you don’t need a an optical correct or like a magnifier barlow or anything like that do you.
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Mark Radice: yeah that’s right So if you look up um it’s called a techno sky linear pioneers us, yes, and I bought mine from telescope express in Germany.
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Mark Radice: And yeah you’re right, because of course you when you put your ips in the focus it’s where it needs to be, but then of course you put the biosphere and you’ve done your ips is now whatever it is 100 millimeters further away so you’d normally you’d put a correction to bring that up.
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Mark Radice: So there it is where’s the picture somewhere in there.
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Mark Radice: But the.
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Mark Radice: the beauty of these binaries is you don’t need, therefore, that optical character to bring me I pieces into into focus.
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Shane Ludtke: Now, is there any I think i’ve read some reviews about these vital viewers, is there any.
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Shane Ludtke: Light cut off or being getting that that happens with these I can’t remember.
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Mark Radice: That so there’s two is cheese shortcomings i’ve come up with so far, and the first one is that if you look at anything pretty bright you do get a lot of reflections in there okay.
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Mark Radice: So when I look at say Jupiter or Vega you know you can see the reflections bouncing around inside the binary view inside my notes here.
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Mark Radice: But it’s like anything with a bit of time you saw your eyes can look past it but it’s not very pleasing but looking at a dimmer starfield or a deep sky object you don’t get any reflections at all.
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Mark Radice: And the other constraints, you have is that you is only as it’s it’s exit people if that’s right word, would you call it the diameter, that the light comes into is only 17 mil.
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Mark Radice: So you can only use, so I have two sets five pieces the 90 millimeter panoptic which kept for net vinyasa down from 68 degrees outside and I guessing about 50.
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Mark Radice: Okay, so, but again when you’re looking with both eyes, because it feels much wider than that.
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Mark Radice: Yes, and then i’ve got i’ve got a higher power version of 13 millimeter necklace and that, but they aren’t big knitted because they are less than 70 millimeters.
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Mark Radice: it’s not accept people what’s the word i’m looking for Monday, however, the aperture that the light comes through I can’t remember what it’s called now.
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Chris Beckett: Do you mean like the like the field stop diameter.
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Mark Radice: feel so that’s the one yes feel stop diameter is 70 mil.
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Mark Radice: yeah.
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Chris Beckett: I renewed my nerd card last week.
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Chris Beckett: still fresh.
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Mark Radice: You pass the test Chris I was.
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Chris Beckett: There we go yeah i’m sorry I just I couldn’t find your your sketch on your site, I know it’s fairly recent might not be up, yet I actually did the same sketch recently there’s my sketch of the North American nebula from October 10.
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Mark Radice: So I had a question for you, Nice and you obviously enjoy using smaller, more portable telescopes setting, so what I can’t help but thinking when you must make very dim views and.
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Chris Beckett: I guess that’s fair that’s a fair assessment.
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Chris Beckett: yeah next topic.
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Mark Radice: So I guess you’re trading you know if you’ve got hold of the North American everything you’ve actually got a very wide field of view yeah.
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Chris Beckett: yeah so, so this is sort of a refined sketch actually I sketched the whole star cloud, but then, when I you know, took it inside afterwards.
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Chris Beckett: it’s it was sort of difficult I couldn’t figure out how to differentiate the glow from the star cloud and the glow from from the nebula So when I saw this is sort of a final sketch i’m not a very good.
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Chris Beckett: artist or anything like that, but you kind of get the general shape and i’m like okay i’m just going to put the North American ability and just sort of my my final.
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Chris Beckett: sketch there, but what i’m going for anyway, is two things i’m going for really wide field of view, I really like my field of view, I know you’ve got the.
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Chris Beckett: canon 15 by 15 is binoculars, I think, which those are amazing my friend Mike has those and I steal those quite frequently and made tons of observations with them like I love those four wide field of view and then.
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Chris Beckett: She helped me put this little 50 millimeter telescope together for getting these these super super wide field of us, but I also have attack a hashi.
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Chris Beckett: FC 100, which is a four inch have 7.4 and that telescope gives nice wide field of view as well and it’s and it’s super light it’s only five and a half pounds the way I have it set up and then i’ve got a Borg five inch Parker matt f6 which we seven and a half pounds so.
