StarryEyed

Sky watcher 80f5 shortube. The worst telescope I've bought. After all the mods of stopping down blackened edges reseating lens tunning the focuser adding a 32mm Televue plossl I took it to the Canary Islands and it gave me one of the best views I ever had of the night sky. So good it took my breath away and in the process became the best telescope for the money I ever bought. Wouldn't have had those two nights if not for an 80f5.

If your image needs to be nice before you can appreciate it then your a photographer.

If you can appreciate your image because of what it shows you then your an astronomer.

If you can't appreciate anything about your image your about to give up or spend more money.

Think it's out off Germany. Not clear though.

https://www.arup.com/projects/european-extremely-large-telescope-enclosure

On 12/09/2023 at 23:47, WolfieGlos said:

🤣I can really appreciate how hard it must be to build the structure for the dome of the E-ELT. What a feat of engineering.

I watched it last night. Spectacular isn't it, particularly the aspect of using hydraulics to counter act the motion of earth quakes. There's as lot of concrete getting poured there. But a lattice girder will always make me sit up. Just seeing the scale of it made me go wow. What a job to work on. Have to find out who the engineers are.

No surprise it's Arups. Worked there years ago as a youngster. That would have been a dream project to be involved in.

Found site webcams

https://elt.eso.org/about/webcams/

42 minutes ago, Swoop1 said:

I think it is a bit harsh to paint the whole of humanity with the same brush.

Teenagers however......

😉

You can't group teenagers this way. It's not a collective opinion they share in their early teens. They each believe they are the centre of the universe. When they become college students they have started communicating with each other then the brush can be applied.

The data coming from Webb is emperical. The teams working with that data are looking to produce an evidence based result. One that stands up to scrutiny. Then you need to repeat on a bigger scale.

You can't allow the theoretical and practical to get mixed up even though they directly influence each other. The truth is we don't have the money to risk failure. Science doesn't get funded easily. I've seen research scientists basically selling their soul for funding just to keep their work alive. Others as soon as they get published move to lecturing (far smarter than me just friends) just so they can have some stability for their families.

Theories are free. The collection of empirical data envitably costs money.

Have to admit putting all other TV and streaming on hold while I rebinge (did I invent a word) Red Dwarf. I don't know why or how this happened. Probably got bored waiting for an episode of the sky at night. I'm nearly done episode 2 series XII.

Normality will resume shortly. (Sounds like a plot line)

Smart science is demonstrating the need for a bigger better experiment than the last one. Otherwise your out of a job.

Surely this is the dream.

Just to bring it back on track this is a really exciting announcement. Can you imagine all the jaws hitting the floor when they saw the data.

Science wouldn't be as much fun without him that's for sure. Certainly the infinite monkey cage wouldn't work.

3 hours ago, Macavity said:

Too late... Prof. Brian Cox has spoken (as requested?) 😉 😁

Did you know the physics students at Manchester refer to him as "Shiny shiny Cox"

Warming it up for you or warming its backside on the radiator.

You'll suffer the consequences for a day or two of you make it budge.

First things first an overwhelming body of evidence of basic life. Which is not something Webb can provide. Obviously life on earth is an example of one for context. You have to apply the scientific method and tick that box first before you can explore the other possibilities. If we don't then NASA might as well have said yes aliens are hot rodding around our atmosphere for kicks. But regardless more exoplanets with bio markers please.

Don't forget your already a part of a club here on stargazers!

But I just had the notion of a discord server. It's there such a thing run on here?

Seem to have them for every other flipping thing.

Interesting that this was a prime candidate for study. Considering how quickly exoplanet detection ramped up you have to wonder if this sort of find is the first of many. Going to need that Habitable World Observatory sometime soon.

That's a big hole to dig with a small green shovel.

A 5" Mak might be portable but a mount to keep it steady at high power won't be or at least of resonable cost compared to the scope. Certainly that's what I found.

15 hours ago, badhex said:

....

To be honest I'm not really sure what to do for the best,...

Then do nothing. which can often be the right thing to do.

I have the same opinion of my samyang. Which is why Olly's view on the Redcat makes for a strong endorsement.

If your really curious you should read.

Don Eyles
Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir

It's by the man who wrote the computer program for the Lander. You want to know what actually happened this is the guy that had it all in his head and the error codes on scraps of paper.

"Go on that alarm"

Such a good read you can taste the moon dust.

Uni 28 upgrade for a Manfrotto 535 Carbon Fibre 2-Stage Video Tripod with a GR Ercole and 100DF.

High power the manfrotto just couldn't quite manage but the Uni is solid as a rock. Though it subsequently highlighted the need for a counter weight on my GR Ercole to smooth it out.

There's no substitute for mass or rigidity. Pick one or the other but don't compromise.

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

... What I want is irrelevant. What do you want? What I really wanted ...

Olly

Olly.

just tell us what you want, what you really really want...

Does this solves a problem.

Puts all your eggs in one basket.

Cables might be a pain but when everything is modular you can swap out, upgrade as necessary. What they should have done is house the computing board in its own case externally so it looks integrated and in such a way that it can be detached brought in the house and plugged into a screen to download images upgrading software etc. The mount might also then be used with or without the computer. Not a big ask considering the price.

Haven't been on the forum for quite a while. Too much going on in life. Sitting around today and logged in came straight to the last three pages and quickly remembered why this is the best thread on the internet.