FenlandPaul

Hello Jon I’m very sorry to hear of your father. I can’t imagine how difficult it is to sort through and carefully and thoughtfully dispose of / sell his belongings. I think you’ve come to the right place here; there’s a wealth of knowledge and experience on this forum. I think the first thing to do would be to examine the For Sale board on here, and specifically the “sold / closed ads” section. You’ll get a guide to a lot of prices on there and you could even private-message some of the vendors to ask what they actually got for things; I’ve found people here overwhelmingly helpful and pleasant so I’m sure no one would mind. There is a Meade 16” light bridge currently for sale here: Yours appears to be in mechanically good condition from the pics, and the mirror might clean up nicely from someone who knows what they’re doing. It’s also surprising just how well a grubby mirror can perform. So you might look at a slight discount you Mark’s scope above, but probably nothing drastic. Mirrors can also be professionally recoated - Orion Optics UK have a “hilux” coating service. Selling big scopes at this time of year can sometimes take a while because of the light nights - people just aren’t thinking about astronomy as much (can you believe that?!). Finally, a useful site to compare prices is https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/ . It’s not the easiest to navigate but there’s a large archive of sold stuff and so you can benchmark your prices there. I’m sure others will have much more specific advice for you. All the best with things. Paul

Sorry everyone I realised my comment about 0.965” eyepieces in the Versascope is wrong. It takes 1.25” eyepieces. You just can’t get the staff nowadays, can you? 🙄

I think there’s a lot of merit to that approach, Gerry, especially with your skies. I use published Deep Sky magnitudes solely as a rough guide to “might be possible” vs “definitely impossible”. If it falls into the former camp, I give it a shot.

Ah, that’s the Versascope out of your shortlist then because it has a 0.965mm eyepiece so not really interchangeable unless you start investing in a different barrel size! I believe the Maxifinder that @Littleguy80 has referenced takes 1.25” eyepieces though, so 👍. And it’s 80mm! 😃

The 60mm really packs a punch, and RACI means I don’t have to do mental gymnastics with a star chart (usually Interstellarum). My telrad is really a glorified red-dot the way I use it; I rarely use the circle diameters ⭕️ for anything. Using the TV60 for a finder would be incredible!!

What a cracking first night, Piero! Sounds like you made the right choices in getting familiar with it. I’m sure you’ll warm to the telrad/RaCI combination soon; I find it brilliant (I have the Antares versascope 10x60) and so intuitive. It won’t be long before you move “as one” with your scope. Roll on the dark nights!!

Superb, Mark - really looking forward to reading of your adventures. Apart from 20”, what do you know of the specs? Paul

Very exciting indeed! Breeze is dying down. What have you used to collimate, Piero?

Happy to lend you my Nagler Zoom on nights of good seeing! 😀

Wow! All these beautiful new dobs in here over the last few days!! Looking great Gerry - video tour of it requested!!

Beautiful!!

Love it! It looks gorgeous, Piero! You’re going to have a lot of fun with that - although I suspect not until Thursday at the earliest!!!

And here's a close-up of the patch as it was forming.

Having missed Friday night's "epic" display, I was excited to see clear skies forecast here on Saturday, so I headed into the nature reserves near us in Cambridgeshire in the hope of snapping some noctilucent clouds. Found a lovely spot on the south edge of a peaceful lake. As it got darker, a small display could be seen forming - nothing epic, but NLCs nonetheless. I realised this is my first ever post in the imaging section!! Hoping to explore using my DSLR a lot more over the next few months. I know these aren't top-notch images, but it's fun to be able to capture something so simply. The first was at 23.20 (2.5s exposure, ISO 800) and the second was at midnight (4.0s exposure, ISO 800).

So pleased for you Gerry. Sounds like a promising first light even in less than ideal conditions. Can’t wait to read about you pushing this beast to the limit!! Paul

That’s very good news - I hope! My subscription has proven quite unreliable so I hope to see an improvement in delivery! Not sure what resources the AAS has to inject into S&T if it’s needed, but I’ll definitely be cheering them on to produce a high quality, long term sustainable publication.

Looks like a great day, Mark! Nice varied array of talks and speakers. Hope it goes well.

Great topic! This is one of my nearby sites, or rather it’s 50 yards down a path from it, but the views are the same. Red is approximately north and green is approximately south. The edge of the Fens give wide open skies, but it can get a little too breezy for dob. There is occasional direct light from an aggregates yard to the north, depending on whether they’ve been left on; if they have then I park my car to block it. I get light domes from Cambridge (9 miles), St Ives (4 miles) and Huntingdon (7 miles), and an ever growing threat from the A14 upgrade and the new town of Northstowe. This is a 3 minute drive in a 4x4 from home. I have another sight that is better protected from northerly winds on the other side of my village, but the light from towns is worse. My back garden is like many others - convenient, with no direct light, but a fair bit of ambient light and houses / trees meaning my window of sky is limited, but usable. Paul

These are rock solid on my prized 12”. Recommended by a fellow SGLer: http://www.wdsltd.co.uk/product/3851/bridge-handle-with-steel-or-brass-insert-wds-8532/?sku=34461

It’s the Webb Deep Sky Society annual meeting next Saturday in Cambridge. Good line up talks, which you can find here: https://www.webbdeepsky.com/annual-meeting/year/2019 This will be my second time of attending and I’m very excited: a great crowd and if you’re a visual deep sky observer the book stand is a treat (reminder to self: need to replace mug, which hasn’t withstood 2 gruelling years in the work dishwasher). Anyone else going? I’ll be there from lunchtime (children-related commitments mean I miss the first two talks ☹️). Paul

Great video - very exciting. I worry a bit that the Moon is going to be relegated to the equivalent of Exeter Services on a trip to Cornwall, but without the advantage of a Greggs.

I’ve had repeated problems, but have always tried to get it delivered to my house (I hear those who preorder and collect from a local newsagent have better results). I can get the digital edition, but just don’t enjoy it as much.

Well I was genuinely surprised by this delivery, given I’ve only received about 3 over the last 12 months!

Well done John. I believe I bagged it last night as well (if you can really call it bagged - it seemed it was always trying to slip through my fingers). On first attempt the bite would come and go and I couldn't be certain. But returning to the eyepiece later, IC434 seemed ever so slightly more obvious but ever so slightly less obvious to the east and slightly south of the two stars (one of them is HD37699) that were my guidepost. The "bite" was real. Used 22mm Nagler with H-Beta filter, giving x69. Whilst I was thrilled to have a positive sighting, I would be disappointed if I wasn't able to have a more convincing view at some point!! But I can now confirm, at least, that the HH really does exist!! Paul