JOC

If you want something that takes up less space to transport than a water bottle with perhaps a little more flexibility try a reuseable shopping bag, the sort that are often given away as promo materials. Fill it with stones, sand, or bottles/cans of liquid if you want to laugh in the face of the idea LOL! Then use the, often long, handles to tie to your gear.

There are details of the Baader film that a lot of people use here:

@bosun21 You might find useful this thread which shows how many of SGL have made filters from Baaders solar film

I have a rainy day collection of EP's I probably don't need given the few times I go out of observe. Out of all I've got, I'd keep the full set of Morpheus that I put together, the two unexpected decent little plossls that came with the scope, which I still drop in when all else has failed, and my Pentax XW. The rest I'd put up for grabs if the cash ran out.

I don't often drop in here, but was attracted by the thread title LOL! I have to say that does look quite 'the job' sturdy, functional and it would seem a good deal simpler than 'pouring a concrete pier' which I sometimes see discussed. It also has a useful recess or two that you probably sit EP's on between uses. I wish you lots of clear skies to use it.

A big smile here when I saw that chemistry set picture - I once owned that very same Merit chemistry set - identical in every respect. That's also quite a molecular model!

Rather than go for an electric heater could you make use of other technology.? For example, if you have a sun facing roof you could cover it with black pipes full of water and find some means of tapping off the heat from the water. I bought a 100W panel from Amazon and fixed it to the roof of my car port. On a more non-cloudy day it is sufficient to keep my car battery nicely topped up, but I don't know if could top the whole battery up in a day's sunshine if it were to be completely drained.

The underlined bit would not apply if all or even the majority of the guesses are higher or lower. If the actual jar contained 1200 smarties, and only two people entered and their guesses were 1250 and 1300 then the average guess would be 1275, but the closest guess would be the 1250 answer.

Battery powered heated insoles are what you need. Like skiers use!!

FWIW I have had enormous amounts of success at loosening things with the following: Rubber bands wound around the offending objects to provide grip A pair of good fitting rubber gloves can provide some added traction - or just grip the object through a glove stretched over it Don't underestimate the power of a adding a damp cotton tea towel to the equation A rubber jam jar opener is a wonderful tool that doesn't mark things A metal jam jar opener is useful and incredibly successful, but will mark things if you aren't careful - though you can sometimes cover stuff with an old cloth or tea towel first to protect things a bit If things can take it and/or don't mind getting wet the appliance of science does often work - get the bits to different temperatures - the classic run the lid of the jam far under the hot tap approach, or a careful flick around with a hobby heat gun or hair drier works esp. well for things made of different materials as they expand at different rates If it's a ground glass stopper in a conical flask a ring of water around the top and tap the outside of the stuck joint with another glass stopper is surprisingly effective Pressing one stuck end of the stuck object combo against the rubber sole of a held still shoe or slipper sole and twisting the offending stuck bit also helps Once free, and only if the situation allows a smidgen of Vaseline on the threads before reassembling can stop it happening again.

Not star-gazing, but that reminds me as a child standing very quietly in an inlet between rocks as the tide came in around my legs with a large net waiting for shrimps to float past for dinner that night. You get very locked into concentrating on the surrounding water and switch off to anything else when shrimping. I think years were knocked off my life when the ground suddenly erupted under my foot after I'd been standing still and quiet for a good while, and a large flat fish the size of a dinner plate disappeared rapidly off into the depths!

I don't know how many you have seen, but in terms of shifting things around, don't overlook the size difference. I can't comment on movement, but mine also has a built in Goto and you can shove it around too and I've never had any issues, though mine is an 8".

I am surprised no one has mentioned that there is a definitive "show me your eyepiece case" thread here:

I think I'd be checking with the neighbour about their house insurance policy. Hope not too much damage is done and that you are back in action soon.

Oooo....look at the optical illusion there - the grid paper shows perfect squares everywhere, but the eye says that the ruler looks thinner in the middle, but it is isn't LOL!

