paulastro

Had good strong auroral activity from 11.04pm to 12.10am when it started to die down.  Still less strong activity when I came indoors at 1.20am.  Below are some of many pictures taken on night mode with my mobile phone, hand held.  

13 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

Looked very impressive yesterday through my Evostar120, easily visible through eclipse glasses as well.

Spaceweather is predicting a large impact, but they are also saying not a Carrington event either. Fingers crossed for some activity down south and clear skies! 

And up North!  😊

M40.  That's very much all l could manage this morning - but even more hazy.  😊

50 minutes ago, Kon said:

Possibly the best sun spot I have ever seen. I missed the very good seeing due to work but it was still breathtaking. I managed some imaging too. A little preview below.

 

It's probably the best one any of us have seen 😊.

Of all the ones I've seen, there's only one in 1971 I did a drawing of that could come close perhaps.  Alas I only drew the sunspot itself and not the whole disk which would have been helpful.  I was only a callow youth back in those days 🙂.  

Pic of whole disc and crop taken this morning with Seestar.  Looks good for the next couple of days.

One of many single frames taken with Seestar, this one at 10.45am.  Plenty of activity going on..

1 hour ago, John said:

Got my little 70mm frac onto this one with the Herschel wedge 🙂

Bit of a whopper, isn't it 🙂

(apologies for the crummy images - I'm certainly no imager 🙄)

 

Crummy?  Perhaps I shouldn't post mine in that case. 😂

PS Took some snaps with Seestar, will post later.   Still observing with HA now between clouds. 

It's most likely the biggest and most active sunspot most of us have seen.

Just been looking in HA with PST and Baader zoom, wow!  Fabulous extensive activity around the active are.  As some else said, very lucky to be able to see it.

Easily visible with naked eye - ONLY WITH CORRECT SOLAR FILTER!!

On 06/05/2024 at 21:27, Captain Scarlet said:

Looking clear for tonight. 12” out to acclimatise and looking good for a session with him first time in months.

 

Like the view.

Last night I used the 125ED StellaMira for two hours from 11.05pm.  I had intended to use my BaaderAspheric 36mm and 30mm Celestron Ultima Edge Flat Field to sweep along the Milky Way.  However, poor transparency due to thin cloud/ haze prompted a change of mind. So out came the SVBony 3-8mm zoom.

I've had some wonderful Lunar views with the zoom and the 125ED on one occassion, but no opportunity weather wise for much else since buying the zoom.  

I only ended up observing a few more objects as it happened because I was so impressed by the views with the zoom I had, it was difficult to drag myself away from one to the next - M57, M81,M82, M3, M13, the double double, Albireo and M92.  Despite the conditions I could usefully use the full range of mag's of the zoom  ×122 to x325 depending on changes in the seeing and transparency.  Despite having seen all of these objects countless of times over the years, to use such powers on deep sky rather than, usually, lower powers  was something I haven't tended to do.

The images throughout the range in better moments gave very fine star images (sharp and  no unwanted colours, great contrast, sharp to the edge of the field and no ghosting or flaring that I could see.  I must admit for a rather mediocre night for most of the time I was amazed how good the images are.  Quite outstanding.  A wonderful session.

 I intend to write reviews for both the 125ED and the 3-8 zoom, but if anyone is thinking of buying the zoom just buy it. At almost any price it would be good value, at the £129  or so  it cost me through Amazon its a gift in my view.  

Perhaps people might hesitate to buy any scope so quickly, but I bought mine at a saving  of over £400  on one returned to FLO.  I looked on FLO's 'offers' section earlier and they have another for the same price I paid!

Nice views in WL between clouds using the Seestar S50.  AR3668/AR3664 near the CM are particularly nice.  Sunspot no.148.

My brother will be pleased to know his initials are promihent at the centre of the Sun 😂  (Cliff Yates).

Single frame below taken at 1.41pm with the Seestar.

On 02/04/2024 at 18:27, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

I tried the scope on the AZ5. Not recommended! The Celestron AVX holds the ota great however on a couple of occasions the star diagonal has caught the tripod legs.

I'm currently mulling over other mounts...

Many thanks.  I must admit, Ii was a bit surprised when I saw photo of the 125 on the AZ5.

I've now settled to using my 125 on the StellaLyra Dual Axis Altaz - FLOs version of the SkyTee11 of course.  It takes the weight with no problem and is easy to balance so it can be used as a push to very smoothly, without using the slow motions if desired.

15 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Hi Paul , it's very good ,quite heavy but I see that as a bonus . It lacks a spreader tray which really would help but I like the tripod . 

Many thanks Stu. I'd noticed the weight it's a kilo more than the EQ5 steel tripod which is 5.6k  and nearly 3k more than the Berlebach Report 272 which is a mere 3.6k.  On the other hand it still looks good and its nice to know it works well.  Thanks again, I'll give it some thought.

1 hour ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

So after a day of rain the weather forecast said clear from 9pm ... Well they got it right , for 10 minutes and then a huge bank of black cloud descended and in the distance more rain ... End of Big red 2's first light ... Did manage to see a roof top though !!!! 

That's a nice looking setup Stu.  How are you getting on with the StellaLyra tripod?  I'm considering buying one for the same mount.

10 hours ago, Epick Crom said:

I got my first sightings of comet 12P/Pons Brooks last night using my 10x50mm binoculars in the fading twilight. It was 11° above the horizon near the star u Tauri. 

