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John

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Everything posted by John

  1. John
    There are less expensive alternatives than those in fairness.
  2. John
    As above. This is the reason that my Ethos 21mm gets more use than my Nagler 31mm when I'm using my F/5.3 12 inch dobsonian.
  3. John
    The 24 Panoptic is very compact compared with the Delos's (Deloi ?). Smaller eye lens and not quite so immersive. It's focal point is around 8mm further out than the 17.3 and 14mm Deloi and the Pentax XW's so I might start using a par-focal ring on the Panoptic to equal that up a bit. It's not a show stopping issue though. The other Delos focal lengths (12mm downwards) are the same as the Panoptic - Tele Vue's focal point "B".
  4. John
    I've only split Antares once from the UK. That was with my 130mm triplet refractor. Impressive movie
  5. John
    It might have helped if he had said "I observed this from the Phillippines" in the original post rather than leaving others to work this out A very helpful website for working out what you might have seen is "Heavens Above". You can create a login and input your location (all free) and it shows you a wealth of information about natural and man made stuff including star maps, paths, timings etc, etc. https://www.heavens-above.com/
  6. John
    In that price bracket I currently own the 24mm Panoptic, the 17.3mm and 14mm Delos and the 2-4mm Nagler zoom. I'm very happy with these and don't see any need to change them in the foreseeable future. In between those focal lengths I use Pentax XW's which are less expensive but, to my eye, just as nice as the Delos. I've yet to use a TV Delite though, and those get really good feedback. The Baader Morpheus likewise and they quite cost quite bit less than the Delos and the XW's.
  7. John
    I'll be honest and say that it is really difficult to find something better than BST Starguiders at that price. When they have been sold under other branding (eg: Orion (USA), Astro Tech, TS etc, they have cost quite a bit more than they do when under BST branding. If eye relief and apparent field can be sacrificed a bit then the Baader Classic Ortho's are probably a little better in pure optical terms. In terms of plossls the Vixen NPL's might be similar in performance terms but will have less eye relief and narrower fields.
  8. John
    The Moon is the same size in the sky whether it is at the horizon or right overhead. The apparent diameter of the moon is around 1800 arc seconds and Jupiter is 50 arc seconds so 36x smaller than the Moon in the sky. The International Space Station is a similar size in the sky to Jupiter, a lot brighter, moves across the sky quite quickly as you watch it and, on the night in question and around the correct time, the ISS passed across the section of sky that you mentioned in your original post.
  9. John
    My 12 inch newtonian was bought as an optical tube with tube rings and I then had a dobsonian mount made for it from plywood based on the Orion Optics design:
  10. John
    Scientists are trying to re-create conditions on Mars to see how mud behaves: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52713131
  11. John
    This respected reviewer certainly thinks highly of it: https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/user-reviews/the-baader-bbhs-sitall-silver-diagonal-r3038 I have not tried one myself but I do have the ones that he compared it with and they are excellent.
  12. John
    Without the lower lens group in place the Hyperion does indeed become a ~22mm eyepiece. Unfortunately it's not a very good one though.
  13. John
    I still have and frequently use the small format Pocket Sky Atlas. I had Interstellarium and the All Sky Edition of Uranometria but found that I didn't use them much so I moved them on. Recently I have been finding Stellarium or Cartes du Ciel very useful. My laptop is always close to where I observe from so it's easy to refer to those. Stellarium goes down to mag 15. I have some apps like Sky Safari etc as well but I don't tend to have my mobile when I'm observing.
  14. John
    I don't have any of the ones that I started out with. I have some photos though. Initially I used a .965 inch set then moved to 1.25 inch set of varying quality. My longest owned eyepiece is this one which I have had for 10 years or more:
  15. John
    Yes, they are fitted on both axis. I have all the cables as well, Just need the DSC unit I suppose but it's not really a priority for me.
  16. John
    The system seems to think that the file type is .heic which it can't handle. Can you post the image in a different format such as jpeg ?
  17. John
    Stellarium shows you the split between the components but not as far as I know their respective magnitudes. I've found this database pretty useful: https://www.stelledoppie.it/index2.php?section=1 Plus the great Star-Splitters web site of course: https://bestdoubles.wordpress.com/ The Cambridge Double Stat Atlas is very good if you can find a copy.
  18. John
    The International Space Station passed very close to that part of the sky on that day. It was magnitude -2.5 so pretty bright. The UK time of the ISS pass was around 22:00 hrs.
  19. John
    Just a small point but, visually, details within Jupiters belts tend to get better defined when you back off the magnification rather than increase it. I think this is because they are low contrast features rather than the high contrast of, say, the Cassini Division. Probably not really relevant to the overall topic though.
  20. John
    I think FLO should introduce a "scratch and sniff" facility on their website
  21. John
    Smaller than @Rainmaker's 152
  22. John
    That was the first colour scheme that the ED120 was available in. The ED80 and ED100 were supplied for a year or so before this in the Skywatcher blue colour scheme.
  23. John
    I didn't see that - thanks
  24. John
    I think it's a Tasco 114mm newtonian or similar. It is pointing away from the window. You do seem get this when scopes are used as props - especially newtonians I think this was an advert on US TV:
  25. John
    I think that is the same link that vlaiv posted earlier. It is a good review though
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