RobertI

It seems like we are staring into the abyss with this one. Very nice. 👍

Those dark nebula are superb, especially the ink spot - very striking. The cluster is nice with some nice colouring, the LRGB is working superbly - to me then cluster has the shape of a couple of castellations (if that’s the right word) - ie: a square zigzag. 
 

Hats is a nice album by the way, I have it myself. 👍

Weird that it ‘melted’ when a fairly light weight scope was on it. I suspect they build the SkyTee with very low grade soft alloy to keep the price down - I stripped a couple of threads on the gear assembly, not to mention rubbish clamps. It is nice and heavy duty though and works well with my scopes but I think I would upgrade if I was going to put a really expensive scope on it.  But at the moment if my 150PL fell off due to the mount breaking, I’d be more upset at the broken mount than the broken scope (from a price perspective)! 🙂

6 hours ago, johninderby said:

Yes 17kg isn’t that bad if you have the mount for it.

This happened to my Skytee II after using the SNT10 though. Maybe a coincidence but........🤔

That's horrible!

Well done, really promoising results, you've got lots of interesting objects to discover with that setup. I also did EAA from a very light polluted site, and although my skies were probably darker, it's amazing  what could be achieved against all the odds. 

Do you perform observatory commissions?

A striking image of an extraordinary looking nebula. Thank you!

1 minute ago, Alan White said:

Rob, polite may work, as may an offer of a look at what you observe (clearly not so easy at present).
I tried this route but they were not interested in even listening, let alone helping.
It varies from person to person, fingers crossed for you on this one 🤞

Sorry to hear about your experiences with your neighbours Alan, nightmare scenario, I hope they move one day! I think for some people, us astronomers are aliens speaking and alien language, and they just don't have the capacity to grasp what we are about, even with the help of Brian Cox!

The lights are not on tonight. 🙂 I am hoping that either they are having a rethink, or this will not happen very often. They might also have heard my cries of anguish when I first saw the lights! They seem like nice people and I’m sure they would be reasonable if I went round and had a neighbourly chat about the problem, it’s just a shame to be forced to do it. To smooth the waters I could always offer to show them and their children a squint at Mars through the C8 (if I can think of a safe way to do it). 

I might just set my 5 year old son in them! 😁

Thanks for the reactions and responses - it certainly sounds like others have it much worse than me, so I guess I should count my blessings, at least I can block them. The lights did actually go off at around 10:30 so might not end up being too much of a nuisance, but I shall closely monitor. 
 

This has made me think about trying some trips to local dark sites....

Just a thought regarding the EQ3, the more solid EQ5/CG5 equatorials regularly come up for sale on the used market - they would hold a 150PL nice and steady. I bought a used CG5 without motors but with 2" legs (very solid) for £120 - add a slow mo cable and tracking becomes easy. I would think finding one with motors (non-goto) wouldn't be hard. If that option appeals you could always try a wanted ad? Regarding the 8"F6 versus 6"F8, I've never compared the two, but I can tell you that I have been incredibly impressed with my 6" F8, it's a great all round performer.

Another point to note is that if 2" eyepieces and accesories are important to you, the 150P Dob has a 2" focuser but the 150PL does not.

One of my neighbours has finally gone and done it - after spending the last six months building a massive pergola, they have finally adorned it with the inevitable fairly lights, which are so bright they illuminate the back of their house. There is some hope as the gap through which they are visible is only about six feet wide, so a screen or even better a nice summer house would probably shield it, but the illuminated house would still be visible. Back to EAA I think...   

Very nice, must have been wonderful. The Cornish skies are amazing, I have stayed near Bude a few times and got lost in the profusion stars in the inky blackness. I was just round the corner from Eddington Lodge and plan to experience their 20” dobs under those wonderful dark skies some time. 

Great thanks Alan, good know how they compared and what you ended up doing. I think you have the perfect combination there and top brands. A lot of experienced visual astronomers seem to end up with a quality frac in the 85 - 130mm range and a large newt of 250mm or larger.

Rewind 12 months and I was mulling over whether to get a 6" F5/F8 Newt or a 100ED frac to add to the collection. I decided to go for the Newt (one came up for £90!), and I have loved it, but I still had the 100ED itch, so now have a new Skywatcher 100ED on the way (if the retailer ever gets stock). So I will now have both, and have probably doubled up, but I shall do a comparison anyway out of interest!

On 18/10/2019 at 17:56, Alan White said:

I have a cunning plan, hatched from this thread and Chris Locks thoughts......

Owned a number or 4" and 150mm scopes, so have decided to trial this, but not to own just one scope.
But please don't mention that last bit to Mrs W!

Own a Vixen ED103s f7.8 103 mm Refractor.



Also now own a OOUK 1/6 wave 150 mm f5 Newtonian.



Sometimes curiosity gets the better of you.

So I plan to have a run of nights with both scopes and report back on how they compare.
Go into this eyes open and expect things to be similar yet different.