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Chris Beckett: yeah I just really like those white fields in here here in saskatchewan it’s so dark like you know where we observe, which is in.
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Chris Beckett: Well, I was I observed, primarily, like in a darker green zone or like a 6.3 magnitude zone and can see pretty thing stuff.
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Chris Beckett: From there and and typically like a six minute getting close to a six magnitude site is is only a 15 or 20 minute drive away of most so how port portability and use it use, and then the other thing is, is it gets so cold here in the winter that.
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Chris Beckett: You know, we want to make sure that we’re able to you know go and get set up really quick and tear down quick and the cool down time on bigger instruments is.
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Chris Beckett: A huge hindrance like sometimes when Mike brings his 12 inches we get stuck waiting for it to cool down and we’ll just.
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Chris Beckett: we’ve spent nights just observing through like my my orange or five inch because his telescope never cool down enough, the whole sky just looks like jello through a kind of thing so anyway yeah that’s good.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah I was just gonna say that’s one of the big reasons why I got rid of my 12 inches.
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Shane Ludtke: So found that many nights it just never it never cool down like I never acclimated to the ambient temperature, because the temperature just either declined really quickly or just kept you know going down down down and then the.
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Shane Ludtke: Almost knocked over the Saturn rocket here I gotta stop talking with my hands.
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Chris Beckett: That could have been fatal.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah.
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Mark Radice: He says, you know never again.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah exactly exactly.
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Mark Radice: How does it get them so i’m thinking back in.
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Mark Radice: England and a cold winter’s night would be maybe minus five minus five degrees Celsius minus 10 degrees minus 10 would be pretty cold it gets further you know if you go further north of England or Scotland.
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Shane Ludtke: That will, in the heart of winter here if we had a minus five degree night we might observe and a T shirt.
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Shane Ludtke: Because we’re we’re.
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Mark Radice: Usually as posse nights is it.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah like that the downside, so if it’s a clear night then then there’s no clouds to you know kind of insulate or keep some of the heat in on a clear night in the middle of winter, I would say it’s typically minus 22 minus 30 degrees.
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Chris Beckett: If we’re lucky that that’s when we go observing if it gets cold or we don’t.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah and sometimes it is colder and and here, because it is flat prairie and there’s not a lot of trees, the wind is what really gets us.
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Shane Ludtke: You know you had a wind chill On top of that, and and winter observing becomes a little more challenging so yeah the the smaller telescopes are nice for that.
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Shane Ludtke: You know and there’s another there’s another aspect about small telescopes that I kind of like unintentionally, maybe discovered for myself.
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Shane Ludtke: And unintentionally still do occasionally but.
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Shane Ludtke: If I take my little 15 millimeter out and I try to observe Jupiter for the evening.
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Shane Ludtke: You know I will see some detail in the cloud bands, you know it won’t just be colors like i’ll be able to see some fine detail I shouldn’t say fine detail, but some detail.
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Shane Ludtke: And I feel them after observing with smaller apertures for a period of time and then going to a larger one like my 76 or my 100.
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Shane Ludtke: I feel like i’m twice the observer because it’s like wow you know, look at big everything is and look what I can see now.
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Shane Ludtke: And I don’t know if that actually does help with the observing skills or not, but I feel like it does sometimes and.
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Shane Ludtke: You know it definitely definitely lets me appreciate the larger apertures, especially when.
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Shane Ludtke: You know, one of our friends like Mike or a few folks that have bigger apertures when they bring it out like I love looking through it, I I do love aperture I just like it when somebody else owns it and.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah goes to all the trouble of holly setting.
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Mark Radice: up the best thing, though, but somebody else’s isn’t as.
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Shane Ludtke: It is.
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Chris Beckett: Exactly yeah.
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Mark Radice: So I think there’s there’s almost.
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Mark Radice: In evidence has go for aperture get the biggest appreciate, you can afford aperture is king, but certainly budgets, you know the cost of it, and when I call that sort of ease of use that logistic side they’re definitely the kingmakers.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah yeah yeah.
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Mark Radice: I think about to have my little 14 inch I want to adopt, you know and hauling that into the back of the car to drive up source we playing and then and then of course coming back at three in the morning and having to be back in the background, oh no my pullback.
