John

7 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Tonight is looking good so far, very stable split of Izar , slightly better than last night I would say. 

Yep - I've just be doing just that with my little Vixen 4 inch 🙂

My Vixen ED102SS out tonight eyeing up Delta Cygni. Nice double with this scope - the secondary star sits on the outside edge of the diffraction ring created by the primary star. A sort of "diamond ring" effect 🙂

14 minutes ago, Saganite said:

This APM zoom  arrived recently and I have used it on a couple of sessions so far.  I am very impressed with its quality, particularly the focal length click stops, and the constant 67 deg FOV  as you move through its range is just brilliant.  I have only used it so far on double stars but what I have seen leaves no doubt that it is a premium bit of kit.   My little Carton zoom, which is itself extremely capable, is shown alongside for comparison and   I had thought that it would have to go, but I shall keep it, one for each scope !

My  Celestron Ultima 2x barlow in the optical chain makes no difference to the image quality across the range, and gives 163x  to 327x , in my 6"refractor, very useful for star splitting.

Nice to see one of these - I have wondered quite a bit about them since their launch 🙂

This website documents all the known UK and Irish meteorite falls. It needs to be updated ton include the WInchcombe Meteorite fall in February 2021:

UK and Ireland Meteorite page (meteoritehistory.info)

I have seen many meteorite specimens over the years (I used to collect them) but yours does not resemble any that I have seen.

Another useful link on meteorite identification:

Meteorite Identification: Have you found a space rock? (geology.com)

3 hours ago, Ratlet said:

.....Nice Vixen.  Classic styling on that.

Thanks. It's the ED102SS F/6.5. It dates from 2000 and is broadly similar to the Starfield 102ED.

4 inch refractors are very useful instruments - I have a couple of them ! 🙄

3 hours ago, bosun21 said:

The one on the Astrobiscuit video was a 7” and was too heavy to pick up.

8.5 inch maybe - it, or one very like it, is currently for sale (I think this is the same scope):

8.5" F/12 achromatic refractor and EQ8 equatorial mount and steel pier | eBay

It looks like an iron pyrite nodule. Someone asked the Natural History Museum a question about a similar specimen a few years back:

NaturePlus: Coprolite? (nhm.ac.uk)

They thought theirs might be fossilised dinosaur poo !

What a great achievement and a super post describing your journey 🙂

I am currently without a decently large aperture scope but reading about your galactic observing quest, and the way you have gone about it has re-ignited my desire to hunt down these faint and far off targets again once the darker skies return again.

Your approach is just the way that I like to observe 🙂

I hope you go on to spot another 1,000 👍

29 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Blooming heck!  That looks even bigger now!  Not grab and go that one.

I remember watching (I think) astrobiscuit who was speaking to someone who had something similar.  Said he hadn't looked through it because he couldn't physically lift it.  What was the focal length on yours?

Nice Vixen.  Classic styling on that.

Mine was F/12 so 1800mm focal length. I did get it mounted and used it a few times. Optically it was excellent but even an EQ6 mount on a massive tripod with 3 inch steel tube legs was not really up to the job of holding it really steady for high power observing. I came to the conclusion that refractors of this type are better permanently mounted in an observatory. It was fun trying one, all the same 🙂

9 hours ago, Ratlet said:

I think someone put that across his lap to stop him from escaping!  That's a fair size size of scope.  I think it might be a fair size of a human too!

It was a very large scope and I was large as well - I have thankfully lost around 3 stone since then 🙄

The scope has moved on as well - it was just too long and heavy so finding a suitable mount was a headache and then getting the scope safely on and off the mount was a backache. The photo below shows it in comparison with my ED120 and ED102 refractors.

I learned quite a bit from that experience though 🙂

47 minutes ago, Stu said:

The 128 is big, but it’s also fairly light at 7.5kg I think. It’s also quite well balanced so feels easy to handle. The LZOS 130mm for example is heavier at about 11kg and much more front heavy so feels more awkward.

The LZOS is very compact though, only a little longer than the FC100DC I’ll post a picture of those three together for comparison.

My LZOS 130 F/9.2 weighs 9.4kg so I guess the difference would be thicker glass in the F/6 and the Kruppax tube on my F/9.2 

(sorry, off topic)

The FS-128 is really quite light for a true 5 inch F/8 🙂

14 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

I managed a good look at the SN last night at about 1am (Best time for observing right now but so hard to get up the morning after!).

I had no trouble spotting it again in my 127 Skymax at 62x, it was slightly brighter than the 117 star in the AAVSO chart so I estimate it at 11.4 or thereabouts. It has dimmed a bit but still going strong! 

I forgot to look at it last night !

