Roy Challen

December is the best time to go, webt in 2016, warm enough for swimming in the sea but hardly any people around, or at least not like I imagine it to be in summer. Mrs C and I stayed in Puerto del Carmen, I took my bins and did use them once. However, I was on holiday, including from astronomy 😲😃

Most used by far is my Baader Classic plossl, the only EP I use for solar. Most of my night viewing is through a 7-21 Hyperflex, for convenience, but if the seeing is good, I'll pop in a Baader 10mm BCO. I sure do miss the Zeiss CZJs I had a few years ago...

Not sure what mount that is, but the top looks very similar to my little Vixen alt-az. 

You could just drill a couple of holes and bolt the tube rings directly to the mount plate.

I have the Altair version with the counterweight, for use with my skymax 90. It now lives abroad, with the scope and first horizon tripod to save from transporting it each time. The scope, mount and eyepieces easily fit into a rucksack for hand luggage, but with little room for anything else, still well under the weight limit though. I did try it without the CW but it is much better with it, even though the skymax is a tiddler of a scope.

This setup is so convenient that I am slowly replicating it for UK use.

12 hours ago, Ags said:

It's worth doing a proper study, but anecdotally I would say that large solar eruptions seem to be caused by thick cloud cover over back garden. There is certainly a causal relationship

Not only does cloud cover cause solar eruptions, it lasts precisely as long as the eruption. Fact.😂

It sounds as if you are doing everything that can be reasonably done. If equipment is that soaked, then a few dessicant sachets won't do much. I suppose you could get a 12v heater to dry things off in the van.

I don't image, but after a dewey visual session, I leave my scope in such a way that dew drips away from the lens. My main concern would be preventing water getting inside the tube where it would be much harder to remove, and could possibly cause fungus growth later down the line.

Sounds fantastic, much better than the cloud cover I had ☁️.

As I observe seated, my sketchbook is on my knees.

On 09/06/2022 at 22:49, Ratlet said:

Kurzgesagt and PBS Space Time are both excellent resources if you want to know more on a cosmological sense.

 

Love Kurzgesagt...not just for astro topics. The presenter must be a robot, hasn't changed in years, but very soothing even when talking about the end of the world!

On 09/06/2022 at 21:42, Steve Ward said:

+1 for Dr Becky obviously ... 🥰 

And although not entirely astro , SciManDan deserves a mention in dispatches for his relentless destruction of all things Fl*t Ea**h ... 👍

+1 for Dr.Becky too, but someone should tell her the 't' in Saturn is meant to be heard!

On 11/06/2022 at 09:52, DaveS said:

 

Sabine Hosenfelder pretty serious science.

When I need science explained to me...she is my go to.

On 20/06/2022 at 11:22, Macavity said:

I suppose there are many who like to emulate (or endorse) the "worldview"
of their "heros"... "role models" etc. Me? I only care about (the!?!) Science. 🥳

All too true (first sentence), me too (second sentence, even if my understanding of the science is limited).

2 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

The strangest name for a bar in my recollection was at a small town in inland Spain: The Nagasaki.  Was it named, like yours, for a violent explosion?  There was something unappealing about it, in any event.

Olly

That is awful. Why on earth would you call a bar that?

Not wide field but much cheaper than the TOE : Vixen SLV 2.5mm

1 hour ago, Ags said:

I believe the target price is around $150, which is the sort of price point that makes the eyepiece interesting for me too.

Looks very interesting, I know I don't need one, but I definitely think I want one!

1 hour ago, globular said:

Celestron do one, but it's a single thumb screw affair
https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/celestron-visual-back-125.html

William Optics do a better "rotolock" one, but its more expensive
https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/william-optics-125-sct-rotolock-visual-back-adaptor.html

I prefer a Baader three screw compression T2 to 1.25" (connected with a SCT to T2... the bresser one is a good value option (and you get some M42 extensions for free))
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-ultrashort-1-t-2-eyepiece-clamp.html
https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/bresser-sct-adapter.html

FLO sell the WO rotolock too.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/william-optics-125-rotolock-visual-back-for-sct.html

3 hours ago, markse68 said:

