StarryEyed

I have a APM UFF 30mm and it is a very good eyepiece. But I would keep on track for the scope you want that will deliver potentially better views with the eyepieces you already have. 300euros is useful bit of money. If you sold your scopes and one of your mounts how far off would you be from a second hand apo or C8 that your after. Good scopes show the difference between eyepieces more easily than scopes that are built more economically. But no harm in upgrading if thats your choice.

Might be depressing I cant work out if its looking at the sky or starring at the ground, looks a bit of a Marvin.

Malcolm. Thanks for the follow up

Lets makes this interest. When you look at a small pizza (the size of the lens) the can see the pepperoni lets say 4mm is size. When you look at an extra large pizza (bigger lens) the pepperoni is the same size 4mm but you can now see a lot more pepperoni of over a larger area.

Sometimes when you make a connection to a wifi that does not have access to the internet like your Wi-Fi at home your device might ignore it until you find an option to use that connection or stayed connected to it. Once you have connected to it start a web browser and you might get prompted or get a notification across the top of the screen. Check in the settings to make sure its connected to the wifi in any case. Get 'net analyser' for your device this will be a great help and its free other than adds.

As Westmarch says, I star hop with skysafari and being just inside the M25 I often end up dead reckoning. I do find skysafari really good in this respect by getting the screen at the same scale as the eyepiece I cant star hop with the straight threw 30mm finder. Having an Alt Azimuth mount makes this a lot more intuitive and the thrill of actually finding the target this way always makes me smile. But I often look at sky safari and then the eyepiece and think there are no stars in the sky.

I miss my laser pointer. But I found star hopping more entertaining and the journey more rewarding.

Great read and I see a Mu in my future Ive been reading up on them. Whilst I also own an Ercole I put goto drives on an old EQ5 and once polar aligned I leave it outside. I've been able to find Jupiter during the day this way which is absurd when you think about it. I do prefer the Ercole regardless. I have an FC100DF and at times wish for a brighter high mag. view than the FC100 gives on the moon. Im half way to going all out to a TSA120 but think the Mu180 might be a at least as good on the moon without compromising the FC100. Your report is very helpful in this regard so keep them coming..

Ed Tings review of the GSO 6 inch CC has some interesting images taken through a SC MC and the CC near the end. The SC and MC seem to have very similar colour and field illumination the CC seems to be noticeably different. The bottom line for me was considering the GSO made scopes compared to the Takahashi Mewlon 180 being a close and value option. But as ever I'm drawn to the uncompromising approach to optics and mechanics of the Takahashi even if nothing is perfect.

Take a break from putting time into the problem. Continue to think on it but no testing let the conversation do the work. Do some visual check out the moon with a cup of tea. You need to qualify the camera that it behaves. Did you ever check the linearity of the camera over different temperatures say 0 to - 20 steps of 5 and 180s caprures over an hour. Sharpcap can automate this for you I think. Are your images similar to the DSLR with the camera at an ambient temperature.

Thats a great mod and time saver.

With you all the way.

Whilst reading up on Classical Cassegrain with an eye on a StellaLyra I came across this. Do the StellaLyra Ritchey-Chrétien's suffer from this problem with the baffling or has it been addressed. From my own perspective its just to build an understating of GSO. Certainly a talking point.

You can use those car windscreen sun shades and there cheap as chips. Not as flexible as that cloth mind but they work well. I did try sticking some tin foil to a big bit of cardboard but it was to heavy and impractical.

You all need to buy more dissident packets and give each of your eyepieces a case buddy. Each eyepiece of mine gets one as a pillow.

More chance of winning the lottery.

Just cut some of the round bits into triangles and they will qualify.

Thats a great job. Impressive you must have invested some time on this.

if they are both playing up it's got too be the controller or the power supply.

One of these at warp speed.

One more thing. You dont need to understand how flowers grow to understand they can be beautiful. So you can look at the moon without understanding how it got there but still find it beautiful just like everyone that ever lived also found it beautiful and nearly all of them didnt know how it got there.

Ash. KEEP coming here you will get answers... Some Gas can give off light that we can see. You might have fluorescent lights in your house those long tube lights that sometimes flicker when you turn them on. The have a gas in them that gives off a white light. Gases are chemicals so even oxygen can produce a light with colour. Hydrogen is another which looks red. When fireworks explode they have different colours and this is because there are different chemicals in them that when they burn produce different colours. So keep asking questions and we wilk try and find you the answers.

Morning. Takes but two minutes to get the scope out. A bit off target otherwise it would mostly be in shadow. Its a great moment when its still 7:30am the smell of coffee, soft seat of the garden furniture the sounds of the birds and bees, the wind in the trees the early sun warming you while peeking a look at it. All before the world gets up. Its Priceless. The scope moves to the EQ5 if its worth putting a camera in tracking it for the rest of the day. Its what weekends are for.

The British Astronomical Association have merged their variable data with the American Association Variable Star Observers. Lots of great info there but most useful is their variable predictions page. It will give predictions for the current day visible from your location (if you create an account) Which you absolutely should for many reasons other than just this. https://filtergraph.com/aavso/default/index?ev=on&settype=true

Earl Grey and Rich Tea for me.