paulastro

Nigella, whatever people have answered to your post, the real answer is more money than sense 😊.

I wouldn't touch this eyepiece with a barge pole if I were you Giles. Its clearly been abused.

Greymouser. I couldn't agree more as I've got older I wonder about how the things I value can be passed on before I pop my clogs.  Not in a morbid way, Id just like them to go to people who might appreciate them - rather than end up in the wheely bin or a charity shop.  Like yourself, I also try to spend every day making the best possible use of my time.

maw lod qan. Yes, I'd thought about that. Whenever I find a few less common astronomy books together in a used book shop I wonder how they came to be there.

A bit came up for auction at Sotherbys some years ago, and it's reserve was     120,000 - 160,000 US dollars.  

1 certainly wouldn't have wanted to be underneath it when the 20,900 lbs bit came to earth 😱.

I wish I could go back in time and watch it as it came down, it must have been a tremendous sight. 

Not yet happy-kat, the box isn't sealed though.

Yes Mike, of course, that's much fairer than other deals you have done with me.  You're getting generous in your old age 🙂.

No baked beans sorry! 😊

I find visual observing is in having some knowledge about what I am actually looking at. It doesn't depend on the objects looking particularly spectacular - though in my view there are countless thousands that are really beautiful to look at and some spectacular in my 8inch reflector.

All visual astronomers are also time travellers and we have a direct connection with objects as they looked often millions of years ago. That 'fuzzy smudge' in the eyepiece becomes immeasurably more interesting when you know how far away it is, how big, how old and how many stars it contains, and that it was discovered by William Herschel in a garden of a terraced house in Bath in the latter years of the 18th century.

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.