RobertI

Twanging the elasticated eyepatch onto my naked eyeball. 🧐

😂. Agreed, and every time I see those beautiful classic white Newts in the background behind Ed, it makes me really hanker after one, or several!

I recommend this video! 👍

Yes the thrill of those first views stay with you, regardless of how small the scope was.

Lovely report - some interesting objects. Amazing what you can see with 24”……one day….one day… 🙂

Nice report. That’s a good setup for planetary. What sort of magnification do you reckon you’re getting from that setup?

Enjoy your session Stu, hope you get some great views. It’s beautifully dark and transparent out there but I desperately need a good night’s sleep, so am reluctantly retiring for the night. I can’t remember, is that a 3” class Tak? Looks like a good match for the Giro-WR. I use my 66mm on the GiroWR - nice grab and go. Recently I tried binoviewers with the 66mm and was amazed at how good the views were.

Sounds like paradise Louis. 🙂

Spectacular. Not come across this one before. 🙂

Amazing picture. I wonder what this galactic visitor is whispering in Earth’s ear?

You need to watch the Director’s Cut Vlaiv. 🙂

You lucky chap Alan, must have been fascinating, thanks for sharing. Rest assured any secrets you share will strictly be between you and the 50,000 SGL members. 🙂

Thanks Stu, that’s quite a canon! Thanks, I shall post a little report tomorrow! 🙂 Your scope looks majestic btw.

I’m being brave tonight and trying the 150PL on the CG5 equatorial for visual. Wish me luck!

Nice scope! Let us know how he gets on.

Nice setup, you have some very nice equipment there. I am a long time observer but a recent convert to BVs for solar system observing. I have briefly tried the BVs for doubles and clusters and I must say I didn't find the experience quite so good as cyclops viewing, so I didn't explore further. For example, I didn't find doubles at high magnifications were as sharp and well resolved. But I have to confess I have not tried low power views of DSOs, so cannot say. I imagine there is a fair amount of light loss throught the prisms though? I'm very interested see what others have to say.

It’s been mostly raining and cloudy for the last 24 hours here on the East Coast, no sign of a clear night. Scope looks fab @Stu Great advice, I shall remember this! 😁

Good Lord - so much Green & Black!

Very true! I also bought my first scope in 1979 - it was a 6” Newt on an EQ mount and I used it happily for many years. But I have really come to love alt-az mounts over recent years and rarely use EQs for visual observing now.

Interesting and enjoyable video from Ed as always. Hard to argue with logic of an 8” dob, especially when price and convenience is taken into consideration. I’ve only used a limited range of scopes (basically those in my sig). They all have their pros and cons. The SCT is not so good on tight doubles (due to ‘hairy’ stars), wide field or solar. The 4” refractor is not so good on faint fuzzies and globs. The 6” Newt is not ideal for solar, wide field and theoretically not very flexible for binoviewing, which is a must for me when solar system viewing now. So none of them are the perfect all rounders. So what would I choose as my only scope out of my meagre collection? Given that my skies rarely get dark enough to see really faint fuzzies, and rarely get stable enough to allow larger apertures to outperform on planets, then the 4” frac is probably the winner in most situations, but to be honest, I would also be fine with either of the other two as my only scope, I would adapt my viewing to suit. 🙂

Sounds like a great session Mark, nice to be able to observe from your kitchen!

So glad I witnessed this. Just phenomenal. He's a really engaging speaker too. A fitting subject for my 3000th post!

Interesting thought John, the GRS itself would make a decent sized planet! It's a shame it's shrinking though.

Yes I keep tuning in, he’s still lecturing with humour and enthusiasm. I think 7:42 is the record time, so only half an hour to go - I’m going to be watching. Come on Mark, home straight! 👏