Scosmico

The comet is so low that I am praying for good weather in Holland and north sea.

9 hours ago, Jim Franklin said:

I have not bought a printed magazine in more than 10 years. 

I read them on my pad, but if there is a nice poster I buy the printed magazine.

7 hours ago, RobertI said:

Nice poster, good idea to frame it. I saw a nice fold up lunar map available from FLO, it’s got me thinking I should now get it. I generally get Astronomy Now, my dear old dad buys me a subscription every year, but they don’t include posters. The one image I would really like on my wall is the conjunction of Comet C/2021 A1 Leonard and globular cluster Messier 3 - now if I could find a poster of that….

Some images trigger some wonder in me. Some more than others. The images from Cassini in black and white are pure art. 

I dont think you are going regret it if you have the space. I got the frame from a charity shop. Some are better than others, I have kept some which I like the most. If you don't want it please send it on my way. I am covering one wall of my office with them.

8 hours ago, saac said:

@Scosmico That is a nice looking poster and a good idea to frame it. I'll need to have a search through my Sky At Night collection to see if I have kept any of the posters, you have got me thinking now.  

Jim 

Some of you who have been following the Sky at Night magazine for many years and possibly have kept some of its posters.

I have kept the one below. 

It is not just pretty, but very useful for lunar observations. 

Have you kept any? which one?

Nowadays, I rather spend my money travelling to a dark sky location than buying the best kit that I am not going to use very often.

For this reason I divide my kit this way:

Ultra grab and go:  2x40mm binoculars - going somewhere, not sure about light pollution, or if I am going to have time to look at stars.

Grab and go: 80mm frac, doubles a solar telescope during the day. Used as grab and go to places where time for observing is available but carrying is an issue. the whole kit contains a zoom eyepiece, a Zero month, and a light photo tripod. All fits in a back pack Rayan air type.

Dark sky Grab and go: 100m frac, for travels where there is still a limit in carrying but dark skies are guaranteed. Better selection of eyepieces (BGOs, etc) orthos are great grab and go.

At home I have a 12" dob that in the last 6 months did not see much of the clouded sky.

On 02/06/2024 at 11:46, AryaanHegde said:

I'm just starting out with amateur astronomy and decided to buy the 10x50 Celestron Up-close G2 binoculars. I believe that tomorrow is the planet parade (the aligning of 6 planets) and I'd like to catch a glimpse of it. In the bortle 7 location that I'm in, I could only see a handful of stars (that too with the bins, they weren't even visible to the naked eye). So, I've decided to drive about 10 miles to a bortle 4 location at about 5 in the morning.

So, I just wanted to know what I could see with my binoculars? Would the planets be visible? Apart from that I'd love to catch a glimpse of some nebulas and the Andromeda galaxy. Just wondering if they would be visible as well. And since I'm just starting out, do you have any tips for me? Since I didn't see any of the Messier's in my current bortle 7 location, I'm wondering if I might be missing something. Do you have any suggestions for spotting them? Thanks a lot.

I suggest you to scan the milkway, as something catches your eyes, check what it's in a star chart.

I knew it was in the realm of possibilities, but nothing prepared me for last night. A combination of solar storm, new moon, clear skies and no light pollution delivered jaw dropping aurora displays.  Certain times I was actually looking overhead and southwards to see the display. Memorable! Spaceweather.com tells about auroras seeing as south as 29N. First time I have seen red auroras. They were so, so bright, deep, and lasted continuously for hours, full display of colour and structures with the naked eye.

It is really nice to have followed this sunspot. Its flares and the end results: 

End results seen from 51N 

Quote

 

It remind me a big floater 

Great time to observe the sun. Amazing views on white light.

The star field is out of stock, but this one 102mm is. Very good on visual. 

 https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/rvo-horizon-102-ed-doublet-refractor-ota.html

Last night it was easy to find it.  Bright coma. Hints of the tail averted vision just as the comet deeps under the rooftops. Had to pump up magnification to blacken the background. 4" frac f7; 9mm

Lung, If you want to embark on this hobby, something that was really valuable to me, in terms of eyepiece, was to learn how to differentiate a standard eyepiece from a good one. And no eyepiece gave me more understanding about contrast, sharpness, than  orthoscopic eyepieces. They are in the low budget spectrum, not because of the quality but because of the limited field of view. They are great for long focal length telescopes delivering a sharp planetary views. That is my advice about what type you could go first. All tips given before are very good.

Good luck.

Great views today. I could not recommend more. Also seen with eclipse glasses.

10 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

You can clean mine if you want!

No retailers ads please

19 hours ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

We could start our own society.

www.lenscleanerslounge.co.uk

Equipment Review forum - washing liquids

Clothes 

Retailers Reviews - Imperial Leather

Cleaning Events - Lens Cleaning Spray Spring meeting 

I used to be an Amateur Astronomer, now I am officially an Amateur lens cleaner.  

HAve you gone there already? How was it?

Just want to confirm the smoth service from RVO.

I bought my RVO Horizon 102 ED Doublet Refractor OTA and it was delivered very quickly as promised, no hiccups.

Excellent.

Thanks. 

surface brightness of 23.9 mag/arcsec2

Did you see the picture?

8 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

You have to start the search from within whatever sub forum you want to search

That is the point, I don't want data from the subfolder but the main folder.

3 hours ago, LandyJon said:

In the 'app' version, when you start typing in the search box there's a drop down appears where you can select "this forum" or "everywhere" etc.

Just go in to the section you want to search and select "this forum".

In the pre 'app' mobile version the option was there somewhere too and I'm sure the full browser version will have it somewhere too, maybe in some advanced search options, but usually searching while already in a section would just search that section I think.

HTH

Same problem, in this folder means all sub folders are included.

16 minutes ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

On the mobile Web browser version, there's an option in the search box (you have to select the search box first, then the drop down list appears)

 

When I do that all results from the subfolder also appear