So pleased you found Louis D's photographed rulers masterclass. Per my original comment, though I know precious little about the subject, if the photos of the rulers are pin sharp across the whole view then that is what I think it meant by 'sharp to the edge' 🙂

I've occasionally captured the odd photos of the night sky using an unguided telescope with a camera attached to the EP holder. It is incredibly difficult to get things in focus on the night sky. I've done it using live view through the atached camera, but would second the above advice about focusing on a single point star and then just sliding the camera already in focus carefully across to the nebula and not touching it further. What really helped me was a cable free remote shutter release - these can be had for not a lot of cash from the usual online sales sites. Also, the OP must understand that he is not going to capture the marvellous false colour images of the nearly professional imagers we have on SGL who are using far more advanced kit, but it should be possible to capture an acceptably nice B&W image with 30 or 40 exposures if he can get things in focus and use a remote shutter release, as I have managed it myself with similar equipment. TBH I wouldn't go down the road of 300-500 exposures until I could get a decently sharp image from just a few exposures so that the OP can learn how to get a nice sharp single exposure. Crack that and I think you could start the think about stacking more, but there seems little point in wasting time on hundreds of exposures, until you've cracked stacking 10 and getting them sharp, I may be wrong as I haven't done much of this, but I don't think it follows that more exposures = sharper image. I think its more a case of sharper images in those exposures = a sharpter final output.

Ah......it's that dim that it's an averted vision fuzzy eh? Gotcha! I have successfully seen things like that with the telescope, but have needed to get my eyes in gear. In that case I'll need to stick the bins on a tripod or take the telescope outside another night. Thanks for posting as I didn't know it was a very dim object and that will account for why you can't just rush outside and see it. Esp. with my mums' security light deciding to kick in too. Which means a long walk up the path to get away from it.

Well it said you should be able to see it with a small set of binoculars. I've just been out with my 10x50's and I can't see anything resembling a comet and I am sure I'm in the right place. We are fairly clear atm. and I can find Mars in the bins easily and that is a fair handrail to jump up and slightly right from and it says the comet should be nearly upon the next star you get to. I can't see it. Yet I did see the lovely one with the long tail that came around a couple of years ago towards the North.

Is there a live updated resource out there that I can use to find where the comet is if I decide I want to take a look please?

FWIW the apparent SGL standard reference for collimation is this one https://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/collimation-guide-newtonian-reflector/ I use this guide and no-one was more nervous than I the first time. It works wonderfully

Something I wondered the other day, and this thread seems as good a place to ask as anywhere. If you are observing something very bright, like Sirius, The moon, maybe Jupiter etc. are you actually better off observing it with less of a light bucket scope. For example, I have a reducer that I fit on the end of the 8" reflector that narrows the opening to just a scant few inches. I imagine that this then means less light it received. Does this then help the eye when brighter objects are viewed? Would a narrower scope actually be more likely to be able to see Sirius B as it wouldn't be flooded by as much light? NB. Sorry if this is a daft question, but for some reason it occurred to me the other night.

I forget who it is, but one of SGL's contributors (maybe one of our USA based members IIRC?) often posts pictures that he has on record from taking images of a ruler with various EP's - I think my understanding of sharp to the edge means that the image is sufficiently sharp across the whole field of view that the things on the edge of the view are not difficult to see relative to the things in the middle of the view, i.e. 'Sharp to the edge' is 'what it says on the box'. I think the property is brilliantly demonstrated by those photos of a ruler which shows very clearly the possible differences that exist in different EP's, perhaps someone recognises my description and knows the member and could tag him to this thread?

Oh and there is an awful lot of stuff above about trying to get as close as possible to the subject, Barlows, 3.2mm EP's etc. Seeing conditions in the UK most of time don't often let me get that close in my F4 200P newtonian. A 130P with a 3.2mm EP is getting around x200 effective magnification. That's about the maximum I find works on nights with good conditions. However, in the UK those nights are very rare. You can actually have a good time viewing the night sky at lower magnification and that can be better/necessary for some of the night sky objects. In particular the OP may find jupiter better at lower magnification and also if you go OUTSIDE. Telescopes aren't really ideal used inside. The whole thing is to take them outside, wrap up warm and be prepared to get cold - you will get much better views. I have a barlow - about the only thing I've ever often used it for is unscrewing it and using the bits to help attach a camera - you are far better off IMO just buying EP's at the magnification you want - as noted above decent EP's like Starguiders aren't fortunes to buy.

You won't find them until you've got enough post counts by chatting in the astro sections of SGL