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Piero

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Everything posted by Piero

  1. My TV-60 is 10 inches long when the dew shield is retracted and weighs 1.5kg.. I suspect your combinations of "Granade" + Powermate 2x (=missile) beat it on both! This even excluding the par-corr..! Despite this I bet they give you awesome views!
  2. The good thing of this hobby is that the gems in the Sky are still there tomorrow, next month, next year and so on.. Enjoy your super Ethoi!
  3. This is a great thread and it will be certainly of help for many people. I enjoyed reading it a lot and appreciated your stimulating and encouraging writing. There is a lot of fun in this hobby and, to me, part of it is also about documenting, be this during the session (e.g. sketching or taking live notes) or afterwards. I started documenting my sessions not much time ago and found it really important. First of all I enjoy it a lot, secondly it helps keep track of how objects are seen and therefore improve observation skills, and thirdly it helps keep track of which objects have been observed, which otherwise can be forgotten. I admire a lot people sketching their targets and to me that is the best way. Keeping notes is a good approximation though. Eventually everyone finds his/her own way. Your advises are very useful and can change a person's approach to this hobby in a positive way. At least people should give a try. Thanks for sharing, Piero
  4. Binoculars refreshed my interest in astronomy after a long pause. They are great for learning and appreciating the sky! @moringlboy: nice bins! I have been thinking about buying an 8x42 like yours myself.
  5. Yes, I don't have a garden (or a car...). So, I pick up the bike and go to a field. Fortunately, it's only 1.5km from home each way. After cycling 20km to go to work, I don't fancy other heavy cycling! I am planning to take the tv60 and my light tripod to work by bike this winter and to stop somewhere on the way home. I believe in the middle of this countryside the milky way is visible.
  6. OR.. no new order and look for new targets to observe in a star atlas!
  7. I love mine, and to me it works very well with the N13.
  8. Here is my tv60 almost ready for Jupiter ..and my bike behind! ;-) .
  9. Wow! that is a super collection! Very nice! Lovely and elegant scope! Your Vixen is a real beauty!
  10. From eyepieces case to dobs.. Nice (and scary) thread this one! I'm in for a 'Show us your Refr...' if someone starts it (not me!)
  11. Thank you for your suggestion, Helen! It is an interesting idea!
  12. Thanks for your replies, gentlemen! I forgot to say that when it is used with the 'reversed' mount head and at altitude of about 60-70 degrees like in the first photo, the telescope is balanced. I lock it anyway, because the idea that the telescope could shift on one side makes me paranoid, but the good thing is that it is relatively easy to move at that height.
  13. Okay, I tried this light tripod on a field. The whole observation was done by extending three leg sections (this tripod has 4 leg sections) and the central pole. Pros: - Light and compact (1.4kg, 44cm when legs fully collapsed) - For its weight, it holds the telescope sufficiently - Suitable with short small tubes for travelling and air plane - Once extended, legs are blocked properly. Cons: - Not stable above 100x if it is moderately windy (not that I expect this to be stable under windy condition!) - One handle regulates both azimuth and altitude. This can be a bit frustrating when a target is followed. There is a point in the regulation of this handle in which altitude is locked but not azimuth. However this setting needs some experience to find it and if you don't lock the mount head properly, the tube can fall due to its weight. Verdict: This tripod can be a light compact solution for short light tubes (such as TV60, Tak60) for travelling as long as some care is taken of course. I would not use it on a regular basis, because I prefer something more solid. I do not regret buying it as I wanted to buy a tripod for travelling anyway. I simply thought that it was a bit easier to use the mount head. Maybe it is possible to replace the current mount head with a mini giro mount head + 1kg counterweight. However, I am not investing more money on this. Fortunately, I found out that the sky in the field 2 miles away from my house is sufficiently dark. No milky way visible, but it is okay for routine observation. I can cover this distance by cycling with my solid tripod without too much effort, and use this light tripod when travelling by train or plane.
  14. Just got a Nagler T6 13mm on ABS. Looking forward to trying it with the Pan 24mm on the field.
  15. That's a top class collection to me. Although I would not buy 'giant-eyepieces' for myself, I bet the views they deliver are superb. Are there specific targets you prefer using your set of plossl rather than the others?
  16. Unfortunately in the current place where I live, I don't have a garden or fields reachable by walk. The Manfrotto tripod that I have bought and used so far is really good and holds the TV60 very well, but is too long and heavy for being carried by bike. In the past I was thinking to add a more portable tripod mainly for air plane so that I could take the TV60 to the Alps in Italy, but also to other places. Being forced to go to fields by bike, I decided to invest in this additional tripod now. I found the Manfrotto compact advanced aluminium tripod a good solution for my needs. Specs are: Load Capacity: 6.6 lb, Max Height: 65", Min Height: 17.5", Folded Length: 17.3". It comes with padded bag and plate. Although I have not tried in the field yet, it seems quite sturdy even when the legs are fully extended. It is light but quite solid. The mount is made of hard plastic with metal supports. It has a 3-way pan/tilt head. Although only one is required in astronomy, these lock the TV60 on the mount very effectively, even when this points near the zenith. The plate attaches to the mount head without living 'gaps' which sometimes you can have in some bad tripods. I am looking forward to using it! There are a few places in the countryside nearby which I believe have low light pollution. This summer I am taking it to the old town of my grandparents in the Alps and I believe it will couple the TV60 well! 1) Manfrotto compact advanced aluminum video tripod + TV60: 2) Manfrotto MVH500AH video head + 755XBK tripod + TV60: p.s. no complains about the MVH500AH+755XBK. It is excellent and I am keeping it anyway for the next year when hopefully I find a house with garden!
