Jiggy 67

1 hour ago, jonathan said:

One point I would add to this debate is setup time - with a full manual mount (with or without motorised tracking) you can be out and observing as quickly as it takes you to take the stuff outside and plug it all in, for visual you only need rough polar alignment so once you know roughly which direction the pole star or magnetic North is, just point the N leg of the EQ tripod towards it and that's your alignment done.  With a GOTO you still have to do this (if it's EQ, possibly with some AZ setups too) and then go through a manual or guided star alignment process which may or may not succeed, adding time and possibly frustration while you're out there freezing your codlings off.

 

As a GoTo fan, I would agree. However there is a solution......leave the mount and even the scope outside and setup (as long as security allows) with a good cover over it. Mine was out all winter. One accurate polar alignment at the beginning and possibly two or three rechecks over the following months. Synscan allows you to start from saved position so only one accurate star alignment required at the beginning and a couple of rechecks in the following months. For an average session you can be on your DSO within 15 minutes, very little setup time and no carrying equipment in and out of the house. Make sure you invest in a Telegizmos cover though

I’m completely illiterate when it comes to amps/voltage etc 😀 so apologies if this isn’t what you’re looking for but I use one of these

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/celestron-lithium-lifepo4-powertank-pro.html

It has one cigarette port which via a socket splitter powers an EQ6 R Pro and a dew heater controller supplying two dew heaters. There is no dip in performance and I’ve used it for up to 6 hours with a half charge remaining 

It also comes with a strap to secure it to the tripod leg....it is very small and light

Downside-Quite expensive!

I think everything is saved in the handset so taking it out of the loop and plugging a laptop into the mount will mean you lose everything you’ve previously done with the handset .....if that’s what your question is 

Interesting to see on the Stargazine broadcast which I watched on catchup today that Mars will be at Opposition on 13th October so will be really big and quite high for the star party. Be good for observing under dark skies 

33 minutes ago, John said:

Worth bearing in mind that when looking for the really faint and elusive stuff, ANY light near your eyes (red or otherwise) will impair your ability to detect it. When I was looking for the Horsehead Nebula I needed to be dark adapted to a higher level than I have done before. I isolated myself from every form of light that I could for about an hour before try for the Horsehead and also observed faint objects to "limber up" as my eye got adapted. I turned my finder reticules off and just used the optical finder as well.

Extreme challenges need extreme methods !

 

 

Totally agree John and wise advice but there’s nothing worse, when you have no choice but to refer to a phone, the home screen blinds you!  😀 Before you get to the red screened app you need 

19 minutes ago, Jiggy 67 said:

How do you do this. Just tried looking on my iPhone 7 but couldn’t find that option....is it only on later models?

Found it, that’s really useful!!

12 hours ago, DirkSteele said:

 You can even set the phone to have permanent red screen now so you do not harm night vision when first switching on the phone. 

How do you do this. Just tried looking on my iPhone 7 but couldn’t find that option....is it only on later models?

1 hour ago, JOC said:

Welcome to the Morpheus fold - possibly your research has already turned up my thread on this range, but if not here is the link.  NB - the header photo is from a related posting further on in - the thread is really about the Morpheuses (Morphii??)  Lots of useful comments in there about them.  I hope you enjoy using them.

.  They appear to be a really well respected line of eye pieces

Thanks JOC 

About 3 months ago I posted asking for opinions on the Baader Zoom against fixed focal length eyepieces and I was considering purchasing the Hyperion eyepieces. The overwhelming response was that the Morpheus range was much better in every respect, particularly in an F5 newtonian.

As a result I purchased the Morpheus 17.5mm and I was really impressed with the immersive wide field view. Images were crisp and sharp to the edges and the contrast provided by the eyepiece really impressed. The build quality, I can only describe as outstanding.

