Gfamily

For general use, my personal advice would be to go for a pair that isn't going to be a burden - so look at a small pair that is more likely to be picked up before he goes out. 

My favourite pair is probably my Pentax Papillio II binoculars - mine are the 8.5x21 (they also come as a slightly lower power 6.5x magnification).  Their unique feature is that they have a very close focus - down to about 0.5 metres. So, not only can you use them for looking at the usual birds in trees etc, you can just as easily use them for looking at bees on flowers close up. 

I sometimes use them in museums so that I can get close up views of the exhibits in their glass cases - so it's valid to think of them as long distance microscope as much as a close distance binocular. 

Their optical quality is what you would expect from Pentax - but their price is lower than you'd expect (Jessops currently have them for £99 / £109 depending on power).  Review here

If your dad has an interest in Astronomy, then these really don't have the aperture - but for general use, they are more versatile than most binoculars. 

Unlikely you'd consider one if you were considering the other.

Vendor details removed to avoid their embarrassment  

51 minutes ago, Mognet said:

Caught it on my all sky camera. A moving red patch in the north-northwest for a few minutes from 21:43. Possibly some green afterwards.

Images are not good enough to share thanks to local light pollution, but can definitely see it moving in the video version

Good to know anyway. Thanks for the update - still overcast here.

It's being reported that Aurorae are being seen as far south as Oxford - and maybe more. 

It's cloudy where we are, so if you get images, do share... 

Yes, an interesting question. 

As it happens, my biggest single Astro purchase was my Meade LS8 SCT, and that's the scope I'd miss least. Optically it's fantastic - particularly since I had it serviced at Orion Optics, but it's big and heavy, and although it's meant to be self aligning, it's not quite the 'switch it on, and in 5 minutes you'll have impeccable GOTO etc' that's promised.

Also, if you only want to see part of the Pleiades or the famous Perseus double one and a half cluster, it's ideal - but the Narrow FOV is a bit of an issue. 

So, in the hypothetical event - I'd maybe have a couple of grand to consider what to buy with, but I'm generally happy with my 72mm Frac for widefield, and my 127mm Mak for narrow field observing, so I'm not sure what I'd actually do. 

I don't know if anyone here follows the Channel 4 series "New Life in the Sun", but their follow up "Where are they now?" series has just broadcast the update on Astrofarm France, picking up on the setting up of the Astronomy Centre in the Charente area of France. 

Founded by Andrew and Sue in 2016, it is now just run by Sue and her son Joe - Andrew returned to UK and passed away in 2019.  It now alternates between a residential site for Astronomy (around New Moon) and a small recording studio (around Full Moon). 

A good watch, and if you're quick you can see me in the background at one point. 

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/a-new-life-in-the-sun-where-are-they-now/on-demand/72388-004

An advantage of buying directly from local dealers is that it keeps local dealers in business. They have a  wider stock range than just from ZWO, and they have a wealth of experience that we as users and consumers can call upon when we're not sure what we need. 

Not only that, they often have a back room full of assorted connectors, gadgets and whatchamacallits that we don't have, but we find we need. 

As far as ZWO are concerned, I'm sure they find it a lot more economical to deal with dealers rather than with individuals - but they keep their stock available for customers who don't have local dealers available to them. 

I have a feeling that Noether's Theory states that angular momentum would not be conserved if systems were not symmetrical under rotation. 

If c varied by angle of propagation,  rotational symmetry would be broken and angular momentum would not be conserved. 

Since angular momentum is conserved, i am confident that c does not vary by angle of propagation. 

I don't expect anyone will be willing to accept my view without looking into it further, but if anyone can give a rigorous rebuttal I'll be happy to agree. 

Of course it's only instantaneously accurate. Next year, it'll be a different star. 

I feel very cheapskate, but it works for me. Eyepieces in the caddy tray, other accessories below. 

MrsG uses a second hand Manfrotto 222 'joystick' head on her binoculars but they're not great when used for high targets.

A reclining chair and a monopod (to give a fixed point) may be a better option.

The gold standard for binoculars at high altitude is a parallelogram mount with a counterweight as that allows you to stand underneath the binoculars without the tripod getting in the way. But that's £££ and faff.

