Victor Boesen

Sorry to hear this.... May I suggest you post about it on the danish Astronet? I would not be surprised if it caught the interest of someone there!! https://www.astronet.dk/forum/ De bedste hilsener - Victor

Don't they have 1.25" treads on the eyepiece side anymore? Mine from 2017 do at least. It's very useful! Victor

That's excellent. Job has done a large variety of interesting things in the amateur radio astronomy community! I did something similar myself a couple years ago, albeit with some more modest equipment due to my current life situation My setup consisted of a simple wifi grid antenna I bought on ebay, together with a dedicated LNA and an RTL-SDR. Here are the observations I used to determine the rotational velocity from, showing the change in dopplershift across the galactic plane. And finally, my achieved results below. The blue dots represent the initial results, whereas the red results were corrected to the barycenter, ie. with the orbital velocity of the Earth taken into account. It's always fascinating to see what Job achieves with his amateur equipment, and it's very fun to push the limits - just like in astrophotography! Victor

Wow Ed! Once again very impressive results Since you've adjusted the LO frequency of the LNB is there any way you could perhaps benefit from an LNA like the Nooelec H1+ SAWbird? I can't remember if you are already using some sort of filtered amplifier. Victor

Beautiful Stu! I just came inside after observing the exact same features myself - good to have some images that represent what I saw Seeing was a little wobbly here, however, the weather was very calm so I spent about an hour outside. Victor

Another important thing to consider is - are you seeing CA or just atmospheric dispersion? The latter isn't determined by the quality of the optics, and is usually characterized by red/blue colors, whereas CA reveals itself in the form of yellow/purple colors. Victor

Excellent Jeremy! Haven't been out solar observing for a long time due to lack of spare time unfortunately. I'm curious how the tak prism handles the heat from the sun with the Quark placed after the diagonal and the diagonal being a prism and not a mirror? Victor

On the lens, manually set the F-number to the highest number available. This should fix the issue you mention. I've owned the Samyang 135mm with a D3300 so I've had the same "issue" Victor

My sincere condolences to relatives and friends!! John was so valuable to this forum - not only through his knowledge and experience but also with his personality!! He will be missed by many... Victor

Excellent work ZiHao!!! Good to see you're still working on H-line stuff I haven't had much time to do the same lately, but hopefully I will in the future. I'm currently working on refurbishing the ground station at my university. If I succeed I should have a 3m dish to do radio astronomy with Victor

You're welcome Feel free to share a link in this thread if you decide to collect your thoughts in a separate thread/post! Victor

I'm getting along very well with my Castor II and 102mm APO! I did consider the Giro ercole mini too while looking for a replacement for my AZT6, however, I ended up with the Castor II as it was slightly cheaper, and I was more drawn to Berlebach's easy way to add another dovetail clamp to the other side for dual-scope use. With that said, it's my impression that both mounts are excellent for "lighter" scopes (eg. not huge fracs, newts and etc). In my opinion, the Castor II is surprisingly stable on a heavy duty tripod, like the Skywatcher stainless steel, and with a counterweight or second scope. Victor

Don't mind at all! Yes, I used a Tak prism back then, but I don't anymore (wish I hadn't sold it). I had no problems reaching focus with my Explorer Scientific 82 degree eyepieces, however, I didn't have my Baader Classic Orthos back then so I don't know if they would also reach focus. Victor

I have actually never used the AZT6 with a counterweight as I originally bought it without a counterweight for my 72ED and figured I didn't need it It should perform better with one though! Depending on the tripod the vibrations at low power (<50X) is roughly 2-4 seconds from what I can recall from memory. So not great, not terrible I shall emphasize that the tripod it's mounted on is just as, if not more, important than the AZT6 itself! Victor

As mentioned by @vlaiv, I own a Tecnosky 102mm F/7 and have used it a lot on my AZ6T both on a manfrotto photo tripod and on a Skywatcher stainless steel tripod. I consider it fine for grab-and-go, but have also purchased a Berlebach Castor II as the AZ6T is, quite frankly, not quite stable enough for high magnification observing. The biggest problem/issue I had with the AZ6T was, that I found it quite bad at vibration dampening, which is also why I think it's not up to the task of high magnification observation. Using the stainless steel Skywatcher tripod of course helps, so I'd recommend you to use the most stable tripod you have. With that said, I actually got along with the AZ6T for quite some time before I finally bought the Castor, so the AZ6T should certainly be usable for the 102mm, as long as you don't load it with a heavy 2" prism, large 2" eyepiece, finderscope (use a red dot or no finder) and etc. With regards to the 102mm scope, it's excellent! I thoroughly enjoy mine and have never regretted purchasing it. I use it for everything really - Deep sky, planetary, lunar, double stars and solar (white light and H-alpha). Feel free to ask me any further questions:) Kind regards, Victor

I'm sure he would've!! However, he would probably have been even more proud of my old setup a couple years back!! Exactly the same spot, observing Saturn or Jupiter with a 10" dob

Currently observing a double shadow transit on Jupiter. Both shadows readily visible together with the GRS. Also the first time I use my BCO 18mm in binoviewers. Such a joy! Victor

Brilliant Ed! I thoroughly enjoy these updates Victor

The scopetech zero should (haven't tried it myself) be capable to hold both scopes comfortably. I'm using my Castor II on my Skywatcher steel tripod which is very sturdy but not so light weight. Like Ags, I also still use my AZT6 on my Manfrotto XPRO 055 tripod for my Evostar 72ED and on rare occasions also with my 102mm F7. However, I don't find my Manfrotto tripod suitable for my 102mm so would require something more stable. Victor

Sounds like some very enjoyable sessions Stu! Thanks for sharing Unfortunately I have not done white light in a while now but hope to do so soon! Victor

Otherwise you could also consider a simple wratten 58 green filter? But if you're like me, the continuum is inevitable I started with an OIII filter, then got a 1.25" continuum filter to see what the fuzz was about. I discovered how impractical unscrewing/screwing the filter off/on different eyepieces was so eventually got the 2" and sold the 1.25". So what I at first said to myself I'd never be willing to pay for a solar filter I eventually ended up with buying anyways. Give yourself some time to consider whether it's worth it

Stu uses the Baader Coolwedge If you look at the documentation for the coolwedge you will see that Baader recommend the continuum filter placed before the ND3.0 filter to avoid glare. I do the same with my Lacerta 2" wedge like in the image below Like you, I also experienced glare if I placed the continuum (or OIII for that matter) after the ND filter. I see you have already been given great advice so I can't add much more. I will say that I find magnification varies greatly depending on the seeing conditions. I've used 200x like Stu but some days I'm limited to 100x due to seeing. However, at this magnification there's still a lot to see like faculae, granulation, sun spots and etc. Victor

I will definitely get another 18mm Baader Classic Ortho to make a pair of them. With that said, I'm actually surprised how well the 32mm Baader Plössl performed. Even at 83X I felt Jupiter and Saturn were quite comfortable to observe. I do, however, look forward to bumping the magnification up slightly as I felt the seeing definitely could support it. Victor

Thanks again! I do have a Baader VIP barlow which has two 15mm extension rings so could play around with that. I will need to get the 2.6X GPC first though Very useful information!

Excellent!! This was the exact answer I hoped to get In that case, I'm hopeful I should be able to reach focus for white light. Out of curiosity, do you have an image of the setup you use this configuration with? Victor