laser_jock99

Can't they paint them black........?

The EQ6 & counterweights stay on - but not any optics.

My outside pier is covered with a selection of BBQ covers when not in use (as seen arrayed on the table to the right). This rig has survied six Welsh Mountain winters so far.........

Critters is a problem for me. The mains is burried in plastic condiut but rodents have attacked all the exposed cabling (12V, USB & radio coaxial feeds) in the past.

Petition signed.

Modern CCD cameras are very sensitive to incoming individual photons, couple that with a large aperture scope and it's remarkable what faint magnitudes can be reached. I attempted to image the same 'blank' area of sky used for the famous Hubble Deep Field Image. Using a 12" F4 fast Newtonian and Lodestar X2 camera, I was able to pick up the four main magnitude 21-22 galaxies in just 180 seconds.

Great post- I'm enjoying the pictures so far! I'm curious if you can see any light pollution from the Cape Flattery Silica Mine ? It's about 20km due south of Lizard Island.

Flexure can be problem on any scope- more so on Newtonians with thin metal tubes and heavy cameras hanging off at right angles. I'm a great believer in beefing-up the dovetail and tube rings to support the scope properly. Even my little 6" Newtonian benefits from a custom made, longer, stronger dovetail bar. No flexure here!

Nice rig- look forward to seeing some more images.

Thanks for sharing- rarely seen on UK forums due to it's low altitude. Needs a dark southern horizon to show well!

Head over to Wales for some of the UK's darkest skies.

Also been some nasty rain in Mid Wales last 24 hours. Observatory is fine - house is leaking though! Roads badly flooded- had an epic 8 hour 'road trip' to Shrewsbury and back yesterday. Clocked up 210 miles to find a way round it all......

Nice to see this new Dark Sky Trail - the .pdf brochure can be downloaded here Milky Way as seen from the first location- Star Inn, Dylife.

Another vote for skiing salopetes- plenty of second hand pairs around from people who go skiing just the once......