Sunshine

Thats a wonderful image tooth_dr, and the setting looks beautiful also, i wish i was there.

One great book this is, long, at 540 pages but, it does a fine job of covering every aspect of his life. From the early days of the Olympia Academy to his final years where he struggled to come to grips with quantum mechanics.Those two points in his life sandwiched  General Relativity, quoted as being "the most astounding feat of thinking about nature to have come from one mind" it really is fascinating to learn about how he came to General Relativity. One other man was also very close (Henri  Poincaré) at the same time but, he just did not have Einsteins ability for thought experiments. Understanding what makes general relativity work, mathematically, is futile for a simple mind like mine and, that goes for most of us, its ten underlying formulas, tensors, and such can easily chew up volumes themselves. Despite its complexity, the author does a great job of not only explaining how it changed our understanding of how the universe works, but also its impact in physics as a whole, GR is truly in a class all its own, it is a testament to what can be achieved by one person so inclined to think outside the box.

I must warn, this is not a textbook, definitely not a book which delves into the minutia of special relativity, general relativity or E=Mc2.  All are explained well enough to give the reader a good grasp of their impact and importance, enough so that i found myself having a eureka moment once i truly understood the "gravity" of general relativity (no pun intended but,  i'll take credit for it  since it is a bit crafty on my part lol). This is a book which does really delve into what made Einstein who he was to his loved ones and, what his legacy means to us now, he was a rebel, a lover, (a cold one sometimes) a fighter, and till his dying day he fought against the status quo. Equally as fascinating as reading about his breakthroughs (his miracle year) was reading about howmuch he enjoyed simply sailing in his tiny boat, alone, often drifting beyond sight, lost in thought.

Every amateur astronomer would enjoy this book, even if they understood his achievements in more detail than what is explained in the book. Understanding the dynamics in his life that led to these achievements is greatly satisfying, Albert loved sausages, i love sausages, maybe we all owe our current understanding of the universe to German sausages lol.

Walter Isaacson has also written equally fascinating and large books on DaVinci which i read before Einstein, my next in his series will be on the life of Benjamin Franklin.

I was wondering, when leaving my Mak outside for a while to reach temperature, does it matter whether the dust cover is left on or off? . Will it cool/warm quicker with the cap off? 

Welcome to SGL!

There's no substitute for a first look at Saturn, the crown jewel of our solar system.

If you can afford the 150mm Mak i'll vouch for that as a planet killer, most would agree, that is the same for the 127mm of course. Always go for the larger if you can afford because i guarantee 

if you don't now, you will be wanting bigger soon after. Its a disease called aperture fever, we all have it here on SGL, there's no cure.

I don't think cost factor was mentioned, forgive me if i missed it but, for a third of the price of a good 120mm APO you can get a 150mm Mak and it will wipe the floor with the APO on planetary and lunar.

Saw more than my share of bewildered $3000 dollar owning APO guys look at Saturn through my Mak and leave scratching their heads. Of course, as mentioned above, they take a while longer to cool, 

have a relatively narrow field of view and, are not the best for photography  ( i have taken some great planetary images with my mak) it is a niche scope, it won't please everyone, but what it does, it does

very well. 

Stunning image, I need to get me a Sony too! considering I’m using an original 5D. It must be 10 years old now at least, I’m sure the Sony will leave it for dead.

That is a beautiful setup, i love Marvin there also, classic!

Welcome to SGL! 

16 minutes ago, markse68 said:

Thanks to all I have found it! Not what I was expecting at all and pure luck I think that I stumbled on it but yes a very faint fuzzy from here in Plumstead- less defined than the ring but with averted vision I can make out it is thousands of tiny faint stars. If they were a bit brighter they’d be mesmerising I’m sure. Anyway- well chuffed and thanks again 😊

YAY I’m happy you found it!

24 minutes ago, markse68 said:

Would you say it’s dimmer than the ring neb?

Looking up their apparent magnitudes i see that the M57 is +8.8 Mag while M13 is +5.8 making M13 brighter than M57 (lower number is brighter).

