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Knighty2112

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Everything posted by Knighty2112

  1. Hi and welcome. Hope you enjoy the views through your scopes. If you want to view Saturn you can nab it at around 10pm, and dont have to wait till morning to see it as long as you have a SE view. The jewel of the solar system, and always a WOW! factor the very fist time you view it (and even after that too!) 😀 Orange line is the height of the houses/bungalows on my horizon, so use as a reference for when i can actually see things above the roof tops.
  2. Daytime views were great, so can’t wait for the views under the stars! 🔭😀
  3. 6 rainbows per year? Nah! More like 60 now! 😉
  4. Nice wee ‘frac addition to the family curtesy of Dragon_Astro arrived earlier on via DPD. Tis’ small but very cute! An SW Equinox 66ED!
  5. Yeah, was looking to get the Monster parallel mount. I have the smaller one already, so will have to do with that one.
  6. Leave tracking mode when observing planets in sidereal tracking mode. The movements of the planets are too slow to discern any orbital movement unless observing over a very long periods of time. Use solar tracking only for the sun, and lunar for the moon only as these will show larger movements in the sky when observing, especially when using higher magnifications. Also, try to make sure when you align the mount that you align last with the up key pad and the right key pads as this takes out any slack in the gears which can make the tracking lag after a while, again more pronounced when using higher magnifications. I have the larger version 6/8SE mount and that works very well after leveling and alignment.
  7. I have the 6mm EP. Works well on lunar and planetary observations. The narrow fov does make it a little hard to work with, but for the price it is a good EP with its limitations none the less.
  8. A second hand 80ED scope would be a great option if you could get hold of a second hand one. I have an 80mm and 102mm AA ED Starwave Ascent ‘fracs which I now always tend to use when observing doubles. I have not noticed that the semi apo filter reduces star colours much, but I’ll check it out again and see on my 2 achro ‘fracs I mentioned. Maybe my colour perception is not as good as others perhaps!
  9. One extra thing to contemplate if you wanted to go down the Evo 102 ‘frac option you mentioned is to get a Baader semi-apo filter to use with it. I use the semi-apo filter on some of my achro ‘fracs (Celestron Omni 120, Bresser AR-102S) and it works very well at reducing/eliminating any CA on any stars/doubles etc, and also improves the images any planets too when used.
  10. Wish I only had one streetlight to worry about where I live. Some rope from the washing line to shed to drape something over looks easily doable. I got some black material that I use sometimes to block lights especially when looking for DSO’s.
  11. Looks similar to the mount that went with this scope I’ve just had a search on. https://www.omegon.eu/telescopes/omegon-maksutov-telescope-mightymak-80-az-merlin-synscan-goto/p,56278
  12. I would say if you want to observe more than the moon and the sun then then get a minimum 60mm aperture. This will show Jupiter and Saturn reasonably well and allow approx 120x magnification. Venus will show it’s phases well too. If you got an ED scope this generally allows you to push magnification a bit more too. Should get some nice widefield views with it too.
  13. 2 inch EP’s are generally best for wide field views, so not sure if views would be any better than what you already see in your 10 inch dob with your 2 inch EP’s as both focul lengths of both scopes are pretty much the same at about f4.7/4.9. The views might be wider than what 1.25” EP can show, but its down to you if the cost of a 2” diagonal to get these wider views. If you find the 10” dob a chore to lug out and set up then maybe it is worth it with the quicker setup time of the ST102 ‘frac to get these views with the 2” EP’s, although the extra weight of the 2” diagonal does add more weight to balance out on you mount you use.
  14. Not sure if it does but does your front cover on your scope have a smaller aperture that you can open to stop as much light getting down to the mirror? I find that large newts do better with Venus and Jupiter when stopped down like this, although generally I prefer to use my ‘fracs for planetary/Lunar observing. Failing that use a filter of some form on your EP’s to reduce the glare.
  15. It appears to bear very close resemblance indeed; “The tilted, off-axis mirror of the scallop eye bears a striking resemblance to the segmented mirrors of reflecting telescopes” As they have over 200 eyes apparently I wonder if over another few hundred million years of evolution it might further resemble the reflecting mirrors of the James Webb Telescope?
  16. Drat! Just as Mars is getting into a nice position to observe, had a 10 minute brake, then came back outside to sky covered in sea fog! Grrrrr….😡😡😡

  17. How about about a moon filter (0.3, 0.6, or 0.9), or a polarising one which you can set to the best position to block out the brightness? Not to expensive from FLO.
  18. It’s been a while since I’ve done any lunar imaging, so dipping my toes back in tonight with some using my AA 80ED Starwave ascent ‘frac, and ASI462MC camera. Captured with AVI video with Sharpcap, and stacked with Registax. Further processing of image in PS, and on Ipad.
  19. Great movie. Not seen it in years! Squashed peas wasn’t it? 🤔
  20. Yeah, I wonder what it looks like from a truly dark site somewhere in the world away from any LP of any kind?
  21. Me, I’m still waiting for the next ice age. Scientists did tell us there was one on the way not to far in the not to distant past it seems, and scientists are never wrong are they? <……quickly runs for cover!……>
  22. I never use the renamed company for any thing I send off in the mail. I’d rather pay the extra money and get RM or Parcelforce to deliver anything I send. I do get deliveries from them though, and TBH they always have delivered OK. Maybe I've just been lucky perhaps with them.
  23. BTW: here’s the view of Mars from Skysafari which matches pretty closely what you saw in your scope with your Mars filter.
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