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Chris Beckett: yeah yeah exactly.
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Mark Radice: exactly that was.
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Mark Radice: talking to them good pizza when we went killing last weekend there were two binocular telescopes who made binocular telescopes that people that had one was a seven inch pair of maxi toss i’m almost a six inch pair for practice.
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Chris Beckett: And i’m really, really excited here, I put this in the notes, because it looked like to me, you know it could be around but they looked like Matsumoto.
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Chris Beckett: mirror diagonals on the back of the sevens.
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Mark Radice: yeah the yeah the Ms right was it mirror system or something it’s called yes that’s right.
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Mark Radice: yeah good for us, we always.
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Chris Beckett: Look through those how did you guys look at and.
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Chris Beckett: How they tie today well there was there was a big queue, as you can imagine.
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Mark Radice: For a pair seven inch binoculars and we looked at Jupiter and you can even though the scene was pretty crazy, you can you see details between the start in between the bands on Jupiter.
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Mark Radice: And then me too as well and, again, but you came at some point we had earlier, you know, being able to live with both sides so pleasing so much better for the you know the Ai brain combination really good I mean.
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Mark Radice: yeah really good.
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Chris Beckett: And what was the the other one I guess I missed, you said, there is a six inch refractor binocular telescope as well, can you tell us.
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Mark Radice: that’s right yeah there’s a guy called as reviews sort of quite well known in the.
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Mark Radice: UK economy community and he put these binoculars together, using a whole series of diagonals you know, one of the quarter inch diagonals to bring the optical path together.
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Mark Radice: Okay So yes, a poor man’s Matsumoto.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah i’ve seen i’ve seen those before and i’ve always wondered, you know how effective that would be, in fact, there is a I was considering.
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Shane Ludtke: Like the 50 millimeter board that I sold to Chris I was considering turning that into a vinyl scope but then just stop the pursuit, because I felt like a 50 millimeter by no scope probably wasn’t going to impress me that much, but you know, a six inch that’s different.
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yeah.
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Chris Beckett: I have a lot of questions, but your Observatory I don’t think we’re gonna have enough, I was looking at your your recent video and building concrete vs steel Pier, though, and it looks like you, you ripped out the steel Pier and you put in a concrete here and my question is why.
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Mark Radice: A steel Pier, although it could take the weight wasn’t flushed to the floor.
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Mark Radice: Oh, so I try putting some you know, obviously, when it was made it obviously bows slightly at the bottom.
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Mark Radice: When it gets well, did you know the the metal plate gets rolled into that the vertical Pier and it always used to.
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Mark Radice: Slightly vibrate if you if you touch the telescope or slewed or just at the focus.
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Mark Radice: So it wasn’t very stable, so that we could.
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Mark Radice: carry the weight that impressive load of having the big telescope in the mountain, so I looked around and getting a you know more steady pair one that you could boat down more securely, but there are hundreds of pounds, you know 500 pounds, whatever that is.
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Chris Beckett: yeah they’re like $1,000 Canadian get started yeah.
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Mark Radice: And then yeah i’m getting back to cement paid the builder in you know a little Thank you as well, and you know it was a fraction of the price.
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Chris Beckett: Very cool yeah I noticed I watched i’ve watched that video I didn’t listen to it, but I was watching it and there was a part where you were you were digging out the air gap, or whatever it is between the.
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Chris Beckett: bottom of the pure and the end the Observatory, so I was wondering was that, like insulation, do you have anything between the observatory and the and the bottom of the Pier and sort of what is below the period so.
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Mark Radice: So when they built the Observatory they dug a three foot by three foot hole straight down and then around that have built the you know the wooden floor.
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Mark Radice: yeah so there’s an air gap, or whatever, that is half an inch 12 mil a round the concrete floor so that, as you walk around you don’t your vibrations of your feet don’t go into the into the concrete here.
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Chris Beckett: So do you have like you do, you have anything in that gap, or do you just leave it open.
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Mark Radice: Then just leave it open, the only thing I have going in, there is the drain port from the dehumidifier.
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Mark Radice: Okay, and it just trickles out okay.
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yeah.
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Mark Radice: i’m 10,000 spiders live down there and there’s a desk capital T that’s you know when you drop it us Catherine.
