Sunshine

Oh wow, this is superb! as mentioned above, such an extreme crop unguided while maintaining pinpoint stars is some feat.

4 hours ago, A McEwan said:

A new-to-me but obviously used Skytee-2 mount which incuded the ADM upgraded saddles and the heavy duty tripod! It was all a bit..."lived in"...but an hour or two with WD40, Cif degreaser and some microfiber clothes worked wonders. I need to get some longer slo-mo controls (see wanted ad) but otherwise it's really, really good!

Ant

Nice mount! I see coffee and a toothbrush makes for a great cleaner! 😂

It’s stunning!

Welcome to SGL!! 

WOW! You could have fooled me into thinking these were fine paintings, such is the detail and beautiful depth and color to these images, the full image on Astrobin 

is stunning, way to make an entrance!.

Bravo!

Welcome!

On 07/03/2021 at 08:23, Spile said:

Not everyone agrees with the "rankings" but this is quite fun...

Oh this table is great, thanks for posting!

A great eyepiece, enjoy it!

1 minute ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

$17.00 for a bottle of paint contains about 20ml of actual paint.

Yikes!!!.

Don't forget the $20 shipping then convert to Canadian which for me is $47, though i do understand that touch up paint of any kind is pricey but by comparison, a gallon of good paint runs about $50 here.

Two items I have been waiting for from Tak America and local scope shop just arrived, yay, I love getting treats from the postman!. One is the smallest bottle of paint ever,  Tak white to touch up tiny paint chip on TSA102 dew shield and, a baader click lock 2"-1.25" reducer.

Shipping and currency conversion included, I think the paint cost me more than gold per weight. 

Scratch the thought of painting my car in Tak white 🤣🤣 

So small it deserves  the word “cute”

It is a wonderful image of such a rich region.

2 hours ago, Sky-searcher said:

Arrived yesterday, but delivered to work & I’m presently working from home. Managed to keep my excitement on hold till I picked it up this morning. Unpacked this thing of beauty & craftsmanship! Berlebach uni 28 heq5. 😃

It is a beautiful tripod, now i really want one after seeing the great images of these tripods on this thread, which really show the detail in the wood and craftsmanship.

Very nice images, if this is your first serious attempt then I cant wait to see your third!

7 hours ago, johninderby said:

Well a second delivery from DHL today. This time with the rest of the shipment. 👍🏻

Oh my, this is a beautiful tripod, a work of art.

8 minutes ago, ballisticbrian said:

  Lockheed Martin on "The Hubble Telescope", 😆😆😆

Was an easy 1.5 billion dollar fix.

4 minutes ago, ballisticbrian said:

What is pinching for the resident noob?

When the lens cell which is made of some type of metal has contracted under low temperatures therefore applied stress to the glass, slightly deforming it on a particular axis causing light rays to travel at different paths than what they should.

8 minutes ago, cfinn said:

I ordered mine in August and it arrived in November.

My response was just speculation but, all it takes is for one metal to skyrocket in price and the higher ups decide to use a percentage less of one metal and a percentage more of another in the mix and it can drastically change how a metal behaves under different temps.

 Were these scopes made recently? could it be that maybe they’ve had to change lens cell material due to certain metals being difficult to source due to Covid? All it would take is an increase or decrease  in one particular metal mixture and expansion/contraction rate can change.

Forgot the word to describe an impure metal, one made of a mixture of metals.

Last summer it was Theta Her which cause me many nights left cross eyed trying to split this difficult double till one night of great seeing I finally split them. Tonight it was back to the drawing board with Theta Aurigae which is TOUGH!!, I followed this star for what must have been 35 degrees with no luck. Using my 3.5mm XW at 230X rendered a nice pinpoint Theta Aur A, "B" caused me a headache, what i did notice was a dancing bulge ( I'll use positions on a clock) between 2 and 5 O'clock position where at times for a split second (pardon the pun) I was able to see a gap. Maybe on a better night I'll be able to see B as a pinpoint? what should my expectations be assuming seeing is good using a 4" refractor?, this one is a doozy but, I sure love a tough double. While researching this double I ran into stories others splitting it at powers of 130-175 which I guess would depend on seeing and, aperture used, I'll be darned if I came close with those powers. Either way I'm in it for the long haul now, the second appendage to the main star was spinning and morphing rapidly which indicates seeing needs to be a lot better.