  17. I can see the 'Toggle Edit Options' and that was exactly what I asked for. Thanks very much, again Grant!
  18. Thanks a lot! I will follow your suggestions.
  19. I think this forum is superb, and the website structure is very functional. The only think I could suggest is to add a quick way (e.g. a button, or a checkbox+button) to remove threads an user follows as shown in "The content I follow" in the user menu. If an user decides to stop following a thread, he/she has to: 1- click on his/her user label 2- click on 'Content I follow' 3- click on 'Change' next to the forum of interest 4- select 'Stop following' 5- click on 'update selected' This is quite a long way to me for a recurrent task. True, you can unfollow using the link when you receive a post by email, but I found that I do not have a real control of the posts I want to follow in this way. Possibly, adding 1. one button 'Unfollow' next to each followed post in the section 'Content I follow', so that the user would simply click the button for all the posts he/she decides not to follow any longer; OR 2. adding a check box next to each followed post and buttons: Select All, Deselect All, Delete at the top. Do you think this would be useful? If not, is there already a way to do this in a quick way, instead of pressing 'Follow' manually for each post I am interested in? Many thanks for reading Piero
  20. Thanks! I have been building it after a lot of reading, mostly here in SGL. Although choosing eyepieces based on exit pupil seems to be a controversial argument some time, I found that it helped me a lot. Exit pupil, field of view and magnification are the three ingredients of my selection. pan24 -> 4.0mm, 4.3deg, 15x nag13 -> 2.2mm, 2.8deg, 27x nag7 -> 1.2mm, 1.5deg, 51x nag3.5-> 0.6mm, 0.7deg, 103x Knowing that I like F5-F6 telescopes means that the exit pupil is very similar, simplifying the selection. For a dob F6: the exit pupil is the same. ============================= nag13 -> 2.2mm, 0.9deg, 92x nag7 -> 1.2mm, 0.5deg, 171x => a nag 9 covers the hole nicely (1.5mm, 0.6deg, 133x) For a dob F5: the exit pupil increases a bit, but in a nice way (assuming dob10") ============================================= pan24 -> 4.8mm, 1.25deg, 52x nag13 -> 2.6mm, 0.8deg, 96x nag7 -> 1.4mm, 0.4deg, 179x => again a nag 9 covers the hole nicely (1.8mm, 0.6deg, 139x) In summary, as other users reported already, from a medium power (exit pupil 2.0mm) you scale up or down: Basically, exit pupils: 4.0mm -> low power *** 2.8mm -> medium/low power ** 2.0mm -> medium power *** 1.4mm -> medium/high power *** 1.0mm -> high power *** 0.6mm -> very high power * where: ***: very useful ** : useful if the telescope is sufficiently large (e.g. >=200mm) * : useful if small telescope If the eyepieces have same field of view, they work nicely together too. For the scale of exit pupils shown above, from 2.0mm you multiply or divide by 1.4 and you get the other values. To me 1.4 makes a nice perceptible distance.
  21. WoW..! Reading this thread is like having an eyepiece overdose! Nice collections, everybody! I hope to maintain mine simple and usable, though, without any.. ehm 'monster eyepiece'! Anyway, here is my set of eyepieces (all well known boys): Pan 24, Plossl 20, Nagler 7, Vixen 5, Nagler 3.5. The ones I regularly use with my TV60 are: Pan 24, Nag 7, Nag 3.5 . I want to add a Nag13 as medium power. With this, the TV60 is complete. Plossl 20.. well, I am fond of it. It has stayed with me for half of my life, and will continue so, even if not much used. Vixen 5 for now stays too. In the future, after buying a dobson F6 or F5, I will likely add a Nag 9 to the set. If I get a dobson F6, I might add a TV Plossl 32 for extended nebulae and to barlow (getting a 16mm). If I get a dobson F5, I think I am fine. p.s. no case for me, but just a photo bag. I like eyepieces standing up at the scope.
  22. Superb post Rob! This and the one about planetary nebulae are the best posts in this forum to me. They should be on a special section "above the sky"!
  23. Congratulations to both of you! wonderful image!
  24. Just came across this .. ehm thread? article? on planetary nebulae! What can I say.. it is a fantastic work!! A big congratulation to Rob for collecting all this information together! It is very nice to have a place like SGL to share and read all this information! This astro-community is great!
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