So, that's how you do it! Do you use red lights/filters to view your laptop and starmap to prevent loss of night vision? If so, what sort of filter? I have used clear red wrapping paper rather unsatisfactorily over a mini-maglite. I have 10 x 40s which have served me well for many years. They are light and compact, and ideal to use when spotting visually before locating in the bins. Wouldn't want to teach anyone to suck eggs, but I have found that the most efficient way of using bins for sat watching is to locate the sat without bins first, and to have the bins up and ready at just above shoulder level (rather than dropped down ), and to bring them quickly up to the eyes while keeping eyes fixed on the object. Sounds horribly obvious, but if you don't know, well it might just help ..... If you have a good field of view, a deck-chair is just fine, and it's easy on the neck. Many thanks, Best regards, Charlie. 51.892N 2.080W ----- Original Message ----- From: Leo Barhorst <leobarhorst@zonnet.nl> To: seesat-l <seesat-l@blackadder.lmsal.com> Sent: Monday, June 05, 2000 21:25 Subject: Re: Question about stopwatches. > Hello Jonathan and others, > > I use a light binocular, not so powerfull, just 7x35; that is a > magnification of 7 > and a objective(forward lens) of 35 mm diameter. > As it is hard to watch the sky standing, I use an adjustable gardenchair to > sit > in. When fully put down I can easily look straight up. > When observing long passes I regularly switch over to the other hand to hold > the bino. The stopwatch is on a cord around my neck hanging down. I'm quite > familiar with it and can "feel" which button to push for starting and timing > lap- > times. I stop the time at a known time reading from a shortwave clock, > synchro- > nized every minute by radiowaves from a German Radio station near Frankfurt. > > In my gardenshed I've a laptopcomputer with the predictions on screen, and > look > for the next sat (about 350 are predicted each night) I can observe. The > priority > sats go first. The pass along the sky is checked on a starmap and a suitable > point to wait for the sat is selected and the track noted. > Then I go to my chair, adjust it to the proper direction and viewing > position and > wait for the sat scanning the vicinity of the waiting point through my > bino's > In this way I can observe a sat about every 5 minutes on everage. > See my regualar postings of observations. > > Greetings and clear, dark skies > Leo Barhorst > 52.767 N 5.09 E 2 m ASL > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: <tlj18@juno.com> > To: <SeeSat-L@blackadder.lmsal.com> > Sent: Monday, June 05, 2000 1:16 AM > Subject: Question about stopwatches. > > > > Hello, > > > > My question: > > > > How do you people time flashes of satellites seen in binoculars? You > > have a stopwatch in one hand, binoculars in the other hand.....? I would > > think that almost any useful pair of binoculars would be too heavy to > > hold with one hand, steady, for more than a few seconds. > > > > Could someone illuminate me? > > > > Jonathan Wojack > > tlj18@juno.com > > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' > in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org > http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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