Hunting doubles tonight!

These are wonderful sketches!

Beautiful!

5 hours ago, Epick Crom said:

Nice session @Sunshine! I'm in love with Orion as well, but gee mate, -12C? I can't imagine how cold that must have been😨

 

Being from the land down under, I can see how you couldn’t imagine observing in sub zero temps, lucky you!

Seeing was fairly good last night but, the bitter cold (-12C) was a constant reminder of the cozy 23 degrees just steps away from where I set up. One look at Orion and I knew I could bear the cold, its stars so unmistakable, the only constellation which somehow stands out and, separates itself from every other constellation a less experienced eye might glance past. Sitting on my rickety chair dressed like I was heading off to the arctic circle, waiting for my wee refractor to cool, I held my phone up using SkySafari to plan a target path through its many offerings. Would anyone be surprised that my first target was M42? for those unfamiliar, it is that bluish smudge just below his belt 😂. Every time I look at M42 I feel like I am rediscovering it because essentially I am. Every year for the past few years, I have trained a different telescope on M42 but, never with something as small as a 4" refractor. Having had only one quick look at this target once with this scope under a full moon, I was excited to see what I could see on a moonless night. In went my 14mm XW which offered a beautiful view but, left me wanting more awful quick so in went the 9mm Morpheus which presented a very nicely contrasted view. This scope can really put up some pinpoint stars, boy did the trapezium ever look beautiful, enveloped in more nebulous detail than I thought possible in a 4". Without getting too carried away, I did not see whirling tendrils of glorious blue and red ethereal gasses but, I was surprised to see such contrast between the core and, the black sky. 

When I took a closer look at the Trapezium is when I was really surprised, inserting my 5mm XW I was enthralled by how delicate and sharp those four stars were. Just like the period at the end of this sentence,  those stars looked just as sharp, the definitions of pinpoints. After looking at them for a good 30 seconds, I suddenly saw E pop into view, WOW it was pretty, I wasn't aware that my 47 year old mildly astigmatic eye could register something so delicate and faint but, it was there, absolutely shocked me because it was so so delicate and tiny!. E was wonderful to see but, F was a challenge for some reason, I only managed a fleeting glimpse of F on a few occasions before I would loose it, all the while E was still there, I am not sure why this is. Increasing the power seemed to be detrimental, I would loose E when jumping to my my 3.5 XW, maybe on a night of better seeing I will be treated to both, technicalities aside, I was elated with the way this small 4" frac was treating the smallest of pinpoints of light. 

There were a few doubles which I enjoyed equally as much but, It is late so I will speak of just one which was wonderful. One I hadn't seen before as double stars were never really of great interest to me as they have been in the last year or so since I bought my first refractor, my 115 Eon which now has a new owner. Eta Orionis, boy are they close together, at first look with my 9mm I thought they were on and the same, not so, with my 5mm I could see these two very similar colored stars were indeed a pair, a clean black split was a pretty sight, no mistaking it at all. After doing some homework I now understand this is actually a quintuple system at roughly 900LY from earth, so transfixed on the pair I was that I cannot recall seeing any others. I'll have to research their magnitudes and distances more closely for my next session, in the meantime, I am looking forward to summer when I can stay out all night without my toes turning blue. 

CLEAR SKIES!!!

Sounds like a blast, I am so curious about trying night vision on DSO's.

Great session! I think it's great you woke the neighborhood in the process! 🤣