Paz

Is there any predictive information as to when these will pass by like there is for the ISS and other established satellites.

I was clouded out tonight but got a couple of hours in beforehand with the C8, mostly doing doubles in Canes Venatici.

+1 for the Takahashi diagonal as a small, light, super short light path 1.25" diagonal.

Sky safari. I have a few weather apps but the weather is so fickle I rely more on mk1 eyeballs and personal experience.

That's a good point.

On the occasions when I have had others wanting to have a look at the sun the last thing I do before they look through the eyepiece is that I look/check first.

I agree with checking your filter every time. I hold mine up to the sun and check for pinholes by eye every time I put it on the scope. Also, I check with my hand that it's on and solid every time I put my eye to the eyepiece. I've also got a film filter for my finder scope which helps but a proper solar finder would be good.

I watched Space Odyssey 2010 recently.. in it odd things start to occur on Jupiter and the next thing you know it ignited into a new star! Let's hope that doesn't happen here - that would create a whole new level of light pollution!

I never found anything about the Bresser maksutov and collimating it, but I read about another make where one screw is a locking screw and the other is an adjusting screw and that would make sense with the Bresser. In practice I've never needed to adjust the collimation so I've not tried.

There is a mirror flip option you can toggle in sky safari. If you tap on the top right corner of the map where it shows the size of the view there are flip options.

Regarding maps if you have a map on tracing or thin paper and look through it from behind you see east/west flipped. If you turn the map on its side and then look through from behind you see north south flipped.

This is exciting stuff. In the mean time we need to make the most of observing a natural moon, before it starts to feature man-made objects and lights. Imagine observing the dark side of the moon with lights from settlements being visible with a scope!

I think this is true. I'm middle aged and so am not in the main demographic and I really struggle to get to meetings given other commitments.

The demographic of astronomy groups I've been to are mostly retired and male. I've seen very few young or middle aged astronomers at clubs.

It's something to aspire to. The first couple I'm confident about doing at some point, the rest time will tell!

I have spent a few years accumulating kit but 2019 has so far seen no purchases and my plan this year was to make the most of my kit rather than expand it. This is going ok but in the long term I have only 5 things left on my list to try... A heavier duty alt az scope than my porta 2 A Binoviewer An apo A Ha scope Night vision It might be a long time before I get to try these, if at all, but other than these things I'm very happy with my lot.

I've been reading up and for reference if anyone else is also reading up on this here's a good thread to read.

Ahhh, I've got a Lacerta wedge and having just checked the nd3 looks fairly permanent.

Thanks very much for the replies. I will read up more on the WO binoviewer and use that as a reference to compare other options to it. It sounds like it is perhaps wise to keep calm on the eyepiece front and start with plossls which may be all that is needed.

I hadn't thought of this, I'll give it a try next time I'm observing the sun.

I had thought what has been said above, that the wedge takes out about 95% then and nd3.0 takes it down by another 1/1000, and then a polarising filter tunes the brightness. I always have a nd3.0 and polarising filter in the train then may add another filter sometimes. If I add a solar continuum filter which dims the view the using the polarising filter I'll increase the brightness to compensate but I've not tried observing without the polarising filter.

I've been thinking about getting a binoviewer and was interested in asking for views on it. I would mostly be using it for solar, lunar, and planets. Currently I mostly do solar with my ST120 and a Herschel wedge which leaves very little in focus to spare, and do lunar and planetary with a MC127 (which can make pretty much any set up come to focus). In the long term I aim to get a 100-120mm f7 or so ed/apo to replace both those scopes, and longer term also get a Lunt 60mm solar scope. What binoviewer would be a good prospect to work with all of those (or is that asking too much). For eyepieces I had in mind to get more Vixen SLVs to make pairs or get another Baader MK4 zoom to make a pair. Are these sensible prospects. What binoviewer would be sensible bearing in mind in-focus limitations and any other factors. I'm in no rush and tend to research things to death and prefer to buy second hand so won't necessarily be getting one imminently but any comments that can help me to think would be gratefully received.

I recall one other time I was out trick or treating and was chatting with other parents whilst the children were rioting. Someone mentioned how many stars could be seen. I pointed up at one and said that's Vega. They didn't believe me and got a phone app out to find out. They were very impressed when it turned out to be true. I chose not to mention that was well known and my feat of identification was not actually that impressive.

I've seen it only maybe a couple of times naked eye as it's so rarely an opportunity for me. I don't recall seeing it in a scope except for one transit which was great.

It can be frustrating but there's lots of good tips in this thread to help make the most of what can be seen from light polluted skies. I have had many times I've not seen targets I've looked for. On one occasion I had a long and carefully planned session going for galaxies in Ursa Major from home. I tried very hard for each one and was out for a long time. The result was 100% failure!