I look forward to these five minute Fridays so much! Every night at dinner with my kids we discuss "What we've learned" and I always am excited to bring these up to share with them. Thanks Nico!
The most explanative video for a beginner to understand the ecliptic, Zodiac, contellations positions and coordinates in few minutes (well, alt/az was easy too). Many thanks.
Thank you for describing in clear detail how the declination-right ascention coordinate system works. Your description and graphics makes it very easy to understand.
Hey nico!! I have been following you for months now. Love your new series where you speak about the technical know how's to help amateurs like us. Keep up the good work!👍
I am struggling with locating a target and then keeping it at the center of my field of view. I am limited with the equipment I have acquired to date in the past several months. Thank you for starting with these basics. I use a Omegon Mini Track LNX2 to mechanically track somewhat successfully, especially when the house is not blocking Polaris. I even used PhotoPills AR to simulate Polaris’ position and sighted an alignment, then tweaked the position to keep a star on track.
Thanks Nico, love these explanation videos :-) One to add to your list is resolution limits Rayleigh and Dawes. Often see them quoted on telescope specification.
Opting to address this subject with a five minute Friday video may not be the wisest choice. This is one of those "i need to go back to the long video format" to explain this so you really get it subjects. Not to say rambling (Ha Ha). More like use the focus on exactly what you want to say like you did for the 5 min version and extend it into a long video (maybe in a couple of parts.. there's only so much people can absorb at once). You got through it, but IMO you are really good at teaching and explaining things, and with some great visuals from some of the software packages available these days it something I really think you could do a couple of videos that could become one of those 'stands the test of time' references. Celestial coordinates is something that is not easy for people to wrap their heads around. Thanks for putting yourself out there !
I agree. It felt like something I could explain in 5 minutes, but as soon as I started actually trying to condense it in to 5 minutes, I kept thinking 'what have I done?' lol
Fantastic video, Thank you! If you ever run out of ideas for a Five Minute Friday video, UA-cam could really use your expertise explaining what Debayering is, how it works and when to use it or not. I can hardly find anything on the subject. 🔭
I would like to learn how to convert equatorial coordinates to horizontal. Its little difficult to understand so it will be nice if you could make a short video on that
Regarding 2:22 I did see a chart of a UT times of march equinox. It's a different time each year, less then six hours apart per year. That makes the application by novice stargazers even trickier.
Is there an app that can tell me the alt-az coordinates of an object on a phone? I don't think it's possible in Stellarium for mobile. Also, thanks for all these tidbits of knowledge you keep giving us. Really helpful as I'm too lazy to go reading it up.
On Android, SkEye shows both the Equatorial and Alt-Az coordinates, and it's free. For paid apps, Sky Safari (android or iOS) is available at different levels, the cheapest one though, the $2.99 version, includes alt-az coordinates.
Thanks Nico! Very good as always. Wondering if you can add to this a discussion of the different types of meridians. I know the Alt/Az meridian on my software indicates when I need to do a meridian flip of my equatorial telescope when the target moves through that. I don't know why. But the software has several other meridians. Celestial. Eclyptic. Galactic. Brain exploding now.
Hi, Out of curiosity, do the stars appear to move faster the closer you are to the equator? So that while taking a photo you need to use lower shutter speed? I've read that the closer you are to the equator the faster the sun set so I assume that it is the same for the othe celestial object!!? Thanks Thanks
Declination always made sense to me, but RA...my brain can't wrap around it. I've had it explained to me, and it seems to make sense, but then I get out to apply what I've been taught, and it just confuses me. I still try to understand it, however. One of these days... Edit: I had to come back. Goofing around in Stellarium, I figured out what was confusing me! I was using the eclitptic as the...horizon, not the terrestrial horizon!
Glad it's making more sense Matthew. It took me a long time as well! I do get it now, but I fear it's one of those concepts that takes most people a while to fully 'get' and requires a bit of exploration on one's own as you did in Stellarium.
Kind of wish you hadn't skipped some of the RA explanation with "there's an app for that" since I'm the poor schmuck making one of those apps. I guess that's out of scope for the channel (pun unfortunately intended).
