paulastro

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

No from me - weather is too much of a risk 

Likewise.

I don't think we should 'speak' to any members of SGL who attend the show and don't post at least one image!

 Come on you mean lot, where are they?

10 hours ago, Jeff Marsden said:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/867129-leslie-peltier-vintage-film-footage/

From the Classic Telescope forum.

Enjoy

Jeff

That's very kind of you Jeff, thank you.  Brilliant, never seen it before. 👍

6 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

Are there usually good offers/discounts for buyers of new equipment at this show?

I would not be going for talks but wondered if any savings on prices would be enough to cover the petrol costs.

 

 

There will be reductions on some items from soms vendors..  Received this in an email this morning.

This is what it was like around 8am here looking out of the kitchen window - that's a foot of snow on top of the bird bath. 

It's started to melt, but this afternoon it starts to  get colder again. When I have to set off around 5.30am tomorrow, it's forecast to be -7C. It depends on how much snow remains as to if I'll make it.

This Amber weather warning has just been issued, I'm in the Amber bit 😱.  At over 850 feet altitude I think it might be optimistic to think it will all have cleared away by about 5.30 Sat morning when I need to set out.

I grabbed the opportunity to give the Ultima 30mm first light last night having had it over a week.  Not ideal conditions, only about 9 hours after Full Moon, but heavy snow forecast for the next 2/3 days.  I was using it with the 8inch Starsense Explorer Dob, session from 8.25 to 9.55pm, temp - 3 C and intermittent patches of thin cloud until it clouded up.

Light weight enough to cause no balance problems  with the Dob,  and its 22 degree eye relief made it easy to comfortably see the hard edge of the whole 70 degree field with the eyecup folded down.  It was a similiar immersive experience as when using my 17.5 Morpheus (76 degrees).

First used it on the Pleiades, the ET Cluster, Orion Neb, Orions belt. Orions sword, Dble Cluster and M31 to get a feel for the field of view compared to the ES24/68.  The 1.75 deg field of the Ultima clearly gave me the advantage I needed over the 1.36 field of the ES for more extended objects. Despite the moonlight and some whisps of cloud the view was very pleasing, stars being sharp to the edge of the field and contrast better than I hoped fir on the night of full moon.

I then added a 2inch ED generic barlow to see how it would operate as a 15mm option.  Objects observed were the Orion Neb, M44, M35, M47, M48, M67 and finally the Moon.

The view was still emmersive, and the extra mag increased the contrast of course, giving fine views of all the open clusters - very impressive for full Moon night and the barlow maintained the quality of the star images as with the eyepiece alone. 

With the 8inch aperture and the help of Starsense App to swiftly find objects where having to use a finder in the bright moonlight would be very difficult, it means you can have a worthwhile deep sky experience despite the moonlight.

Very happy with the 30mm Ultima's performance, and I recommend it - certainly no problem at f6.

Before anyone asks, I realise there is the StellaLyra version (plus at least another six clones!) which are cheaper.  I had my reasons for paying the extra for the Celestron. 😊

5 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Snow is forecast for where I am 

Where are you?  I'm in West Yorkshire and the snow here is due to finish Friday afternoon, snow warnings every day from 7th to 10th none on 11th.

Anyway, it will be what it will be.  I expect one of the organisers will put a post on SGL if it's cancelled.

  If you travel on main roads it could be fine.  Not so good for me though.  The first eight miles is over high moorland along a narrow road where you can't easily see the edges of the road if there's any snow. Still hopeful of making it though 😊.

Morning Elrond.

Not guilty on the cult front, thats the term I use for small Takahashi enthusiasts this side of the pond 🙂.

I can understand your frustrations, it's also very difficult to know what's going on with it unless you can actually be with someone having problems and observe what they are doing.  It could be something really straight forward.  

Just a couple of questions, is it in night vision mode when it fails to work on the night sky?  Also have you tried to do the alignment  procedure at night?  It might be worth a try if not.  If you do, it's easy to think that there are no stars visible when you first look at the screen, but they pop into view if you pinch the screen outwards to zoom in. (the star images are harder to see at low magnification.)  Of course best to do it on a bright star or planet anyway.

