AdeKing

Here is my sketch Alan. I could see the eyes and "carrot nose" at low power, but they disappeared at high power with the binoviewers. Mind you quite some time had passed by the time I dug out the BVs.

Rumbled!!!!!

I've just started sketching it with the ZS70 and Lunt wedge. Really nice to see a nice complex region coming onto the disc. I've had the binoviewers on it as well and there are a load of small spots and pores in the penumbral areas that aren't the main sunspot. I'll post my sketches in a bit. Glad that you managed to get a cheeky look Mr White 😉 your secret is safe with me. 🤣

I don't have the LS50, but do have a 50mm double stack fitted to my LS60 so I'm basically using a 50mm solar scope. The double stack filter makes a huge difference to my visual observations as it dramatically increases the contrast on the face of the disc. The DS filter does dim the image, but as I use a solar hood to cut out external reflections, I don't find this too much of an issue. It does take a bit more effort to tune as you have two filters to independently tune, but I found it simple enough to follow the instructions. I was fortunate as I got my LS60 secondhand and it came with the DS filter, but they do add a significant addituonal cost to an already expensive item. Good luck with making your decision. I'm sure someone else will be along to offer an opinion shortly. Ade

It certainly is cold out there John. I don't think we've quite had a frost yet, but the thermometer in the summerhouse is indicating 1°C. I've had an excellent session with the ED120 tonight with some excellent detail seen on Mars, probably the most detailed views I've had this season. Best views for me were with the 3-6 Nagler Zoom set at 4mm (225x). I could still see detail with the 3mm setting (300x) but the views at 225x were just higher contrast and more pleasing to the eye. I was hoping to binoview tonight, but no matter what I tried, just could not get the views to merge. Finished off on M42 with the ED120 showing both the E and F stars of the Trapezium, which I was pleased about. Now inside warming up with a nice cup of tea

I haven't ever sent stuff back to Moonlite, but did order a focuser flange direct from Moonlite last year after I'd previously ordered one which didn't fit via FLO. The error was entirely my fault, what was delivered was exactly what I'd ordered, but I'd ordered the wrong thing. So, I contacted Ron with photos and Measurements and I ordered from him directly as I'd had an email dialogue with him to identify the correct part. The item arrived really quickly (within 3-4 days if I recall correctly, but I'd forgotten to take the VAT and handling charges into account and so the flange cost me about £30 more than it would have done if I'd have ordered from Auntie FLO, so lesson learned. If I was ordering again, I'd contact FLO about ordering and accept that I'd probably need to be patient whilst the items come across from the US as I was informed that the orders go through from FLO in batches for items that aren't in stock, which is totally understandable. I'd recommend contacting FLO as a Moonlite supplier to see if this service is something that they might be able to assist with organising. They might not be able to help, but it's worth asking the question.

FYI some BCOs have just popped up in the for sale section. No connection but thought I'd flag it.

Don't get me wrong Mark, I do like the interface and the chevrons indicating the direction to target, the movement of the bullseye across the scree as you move the Dob and then the zooming in on screen as you get closer to zeroing in on target. It's absolutely spot on for the intended market, nice and simple so that users don't feel daunted by the interface. But, because it looks similar to SkySafari I tend to forget what app I'm using then go looking for buttons that don't exist in the SSE app. This is more to do with user error than a fault with the app. I do hope that this technology will be added to the full blown SkySafari potentially as an add on purchase in time, but in the meantime it's a great tool for observing from home when I can't be bothered with setting up on the EQ mount so the Dob will go back to being my grab and go setup for taking advantages of quick breaks in the cloud.

I've been nothing but impressed with this technology too Mark. My 8" Dob has sat in a corner of the summerhouse and largely unused for the last 2 years or so because with our light pollution I've preferred using GoTo as I feel that I get more out of observing that way. However, using the converted SSE I've rediscovered the joys of the Dob and I'm loving the extra clarity that the 8" aperture is giving me compared to my 100mm and 120mm Fracs, though they will continue to be my choice for planetary as the tracking us so convenient. The views I had of M36, M37, M38, M27 and M57 were so much clearer than with the ED120 with the halo of M57 jumping out at me. Being used to SkySafari I find the cut down interface a bit limiting as I normally use SS to record my observations, but I'm still mighty impressed. Really enjoyed reading your first light report as I could feel your enthusiasm.

