FenlandPaul

Not a thread I’ve contributed to before, but this arrived for me today: unfortunately accompanied by this: Up until recently I’ve been a purely visual observer, but I’ve had some fun of late with a DSLR and some prime focus work on my two (Undriven) scopes, so this felt like a natural next step.

Fantastic progress!!! Looking forward to seeing the end result with kit installed.

You seem to be getting on just fine, Mark. But I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels a little under-skilled in the presence of some of the engineering genius on here!!

I had an ST150 for a while, Martin (one that’s done the rounds on SGL actually!). I did have a bit of a soft spot for it. On open clusters and the star fields of the Milky Way, it was quite hard to beat for all round relaxed viewing pleasure. I seem to remember good colours on things that weren’t too bright - never had a lovelier view of Uranus’ colour. Need a decent mount though. I had it for a while on an AZ4 and it was very much on (or beyond) it’s limit.

Hi Ron, the 11 digit number is usually embedded in the link so when the details are published later it should take you straight to the meeting. link to meeting here

👏👏 for setting this up. Super idea.

Nice selection, Iain. Whilst in Monoceros I love to take a look at Hubble’s Variable Nebula, NGC 2261. Exciting to see if there’s any discernible change from the last observation, although as my drawing is so poor it’s fairly hard to tell!! I always wonder how this didn’t make it into the Messier catalogue given just how bright and comet-like it is.

My wife kindly bought me volume 7 of this (and there’s an identically sized, as-yet-unwrapped pressie that I suspect is volume 6): I’ve been enjoying collecting this series, but I’m a little worried about the pace of release at the moment!! Lots of my favourite constellations seems to be in the back three-quarters of the alphabet...

Super report, Stu - and that Stu+MW is very much the icing on the cake - fantastic!!

I was with the British Astronomical Association at their official meet at Truro School. Had just finished first year of very disappointing astronomy degree. Like the rest of Cornwall we were clouded out for totality but still had a great time, with Perseids in the days running up to it and some good observing. Would still love to see an uncloudy eclipse one day!!

Just round the corner from there right now. Beautiful part of the world. 👍

Amazing! Two of my favourite things brought together in one thread! 👍 🔭 🍺

Been observing with an ironing stool from a 12” dob for years, Martin - adjustable height is excellent. Very comfortable and relaxing, particularly important when at averted vision limit or waiting for that moment of still seeing to tease out detail. This is mine: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ironing-Chairs-Leifheit-Accessories/s?rh=n%3A3576374031%2Cp_89%3ALeifheit

Great to hear, Piero. Sounds like the fans made a big difference; I’ve never used mine, but I wonder whether it might be worth plugging them in. How did you find the Antares? I’m up north this weekend so unfortunately missed the clear (and finally dark!) skies!

Managed to get the shadow (and a beautifully coloured GRS) through some of the worst seeing conditions I’ve encountered for a while (and then cloud cover). I couldn’t make out Io on the disc though - I just wasn’t going to get such subtle contrast in those conditions. It was like watching the sky through a boiling kettle!!

Off to the very south west of Cornwall with my Altair Astro Starwave 70, which is a joy to use under dark skies. A couple of degrees further south should lift Scorpius and Sagittarius a bit further out of the murk, especially with 270 degree sea horizons. That said, I’ll miss the extra few degrees that the west coast of France can give.

It’s a bit perplexing. At that time and date, most of Orion will have been below the horizon at your location, so I wonder if you’d been imaging Orion earlier on and this was a frame taken as you packed up, or somewhere else in the sky? Betelgeuse would have been only 10 degrees above the horizon by that time.

👍 What date was the pic taken? Doesn’t immediately ring any bells.

Think you might need to reattach the pic! 😀

Nice report, Nick. I was out for a couple of hours it’s last night on Jupiter, Saturn, a few quick doubles in Cygnus and M13. Just a very casual session to unwind. I found the seeing quite shoddy though, and aside from some dark detail on the NEB, both planets were a bit underwhelming in the dob. M13 made up for it though, as did Albireo, and I even enjoyed the atmospheric appearance of the moon rising through the broken clouds. Nothing new, nothing in the least bit challenging, but some much needed relief for weary eyes!!

Speculative, but might have been a weather balloon, possibly faintly lit by light pollution etc? Just thinking about the bell shape. Your magnification wouldn’t have been particularly huge with that scope and eyepiece, so might account for it? Otherwise I’m all outta ideas!! 🤷‍♂️

Just saw a tweet from Damian Peach reminding us that it’s 25 years this evening since Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter. What a night that was! Who remembers where they were / what they saw? I remember going out with my dad and my little 4.5” Tesco reflector, not really having a clue what to expect. We sat peering at the planet for a good few hours, hoping maybe to see some flashes or some pockmarks by ultimately never seeing anything (probably due to the rather shoddy optics on my Argos- purchased entry scope). Here’s an extract from my notebook at the time: I remember seeing the HST images on the news later on (or possibly the following morning) and being blown away. It was great to be part of the event, despite no useful observations!

Just a couple?! I try to keep mine restricted to my study and shed, but work has to take priority in the study so it often spills over, which rarely goes down well. @Pieroglad you had a good session; it was wonderfully clear through the night. I was hoping for a repeat tonight but looking unlikely.

Great stuff, Michael a will be interested to see the pres. That’s a nice NLC pic you’ve got at the end there! I assume that was a sight for sore eyes after all the faint stuff!

Congrats from a fellow VX12L owner / lover 😍😍😍.