Space Hopper

..........you gotta love Baader Planetarium !!

Such nice gear.

You probably don't need me telling, but take care with the 140 / HW combo.

I have a very similar setup, and i read somewhere the recommended aperture limit for the HW is 120mm -/+

Above this, and especially with faster scopes, heat can build up inside.

This has been debated at length on the various forums, and Baader have tested themselves with apertures up to 8". 

I would have thought the 105 would have more than held its own on the sun, and find it interesting you think the 140 is that much better, but i guess aperture rules, especially if the seeing is decent enough for you.

I think from my own location maybe the seeing never fully supports using a bigger aperture.

MORE OF AN ISSUE is what i found out using a manual alt-az mount. If you let the sun 'drift' out of the field of view

the sides of the HW can get hot too. I found this out myself, after letting the sun drift across a couple of times after being distracted I noticed a little smoke coming out of the wedge,

and when i felt the body of the wedge it was overly hot.

I don't necessarily think there was any immediate danger of damage being done, it could have been a bit of debris or perhaps an insect remanent  burning.

But it unnerved me a bit, and i decided not to use my 140 with it and perhaps get a smaller refractor.

Current funds prohibited that, so if i use the HW now, i'll just have short looks at the sun and then move the scope away to avoid any heat build up and just take extra care.

You have a stunning location Magnus, i'm not at all jealous !! Love your Stellavue scope too. 

One last thing  : the Baader HW converts really well if you want to binoview. I can recommend it !

Here is mine : The Amateur Astronomer, by John Gribbin. Long gone now, and this internet photo is not the best.

It was published in 1979, and it was probably a Christmas present. I would have been around 12 years old 

I read it all pretty much, and from then on went on to Patrick Moores yearbooks, which i also borrowed copies of past years from the local library.

The seed was sown, although it was a few years after that i got my first telescope.

Looks a nice little setup.

I've considered one of these 103's myself, and they are certainly at a compelling price point.

Interested to see how it performs optically under the stars......

2 hours ago, Paz said:

particularly the last one about observing skills getting better with practice.

.....if only the weather here gave us that chance to improve. Tough when you only get one or two chances per month.

Saw this on a Facebook post earlier.

We are lucky to have these two guys making a contribution here on SGL.

Good afternoon Mr Bond.......

Hi there @Sky_Raider

Welcome to SGL. 

3 hours ago, John said:

That might be OK for the 180 or the 210 but I was wondering if the 250 would need something more "aggressive" ?

Remember the 250 has the nifty rear which opens out to aid cooldown, so pound for pound, its probably comparable to its smaller brethren 

I was unaware of this, and such sad news it is. Such a nice guy. May he RIP.

I remember him coming over to DDAS astro society - i bet it was 15 years ago to do a talk on telescope making.

@glafnazur could you pass this news over to the society, if they are unaware :  I think you may have been secretary when David did his talk back then ?

40 minutes ago, stuy said:

Hmmm 🤔 f14  35% obstruction? 

Isn't that typical of a Gregory Mak design ? I'm not too sure , i'm no expert, but i think its comparable with the Synta 7" Maks, and als othe smaller OMC 140.

You could always opt for the OMC 200, which has a 22% secondary obstruction.........£££ 😵

47 minutes ago, John said:

Summer sale, delivery ..... when ???? 

 

Now till the end of June, John, i believe.

Put the coupon code in, and it will show the discount, which equates to roughly the vat and a bit more.

Reactivating this thread again after a 6 month pause.....

I've not heard much more about the OMC 185, things seem to have gone a bit quiet there.

But what has caught my eye is that Orion optics are having a summer sale, with a 25% discount on their OMC, CT Newtonians & AG + ODK astrographs running from now till the end of June.

So a good saving on the new OMC 185.

Food for thought............

6 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Just watched Sky at Night Pete Lawrence was talking about viewing Mercury during the day. 

You do a 1 star alignment on the sun then goto Mercury. 

Now the question is can you do a 1 star alignment on the sun with a EQ5 if so how please. 

Paul 

Why not use the moon if its visible ?

Remarkable. Is this flare what caused all the aurora ?

Some great shots there 👍🏼 @Sunshine

Back upto 972nT on the aurorawatch UK app.

Apparantly the KP scale has been maxed out (Level 9)

I've had the pleasure of meeting both Al and David Nagler at the various Astrofest trade shows i've attended.

We are very lucky to have Televue in this hobby. 

Lets keep our fingers x'ed for this one.

Big 'if'  though, will it make it round the sun in one piece ?

A lot of these promising comets that the media like to hype up often end up in bits before we get to see them.

I should have a new camera by then as well   (Perihelion is September 28) 

Not so sure the focusers  are 'better' as such.

The ones sold on all my OO scopes have been rubbish. Replaced with Moonlite's, but sadly you can't even do that now.

Maybe the current scopes have better focusers, i don't know. You can even spend £500 !! 😦 on the new 'Eris' focuser if you want.

I've had both the VX10 short and long in the past, as well as a CT10 and a VX12 F4 as well. The VX10 short is a nice size and not too much of a handful.

Optically all my OO scopes have been really nice. But they are expensive new. 

Not trying to talk you out of it or anything, but have you considered FLOs StellaLyra series ? 

@Flame Nebula Did you say you were near Notts ? I'm in Derby so a similar latitude, and its always going to be difficult to see something like this at 53ºNorth with out dodgy seeing conditions sadly

@Mr Spockgood to hear the LVW 3.5 is performing well ; i had mine out last night as well 🙂

There may be more than one spider in there..........🙃

32 minutes ago, Flame Nebula said:

I wonder if the light scatter reduction of fluorite glass made a difference too? 

I wouldn't think so.

I have 5.5" of Fluorite and find the 'E' star routinely difficult, but do see it from time to time.

I've not conclusively seen the 'F' star which is much harder, and never got anyway near Sirius B.

But my location has generally poor seeing and what i'd describe as 'fair on a good night.

I'm also hampered by 56 yr old eyes and am observing at 53º north, so i have to be realistic about my chances.

I do enjoy chasing these elusive targets down though. I'll get there one day.......😀

@powerlord Yes i'm exactly the same. I really am struggling with it all at the moment.

Total lack of enthusiasm. Just the one dark site session this year.

But i think lots of factors in play here. Awful weather, Bit of depression and seasonal adjustment disorder, shift work, declining health and eyesight,

and i feel like the last 4 years have sucked the soul out of me in all departments.

And yet, despite all of that, i still feel like buying a new scope /  camera & lens.......