Mainly Jupiter tonight- watched as Io melded into the disk chasing its shadow, followed its creamy dot very clear at first against the cooler white of Jupiter, lost it after looking at the moon for a bit, followed the shadow on and off as GRS slowly appeared then lost the shadow until I found it again stretched and about to leave the other limb, then found Io again this time cooler white than the disk, and watched it pimple off the limb. Seeing started not bad but got better and it was one of those where if you give the view time it pops into sharp contrast and focus- sometimes exquisitely with patience. Pentax XF8.5 seemed to hit the sweet spot in the 150p- it is very sharp and contrasty in the middle field and the GRS orangey pink popped more with it than other eps. Lovely to be out again after what seems like weeks of clouds but it is getting cold!

Mark

I also watched Io emerge, although missed the shadow transit. Seeing was below average for me, the GRS was very indistinct, wasn't even sure it was the GRS for a while. And yes, definitely starting to get chilly now!

5 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Know don't laugh everybody but I've nearly completed my frankensteined refractor and mount. She's no high end set up or a shiny Tak but she's mine and a beauty in my eyes. 

It's taken me a while but I really fancied dipping my toes back into the visual world  whilst my imaging scope captures the photons or if its not suitable to image (I did start on visual back in 2020 but soon fell in the rabbit hole of AP) 

I had this old 80mm f10 meade acro canon hanging around for a couple of years which was free but never got round to using it. I cleaned the optics and it already had a crudely installed focuser, I altered and fettled that. So I've added my sw 9x50 raci finderscope to a shoe I had laying about, this I connected the scope where the previous one must of been. 

I'm still waiting for a visual back to arrive from China, so I cobbled together a crude thumbscrew to hold the diagonal and eyepiece (already owned from visual days). 

I acquired the rube rings from @Roy Challen and attached my previously owned dovetail bar. The eq mount from @skybadger this I have moved into alt az mode for ease of use for now. Then all mounted onto my unused star adventurer tripod. It's all quite solid really and I had first light tonight to test it Jupiter and it's moons looking great and Saturn took my breath away again as it did the first time I saw it a couple of years ago. Then spent some time looking a moony and she looked great, so then I hooked up my Canon dslr to the scope and easily achieved focus with just a T-ring and nose piece to take a few images to stack moro and play with (I couldn't resist the AP haha).

So all in all I had an enjoyable time and this frac doesn't give off to bad CA and hardly noticeable. With nice sharp views. So the frankensteined visual set up lives! 

Sorry for the long read. 

Lee 

That looks great Lee. The rings match the scope and your sofa!😂 Nice grab and go setup.

At f/10 only the fussiest observer will be upset with the CA, whatever is there can be filtered to next to nothing levels anyway.

6 hours ago, woldsman said:

Uranus’ disappearance was a non-event due to clouds & the low position of the Moon (10 degrees) at Latitude 51 degrees 55 minutes N. But its reappearance was spectacular - skies cleared & at 20 degrees the viewing was excellent. The exact moment Uranus popped into the eyepiece will stay with me a long time. Used a 4” Tal 1 kindly given to me by @Roy Challen - thanks mate. Tried hard to see a hint of blue at magnifications x32, x56 & x96 but to no real avail. Also had a pair of 10x50 binos with me but these revealed no trace of the planet due to Moonlight.

That Tal was saved from the bin. Nice to hear it's getting used.

Great images, impressive filament.

7 hours ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

 Could you get focus with the scope in that configuration?

As far as I remember there were no issues with focusing.

It is a Bushnell, the logo is on the other side! I bought it to look at Mars when it came closest to Earth. I recall the view was actually quite good but the mount wasn't much good.

Found a photo, an actual paper one...from 2003-4.

Looks the same.

That looks very similar to my first ever telescope.

36 minutes ago, Vroobel said:

Do you mean something like in the picture? Or like egg chair? My eyecup has 2mm collar over 1mm diaphragm to allow eyeball go into the eyecup slightly. Eyebrow, nose and cheek protect 3 other directions from the side light. For me it's very comfortable and working well. 

 

Yes, exactly like the picture, more shielding is a good idea, but not too much...or it won't fit!