Grump Martian

Great write up Sunshine. I live near light polluted London. So no chance of seeing the Miky Way. But last week my family and I were on holiday in Devon South West of England. Yes I could enjoy seeing the Milky Way there. My 80 mm refractor revealed thousands of stars in that direction. Also dark patches, probably dark dust clouds .

I've always wondered if the James Webb telescope would ever detect industrial gas emissions in atmopheres of exoplanets.

Would moderators remove post please

We are visiting Bovey Tracey at the weekend for a weeks holiday. The nearest Dartmoor car park area for star gazing is Haytor. Does anyone who lives nearby know of any astronomy events or meetups taking place next week. Maybe astronomy related places to visit. Any advice would be welcome. I am taking my 80 mm ED refractor.

I am hoping that users of the Celestron SkyPortal WiFi Module can answer a question for me please. I would like to control my mount with a mobile telephone via the wifi module. Does it mean that the time,date and location is automatically downloaded from the mobile device? So it saves me inputting it?

Thanks.

Lovely subject indeed. Here's my Skywatcher Equinox 80 mm. At f6.25 and using my 32 mm 68° eyepiece. It gives a generous 4.3° field.

2 hours ago, dweller25 said:

I put an astrozap dewshield on the end of my refractor dewshield - seems to work.

But a dewshield made out of a black camping mat would be just as good and cheaper.

Hi Dweller. So you're not using a heater strip,just an extended dew shield?

In the past I have always used a dew shield to overcome the problem of dew build up on Maksutov or SCT telescopes.

So out observing on the first clear night for ages. I used my 102 mm Starfield refractor. Nice long dew shield. But the objective lens was sopping wet with dew. I've never experiences dew on a refractor and eyepiece before. Has anyone else suffered this on a refractoe before? Is there a dewstrip available for refractors and eyepieces?

The idea is for Artemis to dock with the coming Lunar Gateway space station . Then board the Space X lander to get to the moons surface. All this by 2025. Where is the complete and tested Gateway station. Is the Space X lander going to be ready? I'm not sure that the next astronauts to land on the moon will be American. Nor that it will happen in the foreseable future.

Alan, with that halo. You should call your mount Dominic. St Dominic was the patron saint of stargazing. Look him up.

1 hour ago, Budgie1 said:

Have you tried making your own space art? 

About 10 years ago I found some tutorials about how to create planets & starfields in Photoshop, so I had a go.

I've not tried again since, but here's a few of what I came up with:

Would you post details of the instructions on producing this art. They are fine pictures.

39 minutes ago, Swoop1 said:

Sci Fi art from that era was Sci Fi art at its very best.

I had a really great Roger Dean book which I leafed through on an almost weekly basis when I was a teenager. I loaned it to my girkfriend who dumped me a week later and kept the book😪

Why not search for a copy of that book Swoop.

Hi John. I also liked the sc fi novel books cover art. Have a look at 'Visions of The Future' on youtube. They are accompanied with Tangerine Dream prog rock music from that era.

I think that there are a number of parts 1 to 5. 

I do collect space art books and have some by Foss.

Since being a child I can remember seeing pictures of space art. I was taken to the Moon seeing pictures of it's jagged mountainous surface. Here is a lovely impression of Saturn seen from Titan. From the 1940's. Why do we need space probes to go there? Just live off his imagination. Lol

Astronomy is in your heart. I hear your hurt. Just think of the years of good nights ahead.

Little section on todays Antique Road Trip on BBC 1. Day three.

This was about the astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks. They visited Derek Ward Thompson at the Jeremiah Horrocks Observatory in Moor Park in Preston. Programme can be seen on BBC iPlayer

Lovely sky scene capture. Thanks for posting

I have used this eyepiece over the last few evenings. I have astigmatism and find that this fantastic low power widefield eyepiece does not suite me. I had great expectations as I did own one of these Explore Scientific eyepieces many years ago. Then with much younger eyes it performed well. But with a heavy heart I returned it in exchange for the ES 4.7 mm and 11 mm.

Thankyou for all the responses to what for most is a great eyepiece.

Would the mods please close my post

A brand new 30 mm Explore Scientific 82° eyepiece. Looking forward to holiday late night star gazing in Swanage in July.

Thankyou all for the information. I have decided not to go this route.

I am considering the purchase of a Televue 5 mm Nagler eyepiece. This would be used primerily on my 102 mm Starfield refractor. One of the reasons to choose a Nagler is that a Tele Vue Dioptrx Astigmatism Corrector can be attached. I would be interested to hear comments from others who use the astigmatism correctors. I have not been able to see the Cassinin division on Saturn the last couple of apparitions and wonder if these will improve the views.

I had a quick session with the 4 inch. Venus and the moon. Clouds rolled in. Manual mounts excell in such conditions for brief opportunities.

Which one is the guilty culprit. It looks like a police identity parade. Lol.

3 hours ago, Stu said:

What advice does your friend need Martin? I think Nick Hudson at True Technology is perhaps who you were thinking of but he retired or otherwise shut the business down some time ago, shame as he was a very knowledgeable and helpful chap.

Hi Stu. That's probably the chap that I had in mind. My friend travels abroard. He has a Williams Optics zs 66mm. But is now considering upgrading apature and quality. He mounts the scope on his various video tripods. So really looking for something lighter in weight than standard. Also 80 or 90 mm.

A friend is considering a Takahashi refractor. I believe that there was a man who gave advice and supplied these refractors. But I cannot remember his contact details.

Hi Zermelo. Thankyou for taking the time to produce such an informative response. I shall read it and the links properly this evening