I came up with a mag 11.4 estimate when I last saw it a couple of nights back so it is still hanging in there 🙂

Superb fleet of scopes there Stu. Rather like a "who's who" of the top refractors 👍

1 hour ago, John said:

Venus was nice earlier using my 130mm refractor. I've just managed a split of Lambda Cygni with the same scope at 300x. The separation is currently .91 arc seconds with the component stars of uneven magnitude - 4.73 and 6.26 according to the Stella Doppie database.

 

I've just finished the session with the 130mm by observing 2 very different globular clusters. Messier 4 way down close to my southern horizon in Scorpio (next to Antares) which is I believe the closest globular cluster to our solar system at around 7,000 light years distance and then NGC 6229 in Hercules which is close to the zenith tonight and one of the more distant globular clusters at 100,000 light years - more than half way to the Megellanic Clouds.

I could not split Antares this evening though due to rather scintillating seeing that close to the horizon. 

Venus was nice earlier using my 130mm refractor. I've just managed a split of Lambda Cygni with the same scope at 300x. The separation is currently .91 arc seconds with the component stars of uneven magnitude - 4.73 and 6.26 according to the Stella Doppie database.

1 hour ago, Mike Q said:

Time to hit the local astro club up and look at some toys.  

Most of the members of my astro club, that actually have telescopes, have SCT's 

I think I'm considered a bit of a curiosity with my refractors 🙄

6 minutes ago, The Lapwing said:

Indeed. I should be pleased I suppose, cheaper that way anyway. I have to say I don’t feel cheated using 62 degree eyepieces, although I do appreciate that is a bit cramped for some.....

That's true - enjoying very wide fields of view has cost me quite a lot over the years 🙄

I enjoy eyepieces with narrower fields as well though 🙂

We are lucky that there is so much choice available these days 👍

21 hours ago, The Lapwing said:

I have that problem looking through Ethos eyepieces, it’s not a nice experience. Comes on very quickly too. 

Interesting how this affects different people in different ways.

I've been using Ethos eyepieces and other hyper-wide fields for over a decade now and have never experienced this.

I've used both equatorial mounts and alt-azimuth mounts with my 4 inch, and larger, refractors. Both types worked well but I've currently moved to alt-az mounts for all my scopes for 2 main reasons - I want to keep my setups as light as possible (while still stable) and I like to have the simplest possible setup, operation and take down routines.

As has been said though, there is no right or wrong approach to this - it's just personal preference.

On the topic of editorial control, when I used to do equipment reviews for the forum, FLO would kindly supply me with items to compare and test on a free loan basis (they even covered the postage costs both ways) and with no time limit.

FLO did not ask for any editorial control over the reports that I posted on the forum - I was entirely free to write what I felt about the items negative or positive. Which is just what I did 🙂

From my experience as a moderator (nearly a decade), much thought and discussion goes into moderating behind the scenes. The admins / moderation team mutually supportive and great care is taken when making decisions on moderation action. The default position is always to take a "light touch" approach and I think it works excellently 👍

Interesting mod 🙂

Do you use a "spreader stopper" as well as the tray, or just the tray ?

I currently use a "spreader stopper" instead of a tray with my Uni 28 but I feel that the tray might be the more stable option.

Interesting idea.

I can recall a company called Dalserf Optics in Scotland experimenting with a similar approach back in the 1980's. I may still have some info on what they were trying if anyone is interested.

I'm another observer who got hooked by using a 1960's Tasco 60mm refractor. While it had quite a few drawbacks (notably the wobbly mount and .965 inch eyepieces) it did work quite well and showed me my first Saturn, first double star, first galaxies etc, etc. 

I bought mine used for the princely sum of £45.00. 

Back then a decent scope such as a 3 inch Vixen refractor cost about 10 times as much as that at least and well beyond my disposable income back when we were saving for the deposit on a house and to get married. 

I did go into ownership of the Tasco with "my eyes open" though. My friend had lent me his to observe Jupiter the year before so I knew roughly what to expect.

A few years later I was able to afford a 6 inch F/6 Astro Systems newtonian and that was in a completely different league of course !

Thanks for that link - I agree that globular clusters are fascinating and some of the most interesting objects that we observe 🙂

51 minutes ago, John said:

I tried this approach this evening with my ED120 refractor and the 1.25 inch Lunt Hershel Wedge, de-filtered.....

 

 

Just a quick point in case anyone else would like to try the Lunt 1.25 inch HW in this mode. I found the ND3.0 filter installed in the eyepiece holder of the wedge impossible to remove. The filter is screwed into the bottom section of the stock eyepiece holder. Luckily I had an ordinary 1.25 inch mirror diagonal available and the eyepiece holder from that screwed straight onto the Lunt HW body. So I was able to observe Venus just using the prism within the wedge to reduce the light throughput.

It might be possible to unscrew the installed ND filter from the stock eyepiece holder but it would need more force than I was willing to apply. It may also be worth using the HW with the ND filter in place on Venus - it is a bright target.

And I did put the original Lunt eyepiece holder and filter straight back onto the wedge once I had finished observing Venus - safety first !🙂