Ratlet

I've got the SVBONY one.  It's built like a brick proverbial.  Except the screws that clamp it which are pants.  But for the price it's a great bargain.  Focus takes an age the first time but I leave my camera in and haven't moved it in months.

Got mine of AliExpress where the prices can be very up and down.  I got mine for £42 in June 

Was there any indication as to the problem?

36 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

Mounting a binocular instead of hand holding is worth half a magnitude IMO.      🙂

I always wondered how it would do with a monopod.  My dad bought some 5*10 binos off a ghillie and that was his top tip (well, 'mount' them on a walking stick) to stabilise them

Up at 0230 for some observing today.  Didn't really expect it to be clear so didn't have a plan.

This is definitely a night of mediocrity.

I did a star test using an 8mm BST in a 2*Barlow and I'm sure it is off slightly.  I had a look at mars but it was very wavy so I think the seeing wasn't that great either.

Also had this weird flare coming off all the stars, a single spike.  Seemed to be pointing roughly north in the eyepiece.  Not sure on that.  I still had the wonky m54 extension screwed in so might be related to that.

Fortunately you don't everything to be perfect to look at M42 and I just enjoyed that for a while and just admired the sky in general with my tc-e2.  The Pleiades were particularly nice.

There's a guide here on building your own.  It looks relatively simple.

I'm not sure if you would need to modify your current setup, but I can see it working.

I was humming and hawing about getting a 10" dob but the DIY equatorial base has given me a firm push towards aperture fever.

It's wild but I don't think I really looked at the stars properly or rather I don't think I've thought about what I was looking at.

M42.  Just a quick bino peek before going to work.  It's still there.  Also you can see nebulosity naked eye.  Or at least fuzzyness.

I also saw a noctilucent jet.  Off to the east in the very rough Orion area heading north.   Just a faint white line of chemtrail across the dark sky.  I was driving at the moment and very nearly stopped (involuntary) so I had to wait for the car to face the right way lol.

First observation of noctilucent anything.

1 hour ago, josefk said:

sigh... yeah. 🤣.

I personally have a strategy for that urge - when i've completed "the lists" for 4" and 8" i will "deserve" a bigger scope...

You are vastly outclassing my levels of self control.  I'm like the seagul in finding nemo

52 minutes ago, josefk said:

Like @Simon128DI also super recommend having both. These are books you can enjoy on a Sunday afternoon planning and scheming. I transfer the 4" and 8" targets [in the Deep Sky Guide] to SkySafari Pro lists so the books don't need to go to the scope and risk getting damaged/damp. Cheers

i should add the Deep Sky Guide is so aesthetically pleasing it is a decent armchair "fix" when nights are cloudy.

I'm having doubts now about getting the sky guide.  Until I got the sky atlas I was happy with my 130pds.  Happy as a clam.

Now I'm looking at a second hand 250 dob and thinking "hmmmmmmmm". 🤣

On 14/09/2022 at 19:53, Ratlet said:

My latest haul from AliExpress.

SVbony UHC filter to start my foray into that side of visual

Some M4 knurled screws which I hope will fit the secondary if my 130pds

And an m54 extension which doesn't fit.  Grabs like the first 3 turns and then jams.  Suspect that will either be scrap.  Might work as it grips well with the few turns it does get.  First lemon I boughton AliExpress.

 

 

 

I small update on the adaptor.  I submitted a refund request through AliExpress.  I originally sent pictures but then a video (making sure it was small enough to upload) showing the issue.  Refund issued within 24hours of the video being submitted.

59 minutes ago, Pixies said:

I use Skysafari on a phone. At a really dark site, I use it on a tablet with red film covering the screen. 

@Ratlet - do you have a RACI finder? A telrad/quikfinder along with a RACI make star-hopping so easy.

I don't have a raci, but so far I've found that the quickfinder and a 32mm Plossl is just about perfect for me.

Ilonce I find something I want to see I've been printing star charts from cart du ceil using a laser jet so the ink won't run.

An advantage of this is that once the dew sets in I can just stick the chart to the body of my Newtonian.

Still dialing in on the sweet spot for FOV

I was going to say, I suspect the issue isn't the picture, it's the processing.

If you share the stacked image someone will probably be able to help.

What do you use to process?