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Mark Radice: And you can see it, but you can’t get them out, so you.
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Mark Radice: need more replacements.
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Chris Beckett: You to get one of those claws from the game, or whatever yeah yeah I was surprised, well, I guess, not that surprised.
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Chris Beckett: You were you’re at the star party, you were talking about the do heaters selling Oh, I remember those days quite well from living near the ocean it’s.
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Chris Beckett: yeah it’s it’s crazy how much do there, there can be I was, I was back home, and we were having we’re going to have a really good night and the sky was clearing off and the sun was about an hour from setting.
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Chris Beckett: And the dew was already.
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Mark Radice: You can always taste it, you know, in the humidity rises, you can feel the humidity just rolling in the sea.
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Chris Beckett: yeah yeah it’s just it’s just not say I don’t I don’t miss that so we don’t have humidity here very often it’s a it’s a rare event, so much so that I through mind that’s your may do shield away when I moved here.
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Mark Radice: Oh wow.
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Chris Beckett: Well, I had it and I was putting it on and someone said what is that, like well it’s a.
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Chris Beckett: it’s a.
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Chris Beckett: To do shield it, you know it helps keep the do off the optics are like Why would you use that you know, like people are just baffled by.
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Chris Beckett: So after after a few weeks of observing I was like you just you don’t need it here it’s just it’s not necessary, so yeah we’re lucky that way but but we’re unlikely when it comes to the real cold weather so.
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Chris Beckett: So yeah, but I think we have we have probably just a couple minutes left marketing know if there was any any other topics we should touch yeah.
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Mark Radice: So I took I started getting more and more interplanetary lunar and planetary imaging over the last few years and i’ve been helped out by.
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Mark Radice: One of the UK observers Martin Lewis as well, and of course the planets are then disappeared into southern sky.
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Mark Radice: And last October November time, I think it was I recorded one one of my most well for me, anyway, one of my most memorable observations of Mars.
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Mark Radice: And I went into work, the next day I said I photographed five volcanoes last night, and so, what do you mean you’re free to go five okay sorry, they were on another planet.
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Mark Radice: What I saw you know there’s Olympus Mons a volcano Mars, so I photograph that and this this to other smaller ones, alongside and a couple of smaller ones.
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Mark Radice: But what I really liked about this this observation was it was actually a little white cloud hearing over when I think it’s RC amman’s one of the smaller fastest volcanoes.
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Mark Radice: And there’s more slowly rotated you can actually see the white cloud as the winds took it stretching across the you know the across the martian surface so here I am with this secondhand telescope in the garden in southern England watching clouds forming over a martian volcano.
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Mark Radice: That that is pretty cool.
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Shane Ludtke: And, really, really good imaging I.
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Shane Ludtke: have this is years ago when I had my observatory in the backyard and a tracking mount I was doing a little bit of imaging.
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Shane Ludtke: And I you know I briefly tried solar system imaging and quickly gave up because I just didn’t have the.
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Shane Ludtke: I don’t think I had the right equipment, necessarily, and certainly not enough knowledge to do it.
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Shane Ludtke: So when I see images like this, like, I really appreciate how you know how could this is, and you know the the effort that goes into it is is outstanding So do you do video captures and then grab the better frames and.
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Mark Radice: Yes, yeah yeah.
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Mark Radice: yeah so you you’re relying because yeah must be is naturally turbulence that’s why all these professional astronomers spend so much money but in observatories on mountains and up into space.
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Mark Radice: So what we’re relying on his brief random moments of clarity of stiller and the video camera just record away have many hundred frames, a second.
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Mark Radice: And then you reject all the blurry one stop shop ones, one on top of the each other.
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Mark Radice: And then that way you can then process that happened and reveal all the fine details and side but you’ve rejected all the ones that have been blurred by the earth’s atmosphere and I looked online and you look at people who are.
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Mark Radice: You know imaging down in the tropics you know, Australia and South Africa in the Philippines, I think jupiter’s just barely clearing the tree tops here at the moment yeah whatever it is 20 something degrees.
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Mark Radice: yeah and we had one night in the summer, this year.
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Mark Radice: Where the air was just still you know, there was no hardly any tournaments at Dartmouth, and this is what people talk about when they say.