Does this have merit in a separate post or continue here?

 

I know this is way back Alan, but did you ever do this shootout? 

2 hours ago, Lockie said:

Thanks Rob, well never a dull moment, the first drama has reared it's head already lol

 I've just finished the pier plus pier adaptor and the whole pier vibrates like an EQ3 when you tap it   I thought 110mm diameter of concrete and rebar would be ok but this was a hard lesson learnt. I'll be nipping to B&Q this evening to try and find a solution. Maybe a larger pipe over the existing pipe or maybe metal/wood truss supports. I'll think of something  

Bummer Chris, really surprising. Larger diameter tube over the top sounds sensible - perhaps you will inadvertently invent a brilliant new way to create rigidity!

Looking good so far Chris. You deserve a new observatory! 👍 I had the pleasure of briefly sitting in your old one and I was very impressed, an astronomers dream in fact. I shall watch this thread with interest. 🙂

Interesting, I was getting sky flashes too, I am on the Suffolk/Essex Coast! There were a few wispy clouds, but mostly clear, however the sky was really bright even at midnight, and very few stars could be seen Whatever was in the atmosphere last night must have helped to carry the light from the lightning flashes a long distance? 

I was out briefly with the Tal 100RS tonight - the sky was bright and transparency poor, but seeing was really good, I say Pickering 7 at least. I have stuck a scale into my zoom eyepiece to better judge the focal length I’m operating at. I was getting a split on the close pair at 14mm (x71) but not quite at 15mm (x66). Very pleasing result helped by the good seeing I think.  

Had a quick squint at Mars for the first time this year and , although fairly low, it was very crisp, with the polar cap very obvious and some surface shading visible. Large, gibbous and sharply defined, it was far cry from the boiling red featureless disc that I have observed in the past. Bodes well for the upcoming months. 

I can’t offer any expert opinion on how to make it any better - I just think it looks stunning. Would make an amazing picture to grace a room. 

Thanks for the vid Chris. Very informative (including the info about M13) and well done on the result - very nice.

That looks like a lovely scope - wish I had one like that!  

1 hour ago, Ruud said:

Thank you Rob, for your first impression of the Panaview 38. I hope you have many clear nights and that the eyepiece will introduce you to some spectacular wide views. It's just perfect for observing larger clusters and the Milky Way.

I'm a big fan of wide views of lunar eclipses, with the Moon all red and dark, and surrounded by many stars. So pretty. That by itself justifies having a wide, low magnification eyepiece!

Thanks Ruud and thanks for suggestion about lunar eclipses. Funnily enough I did also briefly look at the rising moon last night and it was lovely to see framed in such a wide field and in so much detail. 🙂

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

Twist the eyecup all the way down and try using the 1.25" eyepieces between your eye and the eyepiece.  You should be able to hand-hold them and slide them into the light path.

Good suggestion Louis, I’ll give that a go next time out. 

Good to see so many people seeing this for the first time. 👍

My first 2" eyepiece arrived recently - a Panaview 38mm. Beautifully put together, with large eye lens and very solid twist up eye cup. My only scope which will take it at the moment is my Tal100RS, so on a largely cloudy night I managed a quick first light.

Problem - the Tal did not quite have enough in focus - literally by a few mm - to get sharp focus. So close yet so far. I have an SCT fit 2" diagonal which is slightly lower profile - as luck would have it I managed to convert it normal use by removing the SCT nosepiece and replacing with my Hyperion 2" fine tuning rings, which had exactly the right thread! This new diagonal provided another 5mm of focus travel and I found I could fully focus.

First views looked very nice and I noticed how the depth of focus was very long - completely the opposite "snapping to focus"! Star shapes were good for 80% of the diameter but any issues beyond that were not really that noticeable unless specifically looking. Star colours were revealed very nicely, normally the Tal gives a yellow cast to everything, but the scope now seemed more like an APO to an achro.

Some other points. Due to the diameter of the eyepiece I found my nose (which is possibly bordering on large) got in the way and I had to turn my head to get my eye fully on the eyepiece. Not an issue though just different. The twist up plastic eye cup worked brilliantly to keep the eye at exactly the right distance from the lens and shield from extraneous light.

Onto some limited observing between the clouds. The ET cluster looked tiny as did some other well known clusters, and M13 was a tiny hazy blob - I realised this was an eyepiece which is suited to very specific things - either sweeping the milky way or viewing large extended objects - none were visible between the clouds sadly. Unfortunately the bright sky and rapidly rising moon meant that the eyepiece could not really shine - dark skies are definitely required and I can imagine how good this eyepiece would be in the inky blackness of a winter's night. I would also be tempted to travel to a dark site to get the best from it.

I would think a 2" UHC or OIII would work really well for the extended nebulae - sadly I have just invested in 1.25" versions and will not be upgrading soon unless a cheap one appears. I've just remebered I have a 2" skywatcher light pollution filter which I have used for imaging in the past - might give that a go next time.

I'll have another go next time out and share the results.