Moonshane

Yeah a lens flare/reflection. The colour is similar to chromatic aberration in cheap lenses.

All the bits to create an obs. Will have pretty much everything bar the metal cladding for this weekend and will make a start!

Totally agree that any sort of tracking is a real boon to observing. Especially so if sketching or at high powers. I have sold my platform now but might make another once my obs is complete. I may eventually get a AZ tracking mount for my frac.

Hi Alan The top of the pier will be about 1500mm which replicates my heq5 tripod at full extension with my home made 10" approx. extension. This allows me to see whole available sky from a seated position.

Well not that much to report other than the garden is finished and I converted the chunk of metal from this To this last weekend. Just needs painting and nuts for the rod ends to set into concrete of the pier. Hope to get the pier and hopefully the deck on which the obs will sit finished next weekend

Or a bird?

I use binos for solar, lunar and planetary but never got on with them for general observing. The main issue for me is comfort. I find that with binos you just sink into the view and relax which for me makes for more detailed observing. I find lower powers are best and around the 100x mark is just amazing for most targets although for Ha solar, about 70x is best for me. On planets and the moon (and sometime white light solar) you can use more but the views are never as impressive, sharp and contrasty as at about 100x. I use a pair of Baader Maxbrights and TV plossls (8mm, 11mm, 20mm, 25mm) and a pair of 15mm Panoptics. I may eventually change the 20mm and 25mm plossls to 19mm and 24mm Panoptics as I have one each of these currently too. I do sometimes use mono for viewing solar but my kit is now set up for full disk viewing and changing requires a lot of extension. I often use mono for planets when I am just having a quick peek.

I much prefer the 19mm Panoptic as to my eyes it doesn't suffer any lateral CA which I find troublesome on the moon with the 16mm T5 hence I sold it.

Cool. Cheers for the heads up John. Hope to see this. First astronomy for ages - finally finished my degree and about to build my obs! Woohoo!

Ps truly lovely through the 8x42 binoculars

I think I have just been observing NLCs over Ashton under Lyme / Oldham directly north of me. Taken with my android. So even visible with bad LP?

If you live in the centre of Ashton (or close) then the light pollution will be pretty bad. I have never seen M101 from either Romiley or Gee Cross and the LP is probably a fair bit worse in Ashton. You'd definitely get M13, M31, M81/82 from your site though but do manage your expectations in terms of what you'll see. Messier 13 might be like this M31 like this (maybe even less obvious) M81/82 like this (maybe even less obvious) Messier 101 might be even fainter than this

Don't tell him Pike!

As long as you are within the adjustment possible with your mount there won't be an issue. I am planning to use a compass too. There's usually about 15 degrees of range (there is with my HEQ5) so you don't need to be particularly exact.

I suspect that if you remove or loosen the screws holding on the cover and jiggle it then it may reseat properly and you can then put back / tighten the screws.

Hi Tom In the end, my neighbour gave me a steel ring which I can use - see above. That said they way I was going to do it was to use a piece if 30mm square section steel and replace the legs with them to a suitable length to allow the steel to be set into the concrete. That way I could always remove the head and use the tripod normally. Yes there would / will be enough gap to allow me to get a socket on the bolt I will use in place of the standard hand wheel. Hope this helps.

? Bingo!

Today we pointed the step fronts and laid the small patio. As a little treat we also concreted the post hole. As I was barrowing one of about 15 mixes from the front, I spotted a lump of metal in my neighbour's garden and asked if he had plans for it. He said not and let me have it after I explained what I might use it for. Can you guess? ?

Obviously here ?

LOL. I am intending it to be bargain basement but of high quality by using good design and thought processes, recycling where possible and followed by good execution. Hopefully this will all work out. Next job after creating the pier will be creating the main deck and joists etc but this is likely to be a few weeks off. I need a rest after what we achieved last week. Hopefully also paving the lower patio (only about 12 square metres) in Indian Stone tomorrow. All the prep done though.

I have to confess that having a father in law who is a retired and skilled builder does help although I have carried every stone, mixed every mix and raked out every stone joint as well as moving about 40 tons on both soil and mot in a barrow so much effort indeed. Progress today. We decided that rather than go deep with the hole, we'd reuse some fake stone blocks from the garden and make a wall in which we could dig a small hole for the steel girder. This is now in position ready for concreting tomorrow. We'll then encase this in an 8" circular concrete column and inset the top off a heq5 tripod rather than make one. Slightly unconventional but should be very stable.

Just to give a sense of scale in terms of what we have done so far in 12 months..... Before then after .....all materials carried in a barrow from front to back 30 tons of stone plus sand, mot, cements flags etc etc. Dug out by hand too and not had a single skip with all materials recycled (or used as hardcore) where feasible. Yes the obs is the easy bit ?

After 14 months in our house we have almost finished work on the garden and at the end of the garden will be my obs. My aspect is northern and the garden drops over 20 feet from the house (over 90 feet). Manchester is to the north so I won't be looking that way in reality. Therefore I am looking up hill and over the house to the south. There are some trees and the skies are not perfect but will be much enhanced by being out of line of sight of local lights. The design will mirror that of Slim Paling and Skipper Billy but with only one side that is 'convertible'. At 4x3m it will sit on a deck and be screwed to it. I will make a concrete pier and still have room for my 16" dob and garden tools etc. For visual only. Here's some initial pics. Built the sleeper walls for joists and the pier will be where the clear area if floor is if you look carefully! Will be digging my pier hole and filling, and building the 'shed' probably in May hols when I have two weeks off. Hope to get it done in one.

This is exactly what I was looking for - thank you! I only really have a view from east to south west so will be only dropping one half of the roof. My obs will be perhaps 4m x 2.5m running east-west so the roof will be 4m x 1.25m approx although to utilise standard lengths I might buy 3.6m lengths and make the most of them. A fair way to go before I start but this sort of design will prevent the need to roll off a 4m roof, requiring 8m total of which only half really needs to be mobile. I could potentially make use of a (quiet) hand winch/counterweight system to raise and lower the roof if weight is an issue although I am reasonably strong. Assuming double the weight of yours, 22kg on a pivot is not too tricky. I'll start a thread when I start. Almost cleared the site now but need to build some walls first. Aiming for completion by the end of summer.

I have rebought 24mm Panoptic, 15mm Panoptic and UHC filter. That's about it really although I'd like to rebuy a 40mm Wide Field if one came up.