¿ANY IDEA HOW CAN I LOCATE THE FIRST ARIES POINT FROM ANY PLACE? ¿SOME KIND OF DIY CLINOMETER GADGET THAT HELP ME LOCATE THE VERNAL POINT, AND AFTER THAT FINDING A STAR BY IT´S DECLINATION AND AR? JUST FOR THE PURPOSE OF PRACTICING
Nico... help out a geologist looking at the starts. In geology we used to use a device called a Brunton to measure the strike and dip of rock units, now a days all the cool kids use an ipad or their cells phones to measure the same thing. The other night while attempting to shoot some deep space objects, it occurred to me that there must surely be a similar app to measure the alt-az of where my lens is pointing (roughly) by laying my phone or iPad across the front of my lens (screen out, back side working like a lens cap). Does such a poor man's finder app exist?
@@NebulaPhotos But they don't work in reverse mode do they? Specifically if I have the back of my device tp the glass on the from of the camera lens and I can see the screen it will show me the sky below the horizon, rather than what the lens is pointed at, no?
@@pabloyanez2235 Have you seen this video I made?: ua-cam.com/video/8MF8DByj_Po/v-deo.html That's how I'd use an app with the phone in the right orientation to work. That said, I haven't found they work perfectly so you will see in the video I use a few different methods in combination to find stuff.
Right ascension is tricky. I did check the one for the moon. It did read 18 hours. But on the 20th of march 2023 the sun and moon were rising one hour apart, the sun was first over the horizon. And Venus right ascension is even more perplexed, it's about 2h, but it doesn't tell anything if Venus is west or east of the sun in the solar system...
Only stars have a fixed right ascension, because they don't move relatively to the Earth (well, they appear to very slightly move due to parallax and proper movement, but we can disregard it for practical purposes). But the Solar System objects like the Sun, the Moon or Venus are moving relatively to the Earth and relatively among them, so their position in Astronomical Coordinates (which are based on the Earth's position) is continuously changing. Their right ascension is only valid at a given moment, but not the following day or even some hours later.
Hello sir I am taking a I optron goto eq pro + with orion 80mm st A doublet 400mm focal length weight 2.2 kg so shall I take it I live in bortle 7 so I will use optlong cls filter with a dslr
Yes, I think that setup will work pretty well. With the 400mm f.l. you may be limited to short-ish exposures on the SmartEQ, but from Bortle 7 that should be fine. I have often done 30s. exposures at 360mm f.l. on the SmartEQ without issue.
The thing that annoy me the most is why we still use "Equatorial system", why not use the Solar plane i.e. "Elliptical System" for Right ascension and declination...
TBH it took me a couple years in the hobby before I could really visualize in my head how Ra and Dec work. It's definitely not intuitive and is maybe a stretch to try to explain in five minutes as I attempted.
I look forward to these five minute Fridays so much! Every night at dinner with my kids we discuss "What we've learned" and I always am excited to bring these up to share with them. Thanks Nico!
Beautully explained Nico. You certainly have a gift for making things clear.
Fantastic Video Nico!! This Was Really Informative, enjoyed it!!👍
Waiting for next friday! This is gonna be very interesting!))
The most explanative video for a beginner to understand the ecliptic, Zodiac, contellations positions and coordinates in few minutes (well, alt/az was easy too). Many thanks.
Thank you for describing in clear detail how the declination-right ascention coordinate system works. Your description and graphics makes it very easy to understand.
Thank you Nico, keep going!
Hey nico!!
I have been following you for months now. Love your new series where you speak about the technical know how's to help amateurs like us. Keep up the good work!👍
Week 4 of appreciating Five Minute Fridays
Great video and full of useful information as always. Thanks Nico!
I am struggling with locating a target and then keeping it at the center of my field of view. I am limited with the equipment I have acquired to date in the past several months. Thank you for starting with these basics. I use a Omegon Mini Track LNX2 to mechanically track somewhat successfully, especially when the house is not blocking Polaris. I even used PhotoPills AR to simulate Polaris’ position and sighted an alignment, then tweaked the position to keep a star on track.
Always a Joy seeying a notification of you and your channel ☆♡♧
Thanks Nico, love these explanation videos :-) One to add to your list is resolution limits Rayleigh and Dawes. Often see them quoted on telescope specification.
Superb video dear, thank you for sharing 🙏😀🎉🎉🎉🎉
Finally able to understand! Thank you so much !
