John

Observed the SN again tonight with my 102mm refractor. My estimate of it's brightness is magnitude 11.3 this evening. I think the transparency might be better tonight ? I could see the core of Messier 101 and, using averted vision, got a few glimpses of the nearby galaxy NGC 5474 which is considered the closest of M 101's companion galaxies and has been distorted by gravitational effects from the larger galaxy. NGC 5474 seems an interesting galaxy - I'll come back to it under a darker sky when I have more aperture to hand.

Hope you can bring it to focus OK. The Antares 1.6 has great glass in it but depending on the version, achieving focus can be challenging.

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 🙂

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)

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 ! 🙄

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 👍

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 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂

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 👍

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.

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 🙄

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 👍

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 !