bish

10 hours ago, Quetzalcoatl72 said:

you end up spending 400+ on a collimation kit though

I made my first one for free. The one I have now was less than £20.

Welcome to SGL!

Binoculars and a visit to a dark sky is with a good star chart (stellarium on your phone probably best) is a great way to start. One of the things I wish I had done as a kid was ask for some bins as well as a scope!

6 hours ago, Pitch Black Skies said:

I recently bought a 16mm Nirvana with 82° field of view as a medium power eyepiece but have to say I don't like it all. Whenever I try to bring my pupil closer to the lens or if I look at the edges or the FOV I am getting lots of kidney beaning.

I bought a morpheus, but prefer my meade hd 60

I like to use at least x180. If the seeing poor then I tend to move on. Been up about x360 in excellent conditions (with 8" or 10" scope).

I have thought about it. My scope cover  seems OK and I'm a bit too lazy to put up and take down more than my tent. They look l8ke a good idea though.

Nice. I haven't checked the sun for a while because it's been so quiet.

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

My kind of moon. Chocolate that is. 😁

Can't argue with that!

Strange how there is such an interest in full moons recently. People asking if I am going to be out looking at the super blood wolf moon. No I"m not!

I'll be looking out for it next month. Always nice to see it, even just in bins.

12 hours ago, Astrofriend said:

Hi Bish,

Glad to hear you find some interesting. What kind of project do you do in the astronomy area ?

 

ps.

Nice with cars in the summer with no dark skies.

 

/Lars

Hi  Lars,

I have a mobile planetarium that I used to take to schools  scout groups etc until coronavirus. I like the idea of visiting as many observatories as you can. May be when I can travel I will make a start.

Wish I had seen this post on Saturday. Nice target for phone photography.

That sounds like a great session. Sometimes the things that are nothing to look at can be the most exciting - ie tracking down s SN.

It looks great. I like your website. I have an interest in astronomy, photography, travel and classic cars too!

Great work!

Clear dark sky. I'm trying to remember what it looks like...

Hello,

I was thinking of getting a starguider or  SW star adventure.  I have a SW steel tripod, canon 1100d, 7d, 18-50mm f2.8 lend, 5mm f1.8,   70-300mm.

Aside from the weather the major is a bortle 8 sky. Is there a decent narrow band clip in filter I could use to at least practice from home?  I could drive to bortle 5 in under an hour (when lock down ends).  Hopefully by the time I get to a star party I might know what i'm doing. 

Thanks

9 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

 It's rather nice looking up through the little telescope and wondering if anything else squidgy lives up there.

 

 

That was probably the biggest draw to astronomy for me as a kid. My biggest interest is still exoplanets and the search for life. I hope something is found on one of the solar system moons in my life time. More so than the answer to dark matter or energy.

I"m very optimistic of some form of life other than on  the Earth. A lot less optimistic of any conclusive proof.

Wanted to get a 14" or 16" scope for a few years. I will keep the 10" aswell though.

Hello, I have a 10" dob too.  Do you have stellarium or something similar? I live by stellarium, a telrad, 9x50 right angle finder and a pair of 10x50 bins. Research the brightest DSOs to start with too. Good luck, it will come with practise.

Thanks for the heads up. I am up at that time, but my horizon probably isn"t good enough. May be from a bedroom window if I am lucky.

Although there isn"t a massive difference, I would go for the 8". Star clusters will be that little brighter and some galaxies/nebula might be just visible when you might not have picked them up in the 6". Use it for a while then look into eps

Hello all,

My main interests are galaxies and nebula, which I need to go to a dark site for. I will check out a few clusters too, but mostly look for DSO's I never or rarely get to see. Nearly always galaxies and nebula. 

My sky at home is so bad I stick to the solar system, bright comets, variables and doubles. I never really go back to the brighter clusters apart from at dark sites. With no chance of a dark sky visit this spring I put the scope out despite the bright moon. Having not looked at M36, 36, 37 or 38 with the scope in a long time it was almost like seeing them for the first time again. Even with a bright moon they were fantastic.

Tonight has renewed my enthusiasm to just go out and observe whenever I get the chance.  Even in the worst of skies there is something to remind me of how captivating it can be.

Had similar thing happen to me. Treat yourself to something more comfortable!