pixelsaurus

Cheers. Haven't been to the caves yet as only been here just over a year. Monteith's is OK but I prefer Orchard Theives Cider myself.

Hi Sam, Welcome aboard. Mike.

It has been cloudy and /or wet in my neck of the woods for the past week.

McNaught in 2007 is my benchmark. Pity the weather at the time was rubbish and I only saw it 4x over a 6 week period.

Not all comets have a Northern Hemisphere origin http://members.westnet.com.au/mmatti/sc.htm

Welcome to SGL Gogi. Binoculars can be a good start to getting into stargazing. My choice would be to go for the 7x50's. I can't help with what brand to purchase though it is probably fair to say you will pay for optical quality. If you haven't already found it, it might pay to spend some time looking through this sub forum http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/80-observing-with-binoculars/ Cheers.

Looks like lens flare to me.

Hi Jim, Welcome to SGL. There is nothing worse than trying to find Orion when the sky is full of stars.

Cheers. I knew you were going to say that.

Welcome to SGL Dave. Not a lot of ectoplasm around here.

In astro, the APERTURE or the maximum unobstructed diameter of the objective is king. Just for the record, if things are not confusing enough, non-astrophotographers also use the term aperture but they mean something quite different. Those photographers are referring to the focal ratio (f/number) of an optical system. Therefore a 300mm f/5 telescope (1500mm focal length) would probably be interpreted as a 300mm focal length system with a clear aperture of 300/5 or 60mm. This is an incorrect meaning of aperture which unfortunately has now become the norm. After all an aperture is really just an

Hi Patrick, Welcome to SGL.

Greetings from the North Island. Dunners used to be my old stomping ground. Just keep sending those cheese rolls and there won't be any trouble. Cheers.