Paz

No but interesting. Is it an astronomical object... or some astro kit... or something else... who knows?!

No, but if that white blob was a multi coloured disco ball it would be like the view of sirius I get most of the time.

No 🙂

I'm afraid not!

Good guess but no!

I took this astronomy related photo, I wondered if anyone can tell or guess what it is. There's a prize title of unofficial-SGL cryptic-photo-sleuth-of-the-year if anyone can identify it.

I don't know about their customer support as I got my vx14 second hand, but those solid tube dobs they do are certainly light and practical.

I think trying more aperture is justifiable😀. 10" would be a fair jump from 150mm without being too much of a challenge to handle. It's difficult realise what it will mean until you try. You might realise you like the smaller scopes after all, or that you like more aperture, or that you want to keep a few scopes covering different bases. I don't personally follow the practice of mostly using big scopes in dark skies although I agree with the sentiment, any scope will do better in dark skies. Ill use any scope in various observing conditons, but I do most of my observing in light polluted (and heat polluted) skies and I get epic views in bigger aperture scopes that smaller scopes can't deliver. However I have a suspicion that the quality of my eyesight is not the best and therefore I benefit from more aperture more than the average observer does. The best view I've had of Jupiter by far has been with the VX14.

A top tip for those buying big scopes is to try amd make sure the first time your other half sees the scope it is outdoors, they look a lot smaller that way. Although this thread is about does your partner know how much stuff you've got, I wonder how many of us even know how much stuff we've really got!?

If you want a really solid connection to the scope, a t2 to 2" adapter is good, and if you want to be able to swing the eyepiece to the side easily a heavy duty t2 quick changer and bayonet would do that. I don't really use 1.25" into the scope these days, only 2" or 2" to t2 for the solidity.

Thanks for this, I've had a closer look at my wedge and after some judicious use of rubber bands and an adjustable spanner I have managed to safely unscrew the nd3 filter! I have reconfigured the filters to that sequence and will see how it goes when clouds permit.

The filters I use regularly are... Solar white light - polarising filter and continuum filter and nd3 Ha - polarising filter DSOs - I use UHC amd OIII about the same Venus - ND0.9 Jupiter and Mars - atmospheric dispersion corrector (not a filter I admit) Regular moon observing - dont often use filters actually Moon and planets in daylight - polarising filter Full moon - any colour filters are fun bring different features to the fore (I know the full moon isn't supposed to be worth observing - sorry to blight the forum with such a comment!). I'd say overall the solar continuum filter is the winner for me.

Sorry to hear this - I agree Baader have high standards and it is very rare to have a problem. Could I ask are they saying that an optimal order for least reflections is wedge then solar continuum filter, then nd3 filter then polarising filter then eyepiece. My wedge (a Lacerta 1.25") seems to have the nd3 filter permanently installed, i.e. I haven't been able to unscrew it. I have found by trial and error that having the solar continuum filter in front of the polarising filter seems to be better but I've never been able to try it in front of the nd0.9.

That's the one thing observing from my home is good for, I can usually be protected from the worst of the wind, but in every other respect its bad!

I got home today and looked up and saw a very rare sight, so rare I can't remember what it's called...

I agree the UK is a rubbish place to be an observer, but I haven't been observing long enough to have experienced better times so psychologically I tend to accept the long spells of unrelenting cloud as being normal. I do though wonder how many people try this hobby and then leave it quite quickly when the reality of the weather dawns on them.

I stopped following posts about NV quite some time ago as it was just so far out of my league financially but if it gets cheap enough in my lifetime I would give it a go in the same way that the Quark has brought Ha observing within reach for me.

Reading all the posts got me thinking further about improvements for selfish reasons i.e. for visual observing which his my thing, and I keep coming back to a couple... one is weight savings as I originally mentioned but the other one, odd as it may seem, is active cooling of both the OTA and the air within it to reduce the cool down times on more mainstream scopes. Those two things combined would open up the opportunities of being able to handle bigger apertures and spend more time observing with a cooled scope which is especially useful in my circumstances where a lot of sessions are opportunistic with no time to plan ahead and cool a scope properly. On the weight topic I have half an eye on those Explore Scientific 127mm carbon scopes which do very well for weight, but they are triplets. If they did a doublet that would be even lighter and I would be very interested in such a scope. I would also like to hear about FLO's secret plans for the next disruptive developments in kit!

In the relatively short time I've been in this hobby I've seen things like the mass production of higher quality scopes keep on expanding, the use of night vision gear appear, much improved astronomy apps that hold huge amounts of easily accessible information, and the list goes on. I have been wondering what developments and improvements we might expect in telescopes, mounts, and other gear in the future. The one thing I would welcome would be more weight savings in any/all areas of astronomy kit. That would make bigger apertures more easily manageable by more people and that would mean better views for more people. What are your predictions or requests (however possible or impossible they may seem right now) for improvements in astronomy gear over the next 10 or 20 years?

Nice review, you have passed the initiation process of having to try out various contraptions and permutations to get it working but once it's working its great!

I discovered that it may be possible to replace the twist lock on my 102ed with a compression ring like this... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-ultrashort-2-inch-eyepiece-clamp.html I've tried gently unscrewing the existing end of the focuser and nothing feels like it is designed to come off and I don't feel like brute forcing it to find out. Does anyone have experience of swapping out the end of the focuser, I understand there may be a female m68 thread in there somewhere? (My scope is the altair star wave fpl53 version). In the photo below I've tried unscrewing the knurled ring and the three-pronged 2" nose piece holder to no avail.

The ST80 is great value for money and is very light for the aperture so you can get away with using a cheaper or lighter mount. Various tricks can give it a boost for little additional cost like the semi apo filter and other filters, and stopping down the aperture.

Yes some types of cloud can make the views better by steadying the air but this was the kind where you can tell a cloud bank is imminent because the image starts to swim.

I drove out to a spot to observe venus this evening. The clouds roll over and I had a Hamlet moment thinking to get back in the car and go home. In the end I set up anyway and had a look through thin cloud.

That will be good if I ever make it to retirement! I have always thought there are two criteria for enjoying this hobby properly. One is retire. The other is leave this country (the uk)!