Lockdown then came upon us and, as a diabetic, I was told to work from home......with no exceptions!! I am grateful that I work in the public sector so my job was safe and I could carry out my current role at home, just as well as I could in the office. The upside was that I saved a fortune in petrol, lunches, coffee breaks.....and retirement collections!! I used this money to purchase the remaining five eyepieces in the Morpheus range, receiving the last one yesterday from FLO.

I have had to get some more case foam and re-arrange two cases to accommodate them and i have not had the opportunity to try them all yet with these shorter lighter night but I can't wait for the nights to draw in and I can start using them. I would like to use them as 2 inch but I'm afraid all my filters are 1.25" so I may have to put my hand in my pocket again in the near future!!!!......Does it ever end?!?

Thanks for the advice all those that contributed 3 months ago.......I've told my wife it was your fault!

42 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Thank you very much. I looked on line for Skywatcher user guides but they appear to be as good on the web as they are in printed form out of the box. Thanks for the info.

Marvin

Yeh, Sky-Watcher are not known for their manuals, have you ever tried fitting the EQ5 upgrade to GoTo kit using their instructions only? An almost impossible task!!

The handset controls illumination. Go to the utilities menu and look for polar scope illumination

Wow, you don’t hang around!! 😀 The EQ5 with the upgrade is the same as the EQ5 pro GoTo but be aware that the upgrade kit can be difficult to fit as the instructions are atrocious 

50 minutes ago, John said:

I don't use the locking screws unless I am transporting the scope in the car. Once I got the primary collimated I found that the locking screws were actually putting it out again so I leave them loose in general use. 

 

 

Yeh, I said mine don’t move the mirror, what I should have said is that I have to tighten each one a little at a time to keep collimation. This is where a laser comes in really useful 

These screws are to lock the mirror in position, they are not for collimating, just to lock it. I tighten mine as much as possible and they don’t move the mirror. As for how effective they are, that’s debatable and probably one of the reasons you have to collimate before every session 

I’m up for this one.....I get frustrated during the summer months 

I love globs and M5 is one of my favorites . The sketch is of a standard we’ve all come to expect from you. Outstanding!

Oh there's more, a lot more......20 grand, 30 grand.......keep going!    🤣

16 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

According to the app bortle 6 not sure whether that's good or bad. 

I’d take some of these Bortle ratings with a pinch of salt. Clear Outside says I’m a 6 but another but when I access Clear Outside via Xasteria it says I’m an 8 so I settle on 7 😀

I’m with John and his ideas. I know imaging is very popular but it would be great to include the visual aspect of the hobby (you could argue that they are two separate hobbies)

6 hours ago, Pixies said:

LOL - No problem. I took it as it was meant!

Phew, that’s a relief. When no one commented I thought that people had misunderstood the tone/joke and when I read it back I could understand why! The dangers of text messages 

Here’s a question then....The fact is there was never a “big bang” in the first place....there was nothing, no time, no “space” no matter, nothing. The Universe came into being in an infinitely small space (or everywhere at the same time, either way it must have been infinitely small)and matter, as we know it was created in the first millionths of a second and the Universe has been expanding ever since. My question would be....what is the Universe, as we know it, expanding into??...Does it create “space “ at the edges as it expands because there is nothing beyond the Universe, not even an empty space!

This explains why IC3568 is known as The Lemon Slice Nebula even though it’s a blue disc to us......makes sense now

http://annesastronomynews.com/photo-gallery-ii/nebulae-clouds/the-lemon-slice-nebula-ic-3568/

1 hour ago, markse68 said:

I found that one- I don’t know why I expected it to but it didn’t blink at me- I was quite disappointedI! I wasn’t doing it right though- didn’t realise you had to use a special technique to get it blinking 🤦‍♂️ next time...

Likewise, I’ll have to give it another go with the correct technique because it didn’t blink for me 

Well it’s a civil matter, not a criminal matter so if you want to go that far, you will need to speak to a solicitor regarding court proceedings  but I think that would be a last resort, 

Fantastic!!