MarsG76

Hello and welcome to SGL....

Hello and welcome to SGL....

Hello and welcome to SGL....

Hello and welcome to SGL....

Hello Dan and welcome to SGL....

Hello and welcome to SGL.... I hear you.. clouds and rain suck....

Awesome.... Hello and welcome to SGL.... great that your wife shares your hobby.

Hello and welcome to SGL.... If you do progress into astrophotography than make sure you get a equatorial GOTO mount not a alt-az Goto.

Hello and welcome to SGL...

Comparing a Celestron 8-24 mm zoom and Televue 11mm, LV 7mm, Televue Ethos 17mm eps. on Jupiter and Saturn. The fixed EPs were noticeably crisper and showing more detail.

A few speckles will not interfere with the performance of the mirrors.... clean as rarely an possible, but I personally use isopropanyl alcohol and distilled water, I never need to touch the mirror when cleaning as it dries streak free and clean like new.

Thats is a great result.. on object I'm still to image... well done on the capture of the tendrils..

Of course.. but ultimately the best zoom will not be as good as the best fixed fl ep... just like with camera lenses.. a prime lens will be better than a zoom lens of the same class.

Not an easy object.. good work....

Can't see the pic but a zoom eyepiece will always be of lesser quality than fixed focal length optics.....

Soon enough there will be one telescope manufacturer and, due to no competition, scope prices will quadruple.

Sad news as this is an end of and era as Meade files for bankruptcy... https://www.ocregister.com/2019/12/05/irvine-telescope-maker-meade-files-for-bankruptcy-after-losing-antitrust-case/?fbclid=IwAR2cxD5gIWF2koJkJ3ZS_fGCq6h_9E8k-FzOBd_zhznqW5zaZRREItpr18c

Hello Astronomers, My latest image, The Sculptor Galaxy, also known as the Silver Coin or Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, an intermediate, starburst spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor, about 11.4 million LY away, undergoing a period of intense star formation. This photo was imaged in natural color through my 8" Celestron SCT at 2032mm focal length using my astro-modded and cooled canon 40D DSLR and tracked with a CGEM mount. I imaged this galaxy when the moon was nearly at first quarter and in the same general direction as the galaxy, so I used the Neodymium filter (AKA Moon and Skyglow filter) instead of the UV/IR Cut filter to try and control the moon glare, I think it worked. Total exposure time was 5 hours 41 minutes. Clear Skies, MG

I got my replacement board from BinTel in Sydney, you can call/email them and see if they'll post overseas otherwise contact OPTCorp (OPTCorp.com) in USA, I got a lot of stuff from them and they're great, definitely ship overseas.

Hello All, Sharing with you my latest image, The Helix Nebula (NGC7293), AKA "The Eye of god" in narrowband bi-color. Exposed for multiple nights during October and November 2019 through HII, OIII narrowband filters using my full spectrum modded and cooled Canon 40D DSLR through my 8" Celestron SCT at 2032mm focal length, tracked with a CGEM mount. Because a OSC sensor was used to expose this image, I was able to extract Hbeta from the HAlpha and OIII subs (in their corresponding blue channel) and stack them to be used as a real Blue channel in the final image. The green component from OIII is the green channel and red component in HAlpha is the red in RGB color mapping. Because of the use of a OSC camera, I did not have to generate a synthetic channel as is usually done with bi-color narrowband images. Clear Skies, MG

Oh yeah.... hence the circuit breakers on generators.

Protecting your power from dew is important, especially if you're using 240V... I use a 240V power generator when travelling away from home and it has worked great.. not only powered my scope but also the Kettle....

I agree with MartinB, needs a flat which would improve the image greatly.