paulastro

Forgot to say, the three pieces weigh 32g in total

fwm891, I'm sure you will be delighted with the outcome - it will be good to hear how you get on with it.

Rising through haze, 8.08am, Altair 80 ED-R, Olmympus E-M5 M11.

Re using Starsense Explorer in different Bortle rated sites. I've had my scope since July, and used it in all sorts of sky conditions - my home site is Bortle 5. I can honestly say that in all sky conditions with various degrees of cloud cover, haze, mist and at various altitudes of the scope, without exception Starsense has performed at least as good as an optical finder could. Also Starsense has worked many times when you simply couldn't have found d objects using an optical finder. On several occassions I've looked up at the sky and seen so few or no stars with the naked eye, Ive wondered how on earth it could find anything.

Pics of my 8 inch Starsense Explorer Dob after a 2.5 hours session with the temp at -5 degrees C.

Single frame taken at 12.37, Altair 80 ED-R and oolympusE-M5 Mk11.

I used to use a Tak prism for a while, but not secure enough to hold a binoviewer out at 90 degrees in my view. - unless you have hands like Desperate Dan with a vice- like grip. Good optically though not exceptional in my view. At risk of alienating all the Takies, I wonder how many would buy them if they weren't branded Takahashi. My Baader T2, made of metal, is much better in my view and more versatile. Sorry Mike !

I went out to check the sky at 9.25pm to check the sky for later and saw six bright Gemenids between 9.30 and 9.45, all but one brighter than zero. The brightest at 9.30 was mag -4 or -5 and came from near the radiant and went down through Cygnus towards the SW. Another was -2 or -3 ppassed through Orion leaving a train behind it Then went out at 11.50, it was -6 degrees with ice and frozen snow on the ground degrees, to look at Mars and the Moon, but the seeing was poor, Mars not so bad at x150, the low Moon was terrible.. Using the 8inch StarSense Dob I went through some open clusters with the 17.5 Morpheus, M37,M36, M38, M35, M41 and M44. I then spent some time on the OrionNeb which looked great with the binoviewer, barlow and 24mm Orthos, x150. The nebulosity looked like billowing clouds with an inky black background - despite the wanning crescent Moon I then looked at the 'Winter Albireo' - HR2764, very low in Canis Major. It really is like a fainter version of its name sake, a beautiful yellow and blue to my eyes, if I remember correctly they are m4.8 and m6 respectively, distance around 24". I then looked at Hershels Garnet Star in Cepheus, a colour star lovely with a back drop of numerous faint stars, beautiful. By now my fingers were tingling with the cold and I felt quite shivery, still -6, so I finished off with two of my favourites, ET Cluster (C13) and the Double cluster. Came in at 1.35. I've had a coffee, still cold - I might just have another. A very enjoyable session though. 🥶

You did very well to pick it up back in August Michael, well found indeed.

What time did yoj pick it up Michael? Many thanks, Paul

I observed with the PST from 11.30 to 12.20. Lots of good detail, including AR3165 wwhich was flaring at times.

Oops, sorry Michael. I didn't mean to spoil you watching the end of the test by telling you the final score 🫢.

Welcome Dylan.

46 minutes ago, michael8554 said: Today's Test Match play in Pakistan ended, due to poor light, with this shot of the setting sun.The TV cameras often have Canon lenses Michael, I saw this and noticed the sunspots on the setting sun. By the way, it didn't finish because of bad light, but because England bowled Pakistan out and won the test!

Thanks Mark, I have that book and hadn't read that bit 🤔.

Looking forward to it already. But are you really sure you want me to bring Mike along? Have you ever met before? 🤣

Can I come to your party please ? 😊 🥳

Thanks for that Mark, I was going to research when the date of the next similiar event was. Can you tell me where 2052 came from, and is it slso on the actual day of oppostion? This surprises me, as on an intuitive basis, I thought it would be a rarer event. Though I'm clearly no mathemitician 😅.

Thanks Andrew, I was only referring to data updates for new newly discovered objects, or changes to orbitary date for already known objects - rather than new versions of the app. Intetestingly, the fact that there has only been one new version, because of the dobsonians launch, shows how much trouble Celestron went to in ensuring the original app worked as well as it does. The fact that it worked so well when the original 'beginner' StarSense Explorer scopes were launched is very impressive in my view. In terms of its functionality, I don't think Celestron could have done any better. As you say Andrew, it will be interesting to see how Celestron support and develop the system going into the future.

Out of interest, why did you realign it if it was working OK in your previous session? When you aligned it, at the final stage when you aligned the crosshair on the screen with the star, Deneb, that was in the telescope field of view are you sure it was Deneb on the screen? It's not impossible to mistakenly align with the wrong star on the screen. Ive done it myself and it results in a constant pointing error in the distance you are out when you then try and locate an object. I hate to say this, but the Starsense App didn't 'get it all wrong'. I soon found this out when I had mine, if it wasn't locating objects it was my fault, not the app. If you follow the alignment procedure, it will locate objects correctly, accurately and quickly. I enerally don't like RDFs, and use a 30mm optical finder on the rare occassion I need one. I also wear glasses. The app you use is the same one we all use, and there's no reason why it should not work for you, so I can't see it being the moonlight being responsible. As I said in my testing of this, I was quite astonished how well it worked in very bright moonlight. If your phone is an old one, or not compatable it may not work as well as it should. You can check online via Celestro'ns website if you're not sure. If you can't sort it, you're welcome to pm me if you wish. I can talk a lot faster than I can type on my phone. 🙂 I can always pm my number to you. Regards, Paul

Thank you Mark. I never thought to break out the PST yesterday 😏.

Likewise Stu, going out for reappearance shortly, too cold to wait outside, -3 deg C. Frost all over telescope.