I find it hard to believe that 10% of users don't get it to work, if that's what the guy from HPS said to you Elrond - if that's what he meant.

The Starsense Explorer has been used on other smaller scopes than the dobs for 3/4 years, and if it was true then that would be a huge problem for Celestron.

Also HPS thenselves have some VERY enthusuastic reviews on utube which are the polar opposite from what the guy at HPS told you.  Not only that but the best reviewers (in my view), Denis d'Cicco, Alan Dyer and Ade Ashford give it excellent ratings. What's more Dickinson and Dyer in the latest edition of Backyard Astronomer rate the pre- dob StarSense Explorer telescopes as 'virtually making any other beginners telescopes obsolete'.

I know reviews aren't everything, but it's hard to understand where the 10% of people having problems comes from.

As markse68 said Elrond,  if you can be more specific where the difficulties are, perhaps someone on this forum may be able to help.

44 minutes ago, Elrond1998 said:

I just ran across your review and have to rain on it a little. I bought my 8in staesence in June (22) and have never gotten the App to work. The people at High Point Scientific offered a few tricks but nothing worked. I hade a new samsung galaxy,  tried an older Moto 6 nothing worked. They suggested I review the settings but nothing has worked.  I have never heard from celestron even after multiple attempts. I wish I had bought a plain dob and saved the money. Since then I have enjoyed the scope but the App is less than worthless, it taunts me haha.

Elrond.  Sorry you've had trouble with the scope. Obviously, there's nothing that can go wrong with the scope itself.  In a similiar way, the app works in the same way for everyone that downloads it.

The only things that can result in it not working are -

1 Your phone is not compatable.

2 Your phone is faulty in some way.

3 It is something to do with the settings.

I presume you've checked on Celestrons list of compatable phones so its not the first one?  Be aware though, they haven't checked all phones, and some phones have different names/model numbers in different countries.  Though the latter shouldn't be a problem if it was bought in the USA.

Option 2 is very unlikely, and if your phone has a fault, you would probably know about it.

If not the first two, it must be the settings.

I would at least try get a response from Celestron again, I once registered a problem with their customer support dept online and they were prompt to respond and were very helpful.

It may help if you post on the American forums and here on SGL at ask if there is anyone using your make and model of phone successfully with the Starsense Explorer App.  If they have, it must be your phone's settings or your phone does have a fault.

Also you could try and get help from someone in a local society who may have a Starsense Explorer.

Best of luck, I don't like to think of you not getting it to work when it could be something quite straight forward.

Regards, Paul

Blimey, I'm glad when I started in astronomy, over fifty years ago, that I didn't realise there was so much I should be worrying about when I'm out and about with my telescope! 😱

There's a difference between taking reasonable,  precautions,  fear and paranoia. 

45 minutes ago, icpn said:

not really. the margins are small in the astronomy business. Unfortunately most people use social media now so that is where the people focus their efforts on advertising so those that choose not to go there are going to be disadvantaged. This is the way of the world now.

 

Though every vendor doesn't have across the board discounts.  Some of them may have discounts on a few items - at least a few did last year.   Some vendors had the odd items for sale at different prices.

Also, sometimes a vendor has items for sale that they haven't got available on line.  I bought an eyepiece last year that I was after,  which no one I had contacted said they had in stock.  At the show, one of the vendors I had contacted had two for sale on their display - very soon there was only one!  😊

PS If you are after a particular item and you can't see it, it pays to ask.  All the stock they have brought is not necessarily on display.

36 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

Not providing information in advance seems to be a recurrent feature of astro shows.
The organisers know all they have to say is 'astro show at place and date' and the masses will mass🤣

Last year PAS had the list of attendees on the link I pointed to in my previous post - unfortunately it hasn't been updated for this year!  It was also advertised in one of the mags - I think it was S@N.

8 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

If you click on the link in the first post, doesn't it show the vendors for the 2023 show?

