John

1 hour ago, FenderGreg said:

I always encourage others to start visual, enjoy it, learn something, find the love for it, then think about astrophotography because the pains and cost could put you off in the long run

I started visual. 50 Years later, I'm still visual 🙂

Never been tempted by AP, bar the odd mobile phone snap through the eyepiece. 

I do love seeing the results from the many that do image though and some really impressive results are now within reach of the amateur👍

I used to have a Vixen GP-DX. It was rock solid with my Tak F/9 100mm and my ED120 F/7.5 but my 130mm F/9.2 triplet was just a little too much for it, when high powers were being used. Shame really because the 130 / GP-DX combination really looked nice 🙂

Personally I would probably make that move for the optical quality rather than the focal length, but whether I would notice the difference, I don't know because I have not yet used a Delite. I have owned some Radian eyepieces and enjoyed them. I did notice the difference in optical quality between the Naglers and Ethos when I (over some time) made that move. I thought that the Delos were a subtle improvement over the Radian's as well and the Delites are reported to be at least Delos good, if not a touch better.

Whatever you do, the differences will only be slight and what you have is already a pretty darn decent eyepiece set 🙂

24 minutes ago, laudropb said:

Hi John there is a little bit of a mixup here.  Winchcombe is the latest meteorite to have been found after a witnessed fall in the UK. The Hambleton  meteorite was a find. We do not know when it fell or how long it lay there. A known fall stone can often be seen as more collectible to some. Scientifically a fresh stone that has not suffered weathering on the Earths surface is also often a bigger prize. I know you have collected meteorites in the past and undoubtedly will know this but the two terms of a fall and a find can often be mixed up in the media’s reports.

Yes, I can understand the media getting confused by the terms "fall" and "find". I just thought that the National Museum of Wales information was not quite accurate. Witnessed falls are definitely rarer and more collectable, especially in the UK. I used to have a 1 gram chunk of Barwell which was worth more than many other, scientifically more interesting, specimens in my collection back then 🙄

I'm probably just being a "Metorite Pedant" 😏

Actually, their information is a little out of date. There has been another meteorite found within the past 30 years - the Hambleton Meteorite found in August 2005 in North Yorkshire. Before the Winchcombe fall, the last recorded fall was at Glatton, Cambs in 1991 so that was 30 years earlier. The BBC forgot about the Hambleton Meteorite as well, to be fair, despite reporting it back in 2009:

BBC - York & North Yorkshire - Rare meteorite being analysed

I'll have to pop over to Cardiff and have a look at that 🙂

5 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

I never realised before what the REX in T-REX stood for 👍🏻

It's a bit contrived but I guess the people behind the mount were very excited about it.

Sadly, the production of the T-Rex ceased in 2016 when the sole engineer passed away. 

13 hours ago, russ said:

Wow I bet that's stunning to look through.

It is, but not last night. I got clouded out about 30 minutes after I took that pic 😬

2 hours ago, Paz said:

Hard as it may be to believe, there is a C8 discreetly hidden somewhere in this picture.

 

Well, I can see the cat clearly ....... 😁

Excellent report and result Nik 😃

I tried Antares with my 130mm refractor last night (about all I did try before being clouded out) but it was very unsteady. 

I had much more luck a couple of weeks or so back with my 100mm so seeing conditions (both local and more widespread) are vital I think. My view of Antares is similar to yours with regard to altitude and using a gap between a house and trees to see it:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/385898-what-did-you-see-tonight/?do=findComment&comment=4389314

Very satisfying when it comes together though 👍

No electronics involved here but it suits me just fine 😁

Waiting for darkness on a warm summer evening.

Great stuff !

I've got some solar outreach events coming up with Bristol AS. Hope the activity remains exciting so that we have some nice stuff to show the punters 🙂

I did some a couple of years back when the solar disk was completely featureless - I think the public thought we were nuts ! 🙄

On 05/07/2023 at 19:46, Parus major said:

I'm definitely winning the least aesthetically pleasing set up what with the rust and the dents.

 

It's the most loved that counts in this thread 😉

The one I posted was my oldest and one of my least expensive scopes. But I'd not be without it 😁

19 hours ago, chubster1302 said:

I remember years ago, sitting outside in the freezing cold, with my laptop and a red torch....

Just us visual folks left to continue that now. A dying breed I reckon 😬

That looks like a nice one 🙂

We discussed in another thread the potential for variability in these lower cost achromats and I'm afraid that I have one of the 90mm F/10's that is not so good 🙄

Glad you got a good one 👍

4 minutes ago, Space Hopper said:

Still getting multiple error messages all over the forum.

It seems worse tonight

Me too. I seem to have to refresh the screen each time I want to view a new page.  I'm getting this quite frequently:

I didn't notice this before tonight.

42 minutes ago, Franklin said:

... It's a great way of pushing your optics as well and I'm amazed at how the Vixen HR range has pushed the boundaries of conventional "max mag" theory.

I didn't think my 2-4mm Nagler zoom would get much use but I'll wear the thing out at the rate I'm going !

7 minutes ago, Franklin said:

..... I think it was a post from Daniel Mounsey over on CN where I first heard the phrase "constellation mopping", which is sticking to observing in one constellation. With this idea not only are you observing when the targets are at their best ie. highest in the sky as the constellation transits the meridian but it also re-enforces your knowledge of the sky. There is so much to see in most constellations that I favor this technique over panning around the entire sky willy-nilly.

An excellent approach I find.  

I've never found anything closer than, say, 1.2 arc seconds is what I would call "easy" what ever scope I've been using. I have always found splitting sub-arc second doubles very hard to be honest. 

I've struggled with sub-arc second splits even with my 12 inch dob. I think it must be my eye and / or local seeing limitations perhaps ?

I have got a few but mostly with the 130mm refractor which shows very "clean" star disks even at stupidly high magnifications. I've not managed anything below around .8 arc second as far as I recall.

On the other hand, I seem to do quite well with the highly uneven brightness stuff like Sirius and Anatares. "Swings and roundabouts" I suppose 😏

1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

....I had an older Meade AR127L F9 I think it was called (John, I think you bought it from me?), and I got loads of great viewing through this scope, despite it's CA on bright objects and too short, stubby dewshield.....

Yes I did and it was an excellent refractor. My first taste of a "big" refractor 🙂

There is a pre-owned one on a certain vendors website at the moment for just £200 which seems an absolute bargain to me.

Interestingly, I also had the Meade branded version (the AR5) of the same scope a couple of years later. The optics on the Meade one were just not as good not matter how much I fiddled with the collimation. 

Again, speaking personally, I find apertures less than 100mm a little limiting for double stars although they do present them really well and many resolve fully up to their theoretical limits of course.

1 hour ago, Space Hopper said:

And one obvious question to this thread is :

What is an optimal scope for doubles, taking in typical UK seeing ?

For me a 100mm-130mm refractor is the optimum double star scope.

Larger apertures have the potential to resolve tighter splits of course but personally I prefer the clean, almost clinical presentation of the star images that refractors give. 

I have used mak-cassegrains and mak-newtonians that have given very good results as well I should say. Almost "refractor-like" 🙂

This evening with my 120mm refractor the supernova is quite hard to see. It seems to have dimmed to magnitude 12 or perhaps even a touch dimmer.

The Vixen ED102SS gets down to around 22 inches in length with the dew shield slipped off. With the stuff in the photo the weight is around 4kg. I don't know what airline limits are these days 

(apologies to @Ags - this is off topic)