This really is a bright comet as I did not expect to catch it in my bino's so low down plus the sky was not completely dark yet! It appeared a distinctive light blue colour. Fantastic 😍 

You had me worried for a moment, until I checked your profile and discovered you don't live in the UK 😊.

2 hours ago, DirkSteele said:

Adding a few more books to my library after the delivery last week. This haul courtesy of FLO. One issue is I do not own The Night Sky Guide Volume 1 and it it seems to be out of stock everywhere. The completion-ist part of my personality will scratch away at me if I cannot locate a copy.

While I greatly admire those who make their own scopes, I lack those skills but I am curious to learn a bit more, hence two more of the books.

Also bought another Oklop bag. This time for two smaller APM LZOS scopes. It’s my third one and I quite like them.

Dirk, you might try contacting the Webb Society.  They had a couple of copies of volume 1 at the recent astronomy show on their sales table.  They will post items too.  At the same show I bought a copy of volume 4 (The Glories of the Milky Way).which is out of print but they had been sent an odd copy from the publishers. 

If this fails it might be worth putting a wanted ad in the classifieds.

Who'd have thought it, Seestar S50 captures 'Pillars of Creation' in M16.

I only noticed it a couple of days ago when reading about M16 in the Cambridge Messier Atlas and saw the two pics attached below underneath the pic I took on April 17th.

My pic was taken at 2.58am, with M16 only being at  6.5deg altitude when I started the 26 minute exposure.  On top of that the conditions were quite poor when I took it, m3 limiting mag.

OK, my pic is hardly the best  (😅) , but I still think its pretty cool.

8 hours ago, Doctor D said:

Glad to hear that. Would enjoy having a look at some of your reviews if you'd like to share any. 

I presume you mean reviews re the Askar?  I've put a few comments on SGL but not a complete review - I did do a short 'review' which is on FLO's website  - one of those following  their listing of the scope. Though I've had it since Dec,   I had a heart procedure and  replacement hip in Dec/Jan which laid me up for a bit and with bad weather I've not yet done a complete review.  Pretty much the same for the StellaMira 125 f7.8 which I've had only about four weeks.   I'll  be writing are review for both scopes when weather permits.

If there's anything you'd like to know particularly, pm me and I will make sure I'll give it priority and get back to you.

On 17/04/2024 at 22:33, Doctor D said:

The Askar's are okay but limited in their magnification due to some spherical aberration they often exhibit. This causes stars and planets to breakdown more apparently. 

I've not read any of this.  Happily I must be a lucky chap, as my Askar 103 triplet doesn't suffer with any of these problems 😊.

3 hours ago, dan_adi said:

I would go for the triplet. Neither is top of the line, so might as well get better colour correction 

I'm not sure I'd take whether a scope is 'top of the line' into consideration.  There are also different views about which scopes are top of the line anyway.  Also over the years I've had or used a small number of such scopes which have clearly not been up to their elevated reputations

I have an Askar 103 triplet and StellMira 125  f7.8 which I have found to be amazing performers - irrespective of their cost and the names on the side of their tubes.  You could spend an awful lot more money and not get better views.

Of course, I can't say all examples of these scopes will perform as well as as the ones I have,  as I haven't tried any others.  

However, If prospective purchasers of any scope buy from a reputable dealer with a sound returns policy, they can buy without fear.  

2 hours ago, John said:

I have only briefly looked through a newish ED120. Mine is one of the very early ones (gold tube / cream trim) and is an excellent scope. The newer one seemed good too but it was only a short look that I had. No chance of a proper comparison.

It's quite possible that the coatings have changed during the life of the model (around 18 years and counting I think) but I don't think the glass types used in the objective will have changed.

 

 

John.  Many years ago my first SW120ED was the gold version, an ex-demo one from Widescreen.  In fact I was comparing it with Mike's TV101 at my home with Mike shortly after I bought it.  The next day he advertised his TV and bought a new 120ED!

In my memory it was excellent, as good as all the later editions  including the Equinox which I've had at some time.

2 hours ago, John said:

Something else that has occurred to me is that we are reaching the end of a period of several years when the planets that we love to observe most (ie: Mars, Saturn and Jupiter) have not been well placed for observing from the UK - generally low in the sky. 

Jupiter is looking better now and Saturn and Mars will slowly get better placed as well. 

I found that observing the planets when they were low in the sky was quite a different proposition, scope choice-wise, than when they were high in the sky, as they were when I was observing them 20 years or so back. My refractors took over from my 10 and 12 inch dobsonians because they were able to provide better views and cut through the shaky seeing and the additional atmosphere thickness. There was a period of a couple of years when I gave up using my 12 inch dob for observing these planets altogether.

I guess what I'm suggesting is that what has delivered the best planetary observing for the past 5-6 years or so may not be the optimum instruments for the future, or at least might have any edge that they had in the past few years removed by more favourable planet positions allowing newtonians, SCT's and maks to deliver more of the benefits that their additional aperture suggests they have the potential to do.

Just a thought 🙂

 

Are you saying we need more than one telescope John? 😊

20 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

If someone were to give me a Vintage Parks 10 or 12 inch Equatorial Newtonian I would be in astro heaven. No modern manufacturer I know of comes close to reproducing their beauty.

I think at the first Astrofest, there were 6 and 8 inch Parks equatorially mounted Newtonians.  Lovely quality and engineering with rotating tube ends to rotate the eyepiece position.  Alas, I've never had the chance to use one.