1 hour ago, Simon128D said:

My favourity atlas of all time. Planning a nights list of objects is always easy with this and gets me pumped up with excitment but if you do not have the Deep Sky Guide to go with it I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you do. Once you see it and use it you will never be able to use the maps or imagine using the maps any other way. 

 

EDIT: Here's a peek at mine. 

 

 

 

I'm currently slightly obsessed with sketching so this is defo in the cards.  Next month.

Very happy with this.  Looks very good and shows you what objects should be visible in different sized scopes.

Has also fueled my envy of the southern hemisphere.  Feels like 3/4 of the ink got printed on their pages.

According to Terry Pratchett a wizard doesn't use a wand.  They use a staff.  There is a song about it and everything.  Although it is rather more focused on what is on the end of the staff....

TC-E2 teleconverter through a velux window for a hefty 2x power.

I can see these being great fun.  Looking in to Cygnus it made the dark lanes in that region more visible. I think a recliner and a beer would pair well with them.

My window faces almost due north so I had a look where M31 should be and you could make out hints of it.  Quite surprised.

Looking around caseopia I could make out something to the south of ruchbah.  I think it might have been the double cluster in Perseus which would mark a first observation of it.

It's a really fun think to just pan around with.  As you move across things flick in to view as they fall into averted vision.  Would be improved a lot if I had another.  I can see them being really handy for learning the night sky .

2 hours ago, Pixies said:

I got a Facebook astro friend to print it for me. Getting a 3D printer will greatly increase the total cost of the binos!  

Ah yes, but the other half thinks I've bought the 3D printer for her.  I look on that as an investment.

I tell you what though, really impressed with the tc-e2, even with only the one.  Had a look from the bedroom at Cygnus and boy howdy is that wild.  Pretty sure i could make out M31 and the double cluster.  Just hints of them but a definite something there.

My sister is off to NZ in the new year and is staying in a rural area.  I'm hoping to get them finished so she can take them and I can live vicariously through her seeing stuff.

8 hours ago, Pixies said:

Ditto: 

 

In what is a surprise to me the wife has been militant about us absolutely needing to get a 3D printer.  I've tried saying no, but she's put her foot down lol.

Thinking a perusa mini

Just trying to work out some stuff from the sketch, it was 2 starkkink satellites that went past Bellatrix. 1434 and 4036.

Cheers Stephan,

That's really helpful.  I'm glad you enjoyed the report and I appreciate the advice on spotting nebulosity.  That'll be really helpful going forward.

It's really hard to explain how much fun it is to observe.  It's no like you are looking at a picture and it never changes.  As your eye adapts you see more, as you recognise the shapes and the patterns you see more.

I'm thinking about getting an eye patch.  I find covering my other eye relaxes my face and makes observing easy.  It feels like it might also improve the ability for my open eye see.  I already use a hoody, but I will look into an observing hood.  My wife is an excellent seamstress so she will be happy to help me on that front.

Last night was also a test of some dew shields I made for the scope and quickfinder.  They worked very well and this was my first session I wasn't dewed out.

I'm thinking about changin up my observation log book.  I'm thinking of doing 2 columns per observation.  One for the observation sketch and one for a sketch of an astrophoto if the same FOV of the object.  It'll help me practice technique, give me something to do when it's cloudy and maybe help me see more when observing.

31 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

A new second-hand Hercules AZ belt drive mount for my RC6.

 

Are they any good?  I've seen them on AliExpress and always wondered.

12 minutes ago, Epick Crom said:

G'Day Ratlet. Nice report, that group of stars close to Bellatrix has caught my eye in the past too. It is the open cluster Dolidze 17. Wishing you clear skies!

Thanks Epik!  It caught my eye as soon as I saw it.  I didn't check to see if it was named.  It's funny having googled it there isn't very much information on it and the other members of the catalogue.  I'm hoping this doesn't turn into yet another rabbit hole for me to fall down!

TC-E2 2xTeleconverter.  Wanting to build myself a set of constellation binoculars (aka bionic eyes).  I... uh might have made a mistake when I ordered this and thought it said there was 2 of them rather than it was 2xpower lol.

