Reactordrone

It's unlikely that they'll extend the on orbit time of MS-08 since they don't like to keep them up for much over 6 months. In the past, they'd send short missions to swap out Soyuz so that long duration crews would have a fresh craft but I'm not sure they've got a spare ready to go and as long as MS-09 isn't leaking it should be ok to keep to the current crew rotation schedule.

It's in MS-09. It's scheduled to be up there for a few more months yet.

I'm using an old LXD55 equatorial mount. Well, it's old now, it was new when I got it

They're suited up during launch an re-entry and have been since the Soyuz 11 accident. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokol_space_suit ETA- Time of useful consciousness at high altitudes is very small, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_useful_consciousness

This one? I think there's some extra at the end of your link.

That can also be an indicator that you're out of comms range. Rather than give you no control it gives you the pilot's control since they're independent from ground control.

The Soyuz has insulating covers all over the crew sections so the temperature shouldn't be too different from the air temperature inside the vehicle.

You can use the engine plate and set it up for a 8x1 and then put the engines on individually. Set up an action group to toggle the engines you want to turn off and you'll have a single switch to change from 9 to three engines.

That rocket will allow you to do a flyby mission with the right flight path but you'll need more delta-v to get into orbit or land. Remember to aim at where the Mun will be rather than where it is and if you go past the leading side of the Mun rather than the trailing side you should be able to set up a free return trajectory. If you're in career mode you'll have to get the mission control and tracking station upgraded to make sure you have access to flight planning so that you can see where you're heading as you pass through the different sphere's of influence.

It's not uncommon for animal carcasses to be cut in half lengthwise at an abattoir with a big hand held bandsaw. Looks like there's kerf marks on the bone from a saw.

The Schmidt ghosts are really only a problem with overexposed bright stars. From what I've read it seems to be an issue with Schmidt Newtonians + Canon cameras. That was just a quick shot to see how centered I was but I figured the space station track was interesting...and the ghosts are quite pretty if they're not getting in the way.

When you accidentally catch Tiangong 2 passing near Acrux when checking shot alignment.

First stacking attempt, the M83 galaxy. 10" LXD 55 telescope, 30 second exposures at prime focus with the canon 500D , 21 light frames 10 darks.

The centre and left hand seat are occupied there, the right hand seat is empty. With that camera angle it's normal to only see a bit of the left arm of the right hand seat occupant. Having said that Soyuz was a two man ship for many years after the Soyuz 11 accident.

Triffid Nebula ISO 3200, 30 sec exposure. Canon EOS 500D at prime focus on Meade LXD 55 10" SN.

A reasonable go-to equatorial mount and scope will be in the $1000-2000 range. Skywatcher, Celestron and Meade all have offerings in that range. Meade's new eq mount (LX85) is out in a month or two. As long as the mount is good you should be able to fit a range of optical tubes to it so you can mix and match a mount and scope to fit your budget. Phone cameras can be good, the small sensor size has certain advantages over a DSLR, so that can be a place to start without having to buy a camera.

Depends what equipment you already have. I already had a telescope and a camera so I just need the hardware to stick them together. If I want to do deep sky stuff I'd probably also need to get a field flattener because I have a fast Optical tube assembly which has a slightly curved focal field. I've seen really good planetary photography just from guide scopes.

I wonder is the telemetry drop outs were due to the spin up of the Star 48 stage? (assuming it was spun up. the BV version does have a vectoring nozzle)

SSVP and APAS are about the same size, roughly 1.2m outer diameter so the 1.25m ports are about right for them. CBMs are about 2m outer diameter so they're a bit smaller than a senior port.

1290m back before heat was a thing.

Peter beck interview on TMRO,

A few possible things to check. Fuel- have you run out of fuel? Electricity- Do you have electricity for an unmanned vehicle? Comms- Are you within communications range for an unmanned vehicle?

Hard to tell from that angle but the docking ports might be on backwards (one or both of them). If you back them off you should be able to see the latching ring slightly protruding on both ports.

LOx loading has started. Should go fairly soon after that's finished.

Pretty good seeing tonight so I thought I'd have a look at Mars while it's close. And a quick look at Saturn.