paulastro

I will come clean, this is not my first telescope, but it is the first pictures I have of myself with a telescope. The night time picture was taken on November 5th 1970 (I don't remember what I was observing at the time) and the pictures of me projecting the sun were taken in February 1971. They were taken by my mum in the garden of our house in Kidderminster where we lived at the time. I was a youthful 15 years and 6 months in November 1970! The telescope is a Fullerscope 'Utility' 6 inch f8 newt on their Mk11 Utility Mount. Utility because it wasn't painted so you could save money and paint it yourself. As some people will recall, Fullerscopes supplied a variety of mirrors (many by David Hinds) from 1/4 wave to 1/10 wave. I went for the 1/4 wave as I had very little money. Having said that, the scope performed very well, I suspect far better than some modern offerings which claim to have far better optics. I certainly has some good views of Mars during the 1971 opposition. I also couldn't afford a finder of any type at the time. The one on the scope was bought about a year after the scope, it was about an inch aperture and bought from Dudley Fuller when I visited his workshop, then at Golders Green in London. The focuser was RAS screw thread fitting, at the time 1.25 inch eyepieces were just appearing, and you could get an adapter to use a 1.25 inch eyepiece in RAS screw thread focuser. When I bought the scope I could only afford one eyepiece, it was a one inch focal length Ramsden. I had a barlow by the time of the 1971 Mars opposition. People coming to the hobby now just don't realise how lucky they are with such good equipment available at such modest prices 😀. By the way, the camera I'm holding in my left hand is an early Polaroid camera which only produced black and white prints - no digital back then! Anyway, I hope others will post up their own pictures with their early scopes, I for one would love to see them.

I was rather lucky to eventually obtain a pic of these two for the third day in a row. For most of the day it was wall to wall cloud, but at just gone three pm I could actually see a glimmer of light through the cloud, quite low in the SW. Carried my kit out the back of the house but the bright patch was low down behind some trees. I carried the assembled kit up the next road to ours which goes up hill. Set up about a hundred yards up the road where the horizon was a bit better. Ok, the pics are not of the finest quality 🤣, but I did manage to keep up the run. Single frame taken at 3.42pm, SW 72ED, Baader Solar Filter and Olympus E-M5 Mk11 at prime focus.

Thank you Mark, that's very kind. I hope you manage some pics in the next few days and post them up Mark. The weather up here looks doubtful, but I'll still have the scope set up to rush out if there's a chance 🙂

Thank you Michael, it's good to hear from you 🌝.

Unexpected sunshine this morning around 10 am and still clear! Single frames using SW 72ED, Baader Solar Film and Olympus E-M5 Mk11 at prime focus. I've also included some comparison shots taken yesterday around noon. Hopefully AR2786 may grow even larger and more complex.

Good one Charl, glad to see your keeping up the quality of your work 😀.

I can vouch for how good Peter's solar finders are. He was kind enough to make me one ages ago, I wouldnt use anything else 🙂.

I know how you feel Peter.

I'm so sorry Joe, I may have messed things up for everyone. I ordered a couple of colour filters this morning 🥺.

What cloud? I managed some Mars observing in the early hours this morning. And I'm in Yorkshire! 🙂

Look forward to saying hello Al 🙂

Arrived yesterday to a very different Kelling. There's clearly less people here, and compared with other years, its almost eerily quiet, the traders usual pitches are all empty. However, as others have said, the Corvid precautions seem thorough enough and not unnecessarily intrusive. It was reassuring to go for an walk yesterday evening and meet a number of friends and aquaintancec from previous years. Started off last night with some brief views of Saturn and Jupiter in less than ideal conditions before it rained. By 11.30 pm it was clear and apart from an occasional cloud it stayed clear until 3 am when packed up. Transparency was changeable but the periods of best transparency were as good as it gets and the skies were excellent. I spent much of the time observing Mars with the 120ED - nice to have seen it on the night of opposition as well as having seen it on the night of closest approach. Best deep sky lollipops were views of the Orion Neb, M35, Double Cluster, Pleiades, and other familiar sites. As usual, they were the best views I'll get until I come back in 2021. Yes, Kelling is different this year, but not that different I'm pleased to say! Its good to be here. PS If anyone wants to pop by and say hello I'm on T138.

I agree Mark. I've used a large rubber blower for a long time. I use it at the end of each session with my refractors, and the eyepieces I've been using. Even if the lenses look clean, there can be pesky pollen and other foreign bodies on the lenses that you can't see. As a result, I very rarely have to clean the objectives (once or possibly twice a year?), and when I do I use Baader Fluid.

Yes John, sorry, couldn't resist it 🙂

Sorry I forgot it hasn't been announced officially yet, we'd better not tell anyone else, mums the word 😉.

Ah, I wondered how long you'd resist once Mike had bought one 😁. I just wish you'd bought one of the new 120DZs, Mike's face would be a picture 🙂. I hope you manage to have first light soon.

Mike, If you look on the LAS Star Camp website, it says there are no events taking place this year and I think it includes trade stands. I have spoken to three traders who usually attend and none of them are attending.

Rob, opposition is on 13th, but closest approach was 6th. All to do with Mars's orbit.

You go for it Mike 🔭

I was pleased to observe Mars on its night of closest approach this evening, at its largest and brightest until 2035, m-2.6 and 22.6". Managed to observe from 9.10 to 9.45 pm when it clouded over and started to rain again. Because of heavy rain earlier, the sky was particular transparent and Mars looked spectacular between passing clouds. Used the SW 120ED on my AZ4 as I couldn't get it from the observatory. The view was quite good in less than ideal seeing and despite the occasional buffeting by the wind. Mare Cimmerium and Mare Sirenium were quite obvious and in better moments I could see other more subtle detail. I used x150 with the binoviewer and Orthos and also the Baader Contrast Booster which I always use on Mars. Lovely to be able to observe Mars at it's best. A memorable observation.

Well, not long to go, and so far so good. The one thing that may scupper us is if there is a decision to limit where we can travel - depending where we travel from. This is obviously under discussion from what we are hearing, and there could be an announcement any time now. I'm pretty pragmatic about it, but it would be particularly galling to have Kelling snatched away from us at the last minute. I for one have everything crossed 😏.

Rus, having seen some of your images, I'd stick with what you've got. It's not your equipment that makes your images so good, it's you! The same for visual observing, 'upgrading' doesn't make a better observer either. A visual observer doesn't need a Takahashi to have good views. Keep up the good work 👍.

Well done Stardaze, I hope you enjoy it.

Oops, forgot the link!

Here's a link to Bill Paolini's review of filters for planetary and lunar purposes posted here on SGL a few days ago. I won't spoil it and tell you his findings, but it's VERY interesting for anyone considering purchasing a Baader Contrast Booster! 😀