Knighty2112

Been half Scottish (my father came from the Isle of Lewis) I am always conflicted when I watch England play Scotland (in either rugby or football). My girlfriend was a little confused yesterday when one minute I was cheering for Scotland, then the next for England. Happy that Scotland won in the end (at least my Scottish half was!)! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

First decent patch of clear skies this year (Saturday 24th) to enable me to get my HEQ5Pro mount set up, with my Celestron Omni 120mm ‘frac allowed me to do some doubles in Gemini which I’d selected during the constant cloud cover in the rest of February. Used my Celestron Duo 5mm EP to observe with, giving a 200x magnification. Skies were very steady with good seeing, but transparency wasn’t great, but good enough for the doubles I planned on observing, none of which were tight, especially with the 5mm EP. Used Skysafari to get to my targets, which worked well mostly, and all doubles came into view well even at the magnification used. Nothing too challenging, but recon I could have seen some tighter doubles quite easily if I had the inclination. Saw Eskimo PN in Gemini well, but when I tried for M81 it was very faint. No sign of M82 at all. With the Moon and the transparency this was no real surprise. A few open clusters were quickly viewed, but clouds eventually started coming in about an hour later, so packed up earlier than planned. Was good to get out to observe again even for a brief session after the cruddy perpetual cloud cover, which seemed to last for an eternity.

Glad you didn't get caught out. Curious as to what item it was as I look in the classifieds at least a couple of times a day. Anyhow, my noseyness aside glad the scam got taken out quickly! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Looking good. Like the main stars of the cascade and their colours. Nicely done! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Get a hairdryer blowing on it for a while, then leave in a warm room for a few days to dry out further. If any covers can be carefully unscrewed also to help it dry out further if possible to do.

Out of curiosity did you own the 8SE mount from new, and how long had you had it before the bearing failed? Sorry, that was for Artik.

Cloud cover! 🤣🤣🤣

I have this edition, and the 2014 edition is still going to be 10 years out of date at the very least still. Here’s what the main topics are in the headings page, so see if that might be worth buying a new copy.

Used to have an AVX a few years back, and sold it off because I needed some money quickly at the time. Can’t remember the mount being noisy in any great way. Got a Skywatcher Heq5 Pro now (no Rowan belt kit fitted) and sounds much the same. AVX always worked a treat. Wish I hadn’t sold it on now, although the Heq5 Pro is just as good.

Nice shots. Rupes Recta looks very good in your image (2nd from last). 👍🏻

https://www.space.com/green-flash-earth-sunrise-sunset

What RA and Dec did you use, and what was the double star you were trying to see in Aladin?

OK, just seen you said you live in bortle 4 area, which definitely would give better results.

Depending on where you live, with light pollution you may not see much more improvement. I live in Bortle 7 area which is crud for looking at all but the brightest deep sky stuff even with a 10 newtonian that I own, so generally tend to use one of the 3 ‘fracs I own for most stuff. If you live in an area with darker skies then you would get better results with a larger aperture.

I have SS6 Pro and SS7 Pro. Never got my syncscan wifi dongle to work with SS7 even when connected first up to the Synscan app, but works with no problem on SS6 after connection first with the synscan app. Not sure what the answer is, but must lie with SS7 in some way. Run all apps on my ipad.

Welcome to the lovely hobby/addiction of astronomy. Sure to empty your bank account on a regular basis!! 😉😉😉😉

Hope it works out Ok for you if you go for the gti. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

I’ll leave it to others who have the mount if it can indeed cope with the load close to or above 5kg OK. I have a couple of goto mounts that claim they can hold 5kg/5.4kg respectively, but performance wise they work much better with smaller/lighter scopes fitted. Larger heavier ‘fracs tend to be less stable on mounts also, which will also effect performance.

AZ gti weight limit for equipment is 5kg, and the ST120 OTA is just over 4kg, so add in weight of any other equipment been used on the scope (diagonal, eyepiece, finderscope etc) that could push it either very close to the 5kg limit or over.

Wow! A lot going on in WL there! Wish I’d got my small ‘frac out on it earlier. Fingers crossed might be able to catch some tomorrow. Nice images! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Nice shots. Although the terminator had moved on past the best point to see them you can still make out the lunar X and V in the your image. I was viewing these at approx the same time on the 18th too visually, which was my first bit of visual astro since before Christmas.

I would suspect that M81/82 would be visible in your C6 on good nights with a low to mid power EP. OK your not going to get views like you would from dark sky sites, but you should still be able to see none the less. I live in bortle 7 area and can see M81/82 in my smallest 80mm ‘frac quite easily on clear dark nights when the moon is not in the way of things.

OK. Just took mine apart. On mine printed on component U1 is E9=C5P if that helps narrow down the right part.

Found this on CN which might help a little to source right or similar component. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/691049-faulty-synscan-wifi-adapter/