pipnina

I use dew heater strap - works a treat.

Have you tried mounting the Star Adventurer direct on to the top of the tripod (i.e. remove the ball head)?

I'll have to see if this can be done, cheers!

It usually just unscrews.

My all time favourite film ever. A classic that holds up very well considering it was released in 1969 just before the first moon landing.  

Congrats Pip! Have you tried the Merope nebula?

I did look at the Pleiades that night, the cluster is very bright but I have never seen any nebulosity. Unless I have, but didn't see it due to the brightness of the stars.

Merope looks like a "paper fan" and will also have a curved inner section to it under VG conditions and no filter is used of course. It will look bigger than you might think, keep trying this one Pip, there are nice rewards in the Pleiades.

lol. Check out bbc weather they are almost always correct.

Do check them out!

Yeah, I usually check Clear Outside and BBC weather... Thing is I'm an optimist and always hope that when one says it'll be clear and the other says cloud... I always stay up hoping it will be clear haha. Though I share your observation that BBC is usually more accurate.

Time to get a drivers license and some wheels

My cousin might be getting her license soon, and she's already got some wheels.... Maybe I can persuade her, hmmm.

Perfect! Get her into astronomy!

Congratulations on the new eyepiece .... You will get excellent views of both the Moon & Jupiter with the SLV

As luck would have it, the clouds cleared tonight for me to try the SLV out!

It's definitely a huge step up from the standard eyepiece, the field of view is remarkably sharp throughout the field of view. Though, despite the eye relief being long enough for me to use the eyepiece with my glasses on, it requires me to get my eye in just the right position or some serious CA occurs which is made difficult by the glasses, but by holding my fingers around the eyepiece it makes it a lot easier. Glasses overall degrade the viewing experience quite a bit, with several optical issues arising with point sources (in this case I'm talking about Jupiter's moons). It doesn't seem to be related to the eyepiece, just my lousy glasses . It is definitely a spectacular eyepiece for the price, just a shame I need to wear glasses to get the most out of it. It's too light polluted to test M51 & the clusters from home, I'll have to be patient and wait for an opportunity to go to the dark site for them. Let's hope British summer time doesn't throw a spanner in those works!

Thanks for the report, Pip. Enjoy the SLV!

im just getting over it, had headaches since sunday and today is the best i have felt.

Congrats!

Good idea to wait...

wait till you see the Flame in this scope! Try the Monkeyhead too, if you have a UHC/OIII, its not that hard to see under your conditions the other night.

Alas, a filter was beyond the budget I had at the time. But I should be able to get hold of one soon. After making that status the EP, telrad & collimator arrived. That eyepiece is... heavy! Can't wait to put it in the focuser!

I think everything I saw the other night is on the list of things to look at in this new one! And more!

If you han't already try the Eskimo nebula in Gemini, no filter needed, find the little glow with the 24mm and then up the mag, around 150x is a nice place, you can see 2 shells if the sky is transparent.

I likely will call if I get nothing by the time I get home tomorrow. As it is I'm just assuming it's not dispatched yet or the e-mail is being sent by carrier pigeon.

*Nothing as in dispatch confirmation

Its all going to work out, I've waited for information on shipped items, only to findb its been shipped etc. I have weeded out a few vendors based on their policy's. The ones I deal with now touch base with me continuously during the purchase phase and only ship by reputable vendors.

Yes call them tomorrow, I'm always polite on the phone...

Which targets did you choose? Rewards will be reaped if you collimate carefully,glad to see you ordered the Cheshire and you will really like that Maxvision....

Well, I'm gonna have to try and get first light with M42 M45, M1, M78 and try for NGC 2024. M51 is right there, too. My favourite galaxy that I haven't seen yet  The OIII filter is going to have to be a 2nd purchase, though. For after I've sold my current kit (hopefully).

Nice targets, for first light how dark will your skies be? Don't hesitate to use about 120x on M51... NGC 2024 will be ok if your NELM is 5.8 or above. If the moon is out forget about that one...

Eagerly waiting first light report!

Always the way....

that sounds good Pip, im setup tonight with scope out the window , and i keep seeing the odd star, but theres too much fast moving cloud to do anything.

any clear skys cool with me Pip, thanks for the headsup, happy new year.charl.

Happy new year.

Get up early New Years Day and try for the comet, it will be very close to Arcturus.