JeremyS

6 hours ago, Ags said:

I am thinking of a move to Kalamata, Greece, next year. It's not the equator but there is astro dark all year round.

…and lovely olives 

Used book arrived here too

Just ordered as Amazon now say delivery next Tuesday May 7. 
14% discount 

1 hour ago, John said:

About 3 minutes but I don't image, don't use GOTO and use alt-az mounts 😁

 

You’re not slowing down are you, John? 😊

17 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

 

 

 

 

This may be helpful in pinpointing Olympus Mons visually. The top cylindrical grid and the bottom right sketch shows (near the limb) the position of O Mons relative to other features, as do the two globes. The curved dusky features leading to O Mons are relatively obvious once detected. Olympus Mons itself can be seen as a dark patch more often as it approached the central meridian, possibly because we're looking through the mist at its thinnest rather than from the side when close to the limb.  

Below - Cylindrical grid from the 2016 apparition showing the northern hemisphere tilted toward us. (Prism diagonal view - 4" refractor). Olympus Mons shown as a dark spot near 5 o'clock position on right hand disk drawing.

Below is a cylindrical grid from the 2003 apparition with the southern hemisphere tilted toward us. (5" refractor) Direct view without diagonal!

And home made globes from observations made (left 2016) & (right 2020) apparitions,  both made using a 4" refractor and both showing Olympus Mons and environs. (Both prism diagonal views).

🤔 needs more cheese

Splendid, Nigella 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

At the recent BAA weekend FLO had one of these on their stand: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stellalyra-telescopes/stellalyra-16-f45-dobsonian.html

they had it on a purpose built telescope cart. Looked a super setup 

7 hours ago, Andy ES said:

Always been interested in the science, art and politics of this plaque. Now I’ve got it.

 

I reckon your postie gets the prize for the longest delivery run 👍🏻

5 minutes ago, LukeTheNuke said:

Congrats on the full house! This is the kind of talk, though, that makes me think I shouldn't add a second Ethos! I'm a terrible completionist...

I have just the one at the mo, the 21 mm! The 13 is very tempting, and I've been mulling it over. Please tell me it's your least favourite.

You won’t like this but my E13 is my most used of the set. It’s fairly close to my Apollo, so you could perhaps justify the E13 on the basis that you are saving a shed load of money over the A11 😊

PS, completionist here too  😊

Postman delivered Baader solar film ages ago but I’ve now made a filter for my Tak FC 100DZ

1 hour ago, josefk said:

Very nice @JeremyS - sometimes i love my one and only Ethos (an 8mm) and other times i'm not sure (about the 100-degree FOV) and find my Delos more comfortable and somehow "lazier" to use - the to and fro is preventing me buying any more of either to fill in the gaps at lower focal lengths (i could do with a 6mm of one or the other definitely and possibly one other medium focal length) so its a good cost saving bit of paralysis to prolong on my part 😉 

Do you like them unreservedly? Even in the longer focal lengths that may engender larger exist pupils?

I’ll let you know when I’ve tried the Ethos 21 😊

I find the E17 compelling. Where Ethos really come into their own is in the short focal lengths, for planetary work. I’d laboured decades under the misapprehension that the free the EP the better for high resolution work, but I had to eat my hat after trying the Ethos.

When I started on the Ethos journey 2 years ago knew I wouldn’t rest until I’d completed the set……

Amazon still saying delivery 21 June to 2 November 🤔

Super visit and report 

I am a late adopter of Tele Vue eyepieces, but have developed a particular liking of the Ethos series as well as the Nayglers 

Excellent 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Very impressive Dave 👍🏻

I’ve got an old Vixen cwt that I want to spruce up as it’s seen better days.

I don’t want the original Vixen green. I’m thinking black or silver. Perhaps white.

Which type of paint should I use? I want something that won’t rub or flake off. I seek a nice finish.

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

Yes, it would need to be a redesigned obsey for a Parks Newtonian. I'd probably build a rotating building. It wouldn't take me long if a Parks came my way.

 At present my Newtonian collection is quite minimal. I have a 4.5" Newt' which is a nice little scope, made by a long gone local telescope company, yet the telescope itself is still going strong more than 30 years down the line. And I have a 6" given to me by paulastro.  I have also had a couple of lovely larger apertures, a 10" on loan from Peter Drew which was very nice optically, though I didn't enjoy the OO dob mount one bit, and a 8" F6 which I used on my observatory equatorial. It was very nice but my 4" apo was more pleasurable to use so the 8" was moved on.

The best Newtonian I've ever owned was a 6" F10 made by my friend Phil. I told him I didn't want a spider, so he made it with an optically flat window to hold the secondary. Double stars in that scope were droolworthy! The problem with it was I'd mounted it on a steel pier with three welded feet. The pier itself was an sizeable old oxygen bottle that the chunky equatorial was bolted to. The whole thing was dragged out of my garage onto my drive, which was a bit of a task. Phil also painted the tube with black hammerite using a brush. It looked crubish and couldn't love it despite trying hard.

My current 6".

 

Warning! I think someone might have hacked Mike’s account 🫣

Sorry Dizzy, it’s been a while but the night is yet young.

FC 100DZ

17 hours ago, bingevader said:

But not much good a mowing the grass, judging by that scythe.

Sorry, I’m busy at the moment 

17 hours ago, John said:

I don't think the perpetrator is typical of the majority of Somerset folk, thankfully 🙄

We are generally quite normal and well behaved down here in the SW 🙂

Where’s @JOCwith her battery tools when you need her?

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Postie has been a delivered a duplicate of an old friend and idea.

In 2021 I used a plastic toolbox as my astro case, it worked well but got outgrown and I 
needed a new box for my tools, all was placed in multiple bags, cases etc. and I often forget items.

 

 

So a replacement accessory box and how I used it before, watch this space...

I intend to do much the same but perhaps not for Eyepieced.

I’ll give it 18 months until you’ve outgrown the new case, Alan 🤣

Love it, Nigella 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

It maybe that your frequent open ended questions on “this vs that” become a bit tiring after a while. It might leave some to wonder if you actually want to know the answer or just engage in debate. Don’t get me wrong: there is space for debate - it’s what many of us enjoy, especially when it’s so cloudy much of the time 😊

…images free from spikes.