Jeff Marsden

Forecast was for cloud and heavy rain at 09:00 hrs and so I did not set up a telescope. Sizeable amounts of white cloud as I pointed a star atlas app on the mobile towards where it said the Moon should be through the clouds. Not looking good. I had my 8x30 binoculars with me as I glanced around and voila, the Moon was further up and the west by some distance from where the app pointed. Venus was close by at 09:35 and through light and broken cloud the two were nicely visible. Wonderfully just before Venus hit the edge and started to dim, a patch of clear blue sky presented itself until Venus disappeared at 09:42. One minute later the Moon was obscured by thick cloud. A very nice spectacle even through binoculars as opposed to a higher magnification through a telescope. Nik271’s photo is decently representative of what I saw although I had more clarity.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/867129-leslie-peltier-vintage-film-footage/ From the Classic Telescope forum. Enjoy Jeff

These links might help. They are a little long especially the second link so they are more than a quick simple answer. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/61238-cooling-fans-and-newtonian-thermal-issues-research/ This one has thoughts on curved spiders as well as fans and their placement. Some of Daniel Mounsey’s (long) musings about observations with a ‘dialled in’ reflector are interesting. Post 49 perhaps addresses your immediate question. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/24123-refractor-vs-reflector/ There are some really good ideas going on here but a little hard going. In typical forum style, veering off does happen a few times. Enjoy the bedtime reading. Jeff

Here is another tour through Cassiopeia for further inspiration. http://alpha-lyrae.co.uk/2020/09/16/observing-all-open-clusters-in-cassiopeia-brighter-than-mag-12-part-1/ Jeff

A nice little video here by Dave Trott. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aox_ZsRL6ZM Jeff

Altair Astro Starwave 152 f/5.9 V3 refractor. The telescope was ordered on Tuesday the 14th of July 2020 from Altair Astro themselves. Delivery was made on Friday the 17th of July 2020 by DPD following, from usual experience with this company, an accurate time delivery slot text. On opening the box and taking the telescope out, I felt a movement from the front of the telescope and my initial reaction was that it was a very slack dew shield that was drooping. Then a clunk was heard and another. I slid the dew shield up the tube for slackness testing and the dew shield came off the end of the telescope tube to reveal no lens; just the threads as in the photograph. On looking in the dew shield there was the separated lens assembly; the cause of the clunking. To access the lens I would presumably have to unscrew the flange on the rear of the dew shield, something I was not prepared to have anything to do with. Also on further inspection I found that the rear focusser flange was not fully tightened on the rear tube threads and I turned the flange approximately 6mm to tighten it. First contact with Altair Astro was the following Tuesday 21st July after trying numerous times and leaving an unanswered message the previous day. I explained the problem and that it was not reasonable to expect myself to accept a repair / return of same telescope based on screwing back the lens cell onto the tube. This due to possible damage to the lens elements and collimation. This the man agreed to without hesitation and he said that a (1st) replacement would be sent out and the agreed date would be a few days later, Friday the 24th July. The defective scope would be collected at the same time by DPD. The man said that he was surprised that the lens had become unthreaded during transit as they check the scopes before sending them out. Now you have seen the photograph of the threads and that is a lot of unthreading between Norfolk and West Yorkshire. So I waited for the delivery on Friday the 24th of July. Nothing arrived with no text as before by DPD as to the delivery time slot. The following Monday 27th July I rang Altair Astro again. The same man answered and was 'surprised' at the delivery company not doing their thing and would be contacting DPD to see what had happened. He would also be sending out a (2nd) replacement but with no delivery date mentioned. I went along with this with some trepidation. A week later and nothing so I rang them again. A person who sounded awfully like the same person I had spoken to twice before, 'seemed' to have no idea of my issue and I must have talked to another colleague. Ahem. I explained the problem, he checked my order number and said that because the courier had not picked up the telescope, as well as not delivering one don't forget, it had not ticked boxes on their system. Therefore, they had not sent out the second replacement based on this. But I had already told them no courier company had turned up the with the first replacement and collection so they knew that and told me on the phone that they were sending the 2nd replacement based on this knowledge. Did they have the courtesy to contact me to say that this replacement delivery would not be taking place because of non collection? No, if I had not have contacted them I would have been waiting and waiting indefinitely it seems. The man said (again) that a (3rd time) replacement will be sent out, just like before, even though the defective telescope had not been collected and of course therefore would not tick their computer system boxes! Just like before!! A further date of Friday the 7th August was arranged with the man saying that there might be two DPD vans turning up; one for delivery and one for collection. Hmmm. I saw through that one straight away thinking that a collection might happen with no delivery. How right I was. There was a text from the usual efficient DPD for a collection time slot but none for a delivery slot. On DPD's arrival, I did not let the telescope go. On Tuesday the 11th of August I spoke with the same man as previously spoken to who last time claimed he had no idea of the issue. On saying my name and its about a Starwave 152, his straightaway first question was 'Has the telescope been collected' ? Hmm, strange why he asked that question rather than have you received your replacement telescope that you have paid £799 for. No I have not allowed the scope to be collected because the replacement has not been delivered again. That's strange he says, here we go again, it was booked in with the couriers for delivery last Friday. I will get onto them and... Sorry but I have had enough and I want a refund. No problem he says without any resistance. The scope will have to be returned for a refund to be given though. I told him that I was not 100% happy with that situation but that is the way they operate for a refund. So collection was arranged for Tuesday the 18th of August and a refund back into my account shortly after. At this point I sent a short email to Altair Astro putting down the collection date and the refund into my account as we had discussed. Any form of trust to take Altair Astro at their word was gone. Something was down in writing at least. The 18th of August and no collection nor text from DPD. Altair Astro were contacted late that afternoon and they answered the phone straight away. I expressed my annoyance at the whole saga in plain speak. The usual man said that he would get onto DPD (again) to see what had gone wrong but that he would refund my account there and then. I told him that I would appreciate it, if he did just that. He said he would drop me a line later on to make an arrangement for future collection. Again there was no resistance or gruff attitude from the man but that is not good enough. Delivery, excuse the pun, is what counts. On Thursday the 20th August the refund was shown in my account. This has been a sorry shambles throughout by Altair Astro. During the whole time they have never made a courtesy contact once regarding the successful delivery of a replacement; if one was ever sent out. I have had to 'run after' Altair Astro at every stage and waste numerous days waiting for non deliveries / collection. As of Saturday the 5th of September, Altair Astro have still not contacted myself to arrange collection of their telescope.

I saw this post this morning and thought it rang a few bells. The tube cradle looks to be larger in diameter though than when appearing in the Refractor photos. http://www.deep-sky.co.uk/telescopemaking/tm3.htm Jeff

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/404734-new-12-apm-apo-binocular/ $500,000 Dollars area in 2012. I seem to recall that they were for a Chinese billionaire.

I saw these 20+ satellites for the first time at approx. 18:03 Wednesday 22/1/20 going from roughly South West to North East. Not knowing anything about them, I was quite taken aback at the procession to be honest. Someone from Doncaster put a posting on here on Wednesday evening asking what they were with replies saying what was happening. Will we have timings for spotting StarLink as we do Iridium flares? Jeff

I had exactly the same thought before I read your comment. Especially as last week I was in front of the below massive original in Huddersfield Library / Art Gallery https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/joshua-commanding-the-sun-to-stand-still-upon-gibeon-21810 Jeff