LukeSkywatcher

Please please please buy more astro gear. Lots more. This heatwave is killing me. Not as hot here as last year, but it's not far off it.

Ahhh Happy birthday Gina. 

Michael you geek.

Lol

52 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

PS your cabling looks 'interesting' 😉

That's one word for it.

Haha.

16 hours ago, knobby said:

That's brilliant, Mr Dobson would be proud of you 👍

I'd love to do that but fear I'd be mugged in East London 😃

Don't go to East London then.

:÷)

I've a good view East over the brick wall. Good views west over the wall with the wall decorations. Good view north over roof of house and big open sky view at zenith. It's just a south view I'm missing.

Here's mine. In no particular order:

It's not as bad as it looks because I have a huge patio, my house is a bungalow and pretty dark skies. The worst is looking south with all the trees.

On 07/07/2019 at 06:25, Demonperformer said:

You could always offer to give up the hobby and to spend the money drinking yourself into a stupor instead ...

Everything in moderation, especially astronomy.

On 14/05/2019 at 08:23, Saganite said:

It happens fairly often to me and I just have to look away from the eyepiece for a few seconds..

That is so weird. When I first saw the OP image the craters looked like they were indeed bulging. When I saw your image, and looked again at OP image, I saw no bulging.

Corker of an image. 

Tell her to get working on renewing your vows. That should keep her busy.

1 hour ago, Gina said:

There's a shadow but no leg 🤣

The leg on the left doesn't even have a shadow. I'm thinking that the photo was taken with the same camera as the Moon landings. 

2 hours ago, Podgebag said:

My 4th purchase as a noob, after fleabay SW 130M, BST Starguider 8mm and batteries for clock drive:

 

A two legged stool. Milking some cows any time soon?. How does it  even stand up.

I've never found the need to use filters on planets. I've seen Joop in scopes from 90-200mm.

All 4 bands visible. Ive never seen the GRS though. I like wide field views. Then again, I've never tried to observe the GRS.

Glad the cleaning of optics worked out. I think the points being made above are simply because if a scopes optics look dirty to you, it may not need cleaning. A small amount of dirt on the optics wont give any less performance.

36 minutes ago, johninderby said:

And Amazon just dropped off something not astro related.🙂

A nice new work light with two swiveling side lights. Found a use for the unused SolarQuest tripod. Just right for this light. No excuse not to start the loft clear up and shelving project now. 😁

Take me to your leader puney Earthling.

3 hours ago, MilwaukeeLion said:

Been wanting mini eq for solar, night & travel for awhile.  Came with little bat powered ra clock drive.  Much beefier than EQ1 like night and day.  Falls between EQ1 and CG4.  Tested 102mm frac, no issue but mostly for pst/ed80.  

Your Dog seems impressed.

Mine has very tall trees to the south. A 6ft2in fence on the east and west sides. The house blocks the north. From my patio, I can only observe from about 30 degrees upwards N,E,W.

No view south.

When I bought my wedge, i wasn't even sure if it was polarized so i bought a variable polarizing filter. Turns out i only needed a single polarizing filter. My wedge cost 140 euros from astronomy.eu in Germany. The ND3, polarizing filter and continuum filters cost another 140 euros.

Live and learn. I thought I was saving money. I should have bought from FLO. 

Anywhoo.....I'm more Ha now than WL.

I'm amazed the wedge came without a barrel

 Then again my wedge came without an ND filter.

I thought I'd never use a continuum filter but I'm rarely without it now.

On 25/05/2019 at 20:48, John said:

I feel that the Herschel Wedge is a pretty safe approach. Even if, in the most extreme circumstances, the wedge falls out of the scope, all the light and heat goes straight out of the back of the scope and not towards the eye at all.

 

 

Unless your eye is still over the EP tube, which would be highly unlikely because the wedge wouldn't be able to fall out with your eye in the way. 

On a more serious note.....

The film filter is extremely safe once you keep it in good condition. If you think its damaged, chuck it out. They are cheap enough to replace. A Hershel wedge is a much better alternative for WL observing but are not exactly cheap. They become even more expensive when you add the cost of a polarizing filter and a continuum filter. Practically doubles the cost.

Most HW come with the ND filter insitu, mine didn't. I had to buy one. 

ALWAYS check if the ND filter comes with the HW.

On 11/08/2016 at 19:23, CraigT82 said:

Hi all, been busy this afternoon adding a 2" Crayford to my heritage 130p.

My idea is to turn it into wide field DSO travel scope for airline transport to very dark skies (I'm visiting Tasmania I'm January - very excited about super dark southern skies there).

I've always thought it's a great little scope which punches about its weight, just let down by its primitive  1.25" focuser. I bought a TS 2" single speed Crayford to fit to the OTA, this particular focuser is relatively lightweight (500g) compared with other aftermarket crayfords which are closer to 1kg. The weight matters as the trusses will only take so much added before it begins to twist and flex (about 1.3kg by my testing before the collimation is affected). 

I can now use weighty 2" widefield EPs (up to 750g) with this scope, and with a bit more fettling it will be a superb travel scope. 

 

I like that. Pretty genius. Wouldn't suit me though being in a wheelchair. Although it wouldn't be too difficult to do it where the focuser is on the Heritage.

We'll done.

30 minutes ago, johninderby said:

And something else arrived by courier.  ?

Bresser 127 Mak. Will review it when the clouds and rain go away. Decided to go with this instead of the Skymax 127 as unlike the Skymax it’s a full 127mm aperture not 118mm. Has a smaller central obstruction and a bigger primary. Will have to see how much difference the increase in aperture makes.

Fortunately had the bits in the spares box to upgrade it right away. Orion SCT finder shoe screwed on and an Orion 6x30 finder fitted. Also replaced the stock visual back with a TS optics one with compression ring and Skywatcher dielectric diagonal.

 

Love my Bresser 102ARxs. Shame the red stripe is just a bit of sticky tape.

13 hours ago, Gina said:

Yes it's a Newtonian telescope.

D'oh!!!!!

Of course it is. That puts everything up at the top end.

Ignore me.

47 minutes ago, Gina said:

I can't see anything wrong.  Sorry Paul.

Just looks weird. I've never seen a R&P focuser sticking out the side of a scope and/or at the front end (?) of a scope. I'm assuming the front end because those look like spider vanes to me. I'm not familiar with this type of scope though.

*Edit*

I just Googled the scope and indeed everything is in the correct position and location. The focuser can indeed be rotated. 

On 11/04/2019 at 20:10, Highburymark said:

A lovely Takahashi Epsilon delivered today - in beautiful nick (thanks to Richard in Ireland, its previous owner). Superfast at F/3.3 - when used with a night vision monocular and 55mm Plossl that speed will increase to F/1.7 - wickedly fast for sucking up light). 

Something doesn't look right to me. Is that focuser on the correct way and on the correct end of tube?