+1, the BCO eyepieces really are excellent value for money and really sharp. I have bino pairs of the 10mm and 18mm that I use in my binoviewers when solar or lunar observing and just one 6mm as whilst it's an excellent mono viewing eyepiece it gives too much magnification with binoviewers for me. If I'm off out for a quick grab and go session then the set of 3x BCOs along with a low power finder eyepiece (Celestron Onmni 32mm plossl) and a 2x Barlow are all I take. The eye relief is a bit short on the 6mm but my 45 year old eyes still find all 3 comfortable to use and they are really nice and sharp. Really excellent value and regularly show up used for about £25-£30. All of mine were used and were probably my cheapest eyepiece purchases.

I have a pair of these as well Dave and they make a very nice BV pair indeed. I'm sure that you'll enjoy them.

I had mine out again last night and am still impressed with the performance of the system when fitted to my Skywatcher 200 dob which is on an OOUK Dob Mount. Last night I slowed down a bit and the system worked exactly as the marketing material said it should and put the vast majority of targets very near the centre of an ES24 68 degree FOV, and placed all of them within the FOV. The system showed me several Messier objects that I've previously struggled to find or have failed to find and the only target that took a bit of effort to locate was Neptune as its a very small disc and it took me a while to work out which point of light was actually Neptune. Consequently, I had to move away and re-centre a couple of times and refer to SkySafari on my other phone which could have the FOV of the OTA & EP combination displayed on screen. Whilst I was using it last night, the end of the mirror furthest from the phone lens started to get condensation on it. Fortunately, this didn't seem to affect the accuracy of the system, though I can see that heavy condensation on the mirror is probably the achilles heel of the system as the mirror isn't particularly well shielded, but I'm not sure what could be done about it short of attaching a dew heater as the mirror obviously need to be open to the sky to provide a view of to the camera. Thats really good news Dave, sounds like it'll still prove to be useful on my manual Vixen GP then.

Another vote for the WO and supplied eyepieces. I've been very happy with mine but tend to use a pair of Mk I Baader Maxbrights now as the T-2 connection works better with my solar setups. The supplied eyepieces are very good and nice and comfortable to view with.

Thanks for the info @SmokeyJoe. I've probably not used the correct terminology, not being an imager, but this sounds like it would work. I was thinking that a ZWO120MC camera could be attached to a straight through 9x50 finder scope with an adaptor as would be fine for a finderguider but with this treated as the main camera, as I wouldn't be imaging. I just wondered whether this would give a relatively wide field that could be plate solved and then pass goto instructions to SkySafari which could then sync the coordinates from the plate solve to indicate the position of the scope in SkySafari to allow push-to guidance to any selected target. Thanks for the link to the forum, this is all academic really, but the Celestron application of a mobile phone camera for plate solving and providing push-to directions made me wonder whether the ASI Air could be used in such a way to allow the full functionality of SkySafari. Although the Starsense Explorer App is based on SkySafari, it is a much cut down version with limited catalogues. The Starsense explorer system actually works really well but is aimed at beginners hence the cut down app. Sounds like the technology is out there and could be tweaked to serve this purpose but by people with more knowhow than myself. Thanks for taking the time to answer my query.

My most used bino eyepieces are a pair of Vixen NPL 30mm which I find extremely comfortable for H-alpha solar with my Maxbrights and 1.7x GPC. For nocturnal viewing I don't find the NPLs work so well and so I tend to use a pair of 18mm Baader Classic Orthos and swap the 1.7x GPC for a 2.6x GPC to increase the magnification if needed. I'd love to buy a second Morpheus 17.5mm like @F15Rules but it's out of my budget at the current time. The eye relief on the 18mm BCOs might be a bit tight if you've disregarded Plossls on eye relief, but the NPL30s have reasonable eye relief.

