bish

Great post Dave. I was just going to check my list of what to look for tonight as it is actually going to be clear. Living in a light polluted area means galaxy or nebula hunting is very limited. There's only so many times you can look at M13 etc!  Tracking the brightness of variable stars gets me outside to look at something that changes between sessions.  Submitting to AAVSO and BAA feels like I am contributing too.  I'm a basic visual only.

Thanks Tony.

I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago. I was out scraping ice off the car, but at least had a nice view.

Good stuff. I got one earlier whilst scraping frost off the car. Will have to post it later as it’s on another phone.

I will always remember seeing Saturn for the first time through a cheap 50mm frac (x30 if I remember). It wasn't much more than a rugby ball but I was amazed to see it as more than just a point of light. 

On ‎21‎/‎07‎/‎2018 at 16:56, DRT said:

As you know I had cause to empty my Tele Vue account a few months ago - it was very sad to see them all shipped off to new foster homes  

But fortunes change, and I now have a very nice box of 100º monsters and a full set of 70º XWs.

I have kept a small token of green and black in Nostalgia Corner in the hope that one day they might all return  

 

Yes, I know, there are overlaps - but I keep telling myself it's ok

 

I know it has been discussed many times before  - but you feel the need to change the XW's back to TV? I would think the XW's plenty good enough for 70 degree.

Do you think you have changed your eps more than any other person ever??

Nice one. I think the veil is a lot of people's favourite. I never tire of it.

I was at the Kennedy Space Centre today. There was a real buzz around TESS, and then a massive let down. Got a shed load of free stuff though. Going back on Wednesday. Fingers crossed. Still had a great day though. Saturn V and Atlantis amazing. Saw the  ‘Belt of Venus’ from the beach early evening.

Interesting set of books (I thought Big Bang by Simon Singh was a good read). Here are mine. I regret throwing out a load of my old books acquired as a youngster in the 70's and 80's. They were old books printed in the 60's and would be interesting to look back on now.

6 hours ago, cotterless45 said:

This is one of my few tries at Astroimagining. I gaffer taped the phone to the ep and hoped for something. It's picked up the full bubble nebula, well nearly. I do realise this may be disqualified as this is a very difficult subject,

old Nick.

The bubble with a smart phone deserves some kind of award.

The little bright thing is the Moon...

2 hours ago, Timebandit said:

Hello Mike , and I have just starting reading this post . But my first impressions are I am really impressed. I hope you don't mind me saying and please don't take offence but when I think of a DIY build, i was thinking of "hammer and nails , bolts and washers"  sort of approach. But how wrong was I . This is really impressive Mike its a technical work of art. And just beautiful craftsmaship has gone into the making of this scope.  Many hours of your skill has gone into this project and I hope you reap the benefits. Thanks for putting this post up as it's nice to show what skill members really do have out there. Work of art mate ☺   

Well said. For somebody like me who can  barely saw a piece of wood straight it's incredible to see what some people can achieve.

Had another look as sky clear. Sketching only though - I should have charged my camera batteries! At least there will be some much better images posted than my efforts would have been!

 

Yay !!!

I just got lucky and I'm seeing decent views of the Transit here albeit through some cloud cover. Mercury nice and clear and what a lovely sunspot group to complement it

Theres going to be some great images of this from those who have clearer skies but I'm so glad I've seen part of the event at least

It is a good sunspot group. I have to break for a bit but hope to get out later. Even if it clouds over now I am happy to have had a good view - almost makes up for the last Venus transit.

my wife even popped out for a look because they were talking about it on the news earlier

Passing cloud but enough clear sky to have a decent view here. Been visual only as everytime up put the camera in a cloud comes over. Was raining just before the transit so didn't expect anything

Sun burn mowing the lawn today - rain now forecast tomorrow.

8 hours ago, Gina said:

Weather forecast for here is cloudy all day

When I read about the transit I thought that it goes on for so long we are bound to get a view at some point. I should know better really. Forecast here not conclusive.

3 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I've owned several HD60s and I did like them. They are very well built and solid feeling. They are effectively a "supercharged" plossl, ie with an artificially wider field of 60 degrees instead of the normal 50 degrees found in a plossl: the views on axis match most eps, but I did find the edges very soft when I compared them to other 60 degree eps, most notably the Pentax XF 8.5 and 12mm. I take your point about only wanting to upgrade if you get more field of view, but actually, if you can get the same field of view with sharper images  for the full 60 degree field, I submit that too is a worthwhile upgrade - you could have virtually 60 degrees of sharpness instead of 50 degrees of sharpness and 10 degrees of seagulls..

You can currently get a good price (around £90 each) for the Pentax XF's and I would heartily recommend them :-)

Dave

Thanks Dave. I originally had a 11mm nag and 8mm radian, but couldn't afford to buy TV's so tried out the 6.5mm HD60. Although not as good as the TVs, it was comfortable and had a decent enough fov. I ended up buying another one as they were relatively cheap, and I wanted to just stick with what I knew.  I do like them, but as you point out they far from perfect.  I had heard that the XF's were good, but already had a 8mm radian and 12mm HD 60 by that point. Also I had previously overlooked the XFs, being too focused on the Pentax XW v TV debate. 

I think when my main expenses are out of the way I may sell up all of my ep's and start from scratch. This is very expensive when looking at all Delos/XW/Delites etc - so perhaps a couple of XFs and a couple of the higher end eps would be the answer. By the time I get around to it there probably be a new kid on the block to make further complicate things.

3 hours ago, Moonshane said:

My Delites have the qualities of orthos other than tight eye relief and narrow field.

You've been banging the drum so hard on these that I have been  tempted. I like the fact that they aren't too cumbersome and look comfortable (as well as having TV quality).  The only thing that pushed me more towards the Delos/XW is that my Meade HD 60s are the same fov and are nice to use, so I would want to try a wider fov to justify the extra cost. No doubt the Delites are better (than the HD60) in all other respects though. 

My attention has now been taken with an obsy (shed) at the top of the garden and possible scope upgrade, which means I don't have to lie awake at night weighing up the pros and cons of eps (limited supply of money!). Choosing a scope is far easier and quicker than deciding on which eps to go for!

I believe some people did (or still do) meet up a Cannock. There are organised meetings at Barr beacon for meteor showers (see Walsall looks up on Facebook). It's good for that

Hi,  there are probably several people who would be up for that. I think the difficult part is finding a suitable dark site for a group meeting. I would be up for it.

This is typically how it looks the morning after a good night under the stars

Try around 10 to 15 15 sec exposures and stack them in DSS. Recentre after about 2 or 3.

Thanks for the tip - I will give it a go.

I had a go with my 127mm mak, and gave up after this one. Looking at these I will try again. This is 1x20 sec exposure (ISO1600).

get Type 4 Naglers Bish.

Type 4 has larger eye relief and where made for spec wearers in mind.

Thanks  - I didn't know that.