If you do get one, be warned that cheap ones (I'm my experience) need you to be an octopus so that your can hold it steady in two planes while tightening the screws. 

On this basis I bought a Celestron NeXYZ, which has slow motion screws that make it easier to make fine adjustments while the phone is mounted in place.

I'd say it's ok for the moon and some planets, but still needs care to get good results.

If you already have a dSLR, then that's a good option - particularly if it's a Canon with live-view and moreso if it has a flip out screen.

If you don't, it might be worth considering a mirrorless camera as they are significantly lighter (my Sony A5000 body is about  1/3 the weight of my Pentax K5 body). 

NB I'm not specifically recommending the A5000, as it has specific problems with its algorithms; but it was only £100 second hand, and it's now my walk-around camera because it's at least as good at photos as I am.  

Don't do what I did, and think that getting a pair of single vision spectacles for astronomy purposes would be a good idea (one of our leading chains usually does 'second pair free' deals). 

It might help for the first year or so, but after a couple more years of further deterioration in your "close up" focus ability, you'll find that you can't read the buttons on the handset/phone with your single vision glasses, and your problem is reversed!

A lot of people use spectacle chains, so that they can just remove their glasses when going to the eyepiece.  Mrs G does this with her binoculars - of course, it means that if I'm looking through her binoculars, or she's looking through my telescope, we need to re-focus. 

ETA - ooops, I see DaveS says the opposite - all I can say is, it was only a short term measure for me  

Getting colour into an astro image is also tricky - the surface brightness of most extended objects is pretty low, and everything tends to come out as shades of grey. 

Usually colour images are produced by putting filters in the way, and then balancing the colours in the image as it's processed. 

With your scope set up, you might find it more rewarding (at this time of year) to try and image the Orion Nebula. You may even get some colour out of it. If that goes well, try the Flame Nebula (also in Orion, next to Alnitak - the leftmost star in Orion's belt)   - by coincidence, that's the avatar for SamAndrew whose post is just above this one.

A nice image there Marvin, and interesting to see the comet next to NGC 1647 - a quick look at Wikipedia shows it's a relatively young Open Cluster with many hot bright stars, but that is significantly reddened because it's behind the Taurus Dark Cloud complex.  

For some reason Stellarium calls it the "Pirate Moon Cluster", I don't know why - I sometimes wish we didn't have these arbitrary names for things. 

You also have the planet Mars. 

5 hours ago, Gfamily said:

 

Eyepieces and things like go in another toolbox with caddy 

Since I was out this evening...

5x eyepieces 

2x Barlow lenses

Crosshair eyepiece 

Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector

Field Flattener

Intervalometer

IR remote

Etc, etc.

I'm very cheapskate, so I carry mine around in a toolbag = easlily takes the OTA, and external pockets carry spare batteries, mounting plate, 12v power cable (from when I used a car battery for power) etc.  A bit like this

Eyepieces and things like go in another toolbox with caddy 

The Liverpool Astronomical Society meet in the city centre every month, and (more specifically) at their observatory in North Widnes every Wednesday, so if you were to take it out there,  people would be very happy to help with any questions.  

https://liverpoolas.org/

On 11/02/2023 at 10:52, Gfamily said:

Worth noting it'll be photobombing Mars this evening, with a separation of less than 1½ degrees. 

As predicted 

Here it is passing Mars

Worth noting it'll be photobombing Mars this evening, with a separation of less than 1½ degrees. 

Although we'd seen the comet through binoculars at home, neither the weather nor the local sky quality made it worthwhile to attempt any imaging. But we're over at Astrofarm France for a few days (run by a friend, and offers holidays with astro gear to amateurs), and last night the moon was up late enough to be worth spending a couple of hours out. 

My intention to use my new planetary camera and ADC was thwarted by the notebook laptop having run out of charge, so I attached my Sony A5000 mirrorless to my 72mm frac and took 30 images at 13s each. 

Stacked in DSS and fine tuned in Affinity Photo -I'm pretty pleased with this. 

If you are using Desktop Stellarium, you can take a series of images to capture the horizon from your viewing spot, and with this create a custom Landscape (accessible under the F4 Sky and Viewing Options pop-up) 

How to: here