Jump to content

SkySurveyBanner.jpg.21855908fce40597655603b6c9af720d.jpg

bomberbaz

Members
  • Posts

    5,223
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Everything posted by bomberbaz

  1. The "it" in this case isn't a horror character in a Stephen King horror movie but a clear sky in near full moon conditions although to be fair, either of them are equally scarey to me. Yes the sky gods have deemed the whole UK is worthy of at least one cloudless night but as is inevitable he hasn't bothered to consult with the pagan moon 🌙 god. So thankfully Jupiter will be playing ball, a bit of double hunting is better than nought and there should be a nice sharp terminator along the upper left moon. However the moon will of course make dso hunting a visual nightmare. Careful if you are on your own! I really need to get out more!
  2. Do you have an android device you try, could be device related.
  3. As long as you get south of Blackpool you should get some half decent skies to view under, enjoy.
  4. I have seen this diagram before but I assume it is more rule of thumb than hard fact. If it were the latter then I should always wear glasses or some other correction and that simply isn't the case.
  5. Welcome Ben, where abouts in Lancashire are you
  6. I owned one of these RA motors way back for a short time, found I had the same problems with the RA motor your experiencing, so got rid of it. I then simply used the slow motion controllers to manually track, far easier to get along with. Oh as for converting straight through finders to RACI, there is a kit out there but it costs more than a new one anyway, thinkn it is only for certain finders and you would be better just getting a new one. Astro Essentials 9x50 Right-Angled, Erecting Finderscope | First Light Optics
  7. I have just checked the specs on that eyepiece, it appears mechanically they are likely identical to other zooms in the same bracket. In terms of glass which tbf, is where things really matter it appears very good in using 5 lanthanum lens out of a total of 8. FYI the pentax zoom comes in at over 400 quid with seemingly very similar specs. My understanding is this is freebie! If that's the case I would be most happy 😊.
  8. I haven't no, but I believe it will be at least equal optically to the baader 8-24 and I find that a nice bit of kit to use. I have 5 zooms in total and find zooms in general are vastly under rated. You do get better quality the more you pay as a rule of thumb but there are some variations to this. The svbony 7-21 is a perfect example. If you can get the use of a svbony 3-8 zoom to test I think you would be onto a winner. Amazon allow you to return within a given time period, no questions asked, might be worth a consideration.
  9. I will just chip in with my own 2 penneth worth here. I get what you @DAT mean when you say a barlow/tele-extender will work with existing glass but it isn't adding as much as you might think, especially when combined with the 8-24 zoom. Let's assume you wind the 8-24 zoom up to 8mm but want to go further on eg Saturn. So you wind back out to hopefully 16, take it out of focuser and shine head torch onto it to make sure your in the right spot, pop it into the tele-ext, put all back into focuser and refocus and you then pick up where you left off from to wind it all the way back to (8) 4mm. I mean it works, you gain the 4,5,6,7 focal lengths although there are no clicks to tell you where you are on the scale in terms of magnification. I still like it though, but I think the svbony 3-8 zoom will serve you better. For one if you add a parfocal ring to the barrel of whichever eyepiece needs it (if indeed one is needed), it makes for a seamless changeover with no need to refocus. You will know you are leaving the 8-24 at the 8mm stop point and starting the 3-8mm zoom at it's 8mm start point, no faffing about with a torch. Plus you get the extra 3mm length and from 8 through to 3 is indicated with clicks, you know where you are as long as you can count clicks😂. These are only small points of difference but the combination of these little points make a world of difference when it's dark and you are out viewing. Finally some have stated the 3-8 zoom isn't suitable for glasses wearers. This statement can be true but can sometimes be a little misleading because not all people need their glasses for viewing as they move down the range to higher magnification. This is down to the exit pupil shrinking as magnification increases and the effects of astigmatism decreasing with the smaller exit pupil. I have awful astigmatism, it's plus 6 or more. I do wear either glasses or use a dioptrix when viewing using my dob at lower focal lengths. My 24 and 27 fixed length eyepieces really. Below that the affects of the astigmatism becomes less severe and all but disappear at a 10mm eyepiece equivalent on my apm superzoom which gives a 2.5mm exit pupil. I do not use any vision correction on eyepiece below the 24, I accept the slightly less than perfect stars and learn to view with it. In fairness I go from 24mm to 15mm which is a 3mm exit pupil, it isn't perfect but it isn't awful either. With my 3-8 svbony zoom super high power (+210 and up) there is nothing in terms of image degradation. So you may be able to use a svbony 3-8 and indeed suspect you will find it perfect without your glasses like me. I also feel you would find it a far better addition to the eyepiece case than a tele-ext or barlow for the reasons laid out above. HTH Steve
