Ratlet

1 hour ago, FrenchyArnaud said:

I will tell everyone everywhere when it's due on, don't you worry 🤭 Even if you tried to miss it I won't let you, everyone needs to be told about my unfathomable genius 🤣🤣🤣

There's going to be a lot of YouTubers spitting bullets lol.

FLO about to become OOS of all astrophotography equipment afterwards.

Congrats on the show!  

45 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

You might be laughing but there are loads of Tak owners that would pay four X the going the rate for those. A small niche opening in the market that Tak could exploit.🤣

With regular crocs the holes are so your dignity can escape.  With Tak crocs it's so money can get out.

(I say that as a dedicated croc wearer)

I just got a Stellalyra 10" dob.  Great bit of kit and not really wanting for anything as it comes with some good extras (Raci finder, dual speed focuser, 30mm eyepiece that does the job and a 9mm plossl that I haven't tried yet).

I thought about going goto, but I'm absolutely delighted with the manual.  I use an inclinometer to help find things as I just need to dial in the altitude and then pan in the right area.  Great for clusters and bigger objects.

You can get nice push to encoders for it too which can WiFi to your phone and then show you on skysafari where it is pointing (not tried them).

Tracking would be extra, but you can get an equatorial platform built or build one yourself if you are vaguely techy.

It's sort of heavy, but mostly just awkward to move about by lifting.  I spent £75 on a sack barrow with a longer fold down toe plate.  I keep mine up the shed.

Pretty cloudy and wet up here, but there was a break in the sky driving home and managed to see a nice view of the moon and Venus.  The moon was an absolute razorblade of pure white.  Not seen anything like it.

1 hour ago, clarkpm4242 said:

Zodiacal Light glows above Old Dornie Harbour - Coigach - Highlands - Scotland.  Dust from Mars illuminated by the sun.  Venus lurks behind cloud.  The Milky Way arches overhead.

5 x 2 x 10s vertical panes on Nodal Ninja pano mount  Canon 6D MkII, Sigma 24mm.  LR, Sequator, MSICE, PS.

Cheers, Paul. 

Highly recommend downloading this and having a scan through.  So many messier's!  Pretty sure I can make out M33 as well as all the rest!

Not the posty, but the mother in law.  A cushion for my observing chair.  Only asked on Saturday so I must have done something good 😁.

Removable so it doesn't get damp buy has two different thicknesses of padding so I can get a bit of fine tuning on the height.

Delighted 

6 minutes ago, saac said:

Here's a few more. It's our school telescope, made possible by @andrew s'  kind donation of of the glassware.  There is a build thread some where.  The setting circles are a relatively new addition, about 3 years ago.  It has encoders on both  axis, these were really added just as vehicle to explore arduino programming for a lunchtime astro club. In the field we have good enough success using the manual setting circle and a wixi for the alt coordinate. It is a big beast, heavy with it, but I wanted a design that would provide a bit of theatre and catch the kids eyes; maybe inspire them a little.  The design itself is a salute to telescopes made by John Waite of Waite Research . 

Jim.

 

Blooming heck.  That's practically an art piece!

11 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

I’m sure normal ply would be fine. Although I thick it’s a good idea to hand select the best sheets.

As for the cider and going off topic. I have a DIY press. The apples are collected from local hedgerows from the beginning of September until late October. I then press in late October, sometimes the start of November. I start fermentation in a large buckets and then transfer to demijohns. I should get away from demijohns but I have a load secondhand and it’s nice to be able to see the cider. Eventually the cider is bottled and drunk from about a year onwards. Mostly the demijohns are stored down my shed, but I’ll bring some up to the house if I need to fiddle with any. Like in the recent picture - thats not all of this years.

 

I mostly make beer.  I built all my kit myself as I was working in a lab at the time and could basically order whatever valves and instrument tubing I needed.  It's the reason some of it is rather to 15kpsi lol.

The 5 gallon plastic carboys are great for larger batches.  I went to a fermenter king chubby last year.  It's basically a clear plastic pressure vessel with a floating dip tube so you can ferment with a bit of pressure to get a cleaner beer for lagers.  The real beauty of it is that I can drop the temperature of the fridge I use as a fermentation chamber when it's done and serve right out of the fermenter.

