JeremyS

I'm also looking for replacement rollers for my 7ft Pulsar dome (also a single piece dome - not the newer bolted together dome). I asked Pulsar, but they haven't been able to suggest replacements yet as the newer models use different rollers it seems. Do let me know if you find a source, @upahill

I thought there was something odd.......

There's always this one @Greymouser. Pocket Borg. You can almost keep it behind your ear....

+1 for the Opticstar XL 7.2mm-21.5mm http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Accessories-Telescopes-Opticstar.asp?p=0_10_5_1_8_330 I use one in my Lunt 50.

MightyMak 60?

Hello Alan, I got the counterweight bar from Astroboot (simply screws into the AZ GTi) and the counterweight itself is from Skywatcher:

Another small Camkix eyepiece case - the 3rd I have. Pluckable foam makes for easy customising, bit the case is only thick enough for narrow profile 1.25-inch eyepieces.

Here is the Tak FC76 mounted on a SW AZ GTi and Berlebach Report tripod.

I've fallen in love with Berlebach wooden tripods. A Berlebach Report has just arrived. Intended to be used with my SW AZ GTi and Tak FC76 DCU. The tripod and head together are easily carried in one hand and the Tak OTA in the other (although I wouldn't necessarily recommend this! 🙂 )

Lovely job @markse68 I used to have a Fullersopes finder on one of my old scopes. The one good thing about it was the locking nuts on the finder holder. This meant that once you had aligned the finder, all you needed to do is to tighten the nuts and it would remain aligned. This is a nice refinement that most modern finder mounts don't have - although those on my Tak 10 x 50 and 6 x 30 do.

TeleVue Nagler 9 mm Type 6. I'm a late-comer to the TV stable. What I like about many of the TV EP's is that they are relatively compact, compared to some of their bulkier brethren. This makes them a bit more convenient for travel.

+1 for the NZ 3-6. I use in both my Tak FC76 and FS102. You can tune the mag (and exit pupil) to the object and conditions. I find it a bit easier to use than my 4, 5 and 6 mm Orthos (which are very nice eyepieces)

Good to hear your plans, Alan. And pleased to here you are getting much better. Jeremy

Crikey! 25 years? I was living in Waterloo in Belgium at the time. We had been on a family day-trip to the Ardennes and I watched it on returning home, using my C8 on a Vixen Superpolaris mount.

Glad to hear the plans are crystallising, Chris. Sounds excellent. Any idea on when you'll be able to move in?

Congratulations @Piero!

Brilliant news. Better late than never. 🙂

Shhhh, my wife might hear you 😉

We are very lucky that our Chairman allows us to use his field to observe from. Great horizons, although some glow from Chester a couple of miles north. Like many local AS's, many of our members simply enjoy coming along to the talks. We have a hard core of observers who get together from time to time. We also have quite a few imagers and even one who is a highly advanced spectroscopist, SGL's very own @andrew s Another remarkable thing is that our membership has ballooned over the last 4 or 5 years and we are pleased to count quite a few women and young people as members. So much so that at some meeting we struggle to accommodate everyone - nice problem to have 🙂. We can't quite work out why this has happened, but it's a trend we are happy to see 🙂 It's a couple of our newer members that organise these observing session by putting out announcements to the membership via text and email. One of the best moments last night was when a young women thanked me for giving her very first view of Saturn and its rings - something that had been on her "must do list". Makes it all worthwhile 🙂

Here's a pic of the early arrivals at the observing field. My C9.25 in the centre.

I’ve taken delivery of an Oklop "Padded bag’n’backpack for SC9.25 tubes". The good news is that it’s very well made of top quality fabric and the zips are excellent. It's easy and quick to get the OTA in and out of and it holds the OTA snugly, with padding all round the tube The only problem is that the C.95 tube doesn’t fit in with the 9x50 finder in place. This is a standard Celestron finder supplied with the OTA. Probably a 6 x 30 finder would be OK, but that’s not what I have. Nevertheless, for my purposes (carrying to public events on the back seat of the car) it’s fine because I can leave the finder in place in a way that it sticks out from the zipped compartment as shown in the pic. The OTA fits in with the 2-inch diagonal in place, which is a reduces assembly time.

A few members of Chester Astronomical Society gathered at our Chairman's farm this evening to watch the shadow transit of Io. Following a colourful sunset we managed about an hour on Jupiter. Seeing was variable, but we picked the shadow transit up from near the start and followed it almost half way across before cloud obscured. Also had a look at Saturn, but only about 8 deg high - nice for everyone to see the rings, though.

Had a decent session on Jupiter last night. Used the C9.25 this time. With Jupiter skimming the hedge tops and not visible from the observatory, it’s not a great apparition, but was impressed by the wealth of detail visible and the colour of the GRS that was in transit at the time. The seeing was fine for a few minutes and they fell apart for another few minutes, so I had to bide my time to get the best views. Used the Baader Skysurfer V red dot finder for the first time – I've had it a few weeks, but not had the opportunity to use before. Works really well – it’s in a different league from the other smaller RDFs I’ve used before, like the Skysurfer III. It’s certainly bulkier and heavier, but does the job well. The alignment adjustment is high quality, although it’s a bit of a pain to have to use a screwdriver to adjust the 2 screws. Let’s hope it doesn’t need adjusting too ofen... This pic was taken at dusk and for some reason the sky looks whit. But it shows the C9.25 fitted with the SS V and mounted on the WO EZTouch and the Berlebach Planet tripod.

Looking good Stu! 🙂

A side by side comparison of the Tax 100 and Mewlon 210 on Jupiter would be very interesting @Stu