Roy Challen

I looked at Mars last night too, with my FS60...the disc was nicely resolved but no detail could be seen. It's forecast to be clear tonight...and the Skylight is ready.

Very nice Mike. 6-7 mins per sketch, what do the dotted lines represent?

21 hours ago, Olsin said:

No colour, just psychology. The eyes can see much if the brain wants to see it....

There's no 'want' involved. I report what I see, then find an explanation later. Since the moon is made of rock, I would be more surprised if it were monochromatic (do you know of such rock on earth?) than if some subtle level of colour were present. That fact that imagers often present the moon with colour backs this up. Full disc views highlight this much better than high mags.

Moreover, if 'psychology' was a part of astronomical observing, people would be reporting things that aren't real. Oh, they already do.

Have a look at Sinus Iridium at low mag and tell me what you see😜!

2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I dont know about you not being good at drawing Roy, but I'm looking at your sketch of the Sun and I think its awesome. The Sun is something I don't often look at; I even have a lovely Coronado PST but I loaned that out to another observer ages ago. He loves it!   Considering your sketch has inspired me to take more notice of our beautiful star. It's a great sketch and observation Roy, so thanks for posting it. 

 I'm off to brows FLO's website now to see how much your post is potentially going to cost me. 

Thanks Mike😊. I bought the Daystar just over two years ago, it is easily my most used scope now. When I bought it, they were £695... I've just seen the price they are now🥺, still one of the cheapest Ha scopes though, and mine's a good one...I think (haven't looked through any others for comparison).

I never really been much good at drawing, but over the years I have enjoyed sketching the sun, both in white light and now Ha. There aren't many sun sketches on this thread, so here is my effort. The view this morning was fantastic, although there were long moments of poor seeing, during the still moments the clarity was exceptional. My Daystar doesn't pick out filaments all that well, but today they were very easy to see. Lots of nice proms too.

10 hours ago, Jim L said:

Those are two of the many attributes of a small refractor that make them so appealing.  On many of my refractors I don’t even use a finder, I simply aim them by sighting down the long tube from where I’m positioned at the back end of the scope.

Me neither, the only scope I have a finder on is my Skymax 90 on account of its long focal length in a short tube. I do sometimes use a finder on my long achro when observing double stars.

Bit like asking which is your favourite child...😅

While I used only achro refractors, I thought it was the lens causing me to see colour on the moon. Then, with a Maksutov, and an apo frac, I see that the colour is indeed real  As @Peter Drew and @Ags mention, it greatly helps if the moon is 75% or more to being full. I guess more light agitates the eye's colour receptors more.

I don't have a picture to hand right now, but for 10 years, my only scope was a Meade ETX70. The only eyepieces I had were the ones that came with it.

I saw so much with that little scope😊

I have no experience with the telescope or mount you mention, but when I had a Tal 100RS on a Vixen Polaris, I would balance it in EQ mode before putting the mount into AltAz. If I didn't do this, it would be fine, but it was much better if I did do this. More for system stability than anything else.

I also balance with my Altair Mini AZ and Skymax 90. Again, it's not strictly necessary, but it does work better like that.

So, unless extreme portability is the priority, yes it's worth doing.

1 hour ago, Stu said:

I love that mount Roy, looks really wel engineered but quite compact too 👍

I guess the angle that the pic was taken from hides the size quite well😃, it's quite a big mount really, HEQ5 size maybe, or Vixen GPDX. 20kg anyway. So it holds the little Tak quite well 😅

After a long period of cloudiness, last night was clear enough for me to get the Baby Tak out for a quick look at the moon. Set up in daylight, quick alignment, then waited for twilight. I guess it isn't really a lunar scope, but it's pretty good nonetheless, moon image heavily cropped 😊

I don't currently own a Tal, sadly, but have enjoyed a 1, 100R, and a 100RS. All fine telescopes.

Nice scope, I had one a little while ago

2 hours ago, Zermelo said:

I've just signed. Only 9,813 to go!

I fear we are still a way off any such measures, but it all raises the profile, so thank you.
(Then again, I'm old enough to remember when you couldn't expect to work in an office without breathing in your colleagues' cigarette smoke, and I never thought that would change in my lifetime)

The like was for the memory rather than anything else! Remember when people were allowed to pollute other people's air indoors - not just work places? Actually, it wasn't that long ago!

But seriously, yes , I'll sign too although with little hope things will actually go our way. Our meaning amateur astronomers. 

Very nice Dave, gotta love a long achro! Despite having recently joined the fluorite apo club, I still enjoy my f/16 and was delighted to find that the tube sizes are the same...so I don't need to change anything if I decide to use one scope or the other😃

Yes, they should fit. I don't have it now, but I used 140mm internal diameter rings with a Tal 1 I had a couple of years ago.

So many threads to choose from: show us your frac, what did the postman bring, etc. But obviously this is the place to be!

Thanks to @surfindogg, I am the new custodian of this little beauty. And thanks to everyone on this forum for not buying my TS90 mount, so I have somewhere appropriate to put my new scope😃.

It's gonna feel weird doing wide field; up until now, my fastest scope was f/13.8! This scope will also be doing plenty of miles on my dark site travels in Kazakhstan.

Great set of images. I particularly like the last one, the mountain just south of Plato looks amazingly detailed.

Another vote for the BCO, be it 10mm or 6mm. They're both great, although I echo the thought that the 10 is greater than the 6. In fact, the whole range is exceptional, even more so considering the price. When I'm not in the mood for eyepiece swapping, the Hyperflex 7-21 does the job surprisingly well too, at least it does in my f/16+ achro😄

11 hours ago, Franklin said:

Vixen FL55SS on Porta II and TL130

 

That is very cute😊

1 hour ago, stafford_stargazer said:

The scope you pickup when there's a gap in the clouds....

This is mine, works well, reliable and gives good views and inexpensive.

Really lightweight on pretty descent camera tripod.

 

I recognise that telescope! Here's my other one, on an Altair mini AZ and Horizon tripod. It lives abroad at the moment.

Sounds like a well-spent hour, but be careful - white light is feeder into Ha 😃

Excellent, thorough review Zermelo. Particularly interesting (to me at least) are the comparisons to the Baader BCOs and the Hyperflex zoom - my favourite budget eyepieces. 

Great images Nigella, typically, it happened while I was at work 😐