I wouldn't say we are off topic.  Your press is made from wood as is the shelf in my fermentation vessel.

I'm going to go and get some samples of plywood an veneers and try out some combinations and finishes to see what works. 

9 hours ago, saac said:

Here's how I did it. The base is made from the same 18mm birch ply that I used for the main body. The setting circle is made from thinner cheaper ply (B&Q) 6mm.  The 6mm ply was cut into a ring onto which the protractor segments were then glued. The protractor segments were 3mm ply.  Rather than using varnish I stained then oiled everything. So far it's holding up well although there are always some modifications being planned   

Jim

That looks phenomenal.  Do you have more pictures of the complete scope?

2 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

It has provided, amongst other things, some stunning views of Jupiter, Saturn and Mars. And my daughter is especially fond of the planets. Picture from back in 2021, at around 4am at the end of a 2 hour session on Jupiter and Saturn. The first time Alice had seen these. Base obviously not finished.

@Ratlet, the crescent moon has a function. I use it as a handle to carry the base on its own. I also put in a round cabinet light. Useful when setting and packing up. 

@Bentley, I haven’t heard of that product, although it might come under a different name here in the UK. One of the issues that I’ve had when trying to order this kind of thing is that often the suppliers here assume that you are some kind of builder working on a house/building and consequently have minimum orders of silly amounts. And if you can order a small quantity equally silly minimum shipping charges. 

Loving the idea of a cabinet light.

This has definitely cause me to have a rethink of the contempt for normal ply. I think the wood looks really great.  

Cider also looks to have dropped really clear there.  Kit or from fruit?  Beaver man than I keeping glass demijohns on the floor

2 hours ago, paulastro said:

Exactly right. Once you have identified some of the exceptionally knowledgeable and helpful people on the forum you can find out just about anything.  Alas, some newcomers may not realise that all advice is not helpful, however we'll intended.

Another trouble is that when you are new it's hard to know what parameters with kit are 'better' and what comes down to preference.  An example would be a flat field Vs large FOV.  Some people prefer the widest view whilst some can't stand distortion and would rather a narrower fov with a better image.  Stuff like that took me a while to grasp.

For newbies I think a good law would be:

"When you are starting out, don't try to buy everything at once.  You don't know what you don't know, so get the minimum to get going and then get more when you do know"

2 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I only ever work off a patio. I put a waterproof picnic blanket down first, then if it's cold, these foam floor tiles around the scope 

My grass is suffering massively from my nocturnal activities.

I need to rejig the garden and move a couple of the veg beds to where there used to be some trees so I can get a bit to put slabs down and maybe a pier.

5 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Something else to consider for cold patios:

I need to get a patio first!  I've just about convinced the missus that we should have a circular slab about the same size as the dob base in middle of the grass.

Then I need to convince her that we need to take down the washing line and replace it with a peir.

I'm finding it comforting that there are others who are as passionate as me that the important thing for warm feet isn't just the socks, it's making sure your feet aren't to tight in the boot.

1 hour ago, wookie1965 said:

I swear by these  my boots are a size bigger so these are brilliant in them.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/MERIWOOL-Merino-Hiking-Socks-Women/dp/B085LTXBD5/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?keywords=merino+wool+socks&qid=1679257938&sr=8-3-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

I'll grab a pack of them next.  All my decent thick socks are falling apart now and wearing through so I'm due replacements.

3 hours ago, PeterStudz said:

I made a base for my 8” Dob about 2 years ago. I would have loved to have used birch plywood but even then (wood has really increased in price) I just could not justify it. One of the main points of building a Dob base is that you can make something decent at a reasonable price. If you need to buy everything from screws and bolts up (I didn’t) it’s surprising how the costs can mount up.

