ED Splitter

Oh dear sorry that happened. What a delightful neighbour you have. Electronics do dry out where fresh water is concerned. So I echo above advice. I would like to think all astronomy gear is robust enough to handle a wetting, I have seen dew so bad that it drips off equipment and I would expect it to handle what happened to you. if you haven’t got silica a bag of rice will work till you can get your hands on silica, just don’t put the equipment in the rice, just in the same sealed space.

Reminds me of Johnny 5!

Hard to believe that I witnessed that in my own back yard. Always thought I would need to go Iceland to see them. The moon also looked good tonight bless it.

So sad, loved listening to his charming tones on his YouTube videos. So humble and informative. Sorely missed.

Scope should be cooled now. Time to get back out 🔭

Sounds a great outing and wonderful you got to share it with your daughter. Beehive is one of my favourites, on a clear moonless night it is superb.

I have a baader contrast booster. It works well with my televue eyepieces less so pentax. It seems to make little difference to my baader eyepieces but those are a zoom or Orthoscopic types which might have an impact on the performance of the filter.

Went out last night for the intention of just 20mins. Patchy sky conditions with our old celestial friends the clouds. Got the mount set up and went to retrieve the scope setup ready with a 27mm panoptic. Went out the doors to be greeted with a clear darkish sky (light pollution). Turned about and went back in, this would be the night that I tried out my recently acquired 31mm nagler. first object Jupiter, nice image presentation given the low mag, plenty of detail visible for small apparent size with the planet displayed in a nice background of stars. Next on to Orion. Low mag view so quite small but no less pleasant. Far more detail resolved than in a 35panoptic, I put this down more to the smaller exit pupil as much as magnification. With a bandmate applied I could see detail wider than the nebula itself. Not seen this before in such a wide view, could have been conditions, I didn’t do a comparison with the 27/35 panoptic as was having too much fun with the new eyepiece. Beyond this was quite underwhelming when viewing south. I then pointed toward Cassiopeia and cruised around, less affected by light pollution was greeted with a sky more filled with stars than space that was just wonderful. I then aimed for an old favourite the double cluster, wow just wow. I was floating in space for a long time looking at that and seeing improved further during that time as well. The twin targets were nicely framed and as I concentrated on each I fell into their respective diamond centres and stopped thinking. I don’t know if it was the view or the fact that I couldn’t feel my toes due to wearing flip flops (as this was only meant to be a 20min outing that was now well past the hour mark) but could feel my eyes watering. I cruised around after this. Tried to find a comet and failed. Then conditions approved at the top of Orion the pi stars were visible to the eye, assuming people were in bed at this point and turned off the needless outdoor winter lights. Decided to go for M1. Failed previously as didn’t appreciate that it’s not as close to Orion as I thought. Faint cloud like object barely perceptible but a good tick in the box. Then overreached and switched to a 13mm ethos and lost it. Gave up finding it again, moved over to Jupiter for a higher mag view, very pleasant in the 13mm then higher again in the Bgo 7mm. I couldn’t feel my ankles by this point so headed in. Too late for a chip butty sadly but you can’t have everything.

Have you ever tried a contrast filter? I had similar experiences before purchasing one, it confirmed I was seeing it but with it equipped there is no doubt what you are seeing.

Got 20 mins and a bit more between the clouds. Kept to a 27mm panoptic at the outset as was intending to comet hunt. Clouds put an end to that. Started on Jupiter, 27mm not typically planetary but it gives some detail with 4”frac and it resolves the moons as discs in an overall pleasing FOV. The sky Visibility looked good and clear as could resolve the trapezium in Orion easily at 27mm. Having obtained a degree of confidence following a watch of the sky at night YouTube video for January I then moved over to Sirius and increased mag. Using a 6mm bco I could detect something in the overwhelming light of Sirius, backed off slightly with a 7mm bgo which confirmed the something in a neater form. I went all in for mag with a 3.2mm starguider and waited for Sirius to rise a little, 20mins later there it was the dog and pup. No comet but will take that. Observed that wonderful sight until the clouds ruined it, all of 2 mins. Then packed up and went in for a celebratory chip butty.

Hi, welcome. think I’d take feral skies over clouds any day. 😎

I wonder if an ST80 has ever had such a fine mount before.

Arrived last week from Mr Spock. Tak prism diagonal. Very impressive it is too. Also realised I haven’t uploaded in some time so am in need of a catch up of some hard to resist bargains I acquired in the last 12 months or so.

What targets are you trying to view? some may not be viewable in your scope or you may have seen them and not known what you were looking at. Start by looking up lists of bright deep sky objects. try to avoid bright moon nights for you the fuzzies. don’t get too worked up about seeking them out. It’s a whole lot of sky to get acquainted with, just cruise the sky and enjoy the experience. You will learn the constellations in no time. a relatively wide field of view eyepiece helps to navigate but you need to learn to star hop. have you tried the book turn left at Orion? Am sure someone in here is selling a used copy in the buy and sell section. It’s very good at teaching you to star hop. Object one, the Orion Nebula, is now in the sky, the easiest deep sky object to find and probably the brightest. If you don’t have a UHC filter I would suggest you invest in one, seek out a used one from the usual areas either an Astronomik or baader will serve you well. If you're reliant on a red dot finder I would suggest you look at a Rigel finder, the 5degree bullseye will assist you in star hopping. Joe jaguar had a good video on youtube that illustrates how they assist in star hopping. Happy hunting.

Thanks for the tips. Is there any risk of causing damage to the tube this way or affecting the collimation? As I understand it the collimation in the synta Ed line relies on the tube holding the elements in place rather than a screw or separate lens assembly.