  10. I recently obtained a prinz astral which is a 76.5mm (read 3 inch) F16 and was 0.956 too. I gave it @Peter Drew to clean up and repair the focuser end of things. Now I have a lovely (1.25") scope which still needs some tlc but as it stands is a cracking scope. As @Carbon Brush says, the actual glass side of these scopes is often very good. At F15 if the glass is good then it should be superbly corrected, so if you can sort the focuser out you could be onto a fantastic double star buster.
  11. I can't remember who gave me this map/guide to spotting it but I found it very useful. I didn't use it at the eyepiece but studied it quite a lot in the days running up to my planned visit to galloway to get into my mind what I was looking for and more importantly, where I was looking for it.
  12. Really, I honestly must have overlooked that, what a bummer.
  13. This popped up on my phone, 12th December. I put it in here as a heads up for both imagers and visual but don't blink or you'll miss it. Asteroid Will Cover Betelgeuse, May Reveal Its Visible Surface - Sky & Telescope - Sky & Telescope (skyandtelescope.org) UPDATE: Not visible from the uk, apologies for my oversight here.
  14. I found this list whilst researching into another matter. Part of my research involved Barbara Wilson whom I discovered was sadly no longer with us. Further looking I discovered this rather bizarre and somewhat bonkers list called as per this thread title, the AINTNO way she gonna see this list. There are 100 objects and when this was written, it was described as an impossible list of objects, things like sunlight reflecting of voyager 1, seeing footprints on the moon or my personal favourite, sunspots on Rigel! However a quick scan of this reveal not all are seemingly impossible and I find I have already managed one on it, the jet of quasar 3C273, wow. So I have linked to the list and also copied over the list for which I give full Kudos to the late Barbara Wilson and any other co-contributors. So any of you others can see how many you have ticked off, it's an all new type of challenge on a different level. Oh nearly forgot to add, if you are observing with another person who can verify your hit, you can apply for a certificate if that's your thing. (link in the AINTNO page) Aintno Catalog (astronomy-mall.com) HAVE FUN ! 👍 1. Lunar Mascon 2. 3 Deg Kelvin Background Radiation 3. Footprints on the moon 4. Chevron formation on Miranda 5. Sunspots on Rigel 6. Venera 7 on Venus 7. Mare Moscoviense 8. Veil Nebula's progenitor star 9. Ithaca Chasma on Tethys 10. Mendenhall's unphotographic nebula 11. Uranian Moons:Cordelia, Ophelia, or Bianca. 12. Cygnus X-1 13. An extrasolar system planet. 14. Oort Cloud. 15. Rings of Uranus 16. Your choice of: Blue arc in galaxy cluster 2242-02 in Aquarius (gravity lens crescent), or blue arc lensed by Abell 370. 17. Spokes in the Cartwheel Galaxy. 18. Algol's companion star. 19. The crater Stickney 20. Visual eruptions of Pele on Io. 21. Geminga. 22. The bridge between Ambartsumian's Knot & NGC 3561. 23. Craters on Titan. 24. Aphrodite Terra or Alpha Regio. 25. Resolve 1989 PB's binary nature. 26. Craters on Mimas. 27. Nemesis Star. 28. The Great Attractor. 29. 12th Moon of Saturn. (Helene) 30. Central Star of the Bug Nebula. 31. Braids in the F Ring of Saturn* 32. The light bridge of Stephan's Quintet and NGC 7331. 33. Globulars of Abell 2151. 34. Colors in the Rho Ophiuchi Star Cloud (IC 4604). 35. Any 29th mag blue galaxy. 36. Snickers (galaxy closest to the Milky Way) 37. 3C273's Jet 38. Hubble Deep Field Galaxy (at least 2).* 39. The lensing galaxy of 0957+56.1 A & B or the astigmatism of the lens. 40. The heliopause. 41. Sagittarius A West. 42. SS433's Jets and W 50 43. Caldera of any lesser Mons on Mars* 44. 7293's outer halo 45. The Galaxy cluster in NGC7293. 46. Any galaxy within 1 degree of the Horsehead.** 47. A star in each eye of M 97. 48. A neutrino 49. Comet Levy-Rudenko 50. .001 second double star at least 10 degrees from the ecliptic 51. Each component of the Castor system. 52. Any 9.5 mag star naked eye. 53. Sample trench from Viking 1 or 2 Lander. 54. A proto star 55. The central Star of Gomez' Hamburger.* 56. S Andromedae 57. The coma of 2060 Chiron 58. Mutual phenomena of all four Galilean moons (from the east) 59. Hot spot on the accretion disk of a cataclysmic variable. 