JuergenB

The only visible occultation from Europe in 2023 will be in the afternoon hours of October 18. The angular distance to the sun will be 45°, therefore, depending on the sky transparency, there will be a chance to observe the event.

I hadn't the mass market truss type Dobsonians in mind, but the lightweight "Travel Dobsonians", like the Martini (Germany) 12" f/5.3 Dobsonian I once had. Storage, transportation and set-up were very easy.

I once owned a WO FPL-53 doublet - and yes, it showed blue colour fringes around brighter stars in LRGB images. It depends a lot on the L and B filter transmission on the blue side of the spectrum. Nowadays, you can select beween different types of L filters, for example Astronomik offers three different ones, L1, L2 and L3. L3 opens the transmission window at higher wavelengths (>420 nm) than L2 or L1, which would be advantageous for a less than perfect ED lens. Juergen

For anything bigger than 8", I would go for a truss type Dobsonian any time, but don't forget a shroud for increasing contrast if your skies are worse than Bortle 2. Although the weight of a solid tube 10" or 12" might be still acceptable, handling of a large telescope is very cumbersome. You shouldn't be afraid of collimating it though. Juergen

I guess I am the second one who received an ASIAir Plus today 😉. Probably I will not use it for my garden setup where I still prefer a laptop, but for expeditions and star parties, the new toy should do a good job. I could have purchased a MeLe mini computer instead, but frankly speaking, I do not want to fiddle with all that software installations and remote desktop matters. Anyway, our astronomy club has just acquired a MeLe Quieter 3C, so I will follow up how it performs. Juergen

Hi, Still 2.5 hours of darkness here at 53° N, but this will be only 2 hours 7 days from now. With (hopefully) higher ambient temperatures it's a good time to test new gear or new software, especially if you do astrophotography. Imaging nebulae throug H-alpha-filters is possible to a certain extent. It helps if you have fast optics. Another playground for me will be spectroscopy of brighter stars. Just got a Star Analyser 100 for that. Then, of course observing the moon, bright planetary nebulae, globulars and double stars. Juergen

I don't see the Tak premium over other brands of the same league (Zeiss APQ, Nikon, Pentax, Astro Physics, TEC, APM-LZOS). Sometimes, Takahashi even asks rather moderate prices (FS-60, FC-76, the smaller Epsilons and Mewlons). Juergen

Let me add the Coma Star Cluster (spring), the Veil Nebula complex, M8, M16, M17 (summer), M36, M37 and M38 (winter). Those are always beautiful. Juergen

I remember having observed the PN NGC 40 with my 12" dobsonian last year and I was amazed to see a somewhat strange reddish cast. I have read a report of John Graham afterwards who used a 16" and clearly saw red color. [OIII] emission is missing in this low excitation nebula, therefore, no green. This might be the only nebula which reveals traces of red. Juergen

Hi Ray, Thanks for pointing out that issue. I have just noted the same with the 95 mm rings for my FSQ-85, which is generally stored with rings and dovetail plate horizontally in a telescope bag. Will have a closer look. Juergen