Les Ewan

I've never managed the horse head visually though I have managed to image it faintly using a DSLR. I may have to invest in a Olll filter. I have easily seen the associated Flame nebula visually without a filter with a 200mm Newt .Its great to hear tales of starhopping,thanks.

I read a review in the S@N magazine recently that impressed me so much that it got me thinking 'Wow I wish I had that when I was starting out'. Its the Skywatcher Pronto AZ 130. I don't have any personal experience of this scope but I would guess it would be the perfect scope for the young beginner . It looks like it would be simple to operate and set up.I just checked the FLO website and it's selling for just under £200. But what ever you telescope you choose don't forget to advise other family members to get him the compulsory 10X50 binoculars along with books and star charts.

The padlock to my observatory shed was frozen last night too, freed it instantly by pouring a little boiling water over it.The next problem was the roof was stuck with ice and it gave gave way with a crack after pushing it up with my shoulders from the inside. After all this and some ungentlemanly language, a rare benefit of the cold weather, the ice on the wooden runners meant the roof slid back with very little effort.

It was -6.2C when I packed up at 5:30. Well worth it as I observed several spring galaxies in Leo.😎

I saw a line of STARLINK satellites in the eastern sky at around 5:20 this morning although only about 3 and 4th magnitude they looked impressive proceeding in a line towards the NE horizon .As one fades another appears to join the line. Although interesting I'm not happy about it as it in my opinion I think they degrade the night sky,especially as thousands more are planned.🙁

I admit I've never used a collimation laser but I've heard that these devices can themselves be out of collimation. I must say I've always been sceptical about these gadgets after all amateur observers have been successfully collimating their telescopes for decades before these laser devices came along. Being of the old school I always and always will adjust my optics by eye and with a pinhole cap.

Orion culminates at 3am just now and waited till then to image Rigel's companion which lies about 9" from the primary. The sky was crystal clear but with the usual turbulence. Equipment used was a driven Skywatcher 400P Flextube Dobsonian ,Nikon 3200 DSLR attached to a Celestron Ultima Due 21mm eyepiece and X2 Celestron barlow. 1.5 second exposure at 400ISO

I was looking at M36 this morning but didn't know a comet was in the vicinity. I'll try and seek it out to- night if blessed with another clear night.

I admit I don't use astro forums as much as I used too. I did visit the SPA forum regularly at one time and had a direct link to its forum on a shortcut on my laptop,but this now only brings me to the SPA home page,with no mention of a forum(that I could see) on its links. I just assumed that it had closed. PS As an aside I used to be a member of the SPA back in the 70's when it was the JAS (Junior Astronomical Society )and the three monthly magazine was called Hermes. I remember the reason for the name changes was to avoid confusion as the society is open to all ages not just juniors and Hermes was also the name of medical journal at the time.

This is my Skywatcher 400P in action earlier this evening. It was trained on the M2 Globular Cluster at the time of the image. PS Please don't laugh at my homemade 'drag' (😆)off roof observatory made out of old decking boards,....it is functionable.

My latest addition to my livery of equipment is this Nikon 3200. I bought it second hand from ebay with a very low shutter count. I didn't buy it specifically for astro work as I still have my old Canon 1100D for that purpose. But of course with the recent clear nights I couldn't resist putting it through its paces attached to my Driven 16" Skyliner Dob. It made a pretty good job of the Dumbell and Ring nebulae. However it has a couple of disadvantages compared with the Canon when using it for astro work,firstly the 10 second shutter delay has to be activated after every shot while the Canon keeps the setting until its switched off,secondly the Nikon has a very long processing time on multi second exposures. For example on a 15 second exposure the Nikon takes 17 seconds to process the image while on the same setting the Canon only takes 2 seconds.Granted the Nikon has twice the pixels but it still seems a bit excessive. Unfortunately my collection of M42 screw lenses don't come to focus with the Nikon,but I notice that Nikon lenses are fairly cheap on Ebay. The image of the Dumbell was taken last night attached to the above telescope coupled to a Celestron Ultima Duo 21mm eyepiece.15 second exposure at 6400ISO.

Poor old moon,the satellite we love to hate!

HI Mike, Just ordered it for £2.45. There's quite a few listed on Ebay.I noticed that the publisher is Octopus while Astronomy With Binoculars is Faber,I don't know what that means in regards to layout , I'll just wait and see. BTW I'll give you the sellers details in case you want to claim a 10% commission!!😆

Thanks for the tip,I will try to seek it out as I already have James Muirden's Astronomy With Binoculars which I bought many a year ago so it will be a great companion for that.

Judging by the ripped up packaging you were really eager to open these!😀

HI John, You've heard of pre historic and pre cambrian era,well these are the pre digital and pre Skywatcher era!.😁

My whistling postie delivered these this morning.I really pushed the boat out with these three books from Ebay-under a tenner for the lot including postage.

I first saw Saturn back in 1972 through a rickety 40mm telescope on a tabletop tripod,the image was poor and tiny and wobbled about but I managed to discern the the rings(luckily they were fully open at the time and Saturn was high in the sky). Of course over the years I seen it many times with good telescopes but I always most vividly remember the first view,that's the effect Saturn can have on you.

A hair dryer is actually a indispensable piece of equipment because otherwise a observing session can be ruined by dewing in less than a hour sometimes,however its amazing how much racket they seem to make in the middle of the night.

The trouble is good nights are too damn rare to miss. I'm lucky I have a sliding roof and equipment set up ready for use just a few yards from my back door. If tired after work why not have a few hours sleep in the evening and set the alarm clock for say midnight and get 2 or 3 hours observing then.Its a bit of a risk if its a starry winters evening and it clouds over before the alarm goes off ,but if it works out you often get the best observing conditions after midnight,and in the early hours.

That's some scope,congratulations ,and just in time for winter too.😎 I suppose the next step will be a shroud to keep the dust and dew off the mirrors. Even with the ultimate telescope your never done spending.

I always have problems getting precise focus with my Canon 1100D. Even when a subject appears to be in focus in the viewer the end result is not. That's for both astro and ordinary every day photography.It may be because I always use old M42 threaded lenses and a M42 adapter ring. Through the screen digital focusing is often more precise but its not really viable for faint astro work. I bracket the focusing back and fourth until I get some decent images but its all a bit of a guddle.

No I haven't, and I've not gone out walking with a cane, wearing tweeds and a top hat either. BUT I may consider them all if I ever win the lottery...old bean! 😆

Thanks for all your comments. Sorry so many were clouded out, I was lucky as it clouded over here too about an hour after the image was taken.

Conditions were ideal for imaging the close conjunction of 4th magnitude Psi Aquarii and Neptune. The image doesn't show this well but visually the golden Psi really brought out the blueness of Neptune beautifully, a bit like the Albireo effect. The event was made even more interesting by Triton laying between the two. Although easily imaged I couldn't see 13.5 magnitude Triton directly even though I was using a 16" Newt. Image details; The bright star is Psi Aquarii with Neptune to the left with Triton in between. The image was taken with a Canon EOS 1100D DSLR attatched to a 21mm Celestron Ultima Duo eyepiece.The telescope is a 406mm f 4.4 Skyliner Flexitube on a driven Dobsonian mount. 10 second exposure at 6400ISO. 00:08 BST