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Mark Radice: This is good seating and you can actually see details inside the great red spot and surface markings on ganymede on jupiter’s means.
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Mark Radice: Ah, this is this is pretty cool and yeah you look picture there haven’t you so that was too, but that’s going to meet with your mouse is now, and you can see us surface markings on it.
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Chris Beckett: yeah you can you can see that that’s nuts.
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Mark Radice: that’s so that’s I mean isn’t that amazing, this is what the second hand telescope in the garden in England yeah you got the great red spot, and you can see that little storm clouds inside the great red spot.
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Mark Radice: And that black dots just above it that’s the shadow of Europa europa’s actually in front of the desk of Jupiter some hidden in the crowd belts.
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Mark Radice: Top left.
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Mark Radice: Is I Oh, and I reappeared from behind Jupiter and I made a little time lapse of this as well as I have observed for about two or three hours you know just recording.
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Mark Radice: Two minute video two minute video two minute video two minute video process them all down to a single frames and then you can play the back as a.
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Mark Radice: time lapse and you can see jupiter’s cloud rotating You see, you know your raipur disappears it passes over and the shadows and ganymede comes in and I are reappears in the back, but.
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Mark Radice: You know this, three hour video on this three observation I reduced, and he got real solar system dynamics happening in real time in front of the eyes.
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Shane Ludtke: Incredible outstanding imagery.
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Mark Radice: One of those key terms I haven’t sent you the bad ones and that’s.
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Shane Ludtke: The other.
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Shane Ludtke: Well, you know when I when I observe Jupiter and you know visually and I I taken as much as I can, what I like to do the next day is go to Chris go.
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Shane Ludtke: I think he observes out of the Philippines, he he images Jupiter an awful lot and then post it online and oftentimes he’ll have an image, you know of.
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Shane Ludtke: Of the night that I was out observing assuming it was clear, and he was able to get out, but you know it’s a really nice resource to kind of contrast, or to compare what I saw with my eye to what was actually visible that night.
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Shane Ludtke: But again, like the like Chris has well renowned for having really, really good image quality and yours is right on par like there’s no difference in my mind like your your images are outstanding.
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Mark Radice: Well, thank you that’s very common if i’m on the pile with someone like Chris K that i’ll take that.
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Mark Radice: Even after.
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Mark Radice: Half a success will be quite.
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Mark Radice: Yet.
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Mark Radice: I mean, he we use them atmospheric dispersion characters when the planets are low down you get this little blue and red flinching.
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Mark Radice: Some have to dial in these prisons to to correct that color dispersion and then you find people in Australia and the Philippines said, neither bother with that the planets are overhead we don’t we don’t have to worry about that.
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Mark Radice: yeah and they can I can any image Jupiter briefly because it appears from behind the tree and there they are you know it’s overhead.
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Mark Radice: Say yeah yeah we do need to move to tend to reef.
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Shane Ludtke: Agreed agreed yeah yeah because the, the other side of this is when the planets are high enough for us it’s wintertime.
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Mark Radice: And then it’s a little bit it’s miserable and.
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Mark Radice: There isn’t there is no perfect spaces, he says, now we you know when we get to 10 or if we really enjoy that and then you look the power at the moment you can’t they can’t if you can’t fly there because the volcano is erupting.
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Chris Beckett: back to the volcanoes.
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Mark Radice: yeah so it’s.
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Chris Beckett: always good.
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Chris Beckett: yeah all right well um that’s really awesome I think we’re we’re pretty much at time folks it was really great having you on mark and if people want to want it to go to the YouTube channel what’s the best way for them to find it.
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Mark Radice: yeah if you go on to YouTube it’s refreshing news and it’s deliberately designed to be so informal good fun enjoy observing the night sky.
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Chris Beckett: yeah well i’ve really enjoyed watching your videos and it was really awesome chatting with you today so thanks for joining us, and thanks shane and thanks everybody for listening.
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Shane Ludtke: yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: Thanks a lot mark really enjoyed.
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Mark Radice: yeah and thank you for having me really interesting say enjoy that minus 30 degrees observing.
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Mark Radice: And these will be mosquitoes I guess now this time of year yeah yeah.
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Shane Ludtke: that’s the trade off.
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Chris Beckett: Great thanks again.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
=====================
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