I ended up making mine from cheap 18mm plywood from my local Wickes. At the time it was £18 per sheet & I needed two. I even had some left over to make most of my EQ platform. It was more than adequate for the job. I made mine “organically” without a plan and it’s a little over “engineered” and maybe a tad heavy but it’s as solid as a rock and extremely steady. One important thing - whatever material you decide to  use make sure that you inspect it carefully and make sure it’s dead STRAIGHT. Most of the cheaper wood, even some of the expensive stuff will be warped, even if ever so slightly. I went through all the 18mm sheets at Wickes (yes, I was that guy) and hand picked sheets that were dead straight. Even a slight warp in your ground board will cause it to have annoying “sticky” points.

I painted mine but you could easily make one with a decent plain varnished finished with the plywood that I used . You just need to take time and extra care cutting and finishing off. Which you’d need to do with more expensive wood anyway. The edges on cheap plywood will have occasionally gaps which will need filling. I started off filling mine with filler but quickly got bored with the necessary sanding. In the end I used the old model aircraft technique of sealing the edges with tissue paper and dope/sanding sealer. A surprisingly easy, cheap and efficient method. If you want something fancy for a varnished finish you could seal the edges with iron on veneer furniture edging. Although I’d glue it on - far quicker, easier and secure. In fact you could veneer the whole base (not difficult) which would give you something different, interesting and hopefully nice. A bit like my dew shield. 

'

That looks really good, even before the paint.   Sort of the look I'm thinking of.  Only with a bit of walnut on the sides.  Thinking of drilling a star pattern on it like yours through the walnut to show the lighter wood underneath.

A bit late with the follow up, but fortunately it's still cold at night.  Decided to try these out from Amazon.  40% alpaca, 45% wool 15% synthetic blend.  Just wearing them in the house and I must say they are very toasty.  Will try them out in anger if the skies clear.

7 minutes ago, DaveS said:

All clear nights forecast will disappear and cloud over by the time you get to them.

I've come to the opinion that the "ground state" of British weather is cloud, any clear sky is an unstable exited state that will soon decay back to the ground state.

I would expand this idea, incorporating the recently developed ideas of Messrs Heisenberg and Bohr and propose the following:

1.  The ground state of British skies is cloudy.  Clear skies exist as an excited state.

2.  Prior to the skies being observed they exist as a superposition of states.

3.  The act of observation causes the system to collapse to the ground state.

I am currently collaborating with other amatuer astronomers to investigate this idea.  To the disappointment of all involved early indications are positive for the model.

I propose this idea be known as the "Plum Pudding model of Astronomy", linking back to earlier work by J. J. Thomson on the basis that any attempts to conduct astronomical observations will likely result in the observer feeling like a plum pudding.

Aliexpresses finest 35 X M4 thumb bolts.  £4.49 including shipping and arrived in 2 weeks.  Bought for the Stellalyra dob but currently in the 130pds as I stole it's bolts for the dob.  Possibly a hair too long but the lid goes on without touching them.

I think everyone else's clouds have been funneled to Angus.  Practically had to swim home from work.  Worry not I like reading other people having great seeing almost as much as I like having it myself!

@Mr H in Yorkshire I'm going to borrow the father in law's router,which I believe is a decent model.  He's very much a buy once, cry once kind of person.  I've a bit of wood working experience, mostly joinery so I'm planning on taking my time with this, measure twice and cut once and all that.

@Piero those are absolutely beautiful.

@callump going the be honest and say both.  If I'm going to go to the effort of building a better base mechanically I want to go to the effort of making aesthetically pleasing.  It'll be a bit limited by the fact it's going to support a black solid tube, but I'm hoping to get something at the end that looks the part. 

I'll see what the timber yard come back with regarding price. 

Lot to consider.  I like the designs with cutouts using the thicker wood.  Also seen some nice use of veneers for a more decorative finish.

Be interesting to see how the new grease performs.  Fair amount of discoloration on the brass worm gear.  Is that just tarnished or is it wear?

Only thing I don't like about this mount is the saddle chews the living daylights out off dovetails.  I live in hope someone will fab an affordable replacement.  Great mount otherwise.

I've spoken with a local timber yard who I've used previously and normally have very good prices.  I'll see what they can do.  If they can't do the birch then I'm pretty certain they'll be able to recommend something suitable.

Cloudynights seems to agree (as much as they ever do) with @markse68 that suitably reinforced 1/2" will be sufficient for the 10" which weights about 15kg.