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Everything posted by dweller25
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The coffee spiral galaxy ? 🤣
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Your recommended planetary scope?
dweller25 replied to Flame Nebula's topic in Observing - Planetary
Skywatcher 10” Dobsonian. Times have moved on though and either the Stellalyra or Bresser variants would be my choice now. -
Your recommended planetary scope?
dweller25 replied to Flame Nebula's topic in Observing - Planetary
The 10” Newtonian was the best planetary telescope I ever had 👍 -
Snap, except I saw Europa merging with the planet, but my seeing was poor - I could see a stream of air moving across the planet !
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Easy to use refractor suggestions?
dweller25 replied to Mr Brownstone's topic in Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice
Hello @Mr Brownstone and welcome to SGL…… What vlaiv said 👍 . -
Question for Mewlon Owners
dweller25 replied to MalcolmM's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
@MalcolmM Took the M180 out of the house at 5:40pm, started the fan running on the front and left it until 6:10pm. Looked at Jupiter at x178 and it was ok but not super sharp, could make out the GRS and several bands but a bit soft. Jupiters moons were trying to show an airy disk but it was not steady. Turned the scope onto Bellatrix and defocussed a little, the outer ring shows small protruding spikes - this could be the hairiness you see ? The scope had clearly not cooled down. But there was no lateral air movement across the out of focus image - so seeing was good. Fan put back on and waited until 6:30pm. Back onto Jupiter at x178, much better views and the moons were showing airy disks. Back onto Bellatrix and that was much better too, the outer ring showing much more stability and slight spikes/hairs. In focus showed perfect collimation then slight mis collimation - scope still not cool. Fan back on until 6:45pm, back onto Bellatrix and it was almost stable at x178, very slight spikes when defocussed and perfect collimation. Fan back on until 7:05pm, back onto Bellatrix at x178 - stable. Turned the scope onto Al Kab at x321, stable, no spikes, perfect airy disk, good seeing. So even with active cooling it took 1 hour and 25mins to cool from the house ! BUT - an obstructed telescope will never quite match a refractor for sharpness 👍 Hope that helps. -
Question for Mewlon Owners
dweller25 replied to MalcolmM's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
From what you say about Polaris and the views of the planets I suspect your collimation is very good and perhaps not worth worrying about too much. I think seeing and that final bit of cooldown where the boundary layer (where residual heat hovers on the primary mirror surface) may be the issues. You should be able to see the airy disk of a star at perfect focus at x300 if your scope is cooled and seeing is decent. I see this regularly in the M180 but I always use a fan. In fact I will get the Mewlon out now and give it a try… -
Question for Mewlon Owners
dweller25 replied to MalcolmM's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Aah, good idea 👍 -
Question for Mewlon Owners
dweller25 replied to MalcolmM's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Which Mewlon did you have and can I ask In what way was it better ? I’m interested because I tried that but even with filters the secondary got dirty and its harder to clean the secondary than the primary. And the cool rate of the primary was much slower. -
Question for Mewlon Owners
dweller25 replied to MalcolmM's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Yes Alnitak is too low to assess collimation and it’s a double star - I aim for something at least 70’ high, I aim for Al Kab in Auriga this time of year, which means you are looking through a bit less atmosphere - it all helps ! PS - I have seen a scope that was not fully cooled showing it was out of collimation. Later when it was fully cooled it had perfect collimation 👍 -
Question for Mewlon Owners
dweller25 replied to MalcolmM's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Don’t give your day job up 👍🙂 -
Question for Mewlon Owners
dweller25 replied to MalcolmM's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
@MalcolmM I have the same two scopes as you and know how long the Mewlon takes to fully cool down, particularly when compared to the FC100. I aid the Mewlon cooldown by resting a cooling fan with a USB powerbank on the front of the spider blowing air onto the primary and down the primary baffle and OPEN visual back. Even with this active cooling it takes a good hour to fully cool the primary and primary baffle ! The fan solution is not expensive and works well. Once fully cooled, to get the best out of the Mewlon it must be well collimated, I use this method - always making sure the star is perfectly central in the eyepiece before tweaking the collimation screws at x300, step 4 should be done at perfect focus. -
The focus knob does not zoom the image larger as you turn it, it just makes the image come to focus when you go the right way. As others have said, If the view of the object gets bigger when you focus just turn the focus knob in the opposite direction 👍 For the planets you need at least a 10mm eyepiece to give x150 magnification.
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Jupiter is getting smaller now but the turbulence in the North equatorial belt is very obvious. I had fairly good seeing tonight and could just make out a projection on the south side of the NEB. Europa was in transit but I could not see it. The Great red spot looks more orange to me nowadays. North is up and the preceding side is to the left. Drawn between 18:00 and 18:10, 25/2/24 TSA120, x175, seeing AII PS - Jupiter was not this big in the eyepiece !
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Cleaning a Takahashi FC100D Objective!
dweller25 replied to mikeDnight's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Looking good Mike 👍 -
Last night (24th Feb) around 7:30pm a meteorite passed directly over me. In a brief few seconds it was bright, then disappeared, then became bright and disappered twice more. So I’m guessing it was bouncing off the atmosphere ? It was a nice sight 🙂👍
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Just imagine what you could see in a 12” Mike 😈
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Jupiter is slipping into the west now but heres a chance to see the Great red spot, a Europa transit and a Europa shadow transit all between 6:15pm and 7:00pm.
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You already own a classic frac 👍🙂
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@Sunshine Did you buy it ?