Knighty2112

Well done Gert. Excellent! I saw the Veil for the first time at the SGL star party late year. Hoping to view it again later on this year when dark skies return again for more prolonged periods.  

Best data I’ve got of Jupiter so far is from the 7th May. I’ve tried 3 times since then, but results weren’t any where near as good as then. 

Best data from the 7th. Seeing was very good;

Best from a couple of nights ago;

I get the same thing on my Opticstar AR90S. The fine adjustment won’t work very well with certain EP’s in the scope, and past certain altitudes when viewing. I then normally have to use the course adjustment to wind the focuser back in again. I tried smoothing off the drawtube to give it a flatter surface to see itf that cured it, and messing around with various thin tabs inside the focuser to bring it tighter onto the draw tube. Never worked well, so now just live with it. 

Just did th conversion from Japanese Yen to British pound and it comes out at £35. Seems way under priced for such a size and FOV. Maybe this is a Japanese April fools!  

Getting the pop corn out now!  

3 minutes ago, Jforson said:

Guys - thanks for all the feedback, I think I will order the Starwave tomorrow.

regarding the mount I am leaning towards the SkyTee but may wait until I see the big red scope up close in person before committing. 

Cheers 

John

Excellent scope. I had one, but sold it a few months back. Miss it really, but hey ho!  

14 minutes ago, Jforson said:

Gus - I am leaning more to the SkyTee and that is useful heads up regarding ADM saddles.  

I did also put an extra saddle on the other end of the T bar axle, which makes it much easier to balance any scope, so if you plan on using to scopes on the mount then this might be a mod for the future too. Just requires a couple of tapped holes putting on the end cover and it works a treat. I bought a cheat tap and die set for £3 on sale in B&Q just to do the mod, so apart from the cost of the saddle to put on (£40 or so I think) it was cheap to do. I did also change the tripod on the mount for a Berlebach tripod, but the original one was sturdy anyway. As Fozzie says putting an extension on the original mount works well too. Here’s a couple of images of my Skytee 2mount, with the two ‘fracs I normally put on it. 

I had two long frac’s on my Skytee 2 Mount with no problem, even in breezy conditions. Had a long Starwave f11, and and Celestron Omni 120mm f8.3 with no problem. The Sabre looks good, but lacks slow motion control, so push and go only. With the Skytee you have the option to do both, so slow mo control, or push to if you disengage the clutches if you balance the scope(s) correctly. However, you do need to upgrade the standard saddles on the Skytee to ADM ones or similar for more secure fitting of scopes, especially any long or heavy scopes. 

16 minutes ago, Stargazer McCabe said:

After being alerted to Mr Woods’ book by @Knighty2112 I received my copy this afternoon. Swift delivery from our Amazonian chums...

To date we’ve been using VMA and the Cambridge Photographic Atlas via a long, laborious exercise of printed screenshots from an E-Book that I turned into a PDF and printed out...

This Atlas is superb. It will act as a brilliant “at eyepiece” resource instead of what we’ve been trying to use via a few inferior apps and print outs. 

Thanks Gus ?? Money well spent...

Yes, it’s a great book. Hope you enjoy it. Fast service from Amazon too despite the weather!  

54 minutes ago, kerrylewis said:

I find the 21st Century Atlas a bit tricky at the eyepiece of a refractor as it is the 'right way round'. However I found a free app for the iPad called QuickFlip which simply flips images - simpler to use than some of the photo editing apps. So, take a pic of the page and flip it on the screen - bingo! 

Good thinking that man!  

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Looks great, thanks for that.

I still don't think that makes it totally clear, would you say the orange oval is correct?

The way I see it it is as below, which is near as damn close to your original orange circle you highlighted.

5 minutes ago, Stu said:

What is the book? Looks great.

Just looking at another of the descriptions to verify I'm correct. The Schiller-Zuchius Basin is not necessarily easy to work out from the notes. I believe the orange oval is correct, but there is a possibility, I guess, that the shallow basin outlined in red is it?

 

As per below Stu for title and basin; 

3 hours ago, Stu said:

Thanks Billy. I'm considering amending one of the documents to ensure accurate phases for the best time to view, and also additional help to be able to correctly identify the objects, which, as you say, are not always clear; the Schiller-Zuchius basin and Imbrium lava flows being two more!

Flamsteed P has caused me some confusion, I have assumed that it is the large, broken cirular crater outlined in the attached?  There was also a faint inner crater which I could see, concentric to the outer.

