bomberbaz

The light is from urbanisation so the extra distance may not be worthwhile however as you point out there is only one way to find out and you are spot on with it Olly, go there and see for myself. I was considering going tonight but the weather is awful and I don't fancy the drive in poor conditions. It may end up waiting until autumn before I go unless the weather picks up but I will do it.

Thanks @Pixies and @Jiggy 67, that is so simple and will basically fit in perfectly with the observation process, much obliged to you both.

I have plus as I use the pushto facility built in, is it in a sub menu on yours?

I use sky safari but cannot see a log John, where abouts is it under please?

I recently went for a drive up into the Yorkshire dales searching for a new deep sky observing spot. I drove past my usual observing place which is 25 km from my house, up past my current deep sky observing spot which is 35km away (50 minutes drive) and recced a new spot which is 55 km away and circa 1.15 hours drive. Some may have seen my recent report regarding the murk to the south of my usual observing spot, anything low in the sky is blotted out by the sky glow gloop. My last visit to my deep sky spot also showed some sky glow to the south but it wasn't anything like as bad as the usual place but to the light adjusted eye, still quite noticeable. So this was the reason for searching out darker skies and my natural thought was to travel deeper into the dales and hence further from the sky glow LP. As the crow flies my distances are my regular spot is about 20 km from the LP hot spot, 45 km distance for my current deep sky spot and the new spot is 60 km in. SQM reading are 21.1 - 21.7 & 21.76 respectively. However these are zenith readings and so are somewhat irrelevant as cutting through the southern sky glow gloop is my goal. Just wondered what opinion is on the extra distance versus improved darkness. Is 15 km of crow fly distance really going to make that much difference!

Thaniks for all the comments people. A little more digging as brought up this Emax green laser pointer | Emax Laser Pointers One of these could be used to mount it 35mm Stand Mount for Green Laser Pointer, a Helper of Astro Telescope Black | eBay However I have seen them fired directly into a 10x50 finder to shine a beam into the sky. It is this option I am considering for my travel outfit

I know there are lots of rules/regulations with lasers, and rightly so. However I am considering getting a laser for one of my setups. I remember seeing one which was legal put to great use in scotland at a darksite and was wondering if it was feasible to replicate. Anybody tried this already?

overhead the sky is lovely and dark, the SQP reading is 20.8 so quite reasonable. However as I looked to the offending south it lights up to dark adapted eye and almost looks like dawn is approaching. I haven't given up on it and will try again from a different site or the same site at a different time of the night.

Looking forward to this report, sounds like you had a good night. The brief overview clearly shows to all there is no substitute for dark skies.

It,s a basic encoder system that came with the scope. Actually was quite expensive but when I bought it I thought, WTH, may as well fit it. So glad I did now.

Went to my local darksite for some observing, equipment used was the 14" Taurus truss and the bulk of the viewing through my 12.5mm Nikon. What went well; lots of galaxies viewed including the markarian chain down to mag 11 plus several others including 101, pleased with the latter. Also lots of clusters including M3 which looked exquisite as it was in the darker area of sky and a couple of planetary nebs. Also I was using my DSC and this was incredibly accurate tonight, to within a 0.25 degrees of anything I wanted to look at, very pleased with this. What didn't go as well; still getting used to this big dob so more practice is needed, even from garden i think. Because it is so big anything viewed over around 55/60 degree needs a small step I bought but again i will get used to that. I need more ballast on the base, when i have my 80mm finder on it, it is top heavy. I know the dsc is very accurate but there is occasion when it is handy to have this available for identifying objects on star charts. Using the DSc app on phone then switching to viewing is going to take some practice, glasses on/off on/off as I view without glasses now. This last bit got me a little frustrated when touring around leo/virgo so I actually gave up and moved to another area of the sky. The scope bearings need fine tuning to assist in this matter. (more practice) What went badly; the murk towards the south. I may have driven for 20 minutes out to country, around 10 miles as the crow flies and directly above the SQL meter showed 20.8 at best. However south it's yuck. @John recently reported getting quasar 3C 273 and I decided to have a bash. Unfortunately this was near due south and quite low, so when I tried to see faint stars to apply to the finder chart, well just no chance. I swung the scope around to the west for star finding comparison which is the darker part of the site and bang, easily popping out dim stars down to mag 12.5 without really trying. It's a decent site but due south is pants and anything below 40 degrees there, no chance. East is a little better but west and north are the best. Overall though very pleased with the performance of the scope, it is a lovely, attractive and well constructed piece of kit that is also a very portable light bucket. I just need to spend more time getting used to it and apply a few minor tweaks to my own techniques. (I have just re-read the last sentence and i could have been talking about the mrs 😅, I'll get me coat)

I have ordered one of these too, prefer something properly made than getting all heath robinson. Why buying so many @faulksy, you grown a spare head in lockdown 😂

not been added to stellarium but NGC 3147 is exactly 4 degrees from M82 so should be findable. good find

Nice one John, great thing to hit and I share your amazement at the distances involved. The origin of the light from it coincides with when tectonic plate movement is theorised to have began on earth! I earmarked this quasar at the beginning of 2020 as a target I wanted to hit but obviously Covid came along that kiboshed that. However we are at a new moon tomorrow and restrictions are lowered so a 20 minute journey to a darker sight isn't unreasonable. I may have a go myself subject to clouds playing ball. Well done again. Steve

I think that on reflection I need to give it chance Stu, perhaps on the occasions I tried maybe focus wasn't quite sharp enough or seeing wasn't the best, I am not sure but I am going to try again. I have to admit that during lockdown last year I tried on several occasions without getting the granulation detail I was looking for and this put me off so the wedge has remained in a box since may last year. So not sure what I am doing wrong, tried at between mag 150-180 with and without continuum filter also with a UHC but no joy. Care to share your own methods to see if I can emulate them?

Very nice indeed Nigella. Think I need to restart my approach to WL solar afresh.

Ahh I was refering to visual, thanks for the reply anyway

Do you find you get any granulation on white light with just the 80mm Nigella. I currently use a Bressier 102L F9.8 and thus far have not overly very impressed with results.

If you use a 0.85 SW reducer it gives you a F.6.4 which as peter says above drops into the quark sweet spot.

look at the star forming going on as a result of the ongoing merger, the gravitational tidal currents must be amazing. Great pic.

Marked version sorry

my image from Saturday night, just a little processing.

Got the little devil, quite easy in the end. 🤩 I would judge it to be around mag 8.9 as per the second star in the four star line between it and M52 Looking back I probably managed it the previous Tuesday but I wasn't 100% sure. No doubt tonight and got a brief image of it. I will pop the image up later as I haven't got time to process just now.

Not sure it is going to last until Monday then as that is when my next chance is going to be. I can still image it but nothing beats photons on the retina.

Right, so as I thought. Thanks. That probably explains the poor goto after alignment too. Wasn't a mile off, but enough.