No.  If you read on the link the date on it is for 2022, its 2023 now Mike.  The list is for last year's show.  Press on the three horizontal lines on the top right of the page and look at the link 'Who's at the Show?'. As I said in a previous post I'm not on Facebook which is why I'm asking!

Does anyone know if there is a list of traders attending the show anywhere?  I don't use Facebook, and the link on the PAS 2023 website has the list for 2022!  

4 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Have followed your posts on this scope with great interest Paul. Given half the chance (darker skies, more space), I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one too. 

Many thanks Mark.  I must admit, I do go on about it a bit.  Its just so good, every time I use it I'm amazed how well it works. 🙂

6 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Look at that frost caked dob, you guys don't mess around across the pond.

It was -5 C, not unusual up here.  The good news was that the optics didn't frost over 🙂

2 hours ago, Alan White said:

We all clearly have varying challenges that lead us to the choices of mount type and scope, 
clearly that is not always the direction we might feel we want, but that is always one of life’s ways.

I have spoken with Paul about the Dob choice and fully understand with the thinking and result, 
A Dobson mounted Newt when sat at can be comfortable, the Starsense technology is clearly the real deal here.

I have to sit when I observe if for more than a cursory look see, my knees were wrecked a few years back from infection,
being seated is the critical part for me, especially if it’s cold and damp and let’s face it UK observing is cold and damp a lot of the time.

So dream scope for me is one I can sit at…

Always my now old Red MFI stool, purchased in 1979 with a desk for me by my Grandad.

The stool has outlasted Grandad, The desk and my Parents, the only upgrade is the seat pad a few years ago.

I love your 'obseratory' Alan, much neater than my observatory - garage 😊

I have my Holy Grail scope, and it's not a Tak, it's not even a refractor!  It's the Celestron Starsense Explorer 8inch Dob, which I bought last July.

I sold my 102ED F7 refractor to buy it, as I'm waiting for my second hip replacement and I have severe multilayer spinal stenosis. This means I can only use a finder with great difficulty, and it causes ne great pain despite shed loads of pain killers.

The SS means I can observe largely pain free (as long as I'm sat down) and the target finding app means I can find any object I want in less than a minute, and through thin layers of cloud where you literally can't see a single star, I kid you not. Plus no set up procedure each session and no finder necessary.

It's means I can carry on observing and making the most of every session I am outside. It's been a game changer for me.

What's more I have to say I can see a lot more through  the  8inch Dob than I could ever could see through my refractor.

1 hour ago, jetstream said:

Yeah, I dont think its happening anytime soon lol

I would love solarscope etalons to hang off my TSA120, but man are they expensive. They are the very best IMHO.

Maybe I'll settle for a TSA120 binoscope

Then there is the optical perfection ie spot sizes of the TOA130... geez I wish I hadnt seen these or heard the reports from the big Tak users...

Yes, it's just such a shame that most of us in the UK rarely get sub-arcsecond seeing to get the best out of them 😊.

4 hours ago, DPF said:

You've convinced me to purchase the book - looking forward to it arriving

I'm sure you'll like it, at least I hope so! 😅.

52 minutes ago, DPF said:

Would anyone have any views on how the Duplex Moon Atlas compares to the lunar maps in Atlas of the Night Sky by Storm Dunlop.

Thanks

This is one of the maps, whole page.  It looks a bit more contrasty than it should due to a bright ceiling light.

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Well Mike, I know of at least 6 of us who will be at PAS, and we'd all happily sit and listen to you for an hour if you're supplying the coffee??!!😁😁

Dave

That is only true if you think a sub - four inch Takahashi is the best telescope for everything and you're certainly not an imager!  😁

I bought this before FLO stocked it.  In my view it's easily the best practical  atlas of the Moon that I have, and I have more than a dozen.  It's now my goto if I need to identify some feature.  Previously it was the 21st Century Atlas, but the Stoyan has a larger scale, and of course having the two sections for both a Newtonian reflector and a diagonal view it's a no brainer if you choose to use both which I do or just the latter 

I would point out though that it has no information at all about the various features- and I really mean nothing!  This isn't a criticism as it is an atlas to identify features which it does admirably.  All lunarphiles will have other sources of reference anyway.