Yep! In my book it is labelled as L68 Flamsteed Ring in square H2 below;

Good thinking Stu. I’ve not done the Lunar 100 either, but seriously mean to do so in a more concerted effort. Some will prove quite fiendish to see. For instance, in my book 21st Centurt Atlas of the Moon, on the section near Clavius, lunar no;94 is a crater right on the rim of the edge of the moon called Drygalsky (see 1st image below). After I took an image last night of that area I tried to see if I could see it, but due to the libration of the moon is was well out of sight as can be seen in my image from last night too (2nd image below). 

For better balance on the Skytee you need to avoid the top mount and put an extra saddle on th other side of the T-bar. Here’s my two ‘fracs from a few nights back, which when balanced do not require any weights to be added. The upside of this is that rather than relying on the clutches to stop the scopes from plummeting downwards if the altitude clutch is released the scopes will stay approximately in the same position. I plan also on using some of my other scopes in combination with the Celestron Omni 120mm ‘frac, but as this is strictly a ‘frac only post I can’t mention them! Hehe!  

Yeah, don’t waste your money. I bought one of these over a year ago and it was a waste of money. Optics are dire, and you need to have your eye in a perfect position to get any decent image of any stars etc. 

6 minutes ago, Dave1 said:

Mount isn't new, it came with my Helios 120mm. I have a Circle T 25mm Kellner on the way, which should be perfect for this. I may get a 32mm Vixen NPL Plossl eyepiece, see how I get on with the 25mm. Thanks for the tips, will try them out, next time I'm observing.

Sorry Dave. Must have got you confused with another SGL member who recently bought the same mount off Astroboot, not new but in very good condition. 

16 minutes ago, Dave1 said:

Good, been mainly looking at stars, looked at the double double for the first time the other night, Polaris, Albireo, and Vega. Looked at stars I have yet to learn the names of if indeed they have names! Also tried to find the Dumbbell nebula for the first time. But didn't find it. Wasn't at a dark site and maybe a bit ambitious for a 60mm

Dave

 

New mount looks great Dave, and a nice 'frac sat on top of it too. If you use a 25 or 32mm EP in your scope you should be able to see the Dumbbell OK. I see pretty well on a clear nights OK with my shorter AR90S f5.5 'frac, and also my two longer 'fracs when I use then, even with the LP where I live too. Sweep slowly with one of the above EP's and unless the seeing is very poor you should get it eventually, especially when M27 is close to the meridian at around 10:30pm'ish, so at its highest point in the sky. 

Yeah, a good quality screwdriver with correct size head should do the job. Just hope you haven't damaged any screw heads at all in trying before as that will cause more trouble for you. If still tight carefully let a small amount of WD40 soak into each screw to try to assist loosening it up a little. Go carefully and use small amounts, and leave to soak in for about 10 mins before wiping excess off and trying to losen the screws. Make sure no WD40 comes any where near the optics on the scope, and also wipe any away that might get inside the scope after soaking in to any screws near the focuser.

Arrived from Germany this morning I got my spreader stopper for my Berlebach Uni28 tripod. Looks much better than with the chains that came with the mount.

1 hour ago, Chris Lock said:

Been doing a bit of penny pinching lately, so out with the ED100 HEQ5 combo, and in with a Vixen A80Mf f/11.4 on an EQ3. 

Two year old (well nearly 3) for scale  

Nice looking scope Chris. Thinking of starting a book on the odds before you change it. Hehe!  

Joking aside, hoping you get good views with it and it's a keeper for you. 

Just now, Tonynexevo925 said:

Well I hope I haven't jinxed the weather at the weekend...

big glass ?

 Nice! Bet those two purchases put a big dint in your finances!  

5 minutes ago, Tonynexevo925 said:

The parcel was very securely packed and wrapped ? ???

And? ???

If I didn't already own two long 'fracs I might have been tempted by one of these, more likely the 102mm for the slightly larger aperture. Would be interesting to see how it would perform against my f11 or f8.3 scopes, but as I am currently wanting to reduce the number of scopes I have that is out of the question at the moment.

Would be interesting to see your thoughts on it when you get it Chris, and wether this would be a keeper for you, or up for sale quickly to try another scope!  

Part III (starting to sound like episodes from Star Wars now! Hehe!  );

Some 20x80 Celestron Skymaster binoculars bought of Chris on here (many thanks Chris ) and arrived this morning by Parcelforce. Also, about an hour later I got the ridiculously blooming expensive bracket from Orion which is the unimpressive small black bar under the binocular silver securing bar) to allow me to fit the new binos to my Orion binocular mount, so hoping the forecasted good weather for clear skies for the next three nights materialise to be able to use them!