Also, the M54 adapter is a dud.  I don't feel it is useable with the scope.  It doesn't thread enough on before it jams for me to be happy hanging eyepieces off.  I guess I get to find out how good AliExpress's refund procedure is.

This will fall into the 'just because you can doesn't mean you should' bracket but, depending on the lens you might be able to fit a diagonal inside the lens, using a modified lens cap to hold it in place.  Focus is controlled by the usual way of focusing the camera.

http://bobatkins.com/photography/technical/Lens-scope-adapter.html

Sounds like it's got no guarantees.  I'm going to give it a whirl because I've got a telephoto which isn't good enough for astro and a spare diagonal.

I picked up an SVBONY UHC filter and an M54 extension.  Because of my work schedule I need to leave at 0430 and work 12 hour shifts...  Guess I'm getting up at 0200.  I'd also done a bit of playing with the collimation, so hopefully it'll be a bit better.  Setup by 0300

The moon was at something like 80% illuminated so not ideal observing conditions.  Kicked off by checking the Quickguider alignment on Jupiter with the 32mm.  The moons were a nice spread and everything was dialled in nicely.

First thing I spotted was that my usual targets were all gone!  Not used to observing at that time.  Having a look around I could see M45 was pretty high up (about 45 degrees) so kicked off with that.  Decided to commit to a sketch of it.  No nebulosity visible (not sure if you could see any with a 130PDS at x20) but some very interesting star patterns.  I think I might have to invest in a tracking mount for sketching.

By the time I got my sketch finished Orion was starting to clear the tree line (20 degrees).  I could almost make out the belt but needed to move further back in the garden.  Ended up stood in the weeds by my ferret run but the belt was clear and the sword moving up.  Threw the scope at Mintaka just to have a look.  Didn't realise that it was a double, but managed to split it.  I could have sworn the secondary was a pale blue but this could have been due to the proximity to the moon.  Next I had a look at Bellatrix.  There was a nice little grouping of stars to the North that in the Newtonian looked like a handbag so I decided to do a sketch of that, mostly because the idea of Bellatrix La'Strange swinging a handbag is somewhat funny.  Whilst doing the sketch 2 satellites went through the FOV at almost the exact same time.  Pretty cool.

M42 FINALLY cleared the tree line and could make out a definite area of nebulosity through the scope.  I didn't do much with the with 32mm and dropped in the 8mm BST.  There was a definite line and blob going on, but decided to test out the UHC filter.  This definitely improved the contrast.  The nebulisty extended for what felt like the entire field of view north and south.  It looked a bit like one of the Shadow's ships from Babylon 5.  HAving largely observed things that were round and nebulous this was really cool to see.  I could faintly make out M43.  It felt like every time I adjusted the scopes position there was some new/more nebulosity moving with it.

Unfortunately it was getting to 0420 so I had to call it a night.

Conclusions:

The UHC filter is a definite help for M42, even with the moon out.

The M54 extension doesn't really work, it is not screwed in properly and I'm not sure if it is tilted.  I think I might try to get a refund for it and instead get an 2" Extension and a parafocal ring for the 2" to 1.25" reducer as all my eyepieces are 1.25".  I'm looking for an alternative as the supplied extension with the 130PDS means I can't get focus without my glasses on as it it too long.

I need to draw more circles on my sketch book before I go out.  I ran out of circles and left my compass inside.  I would have liked to sketch M42 but between not having the compass, being stuck in the weeds and running out of time I couldn't.

I run Nina and all the gubbins (guiding, etc) off a 2015 vintage i5.  I remote desktop from an even older laptop in my shed.

For me I would suggest that you try to get 8GB of ram if you can.  Ram will do more per £ spent than processor in my opinion.  However the speed limiting step will likely be the transfer from canon to mini pc.  The chances are it won't affect your workflow though. And it will all be good. I use a t3i and it is fine.

Make sure that the mini pc has a good signal and is setup to only connect to the one WiFi network. 

I keep all my stuff up the shed.  I use the really useful storage boxes from Hobbycraft and put those chemical desiccant boxes from Asda in them.  They will eliminate  any moisture well and are easy to change and monitor for use.  The wrapping paper storage one is even but enough to take the legs from my GEM28 Nd all the cables and desiccant box.  

If you are doing platesolving run it locally rather than online.  It'll be much quicker.  I use astap with Nina.