60. Transit of an asteroid across earth's moon. 61. Sojourner Rover on Mars* 62. Star 235 in Palomar 14. 63. The black hole in M 87, or in NGC 6240. 64. B Cassiopeia. 65. Illuminating star of NGC 3132. 66. The 3 quasars surrounding NGC3842. 67. The dogleg jet of NGC1097. 68. The counterjet in M 87. 69. The protoplantary system around Beta Pictoris. 70. The Egg Nebula's shell. 71. Your choice of: Abell galaxy cluster 2390's blue arclets; or Abell cluster 1689's blue arclets; or Abell 2218's arcs. 72. The companion to V616 Monocerotis, aka: A0620-00. 73. The Magellanic Stream. 74. PSR 1744-24A in Terzan 5. 75. The Black Widow pulsar. 76. The 3nd brightest star in UKS 1* 77. The illuminating star of NGC 3132. 78. Globular 132 in M31. 79. A 37 minute 46 second young moon. 80. Three Supernovae simultaneously in one galaxy. 81. Gliese 569B 82. Einstein's Ring: MG 1131 +0456 83. Vernal Equinox 84. Pioneer 10 85. Resolve Huchra's Lens (Einstein's Cross)(All 4) 86. A naked eye Messier Marathon.(At least 100) 87. Any supernova in the central parsec of a Seyfert galaxy. 88. The Jovian Aurorae. 89. Io sulphur torus. 90. Observe 45 galaxies in the Corona Borealis Cluster.* 91. Planetary Nebulae in M 81. 92. Planet X. 93. Sun glint off of Voyager 1. 94. Dr. Frank's microcomets. 95. Optical counterpart of any gamma burst. (No space junk, please.)** 96. Dactyl* 97. Observe simultaneous Aurora Borealis and Australis from 40ø Latitude north OR south. 98. Simultaneous Solar transits of Mercury and Venus. 99. Observe any two asteroids colliding. 100. The arrow that points to Pluto ** * Revised ** Certificate already claimed. No second certificate will be awarded.
  15. Yeah 33.5 degrees from my home town, less if I drive north for the darkness. I did a little fov check and I stick by the circa 1 degree being optimum. Enough to get the nebula yet small enough to avoid alnitak.
  16. I agree entirely with this. The only time I saw the HH/ic434 the flame was clearly visible with no filter. I was in Galloway, B2 skies with my 14" dob and even then it took quite a while with my head under a light hood before they became visible. EDIT. Both aspects suddenly just became visible, it wasn't an obvious pop into view, just I became aware of them almost simultaneously. As in,"ahhh there it is!" I had tried very many times before I got this success.
  17. Check everything is firmly clamped as above. Up the aggression from whatever it is in whichever axis you are losing tracking, I suspect RA, by 20% and see if that helps at all.
  18. I think you are missing the point, you cannot see one without the other. The hh is overlayed on ic434, if you see the nebulosity, you will see the hh too.
  19. Found the sgl article, seems the links in it no longer work, but if you read it you will see we do not speak with forked tongues https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/220171-eyepiece-for-that-notorious-nag/page/1/
  20. Just to add to what the others said. There was a really well written article on viewing this and some of the prerequisites. I cannot find it but they were as below: An eyepiece that gives you a exit pupil of around 5mm and circa 1 degree fov. An h beta filter, preferably a good quality one. At least 10" of aperture. As dark a sky as you can get to and no moon at all. Well dark adjusted eyes. There are as mentioned above documented successes by some not meeting the above, however to give yourself the best chance you should try to do so. And John's description of what you see is spot on.
  21. Personally I think the tl at Orion book is over rated, others seem to like it but not sure if it has become something of a go-to response to "what's good to see!" The stellarium or sky Safari option are IMHO better as you have a lot more info available as well as a far greater coverage of what's out there. Stick to the brighter stuff, mostly what has been mentioned above although I note M27,57,97 have not been mentioned. Nor M81, 82. Also I would invest in a Olll filter, superb on most nebula. Finally, get to dark skies to view as it makes sohhh much difference to the end result
  22. If you missed this, watch it on bbc player. One of the best episodes I have watched, more from an entertainment perspective than science but superb none the less. An eclectic mix of presenters and Dara O'Brien. (Watch and you'll understand) Overall, a great advertisement for the hobby as a whole.
  23. problem you are going to have with a simple azimuth drive, which I have no doubt is buildable is that your object in view will still drift up or down in the field of view. You would be better building an equatorial platform which is designed to keep the object in view by following the equatorial plain. There is loads of info on the net, just google it, the one below is a guide from sky at night. Build a Dobsonian equatorial platform - BBC Sky at Night Magazine
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.