AdeKing

I'm a relative newcomer to astronomy and I was disappointed by the views in 2018 due to the massive dust storm so my best ever views of Mars have been this year though I can't remember the dates.

My first views this year weren't great largely due to not spending enough time at the eyepiece, but my observation skills have improved and when conditions allow I've seen some marvellous detail, but the stand out moment was my first view of Syrtis Major and Hellas through my little 80mm f/15 Towa with Syrtis Major looking like a huge sharks fin on the planet.

Binoviewers have given me some really memorable views through my ED120, ED100 and Altair 102 f/11.

A much more satisfying experience than in 2018 and one which will stay with me for a long time.

14 hours ago, Stu said:

I’m mindful of the fact that Martin had a lovely Vixen 115mm apo previously and didn’t get in with it, I think for ergonomic reasons so the 120ED would be similar or worse. I agree the 6” CCs could be a good compromise.

Yes Stu, Martin previously owned the ED120 that I currently have and passed it on to me due to the aforementioned issues with weight and discomfort with his ribs when viewing through it.

It's a shame the weight and length cause Martin issues as I've had some cracking planetary views through it this year, particularly of Mars.

I had issues with my GPS mouse with both my Synscan v3 and v4 handsets and found that the RJ11 plug of the GPS mouse was a slightly loose fit in the handset sockets.

I fixed it with some layers of insulating tape to make the plug a more secure fit.

Not sure this is your problem but possibly worth a try.

Ade

What a lovely location Stu, glad you managed to get some solar viewing in.

We've had a lovely clear afternoon down here in Dorset, but I've had too many garden jobs allocated by Mrs K to get much of a look in.

Finally managed to finish off the mods to allow me fit the Starsense phone holder to my OOUK Dob mount.

Was hoping to get to try it tonight. Clear skies when I finished up and put the Dob outside.

Just been outside and it's horizon to horizon cloud, grrrrrrr.

46 minutes ago, John said:

I agree about the need for a finder. I used the Tele Vue Sol Searcher:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/lunt-solar-accessories/tele-vue-sol-searcher.html

I agree with John and Peter, a solar finder is a really useful addition that I wouldn't be without.

You can find the sun by moving the OTA until it shows the smallest shadow on the ground, but it is a faff an even then not guaranteed to put it in the field of view.

The Sol Searcher is excellent and fits into the slot on the clamshell perfectly.

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

I think all these conversions in the pipeline have angered the weather gods. Or at least it seems that way looking at the long range forecast.

It can’t stay cloudy forever................can it? 😬

Was slightly worried after I ordered from Harrison's that I'd be told it was out of stock as I understood that Celestron scopes were direct shipped from David Hinds who showed out of stock, but I had a text this morning confirming DPD delivery on Tuesday.

Parts of the mod fittings for the OO UK dob mount have been made this afternoon in anticipation.

Will add details here as it's assembled.

Thanks @johninderby for the initial post.

This would be excellent functionality to add to the general SkySafari app.

Looking forward to the skies clearing around March so I can test it out.

4 hours ago, StarGazingSiouxsie said:

I think tonight I realised there is no chamce of me getting into astrophotography. I had my camera ready to take images in near perfect conditions but I could not tear myself away from my eyepiece and the incredible live views

Congrats on the fabulous viewing conditions you experienced last night.

I haven't had a session allowing mags that high, but get where you're coming from with the imaging.

I'm exactly the same and can't bear to leave the eyepiece so am trying to improve my sketching skills.

I've just placed an order as on inspection  it looks like an easy Bodge to fit it to my Orion Optics Dob base using parts I already have, just need to pick up some flat aluminium bar from Wickes/B&Q.

Hopefully simple enough that even I can't mess it up.

Will add details later.

As Les says above, filters divide opinions so you'll probably get lots of conflicting advice.

There is a useful tutorial on filters on the BAA website this is for the moon and planets generally but I found it helpful.

https://britastro.org/taxonomy/term/147

I'm only using an 80, 100 or 120mm refractor so don't tend to use the darker filters, but I am getting good results with either a Baader Neodymium or Baader Contrast Booster filter.

