Ally8446

A little less wind than last year would be preferable too.

Booked Friday till Monday

I'll have something else by then Dave just not with the same mirror quality. I'm not giving up, I just want it to go to someone who'll give it the use it deserves.

GOOD HOME SOUGHT This beautiful hand made dob with outstanding quality mirrors just isn't getting the use it deserves so is regrettably up for sale. 14" F4.62 Hubble mirrors 1/14 wave, Strehl 0.977. Moonlite CR2 dual speed focuser. Fitted Telrad base. Heated secondary and controller. Professionally made light shroud. Bubble level and adjustable feet. It all packs down to roughly the same size as a tea chest, less the truss poles obviously. It breaks my heart to let this go but I just don't have the time to fully utilise its potential. Feel free to contact me if you'd like to view the scope and /or to arrange collection. I'm hoping for £2000 Any reasonable offer considered.

Here's my DL 14" F4.6 with Hubble Optics @Piero. It's fabulous. You won't be disappointed I assure you. Ally

Hi fella That looks amazing Pete, really tidy job. Would you say your design is lighter than the David Lukehurst equivalent, if so by how much ? My 14" DL weighs roughly 34kg.

I never even gave the GSO one a thought Louis. Thanks for the suggestion. The view just needs tidying for my needs. Al

Food for thought indeed John. Tbh I've been thinking about the ES24 82° but wondered if I were to go to 28 or 30mm would the extra 1.5mm exit pupil really be a problem ? I have 20/20 vision and don't wear glasses.

Hi folks Even though I had a fabulous session last Friday (see Observing Reports) I'm now certain I need a coma corrector. No way can I stretch to (or justify) a Paracorr T2. From what I can see my choices are SW, Baader MPCC or (if I can find one) Paracorr T1. I predominantly view on axis so the view doesn't really have to be 100% coma free just considerably better than it is. Any advice greatly appreciated. Secondly I'm in need of a lower FL WA ep than my ES24 68°. Problem is I'm nearly 50 so exit pupil may be an issue. An ES30 82° has an exit pupil of 6.5mm, might that be a little too large ? I'm open to any suggestions with regards the CC and suitable ep. Budget could be better but I could probably push to £300 for both (2nd hand of course). Thanks for your patience. Al

You have absolutely nothing to worry about. That's pretty clean in comparison to some mirrors I've seen. They have to get really rather dirty before it will degrade your view. Al

As the title suggests, it's not very often that I get the opportunity to got to my dark site at the same time as there is no moon about and it isn't cloudy. It all came together perfectly on Friday 29th. Car all packed early as I was able to get away from work mid afternoon. Arrived dark site (Bortle 3) around 18:45, set up, checked collimation, it would need a tweak before astronomical darkness but left it to reach equilibrium first. By 8pm and a few cups of tea I was ready to go so popped in the ES24 giving me x68 mag. M42/M78 - (default) . Never fails to astound me, the trapezium really pops although I couldn't quite see the two binaries. I put that down to the elevation of Orion itself as I'm certain my mirror would normally be able to resolve all 6 stars. I really love how defined the cloud is with amazing structure. Swapped down to ES14 giving me x117 mag. Spent roughly 30 minutes just touring the entire cloud. Jaw dropping. M1 -ES24 - Irregular in shape but I could just about make out a faint 's' shape after 15 mins of studying. I saw more structure in it when I was in Scotland back in November but then it was Bortle 2 skies. M108 & M97 Owl - ES24 - M108 First time for me this one. No pronounced central core although I think I could discern some dusty regions, could be wrong. Owl was quite startling as immediately I could see both darker patches, I presume these are the 'eyes' of the Owl. M101 - ES24 - Faint structure visble but a clear dense core and I think hints of nebulosity. I switched down to ES14 to try and tease out a little more detail. M51 - ES24 - It was obvious to see why it's referred to as a 'grand design' galaxy. Along with its neighbour NGC5195, it really is a sight to behold. A fair amount of structure and bright dense core, hints of a few dust lanes. I tried to discern any kind of view of the bridge connecting the two but to no avail. M63 - ES24 - Not sure about this one but I think the core had a tiny hint of yellow to it, I'm open to correction on this. Changed to ES14 and was surprised to see notes of the spiral arms. Leo Triplet - ES24 - All three in the FOV. Very little, if any, structure seen. M95/M96/M105 - ES24 - This is just a beautiful area to spend time cruising between the three, trying to tease out the slightest little detail. M96 clearly the brightest. NGC3681/3684/3686 - ES24 - This is where I'm expecting someone to say 'nah mate, you got that one wrong'. I swear I could see three faint fuzzies, mostly with AV. I was that convinced I even did 'The Dance' from Evan Almighty I finished with the Double Cluster. Reason ? It's an incredible sight albeit I couldn't fit the entire area in my FOV. Still got to clear it with SWMBO to buy a 30-34mm WA EP. All in all I had a cracking time. Arrived 18:45, vacated 00:10 as I was frozen to the bone. Don't you just love this hobby.....I know I do Clear skies one and all Ally

It's a 14" F4.6 with Hubble Optics 1/14th wave mirrors.

I spent nearly 6 hours with my 14" DL dob at my dark site on Friday night. It blew my mind. I've owned 12" dobs in the past, not a lot of difference between 12 & 14 but the optics in my DL simply destroyed all previous experiences. I'm very interested in your specification requirements. David is a great bloke, you won't be disappointed. Al

That's exactly what happens @spillage. I've always found it to be highly accurate. Al

I'll be there ?