Knighty2112

Ah, the million dollar question! First things first; would help to know a rough budget as there is a bewildering choice from low, mid and high range to chose from!

And guess what? Cloudy over here! <groan!> ☹️

I’ve just acquired a great quality second hand 10” Newtonian and get great views with that even from my LP polluted gardens, so I can imagine what the extra 4” will show you. Enjoy! 👍🏻

New Primaluce Losmandy dovetail and Maxi Dovetail Plus clamp to fully secure my 10” Newt onto my Skytee2 mount. Feels much more stable and secure now over the original Vixen dovetail it came with. Although it does feel weird spending more money on the securing equipment than I spent on the old scope from Pitbull on here? 🤔🤔🤔

M31 of course in Andromeda. Normally looks pretty good in binos. Also, try the clusters (M36, M37 & M38) in Auriga. If dark enough you should be able to nab these as small fuzzies.

289P shows up in Skysafari too, but at mag 10.

Nice work Nick. I was out briefly last night for an hour, but only looked at a few things. You had quite a haul it seems. Well done!

Ah, I hope the speakers are strong if they are going to blast out some Hawkwind!

I’m terrible at quizes, so I’ll just prop the bar up and watch all those great minds ticking over searching for the right answer!

Wasn’t planning to go this year, but what the heck. Just booked for 4 nights from Friday till I leave on Tuesday. Also booked for the grub for all nights as it saves messing about in the tent! Hopefully the weather will play ball, but I’ll pack me wellies just in case!

Nice views. Out of curiosity which night vision monocular do you use?

Good find. Looks like it would make a great bino mount perhaps, or for light OTA.

Binoculars or a light grab and go scope and mount come in handy for times when there might only be a limited time before clouds roll in. Last night I managed a brief look at Jupiter and Saturn from my back garden before clouds fully rolled in. If planning any trip then if possible keep options open for those small chances when views between breaks in clouds occurs by using binos or smaller scopes etc.

Yeah, we had heavy rain and thunder here too in Hull Earlier on. That loud it woke me up from a smooze. Glad I’m not in a tent. Hope you didn’t get too much water intake!

If the choice is between the two options listed only then the 80ed will give sharper views due to the ED glass, so that would be my choice between the two. The ST120 is OK if your budget is tight.

Hope you do get some clear skies. Fingers crossed for you all! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

Weather for this year looks pretty crud though alas!

Nice shots. Well done! Fail to see why this is not ‘real imaging’ though? Just as pleasing to look at and enjoy as something like the Veil etc.

Like it a lot!

That’s the secondary mirror that you see there. One of the problems with newtonians is that you will see this obstruction when viewing, especially with certain EP’s etc. As your iphone is held slightly further away than your eye to take the image it becomes more noticeable too.

There is postulation that a comet hit the north American ice cap during the last ice age which did result supposedly in a catastrophic flood. The scablands in north america are supposed to bear witness to part of this flood. Not sure if it was supposed to cause world wide flooding, but certainly pretty bad in north America according to some geologists, but the idea resisted by others. Sounded reasonably plausable to me, but then i ain’t no expert!

Thats a lot to ask, especially for the portability & deep sky aspect. Love to see what others suggest, but an idea of budget might help too. If the skies in the Great Basin are dark then another option might be a good pair 20x70 binoculars. They are certainly well in the portability range, and even in my light polluted back garden back here in the UK i can see a fair amount of fuzzy stuff with them!

Any excuse to get to the pub ‘eh? hehe! A little to far away for me to come, but hope the meeting goes well for all who do attend. Cheers!

Hi Mark. It worked Ok on my first try with. Found I need to bring it a little closer in towards the other fence as the light from the lamp on the right still was an issue in some positions. Need more material to block light also in other parts too. Also, thinking of using thin wood at the top to hold the tarp and other material to block the light, so will be looking for some suitable wood to do this, as even with setting the guy ropes as tight as I could I couldn’t get the tarp as high as possible and tended to sag down.

Hi Robby, sadly this only impacts my hobby of astronomy, and not into any other areas where I could complain that it interferes with my sleep or quality of life in any other way, so I don’t believe the council would do anything just to accommodate me. Sadly, one of the perils of living in a large town or city.