These filters are very similar but some nights I find the Neodymium works best, whilst other nights I'm happier with the Contrast Booster.

There has been some discussion recently, but I can't remember which thread it was in.

Possibly this one.

A good write up by Bill Paolini here as well.

Also a useful guide here.

http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/Observing_Mars_7.html

Hope this helps a bit.

Looking good, some lovely detail in there. 

I was hoping to do some visual today but other stuff got in the way.

Nice to see what's going on even if it's not through my own scope.

Thanks.

3 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Planning for 2021 (the top one still available for £3 from Amazon as somebody noted on SGL 🙂 )

Order placed as soon as I saw this, thanks for the heads up @JeremyS

19 hours ago, jambouk said:

EQ8. If I didn't have the top plate [disc], I'm not sure how I'd attach the puck to the lower plate [disc] with M18 bolts, as the whole of the flat surface of the puck is in contact with the flat surface of the mount. Image below of the Altair Astro puck below and the illustration of it from the FLO website.

 

Apologies, for muddying the waters, your original post said that you'd eventually mount an EQ8 on it.

I incorrectly assumed that this meant that you currently had a smaller mount but wanted to future proof and install an EQ8 at a later date.

I didn't realise that you wanted to construct and mount an EQ8 on it now.

20 minutes ago, Stu said:

Ditto! 👍👍👍, but substitute Vixen FL102S 😁

Me too but with ED100, binoviewers and BCO 18mm eyepieces and 2.6x GPC giving about 220x.

Probably the best view I've had so far, even managed to identify individual features this time 

What mount are you intending to put on it at the moment?

If something like an EQ5/HEQ5 then check whether or not the bottom of the mount will fit into the large hole in the top of the disc.

This is how my Vixen GP and GPD2 fit to the one that I have, then just a piece of metal bar with a 10mm bolt to hold the mount in place.

No need for a fancy puck on top that way.

Obviously I'm not using this at the moment, it came free with a recently acquired GPD2 mount and was on a wooden pier.

I've retained it for when the current moveable pillar mount evolves into a permanent pier but need to get my wife accustomed to it being there before thinking about a permanent pier.

8 hours ago, David Levi said:

I couldn't see the shadow of Callisto. The seeing was awful where I was. The humidity must have been in the high nineties. At the end of the session it was like someone had chucked a bucket of water over the telescope. It was dripping wet.

I've just checked up on the Sky & Telescope Jupiter's Moons site and I think it was actually Callisto itself.

They list the Callisto shadow transit as starting at about 07:30 this morning.

This is why I was so shocked as Callisto was so dark against the disc that it did look like a shadow transit. A first for me and something new learned.

27 minutes ago, AstroTim said:

Interesting event, although just been checking on SkySafari and wasn’t it Europa that was being eclipsed at that time? I was actually observing Callisto transiting Jupiter at around the same time, but didn’t realise that Europa was also being eclipsed, and would soon emerge, so missed it completely. I will have to look out for it another time. I only knew about Callisto because I could see a dark dot on Jupiter and (after checking for debris on the eyepiece) went inside to look up what it could be (which probably coincided with when Europa emerged).

Tim

Snap, I also missed the reappearance of Europa as I was engrossed in the Callisto transit. I normally lose the moon's once they start to cross the disc, but was staggered by how dark Callisto was.

Only when returned from double checking what I was seeing did I notice that another moon had appeared.

Thanks for your account of its reappearance.

Cracking sketch Mike, I wish I was able to discern that level of detail.

I had a really good session on Mars with the ED120, Binoviewers, BCO 18mm and a 2.6x GPC last night, I think this combination was giving me approx 220x.

Rotating your sketch to match my viewing orientation shows the same wedge shaped pale area on the northwest? area of the disc. The south polar cap was crisp and clear and the dark areas showed hints of detail but not enough for my inexperienced eyes to pull out the level of detail that you have.