As usual, great information Nico! As complicated as it is, you always make things sound so easy!
amazing video! this is so interesting & well explained. gotta go watch some more videos now! can’t wait to see the next one
Great job explaining it.
Opting to address this subject with a five minute Friday video may not be the wisest choice. This is one of those "i need to go back to the long video format" to explain this so you really get it subjects. Not to say rambling (Ha Ha). More like use the focus on exactly what you want to say like you did for the 5 min version and extend it into a long video (maybe in a couple of parts.. there's only so much people can absorb at once). You got through it, but IMO you are really good at teaching and explaining things, and with some great visuals from some of the software packages available these days it something I really think you could do a couple of videos that could become one of those 'stands the test of time' references. Celestial coordinates is something that is not easy for people to wrap their heads around. Thanks for putting yourself out there !
I agree. It felt like something I could explain in 5 minutes, but as soon as I started actually trying to condense it in to 5 minutes, I kept thinking 'what have I done?' lol
I love these 5 minute Fridays
Nice video!
A great video that actually made sense. I only had to watch it twice.
such a nice from you to explain all that stuff!
Ditto the other comments below. Your simple, clear explanations are great. You have put together an excellent channel.
Excellent explanation, you have a way of explaining things so that I easily understand them, a massive thank you 🙏🏼 from me 😃
Fantastic video, Thank you!
If you ever run out of ideas for a Five Minute Friday video, UA-cam could really use your expertise explaining what Debayering is, how it works and when to use it or not. I can hardly find anything on the subject. 🔭
Good 👍
FMF's are so good! Love it!!
I would like to learn how to convert equatorial coordinates to horizontal. Its little difficult to understand so it will be nice if you could make a short video on that
Informative!
Regarding 2:22 I did see a chart of a UT times of march equinox. It's a different time each year, less then six hours apart per year. That makes the application by novice stargazers even trickier.
great explanation, thank you!
Very helpful!
I like the way you explain 😄
Is there an app that can tell me the alt-az coordinates of an object on a phone? I don't think it's possible in Stellarium for mobile.
Also, thanks for all these tidbits of knowledge you keep giving us. Really helpful as I'm too lazy to go reading it up.
On Android, SkEye shows both the Equatorial and Alt-Az coordinates, and it's free. For paid apps, Sky Safari (android or iOS) is available at different levels, the cheapest one though, the $2.99 version, includes alt-az coordinates.
@@NebulaPhotos thank you!
Longitude is an excellent book.
Very informative explanation, but at 42N 71E - you're in Kyrgystan? :-)
Thanks Nico! Very good as always. Wondering if you can add to this a discussion of the different types of meridians. I know the Alt/Az meridian on my software indicates when I need to do a meridian flip of my equatorial telescope when the target moves through that. I don't know why. But the software has several other meridians. Celestial. Eclyptic. Galactic. Brain exploding now.
Ujjain was the equivalent of GMT back in the times
Hi,
Out of curiosity, do the stars appear to move faster the closer you are to the equator?
So that while taking a photo you need to use lower shutter speed?
I've read that the closer you are to the equator the faster the sun set so I assume that it is the same for the othe celestial object!!?
Thanks
Thanks
Thank you thank you thank you.
Declination always made sense to me, but RA...my brain can't wrap around it. I've had it explained to me, and it seems to make sense, but then I get out to apply what I've been taught, and it just confuses me. I still try to understand it, however. One of these days... Edit: I had to come back. Goofing around in Stellarium, I figured out what was confusing me! I was using the eclitptic as the...horizon, not the terrestrial horizon!
Glad it's making more sense Matthew. It took me a long time as well! I do get it now, but I fear it's one of those concepts that takes most people a while to fully 'get' and requires a bit of exploration on one's own as you did in Stellarium.
Kind of wish you hadn't skipped some of the RA explanation with "there's an app for that" since I'm the poor schmuck making one of those apps. I guess that's out of scope for the channel (pun unfortunately intended).
¿ANY IDEA HOW CAN I LOCATE THE FIRST ARIES POINT FROM ANY PLACE? ¿SOME KIND OF DIY CLINOMETER GADGET THAT HELP ME LOCATE THE VERNAL POINT, AND AFTER THAT FINDING A STAR BY IT´S DECLINATION AND AR? JUST FOR THE PURPOSE OF PRACTICING
...but I like crunching fancy equations by hand?
