Victor Boesen

And no, I'm not talking about the clear sky Instead, I noticed my home location has dropped to a Bortle 7 instead of 8! I find this interesting because I've previously noticed that the sky seemed a little darker, and at once I just barely spotted M31 naked eye, which I've never done before. With that said, it's still far from perfect, and ever single unnecessary or improperly shielded light I see around makes me sad for this hobby... Victor

I too was looking for a "budget Astronomic/Lumicom filter" some time ago and ended up with the Castell OIII filter, which I've used a lot for observing the veil, dumbbell, orion neb and etc. Looking at the following transmission spectrum from other filters the castell looks very identical to the Astronomik which was one of the reason I went for it. Unfortunately the Lumicon OIII isn't a part of this comparison. As for your original question, I think you'll be very happy with low magnification Milky Way sweeping with your WO73 refractor under such dark skies. It's only in these cases you benefit from large exit pupils which would otherwise result in washed-out views in areas with more light pollution. Perhaps bring some medium power eyepieces as well for planetary nebulas and star clusters. Wouldn't see the need for high power eyepieces since you'd be stupid to be splitting doubles all night under such conditions😅 Have a nice holiday! It sounds like a great trip, and I'd love to hear some reports from there, weather permitting Victor

What pier extension is that, og I may ask? Looks quite nice.

That looks out of focus, but most importantly, the Quark is NOT designed to be used for dobsonian telescopes. That is very important to remember.

Hi everyone, yesterday I performed an observation again in the Cygnus area with the same setup as my previous observations. I've made a couple changes to my software including a small map displaying the obseved area in the Milky Way and some detail about the observation. Here's a link to my software, if anyone is interested in trying it out. It works for regular RTL units. Thanks for looking! Victor

You're gonna start to need more eyes than the four you already have considering all these scopes and eyepieces stu

Be careful knocking that thing over when running for the phone John

I did exactly just this just about 8 months ago. Storage and time was the limiting factor for me so I switched out my 10" dobsonian out for a 4" Apo refractor. The apo is very versatile, and I use it much more often than I did with the dobsonian, and I don't have any regrets with my decision. I really liked my dobsonian though, and it was a difficult decision to let it go. I feared I had chosen a wrong decision, but once I got comfortable with the 4" I was happy I switched to something smaller. The 4" has also allowed me to do H-alpha and white light solar observing with a Daystar Quark and a Lacerta Herschel wedge. The constant feeling of not using a scope enough might be a sign to switch to something smaller/different. Good luck with your choice!! And take your time to make the right decision.

+1 Excellent capture! Truly mesmerizing

Fascinating stuff!! Would love to do similar stuff myself in the future or as a part of my study at some point. Thanks for sharing

Beautiful @JeremyS!! Have you posted more about the spectrophotometry somewhere on here? I'd love to read more about it

Observing the Encke gap with single digit apertures should be impossible. Calculating the the angular size of the Encke gap tonight, considering it's 325km wide one gets a width of just 0.04998" (arcseconds). From this information the minimum aperture to resolve this size can be determined, considering one is observing far blue light for highest resolution (shorter wavelength). And with Saturn at its current distance from Earth this aperture is calculated to be 1.916m of aperture.... Doing the same calculations for closest approach on the 1st of August gives a required aperture of 1.91m. This is all theory though, and the Encke gap has been imaged and reported observed through smaller apertures than this, but I doubt anything smaller than 10" could possible resolve the Encke gap. With that said, I'm not trying to argue with what people have observed. I was just curious and did the math for fun Wish I was out last night but with work at 7AM today I couldn't justify going out... Next time;)

