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I'm not sure if this qualifies as it was technically taken during the day, but it IS an astronomical image of a landscape captured when the day had turned to night! It's a simple grab of a single frame from a video I captured with my iPhone 11 Pro of the total eclipse, seen from Magog, Quebec Province, Canada on 8th April 2024. The lens was set at 'wide', 26mm @ f/1.8. Venus can be seen to the lower right. The lake in the foreground is the delightfully-named Lake Memphremagog which is partly in the US state of Vermont. I think the small triangular peak left of centre is Mont Nixon, and the high land near the left hand edge is Mont Éléphant. It was a beautiful setting to view the eclipse. This frame was shortly before 3rd Contact when the diamond ring was just about to appear, and the rapidly-approaching daylight can be seen beyond the receding lunar shadow. I had set up the phone on a tripod to record the whole eclipse from a minute or so before 2nd contact to about a minute after 3rd, and set it to a fixed exposure so that it didn't automatically increase the exposure time during totality. No manipulation of the image at all.

I managed to grab a few hours on the moon earlier this month which was a task due to being ill with pneumonia at the time. Just got around to processing them as I was clearing space on my computer. The seeing was very good on the night with no wind if I remember correctly. I really need to centre the target better. This was with my 250mm Synscan dobsonian and ASI462MC. Clavius

One ZWO TC40 Carbon Fibre Tripod. Ex Demo Ex demo - used for a product review. Complete, good condition. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £342.00 £307.00 (saving £35.00)

One Sky-Watcher StarTravel 102 AZ-Go2 WiFi Refractor Telescope. Customer Return No longer required. Looks new and unused, good condition. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £379.00 £341.00 (saving £38.00)

You won’t like this but my E13 is my most used of the set. It’s fairly close to my Apollo, so you could perhaps justify the E13 on the basis that you are saving a shed load of money over the A11 😊 PS, completionist here too 😊

A few months ago I had the slightly unhinged idea to create hyperlapses (moving timelapses) of the northern lights and night sky from a drone. I wanted to capture the majesty of the aurora above grand landscapes with sweeping parallax movements contributing to the sense of scale. Scanning the usual places on the internet, I'd not come across any examples of this sort of photography, which surprised me a little, and then excited me. It never really occurred to me there might have been good reasons why no-one had tried it! When we were last in the north of Norway in February, following quite a lot of trial and error in the UK, we gave it a go and, despite distinctly sub-optimal aurora conditions and only one clear night in our week-long stay, I think we managed to prove out the concept. I made a video of the whole shenanigans and I very much hope it'll be the first in a few as I try to move from this "beta" test to the vision I have in my mind's eye. I would be very interested - those of you that also have drones - whether you've tried anything similar at night? I'm particularly excited to try this with noctilucent clouds just round the corner - I think that would have a similar potential (with more moderate consequences if things go wrong!!). Anyway, I hope you enjoy the video - something a bit different! Normal service will resume shortly... Paul. 😊

Congrats on the full house! This is the kind of talk, though, that makes me think I shouldn't add a second Ethos! I'm a terrible completionist... I have just the one at the mo, the 21 mm! The 13 is very tempting, and I've been mulling it over. Please tell me it's your least favourite.

One StellaLyra 8" f/4 M-LRN Newtonian Reflector with 2" Dual-Speed Focuser. Customer Return Customer was having collimation issues with this. We have tested in our workshop and collimation is fine and this is all working A-OK and as expected. Some slight dust present but not enough to warrant cleaning the mirror. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £499.00 £449.00 (saving £50.00)

You are correct. Customarily, only the retail price is listed, and the applicable sales or use tax is applied on checkout. It is a premier seller in the US and they answer email quickly. I’m certain they have extensive export experience. Here is the downside: the company is in New Jersey. Ewww.

Postman delivered Baader solar film ages ago but I’ve now made a filter for my Tak FC 100DZ

I’ll let you know when I’ve tried the Ethos 21 😊 I find the E17 compelling. Where Ethos really come into their own is in the short focal lengths, for planetary work. I’d laboured decades under the misapprehension that the free the EP the better for high resolution work, but I had to eat my hat after trying the Ethos.

One Dwarf II Smart Telescope - Deluxe Bundle. Customer Return No longer required. Good condition, working A-OK. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £519.00 £467.00 (saving £52.00)

Getting ready for another summer in Scandinavia

One StellaMira 80mm ED f/6.25 Refractor Telescope. Customer Return No longer required. Fully checked and tested in our workshop. Good condition, complete. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £599.00 £539.00 (saving £60.00)

I assume as per usual the prices listed are without tax as it's a state variable added cost?

yes indeed. I often find even the doughnut is so wobbly it's hard to make out the shape very well!

Here is a link showing the disassembly of one of the older type C8 focusers: NGC1514.COM I have a few bits of the assembly which might help - the part they call the brass focusing mechanism, the "lead screw" and the plastic cover / bushing that fits over the brass section. The first 2 items in this pic, plus the "lead screw" that sticks out of the hole in the back plate of the scope, but not the 3 screws, the small circlip or the plate with 3 holes in it (I did have one but gave it to someone else who had lost theirs a few weeks ago): I can let you have some measurements if any of what I have might help.

One ZWO SeeStar S50 All-in-One Smart APO Telescope & Tripod. Customer Return Customer changed their mind. Complete, in good condition. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £539.00 £485.00 (saving £54.00)

The printed version from Amazon arrived today

Yeah...it's M13 ! Two clear spells on consecutive nights...unheard of ! Managed to image M13, LRGB three hours fifty minutes total time before the clouds rolled in, so the blue is lacking a bit compared to the other filters. I'll go back and add to it when I get the chance. Had to have the dew heater on full too as the corrector misted up after a couple of hours. Just happy to be imaging again. Pete.

One William Optics Zenithstar 81 APO Gold. Customer Return Customer changed their minds. Good condition with little/no sign of use. No marks on dovetail. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £599.00 £539.00 (saving £60.00)

I find there's around one week, maybe two of heatwave-ish weeks, this is summer nowadays. If you're lucky you can get three to four sessions in one week. I generally image all year round, but the summer early morning packaways can grate if you're a sleepy type.

One Sky-Watcher EQ-AL55i PRO Go-To Astronomy Mount. Ex Demo Ex demo - used but complete and in good overall condition. Signs of usage and scruffy packaging. Grab a bargain! Full manufacturers warranty. £759.00 £607.20 (saving £151.80)

Once you go SCT with its FL flexibility you start to wonder why keep the medium to long FL other scopes.

Very true. The Skywatcher ones also look good especially the Wave100 which you can dual mount for alt az use, can also track 10 Deg to keep satellites in view. Performance is unknown until people get them in hand.