Thanks for the upload, still. ^_^
I never knew you were from Kyrgyzstan ;)
😂
so what was the prime meridian in bibical times on a celestial sphere????
Nico... help out a geologist looking at the starts. In geology we used to use a device called a Brunton to measure the strike and dip of rock units, now a days all the cool kids use an ipad or their cells phones to measure the same thing. The other night while attempting to shoot some deep space objects, it occurred to me that there must surely be a similar app to measure the alt-az of where my lens is pointing (roughly) by laying my phone or iPad across the front of my lens (screen out, back side working like a lens cap). Does such a poor man's finder app exist?
Most of the planetarium apps can use the iPad or phones compass and gyroscope to work as a rough finder. Try Night Sky app on iOS
@@NebulaPhotos But they don't work in reverse mode do they? Specifically if I have the back of my device tp the glass on the from of the camera lens and I can see the screen it will show me the sky below the horizon, rather than what the lens is pointed at, no?
@@pabloyanez2235 Have you seen this video I made?: ua-cam.com/video/8MF8DByj_Po/v-deo.html That's how I'd use an app with the phone in the right orientation to work. That said, I haven't found they work perfectly so you will see in the video I use a few different methods in combination to find stuff.
Right ascension is tricky. I did check the one for the moon. It did read 18 hours. But on the 20th of march 2023 the sun and moon were rising one hour apart, the sun was first over the horizon. And Venus right ascension is even more perplexed, it's about 2h, but it doesn't tell anything if Venus is west or east of the sun in the solar system...
Only stars have a fixed right ascension, because they don't move relatively to the Earth (well, they appear to very slightly move due to parallax and proper movement, but we can disregard it for practical purposes). But the Solar System objects like the Sun, the Moon or Venus are moving relatively to the Earth and relatively among them, so their position in Astronomical Coordinates (which are based on the Earth's position) is continuously changing. Their right ascension is only valid at a given moment, but not the following day or even some hours later.
Nico, I hope you meant to say you're 71 degrees west of Greenwich (in Mass), not east. (Otherwise I have been interpreting it wrong all along!)
Haha, yep, working too fast on this one to get it out on time.
Hello sir I am taking a I optron goto eq pro + with orion 80mm st A doublet 400mm focal length weight 2.2 kg so shall I take it I live in bortle 7 so I will use optlong cls filter with a dslr
Yes, I think that setup will work pretty well. With the 400mm f.l. you may be limited to short-ish exposures on the SmartEQ, but from Bortle 7 that should be fine. I have often done 30s. exposures at 360mm f.l. on the SmartEQ without issue.
sir KINDLY UPLOAD MOREVIDEOS
How do you find Kirgistan?
4:24 which software is that ?
Did you mean 71 degrees West?
Hahahaha, yes
Declination is v. important for untracked imaging
The thing that annoy me the most is why we still use "Equatorial system", why not use the Solar plane i.e. "Elliptical System" for Right ascension and declination...
I keep wondering why you're showing a photo of a vampire and a girl... Then I realised it's a poster on the wall :S
Lol
You legit lost me about 1 minute in. But! I appreciate the attempted breakdown!
TBH it took me a couple years in the hobby before I could really visualize in my head how Ra and Dec work. It's definitely not intuitive and is maybe a stretch to try to explain in five minutes as I attempted.
I'm seeing from India
Where I live, the Sun is nowhere to be see, in the night sky: not at the Vernal equinox, or any other time!
I wonder wether the East in 42º North, 71º East is an error or you did it on purpose.
Ha, it was an error. I know ironic in a video where I'm explaining coordinates
73 Views In 10 Mins!Wow
After that next video maybe you can tell me why plate solving sucks.
First one to comment
So many views in 5 Minutes
You couldn't simply say, "The Brits used to think they owned the world?" It doesn't take a whole book to say that. LOL.
Lol, pretty much, still... the book is highly entertaining and informative
At the time the British navy were masters of the sea
If we rotated around the sun the eclipse wouldn’t work the way it does!
We orbit the Sun.
Talking a little too fast to easily absorb and integrate your explanation. But thanks anyways.
Dude …. Stop it with the hands! So distracting.
Wow, five minutes is really very short... well done! 👍