timwetherell

yes they're quite good aren't they! I tried a lot of fixed focus super shorts none of which really was a good as the nagler zoom.It's also handy when you're up at the silly magnification end to be able to tweak it up or down just a smidge

I use a 2-4 nagler zoom quite a bit, it's extraordinarily gocd for a short focal length eyepiece!

I imagine if it does go supernova during the initial few weeks it will be like having a permanent full moon so no one will get much of a view of faint fuzzies in that area of the sky! But I think the resulting planetary nebula will be relatively small and fairly dim? There's a bit of discussion about it's size up further up this thread

Yes, good idea to compare with the crab! I'd be thinking crab nebula 1000 years ago now 300 arcseconds across 0.3" per year. Ten times further away but because all the angles are small one can probably just use small angle approximation and say 3" a year (never did have a very comfortable relationship with radians! ) so maybe jupiter size in decade/s? I imagine it would be very bright though?

It would certainly be the brightest planetary nebula in the sky. I'm not sure how long it would be before it's angular diameter was resolvable in amateur telescopes though?

I know what you mean Ron, It would be interesting to see but orion is such an iconic constellation it would be sad to see it without Betelgeuse!

Yes, I think it's a difference in sky brightness between the two nights perhaps - I didn't want to "massage" the images too much though for fear of changing the intensity of betelgeuse artificially

I took a photo of Betelgeuse in February 2019 just because it's a pretty star - Thought I'd take another to see if it really has dimmed as much as everyone says and the difference is very noticeable - (prime focus of a 7" refractor with a focal reducer bringing it to f 5.6. )

Yes tricky from the UK - all comes down to seeing. I've done it with relative ease a couple of times using a 7" scope but dozens of other times it's simply not there. I have an atmospheric dispersion corrector which helps a bit in removing the vertical fringing

Yes I'm probably a bit out of date, haven't bought a scope in some years Was it the 71 triplet you were thinking of? Looks quite expensive from my brief research! but yes, I think 70ish would be slightly better than 61 especially if you can source one second hand. I'm using a TMB 40mm widefield ortho as an eyepiece - again another piece of astro-kit from the long, long ago. It has the advantage of the field stop being outside the optics so it's easy to install a crosshair.

I use a WO66 and it's great - enough aperture to see most brighter Messiers and small enough to be able to achieve low magnification with normal EPs. It also has the advantage of accepting 2" EP,s so with a 40mm ortho if gives almost 7 degree field which makes it an ideal finder. It's also a nice spotting scope in it's own right and a very capable wide angle astrophotography scope using the main scope as a guide. I actually use this scope as a visual instrument too, very large objects like M31 and the North America nebula look great - the latter especially with an OIII filter

Best of luck with this project Helen

The sitdown sessions are in the early evening at the Kildare Lodge Hotel in Minehead but we do observing sessions out at various places on Exmoor, North Hill and Webbers post being two favourites

Welcome to the West Country! Lovely dark skies, lovely fluffy clouds, lots and lots of em I think your nearest club will be the North Devon Astro. Soc, but if you're ever a few miles further east on Exmoor you'd be very welcome to drop in to one of our Exmoor StarGazers meetings too.

With the kind of summers we get, UV isn't likely to be a problem! But, you could maybe mix it with a pigment such as childrens black powder paint or as you say, paint over it anywhere it's exposed to a lot of light. It's not really much more expensive that most sealants, it's about £20 for half a litre on ebay

What about a two part epoxy? That can be brushed on, sticks like the proverbial to a blanket and unlike polyester resin, has a little give even when set which should suit a wooden floor?

Nice pics! You've captured the exact same prominence I saw through my H-alpha scope

Nice pics! And I know what you mean about the quick pack down, only in England do we need rain proof solar telescopes! Our club had a session for the transit and we were literally watching mercury transit the sun and getting rained on at the same time

Morning observing can be very rewarding - though it's not something i generally do. I was able to see some surface features on mercury once with an 8" scope at 5am (An exceptionally cold still day with the slightest haze) On that occasion the scope had been in the house overnight so dew wasn't a problem for me. As a rule, I don't like mornings because your observing session is limited by it getting light whereas at night the longer you mess about the darker it gets

Yeah, my experience is similar. A 4" will begin to resolve globulars and give some quite decent views of brighter DSOs - I'm not saying an 80mm couldn't do that, but I've always found it much more of a struggle with a 3" refractor than a 4". Back in the day when many of us had the ubiquitous 60mm, a 4" refractor was classed as a "big" telescope!

I use a 2x 2" barlow for imaging sometimes and a focus is achievable but that's on a refractor with a long focuser range. I presume you're using your 200p Newtonian? which probably has a more limited focus travel. If the barlow is pushing the focus point further out you might be able to use an extension tube?

I have an esprit 100 but not the camera. If you tell me the weight of your camera I'd be happy to mock it up with weights and tell you the balance point

Thanks Mark Yes, I had the same experience with M69 and M70. Really difficult unless the sky conditions are absolutely perfect. The slightest haze of any kind on the horizon will totally obscure them. I guess it's because they are extended fuzzy objects so super sensitive to contrast whereas M7 is a collection of brighter pinpoint stars which is a bit more forgiving of residual sky brightness.

I used a 31 Nagler in a Friend's 180 and didn't notice any obvious vignetting