If light pollution is so bad as to obstruct the stars that make up Hercules then i'll bet you won't be able to make out M13, it should appear as a fuzzy blob sort of.

Some scopes are better than others at dealing with light pollution (refractors) but, without the stars in Hercules to use as a guide (unless using a computerized scope) 

it will be a heck of a tough go finding M13, a faint object at that, through such heavy light pollution, i hope others can offer some tips that may help. Deep sky objects

should be viewed under darker skies as they are faint to begin with and light pollution obstructs them far more than planets for example.

Here are a couple of my very first tries at wide field from an official dark sky park, Headlands International Dark Sky Park. My camera is now old (Canon 5D) and my 27-70 2.8 is heavy and not exactly my first choice but its what i have for now.These are single images 15-20sec exposures, there was more noise than i expected at 1250-1600 ISO, i am long overdue for a new SLR and will choose my new SLR with emphasis on a sensor better suited for wide field AP. Having shot in RAW i did develop them in Lightroom but i am completely new to processing night sky photos so i will be looking up some youtube lessons, i'm sure i will pick up tips to improve the data gathering and developing process for next outing. Feel free to suggest models of SLR cameras that are stellar performers (no pun intended) in  the wide field AP department or Raw developing tips you find work for you.

Thanks for looking!

Hello Ben! Welcome to SGL, love the scope, and i'm sure you'll be spending a whole lot of time searching through threads here as there is no shortage as you may have seen.

Enjoy.

A bit of TLC and some bits here and there and i'm sure it will be a winner, its not about how it looks but how it sees.

I bet they don't build them now like they used to, nice find!

I would say that if you're having an issue with its bulk and weight alone then this would be the first reason to switch to a smaller and lighter scope. If you find yours a pain to move around then you will be less likely to use it period which defeats the whole purpose of this hobby, so yes, if i were you i would switch to something you're going to enjoy using a lot more often. Having said that, every scope requires collimation, it is a bit easier to collimate SCT scopes because you're only dealing with the secondary and 3 screws generally.

From a finding objects and computerized scope POV, they do require alignment every time you take them out, once you learn how to align it its like riding a bike, you'll know how to do it because the steps are the same every time and yes, you will see many more objects in one night once your scope is aligned and ready. It really helps to know how to find objects though, you would really benefit from a book like "Turn Left at Orion" or "Nightwatch" by Terence Dickinson. There are programs like Stellarium which are free and you can install on your computer, they're fun to use and really help alot.

9 hours ago, Ships and Stars said:

I've seen videos of DJI drones climbing up through the clouds

One of the drones i built from a kit years ago, i was flying this around well before anyone else in my town had a drone to speak of, i would fly this F550 hundreds of feet up and at that height it was silent from the ground. I greatly enjoyed the flood of UFO reports the next day knowing i was causing a stir lol.

One night there was a major news van in my town reporting on a drowning, on way back to television station they spotted it high up and decided to follow it, leading them straight to me. They said they were dumbfounded watching its flight characteristics and trying to identify it, needless to say they hung around for a while as i demonstrated what it could do in manual flight mode.

Congrats on that! thats a sweet light bucket and it will entertain for years.

Unfortunately not, there are so many things that could be. Having said that,  when i started flying my drone at high altitudes years ago before they were main stream, 

flying in my small town, the very next day on several occasions some people called the local newspaper claiming they witnessed a UFO. I know this because a friend 

works there and he'd call me and ask if i was flying again.

12 minutes ago, PeterW said:

They should have given it a black and white checker colour scheme like the Saturn5

Totally agree on that, then, only then i might get one, drives the cool factor way up.

About as elusive as St.Elmos Fire, equally as beautiful and mysterious.

What? entered her house and left again! i think i would swing at it with a broom if that happened, I've heard those theories but, i don't think it has ever been capture on film?.

What works works right? nice images considering the challenge it is with that setup, proves you can always do more with less.