ScouseSpaceCadet

Father's Day...

I've sent the link to the hard cover version to my kids for Father's Day. Thanks. 👍

Newtonian diffraction spikes when observing planets drove me to refractors. I appreciate I'm losing resolving power but I'd rather have a higher contrast cleaner view.

As I said, the planet is not fragile, human civilization is, almost totally because of our own actions. Those activities will be taken with us. Life crushing asteroid impacts millions of years apart likely won't bother us. In fact the last big one gave our furry ancestors a boost by wiping out the competition. Nearby supernovas really? Sorry but again not likely during the course of our civilisation and moving to Mars won't help! Volcanism is something we just have to live with. Sending a few people to an irradiated rock won't make a difference.

Earth is not 'very very fragile" though is it? What is fragile, is human civilisation. Mostly due to our own endeavours to ruin the planet and kill ourselves. The highest priority for the influential mega rich and governments should be clean air, water, etc for all and not the greedy planet ruining systems we have now. Moving a few thousand people to another planet we are not evolved to live on won't change the above. Do you really believe Elon Musk when he states he is aiming Mars for the good of the human race? No, it's about resources n business. I hope we can get to the moon and learn to live there but will doing so actually benefit all of us in the longer term? Probably not.

If I can convince the missus to come on a 5+ hour drive and presumably not shower for at least two days I'll come. 😁 Otherwise I find very long solo drives massively boring. Around 3hrs is my limit. 🫣 Good luck either way. The place looks lovely and the beer selection is magnificent. 😄

If the ST120 works then I imagine the ED102 should be fine. It's a great scope for the price. Blows away the ST120 on most targets and Neil your MIL looked impressed until I told her you spent three grand... 🤣

You really have the hang of this lark now Lee. 😁 Fantastic 👍

You're not alone. Since an amazing Kielder camp early November I've been out three times for short garden binocular sessions. Dismal weather, increased light pollution along with work and illness have put me off. I'm downsizing but not giving up at all and have used the down time to read more astro books, watch lectures on YouTube and plan how to block the neighbours' lights when the weather improves, muahahahaha! 🤔🧐😄 Chin up. Weather will change in your favour at least a bit... comets arrive, planets reach opposition etc The universe isn't going anywhere...

I doubt there's anywhere really dark within half an hour however you're not too far from the Yorkshire Dales, Forest of Bowland, the Peak District and North Wales. Late Summer/early Autumn I've enjoyed a few camps with binoculars in these places. You may find some gaps in the light pollution nearer to you using https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/ Pick the World Atlas 2015 overlay.

More toilet reading from WoB:

I tried the scope on the AZ5. Not recommended! The Celestron AVX holds the ota great however on a couple of occasions the star diagonal has caught the tripod legs. I'm currently mulling over other mounts...

I managed another view on Saturday evening @ approx. 1945. This time with 15x70 binoculars. Considering the view to the west is dominated by awful light pollution from Liverpool city centre and Hamal is one of the very few naked eye stars I can see in the direction, the obvious fuzz with a bright core was a surprise.

Incredibly sad. A young very talented bloke so passionate about his hobby it turned into a full time job. He came across as very pleasant too. RIP.

Aye.. Pex Hill in Cronton. https://liverpoolas.org/weekly-meetings/