John

Very dark skies and a 15 - 20 inch telescope or move over to using night vision technology ?

I think we must keep politics out of any discussions on here as well.

Thanks.

@GavStar is UK based and has championed the use of NV technology without breaking any laws as far as I am aware:

2 hours ago, Dippy said:

American night vision viewers are banned for non US citizens, even to look through, so forget about them.....

That is really not the case. There are export restrictions on some types of night vision gear but there are also some excellent alternatives that are available to us.

Just have a look at the threads in the EEVA section that I've linked to above and see what folks based on this side of the Atlantic have achieved.

It is not a low cost field to get into but if you are prepared to spend and do some research there is some excellent equipment available.

Nice report Doug. I noticed that Mars was gibbous when I observed it a week or so ago. It's currently around 85% illuminated.

I could see dark features plus the southern polar cap quite clearly then. I hope we are are not in for a planet-wide martian dust storm again during this opposition !

Good report @Dr Strange and great sketch Mike

@Dr Strange - we have a section of the forum dedicated to night vision devices and their use and observations made with them here. The term EEVA is used :

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/208-eeva-electronically-enhanced-visual-astronomy/

21 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

I expect it acts as a dew and light shield

Yep. And that's a good feature IMHO. I wish more newtonians adopted this approach.

6 minutes ago, murph_man99 said:

I think I am going to buy  AWB OneSky Reflector Telescope it looks like a good start. 

That is the same scope as the Skywatcher 130 Heritage. It is a good choice as a starter scope.

9 hours ago, iwols said:

....What's the 11x70 opticrons like in general for astro use? 

 

 

Very good indeed.

These are not the current chinese made 11x70's though. These are the Japanese made LER ones, now out of production.

Another night of clouds. Some light rain for good measure

Glad that others are still getting views of the comet though. Hope it stays bright until Sunday night at least when the forecast is much better here.

The planets will look a lot smaller than you expect through a scope. 50x is considered low power for observing them. Generally 100x and more is required. They look pretty small even at 300x !

Charterhouse is good because it is in a dip. The slightly higher ground surrounding it deals with much of the light pollution from Wells, Bath, Bristol etc.

That's a lovely setup Gary

Brunel did not live to see the bridge completed. So maybe it does tilt a bit ?

Great photo Bob

My Dad painted that view (minus a comet and in daylight) back in the 1980's. He worked at the Bristol Water Company in their HQ on Bedminster Down and his office had that view, over the cemetery. He used to joke that one day he would end up there, and indeed he sadly did about 30 years ago now.

The view is a very nice one though and actually puts a smile on my face each time I see it 

Vixen SLV eyepieces are of excellent quality but I'm not sure you would notice much, if any, difference in your F/11 90mm refractor.

When I tested them for the forum I was using faster scopes (more challenging on eyepieces):

NPL's are plossls. SLV's are a more sophisticated multi element design that uses lanthanum glass.

In your scope standard plossls like the Skywatcher or Vixen NPL's would work well.

The BST Starguiders give you a larger field of view (60 degrees vs 50 degrees) than plossls and more eye relief (distance your eye needs to be from the top of the eyepiece).

If you want to keep the cost down plossls will do fine and you might be able to get 3/4 of them which will give you more options to exploit the scopes capabilities.

These are all a step up from the stock eyepieces supplied with scopes.

I think the idea of the Baader zoom is worth thinking about. Probably better optical quality than the Svbony plossls. I would hang on to either the Meade 26 or the 32 plossl for low power because zooms have a narrower field of view at the long FL end and I might hang on to the 6mm plossl for the highest power viewing under great seeing conditions but otherwise the zoom would cater for all the others and much of your observing needs I think.

As it's visible to the naked eye quite easily when it's dark (hope it still is !) any optical aid is going to show it nicely.

On 17/07/2020 at 10:51, Richard_B said:

I had thought of that, not sure what the implications would be. I don't really know what it is for to be honest 🙂

It's used to make find tuning adjustments to the polar alignment of equatorial mounts. There are 2 screws on the mount base which press against either side of the peg and you use those to fine tune the alignment of the mount.

On some tripods the north peg unsecrews. On others it's moulded into the metal of the tripod hub so cutting it off is a more permanent change.

3 hours ago, Stu said:

..... I’m not trying to push it on anyone, just describe how I found it so people can decide if it suits their needs.

I'm very glad that you do this Stu. Thank you

My Opticron 11x70's have provided some stunning views of Comet Neowise including my 1st sighting of it (accompanied by a gasp !) back on the 6th July.

It's nice in a 8x56's as well but the 11x70's really show it off.

I've bought a few things recently, mostly out of curiosity / boredom, which have been low cost. Low enough to take a punt on without worrying about it. What has be pleasing is that they work rather well, certainly somewhat better than their cost would suggest they should 

Sort of feels like I've "beaten the system" a little bit

It's also nice to know that you can have a lot of fun in this hobby without splashing much cash about.

Nice days but cloudy nights here for the past couple of days.

Forecast for Sunday night looks better though.

15 minutes ago, Pixies said:

I'd seen some reports about this. But then there's this:

https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowledgebase/does-my-astromaster-130-have-a-spherical-or-parabolic-mirror-what-is-the-difference

 

I know that's from 2011 - but if Celestron are saying that it had a spherical mirror back then, perhaps there are still some out there with them? 

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/42362-parabolic-v-spherical-mirrors/?p=550918

I suspect Celestron's advice is incorrect in this instance.

Vixen Porta II ? - how does that fare ?

I'm thinking of lighweight alt-az mounts with slow motion controls which is the niche that the Scopetech Zero sits within.