My own sketch resembles something my 10 year old niece would produce for school.

Thanks for sharing, your sketches inspire me to keep plodding on.

Congratulations Alexandra (@Montana) a stunning image, well done.

I have a Vixen GPD2 that is fitted with a Skysensor 2000PC goto system and a Vixen GP which is fitted with an EQ5 Synscan goto upgrade. 

Whilst I'm happy with the performance of both setups, and am particularly fond of the Skysensor setup, one area I'm conscious of is the amount of noise the Skysensor motors make whilst slewing.

The handset does allow you to decrease the max slewing speed to decrease the noise but it's still pretty noisy unless it's reduced to a snails pace.

I know that I could fit the EQStar 5 upgrade (https://astro-gadget.net/gadgets/control-of-telescopes/eqstareq5) but this replaces the whole system which I don't really want to do and I wondered whether a belt mod would help.

However, I have no idea where to start.

I know there is lots of info on the gearbox ratios of the MT4 motors, and I know you can edit the ratios on the Skysensor handset, but most of the belt drive photos but I have seen show a small pulley on the motor and a large pulley on the axis driveshaft whereas the Skysensor has two same/similar sized gears and i have  no idea where to start when it comes to working out what belts and pulleys are needed to replace the existing cogs, apart from counting the existing teeth.

Has anyone out there belt modded a Skysensor setup or if someone could point me in the right direction then that would be much appreciated.

Ade

I use one of these to cover my GPD2 mount on a Skywatcher pillar.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00A7POQBC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_MnQwFb2JC7GBR

This is exactly the same product as was sold by GreenWitch as their scope cover.  I was really quite cross when mine arrived from them with a Gardman label on it.

You'd need to check the dimensions for your setup but I've had absolutely zero problems with this keeping my mount dry and it's left out in all weathers.

4 hours ago, vineyard said:

Hello, that's nice kit you have (but I may be biased as I use a Vixen 102M on an SP mount as my visual scope ).  Would definitely keep the SP mount until & unless you want something much beefier.  I used to have a Vixen GP2 which I turned into go-to with this: https://astro-gadget.net/gadgets/control-of-telescopes/eqstareq5 - similar concept as the Skywatcher EQ5 dual drive system but I think this is belted and quieter than the SW which is cogged (I think?).

Cheers

Just out of interest, the website for the EQ Star suggests you can control it with a phone or tablet.

Is it WiFi enabled or do you need a cable connection to the phone?

2 hours ago, CraigT82 said:

Stellarvue 60mm finder... a small telescope in it's own right! I can see me taking this on holidays with nice wide angle EPs on a lightweight photo tripod.

Along with new goto functionality on my EQ6 this should hopefully help me in locating the ice giants which have eluded me so far. Lack of visible stars in central Bristol makes starhopping with a rigel quickfinder rather difficult. 

Very nice Craig, I have the 50mm version and it's a cracking little telescope in its own right. Though as Pixies said there is a lot of distortion from about 75% out to the edge.

I picked up a small set of guidescope rings on a Vixen dovetail with a 1/4" thread so I can use it on a photo tripod when I need to travel lighter than the ZS66 allows.

1 hour ago, Pixies said:

Just bear in mind these finders are fast - f3.8, so there is a lot of distortion around the edge of the FOV

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

Thanks for that. 👍🏻

Makes me wonder if using a single continuum filter along with a polarising filter would be as effective as the DS filter? 

That is one of the comparisons I was fully intending to make, hopefully we'll get some more white light action soon.

Hi John,

I've used my Cool Ceramic wedge with the built in continuum filter then a second one on the nosepiece of the eyepiece.

I've not done a detailed comparison but it does darken the image more and might add a bit of extra contrast, but not in a blow your socks off kind of way.

A small incremental improvement I would say.

I did mean to do a proper comparison when we see had some sunspots recently but I got caught up in the moment and kept forgetting.

Ade