Is sewing the new sketching Stu? Have I missed something On the topic however, I switched from a 6" newtonian to a 10" dob and then back down to a 3" and 4" APO. I kept the two latter scopes since the view through them is simply something different than the view through the newt and dob. One part of this decision was lack of space, however, the majority of times I felt the view through even the 3" to be more satisfying than the wobbly mess through the 10" dob due to low elevation and poor seeing. The refractors are great at cutting through the seeing, and my 4" reveals even more detail than the 3". A couple nights ago I easily reached 150X under poor conditions with high clouds and humidity. Here's a video of Saturn and Mars through my 3" Evostar 72 taken with my phone camera. The 4" has no problems with the Cassini division and subtle banding, while the 3" can reveal the Cassini division when conditions aren't terrible. Jupiter through the 4" is amazing. Contrast is a lot higher than through my previous reflectors and the same goes for Mars where albedo details are much easier to spot through the refractors. My 4" Apo observing Mars at 266X and 380X during last year's opposition So which scope do I prefer? For planets the 4" wins without a doubt and would be my primary choice every time, however, there are times where I just want a quick grab and go look at the planets and the 3" is perfectly fine. I could definitely see myself ending up with a 5" APO at some point in the future when my situation in life allows for it. For now I have everything I need, but never everything I want Victor

Beautiful Michael I know a person from Denmark, @Ljungmann, who's very happy with his 8" triband for visual H-alpha observing with a solar spectrum filter. Did you manage to have a look through it visually, or did you stick to imaging? His setup can be seen here.

Looks great @michael.h.f.wilkinson I suppose for the triband and solar spectrum?

Thanks Mark! I find my ES 82 degrees work quite well but haven't tried anything else so can't tell for sure I consider buying a Baader Hyperion zoom with the 2.25X Barlow for white light and some night time observing, and my impression is that it's highly coveted among white light- and H-alpha observers and for binoviewers. And who knows, perhaps I can get a pair of them in the future and stick them in a binoviewer

That would be great! But I guess I really can't ask for more in a scope I got for 269£ Don't even make me consider

Reaching focus with the Skywatcher Evostar 72ED and the 2" Lacerta wedge A couple days ago I began to worry I wouldn't be able to reach focus with my Evostar 72ED and a quick experiment confirmed that I couldn't reach focus and I needed inward focus. I then remembered I had purchased an M54 to M48 adapter a while ago for my OVL field flattener to be mounted directly onto the focuser tube of the Evostar. I replaced my baader click lock with the adapter and it threaded perfectly in the thread of the Lacerta wedge. With my eyepiece that requires the least outward focus I'm then left with 0.55mm of spare inwards travel subtracting the 5mm optical length of the adapter. Call that a close call This is by no means an ideal solution to this, but since I'm mostly going to use the wedge with my 102mm F7 refractor I'm not in a rush buying adapters to decrease the optical path length of the wedge/system. I figured I'd share this solution as some may find it good to know that this specific adapter can be useful with the Lacerta wedge. Victor

Arrived a couple days ago, fitted it to my equipment today Now I'm ready for the long sunny - hopefully - days ahead this summer. I've really gotten hooked on solar observing lately.

The SCT really was more tempting than a 6 inch refractor It looks great and I look forward to reading about your experience with it Victor

And now some time later I also have white light capabilities I'm using a 2" Lacerta wedge together with some Baader accessories. It's a great step up from my white light solar film on my Evostar 72ED, and I think it's worth every penny. Being able to observe fine granulation, faculae and high detail in sunspots really made white light worth it for me again! Above is an image I took with my OnePlus 7 pro through the eyepiece today. First time observing a decent sunspot and I'm very satisfied. The green color is from my OIII filter acting as a solar continuum filter;) Victor

Very impressive John. I sometimes miss the large aperture from my 10 inch dob I sold in exchange for my 4" apo, but the amount I use the apo makes up for every inch considering my current point in life

I take that as a way to simply pass the clouds included to you instead

Sounds interesting! Look forward seeing more about it in the future. Perhaps in the following summer days?

Wish I had tried Plato with my old 250PX before I sold it. Frankly I just didn't have the time and surplus to use such a large scope. Hope your new one will perform great! Indeed! It's good to have something that motivates you to get out the scope despite the lack of darkness