Bear with me for a minute. I have recently been modifying the Celestron Starsense Explorer setup that uses your mobile to plate solve then passes the info to an app based on SkySafari as per @johninderby excellent thread: This got me to wondering whether or not the same could be achieved using an ASIair/Astroberry attached to a guidescope. For those of you that use these systems, is it possible to use the ASI Air/Astroberry to plate solve to find it's location then feed that info to a planetarium app such as SkySafari and provide push-to instructions? I know that the setup can plate solve and fine-tune a mount to frame a target, but is it possible for a guidescope to be used to plate solve and provide push-to instructions to an app? I have an unused RPi 3B+, guidecam and straight through finder that could be converted to a finderguider and I was wondering whether this is a possibility? I'm not very well versed in the RPi/Astroberry/ASIair setups, but was just ruminating. Any guidance would be gratefully received. Ade

Thanks John, found it.

Me too. 😳

Looking good John, that's a nice interface, what app is that or is it one of the manufacturers built-in apps on the phone?

How are you finding this phone John? I almost pulled the trigger on one last week as there was a very good deal on Amazon making it only just over £100 but I read some reviews complaining about the GPS performance so I held off.

My old iPhone 6 has been repurposed as my Astro phone as it was the only way I could get a reliable link between SkySafari on the phone and my Vixen GPD2 Skysensor 2000 setup. The Huawei would work fine for part of the evening and then randomly crash and refuse to work with SkySafari again or would sometimes work all evening whilst other times it wouldn't work from the outset. My experience has put me off the brand to be honest. Next phone will be back to a Samsung. I've needed to get an iPhone case with a battery pack built in as the internal battery is shot, but apart from that it's been a reliable setup. However, for some reason the iPhone 6 doesn't support the horizon drawing function in the Observer Pro app, that lets you trace your local horizon and export it for use in SkySafari. I think that's something to do with the Gyros but it works well enough for the SSE app, though I think I need to do a lazy Susan bearing upgrade to my OO UK dob base as fine tuning position in Az is sticky to say the least.

I've been using an iPhone 6, which I believe is the minimum requirement for the app, and in testing it's worked fine for me. My main phone is a Huawei P20 which has given me nothing but trouble with linking SkySafari to my Skyfi or to the AZGTi so I figured I wouldn't waste a SSE code on it.

I'm hopeful that they'll make it standalone eventually. After all, wasn't the now discontinued Celestron Sky Prodigy the all-in-one precursor to the full Starsense setup that's now available as an add-on? I'll be watching with interest.

My Mk i version of the adaptor was a bit too fragile for my liking mainly due to me trying to cut corners, so here is the Mk ii version. The plastic parts came courtesy of a couple of old chopping boards that were destined for the tip, thank goodness that we've been shielding and the tip has been too busy for me to feel comfortable going to drop the pile of stuff off. The plastic adaptor plate itself. The assembly attached to a Syvbony finder dovetail and base. The whole base assembly attached to a Skywatcher L-bracket which attaches to an ADM clamp attached across the Alt bearing of my OOUK Dob Base as in this post. The whole assembly which can easily be attached to the second clamp of my Ercole or simply detached from the L-bracket and slotted into the findershoe of one of my Fracs. Fortunately all of my Fracs are Moonlited so no need for the ball & socket joint as it's easy enough to rotate the focuser so one of the finder shoes is upright. First light. I gave the system a test run the other night when the sky was unexpectedly clear and was impressed by the results. Tested it on the following targets, M35, M36, M37, M38, M45, M57, Mars, Uranus and Neptune with all targets easily placed within the FOV of my ES 24mm 68 degree eyepiece in my Skywatcher 200mm f/6 Dob. I ambitiously tried M33 as well, and the field stars looked right, but I couldn't see it for love nor money. A bit too dim for the skies at home me thinks. Overall, I'm very impressed and the views of the objects I found with it, particularly M36, M37, M38 & M57 reminded me why I have an 8" Dob. The Dob has been somewhat neglected over the last 2 years as I've tended to use my Fracs on the EQ mount and rely on Goto to find targets. However, although the catalogues in the app are not exhaustive they are plenty comprehensive enough for me to find targets in my light polluted back garden. Strangely, I only got the message about the scope being in target once, the rest of the time it said "Finding Location, do not move telescope" however, it worked well and put me on target so no real complaints from me. Looking forward to another clear night to play some more now, though looking at the forecast, that may be some time.

Very nice @Alan White I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it. I'm not envious at all, honest guvnor.