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GavStar

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Everything posted by GavStar

  1. Yes I am. No decent clubs nearby and Wimbledon is rather light polluted hence my use of night vision astronomy which enables me to do some nice DSO observing. Best option for a darker site within about 30 mins to drive to is Ranmore Common imo.
  2. Previously I’ve preferred staying at around 30x for maximum contrast. But yesterday I moved up to 40x which was great. I do have 10mm and 12mm pairs which with my preferred 1.7x gpc will take me to 60-70x, so I’ll try that next time.
  3. Yes I generally just look at Cerro Tololo and Learmonth gong ha for indications of activity. Yesterday I compared single eye observing (Pentax zoom) vs binoviewing with my mark v, 1.7 gpc and 19mm panoptics to give around 40x. Despite double stacking, the binoviewers gave nice bright views which clearly surpassed the monoviewing. The actual views I got surpassed the Cerritos Tololo gong image for surface and prom detail - amazing dark contrast on the surface. I guess seeing was pretty good - really looking forward to the sun showing even more activity going forward. 😀
  4. I’ve just been observing the sun with my lunt 60 double stack for the first time this year. Some great views. For comparison purposes, I downloaded the current solar pic on ha gong - how close do your live visual views get to the images shown (both surface detail/contrast and prom detail)? example from today attached.
  5. Yes it is depending on what you are observing and looking for. Eg the extremely faint Eridanus Loop does require dark adaption, adjusting gain just so to get the best level of contrast, potentially also averted vision (which does work with nv). Also I often spend a long time observing objects such as the rosette which are easy to “see” with nv but not so easy to tease out the fine dark nebulae details.
  6. I think the key point is that since the changes were introduced 3 years ago, night vision posts have really dried up on sgl. It seems like most Uk nv users do now solely post on cloudynights and nv astronomy Facebook groups, so there is little in the way of new nv info on sgl to search and find now.
  7. It’s a bit off topic I admit but your observing report did get my brain whirring! 😀 Night vision is generally thought of as being best on emission nebulae and globulars, and not that good on galaxies. However, reading some of these galaxy observing reports, I think nv does give a big improvement on many galaxies, particularly edge on. For example, the dark lane of the Hamburger galaxy is quite straightforward with nv. And the spiral arms of m51 were significantly better when I did a direct comparison with my 16 inch dob at the Isle of Wight of glass vs nv eyepieces. Admittedly getting good image scale on galaxies with nv can be tricky and require largish aperture.
  8. I’ve seen the Eridanus Loop with you know what a couple of times, but boy it’s faint, makes barnard’s loop look like m42 in comparison 🤣 With my equipment using both eyes is a big help but I don’t think that’s useful for Dob observing.
  9. Stu, good to see the lzos getting used Interesting that you couldn’t get the hamburger galaxy (3268). Gerry recently said the dark lane in this galaxy is reasonably tough to see. I always thought this one wasn’t that tough an object - it’s got me thinking a bit… I had some great views of Markarian’s chain with my c11 from Ranmore Common last week, at least 7 galaxies in the fov but that was using my night vision monoculars. The whirlpool also showed its arms clearly which was cool.
  10. Gerry, nice report! Some of my favourite objects in there. Regarding your comment regarding the Hamburger galaxy - is the dark lane sometimes difficult to see through your 15 inch? I did have a recent galaxy session with my 16 inch dob on the Isle of Wight which I enjoyed a lot.
  11. The Vixen lvw22 was my first quality eyepiece bought about 10 years ago. It’s so comfortable to observe with, I bought some others as a result. I’ve not used these for ages, but I think I should try them out again.
  12. So existing 166mm tube rings will no longer fit or have bigger gaps?
  13. Very happy with my William Optics 103mm Pegasus Binoscope 😀. Lifting that dual toa130 onto the Panther must be a two man job!!
  14. A price bubble seems to have hit the Tak FSQ130. Hopefully this doesn’t happen to other premium scopes. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/809666-fsq-130ed-for-35k-why-the-craze/
  15. Stu is correct 😀 - any of these would work I think (they are all great)
  16. Stu, now where did you get those ideas from? 🤣🤣
  17. It’s important to take into account that the OP has the Televue nv setup which is a pvs-14. This means he is doing afocal only nv, not prime. The USA nv users of the powernewt are in most cases using nv in prime mode only and hence need a very fast (eg f2.8) base scope to get the required bright views. I use a c11 edge with the edge 0.7x reducer and with a 67mm used afocally with nv I get an effective speed of f2.8 which gives great views from my bortle 8 light polluted London back garden with a 3nm ha filter. I would thoroughly recommend an edge c11 for afocal use with nv. However, for standard visual use, I’m less convinced by the c11 and would generally use my 130mm or 160mm refractor. For most DSOs aperture is needed and from a lp site, nv can really help with emission nebulae, globular clusters and many galaxies (particularly edge on). For open clusters I prefer my refractors with normal glass. And of course for planetary/lunar it’s my 130mm/160mm refractors every time for me. The OP has a very nice 140mm refractor that can be used for lunar/planetary and also with nv for the large emission nebulae such as the North America, California or rosette. So in my opinion the c11 edge would be a great addition. However, I’ve never used a Mewlon so can’t really comment on that (although I think for nv the c11 would be better where speed/aperture is more important). Here’s a couple of recent phone pics of the horsehead taken through my c11 and nv monocular at my London back garden to give an idea of the live visual views possible with this setup (one with 41mm panoptic and one with 67mm adapter Televue plossl)
  18. Yes. I’ve tried those cheaper ones, but much prefer the Orion/Televue fonemate. I only use these phone mounts for my phone pics which hopefully indicates they work well. If you are using it for nv, then which glass eyepiece you are using isn’t an issue since it’s the ovni-m you will be clamping it onto. However I do use my Televue phonemate one for non nv work with Televue eyepieces and it also works well.
  19. I used this one with my ovni-m (when I had it 😀). Seemed to work well and in a similar way to the Televue fonemate. https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/orion-steadypix-ez-smartphone-telescope-photo-adapter.html It’s in stock at amazon.
  20. Lots of Taks out tonight. I was out with my largest one, an fsq130 on a Panther TTS160 mount
  21. Agreed that NV has its place and better for some tasks and completely unsuitable for others. High quality units are obviously expensive as well. However, I think it’s important to recognise that there is a very wide range of quality with night vision monoculars and the views given will differ greatly as a result, so your experience with night vision is likely quite different to mine. I note from a comment you made on another forum that the nv eyepiece you used did not have manual gain control - that would explain why you got grainy, sparkly views and were disappointed with what you observed. Hopefully it’s clear from the phone pics I have posted over the past few years on sgl that high quality night vision units can give very natural looking views.
  22. Do you know the specs? There is a wide range of quality of gen 3. I also find having manual gain is critical to be able to remove the scintillation and get that natural glass eyepiece experience (not grainy or sparkly and absolutely loads of very faint wispy nebulae visible which are invisible using glass eyepieces)
  23. Is it Gen 1 technology? The gen 3 technology shows a really good range and resolution, and picks up faint galaxies nicely. In particular, it really shines on nebulae with an appropriate ha filter. I’ve recently posted some phone photos of an observing session I had at the weekend on the EAA discussion section.
  24. Interesting- what NV eyepiece do you have? Mine do provide a very natural “glass-like” black and white views with very good resolution and sharp stars.
  25. Thanks Robert. Yes I should have labelled the pics. In order they are Barnard’s Loop Seagull Horsehead California Monkeyhead Rosette Jellyfish Pac-Man Soul Tadpole Heart Flaming star
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