Sunshine

Nice! Unmistakably M42 and will only get better with time, welcome to SGL!

My 102 will cool a bit quicker than your 120, maybe we should trade? 😂  

2 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I would have had to be taken out of there in a straight jacket.

🤣 In japan they would just drag you out to the street and cane your bottom. Humor aside,  if I went in there it would be game over for my bank account, but I’d be so happy! 😁

56 minutes ago, jetstream said:

Thanks, Brian said he found it in an old stock display case or something. If you ever here of a 5mm out there let me know will you?

In an old stock display case, that’s one of those lucky finds, I’m going to call him to see if he can look around the shop for a TSA-120 tucked under a table or something.

That’s a nice eyepiece! Looks like it wasn’t touched, like new.

6 minutes ago, 900SL said:

2 hours on the Flaming star above Helsinki

There's a lot going on here but I think I see the telescope!

Welcome to SGL! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it here, Tony.

I'm embarrassed, my tak is showing again! 

1 hour ago, Stu said:

With sincere apologies for the unashamed, attention seeking ‘Look at me’ post!

Can you tell that;

a) It’s cloudy

b) Mrs Stu is away

c) I’m bored 🤪

Thought this might give an easy way of comparing the three scopes. The AZ75 handles them with ease and the balance is good. Look forward to giving it a go!

Left to right in the first image:

FC100DC ; FC-76DCU ; FS-60Q

It's like looking at the stars in Orion's belt! just as pretty and blue, too!

Wow! your images are so clean and contrasty, the star colours are just beautiful! how do you control noise so well? that's what I meant by clean.

Do you have a website where I can see more of your work? 

It's wonderful! I especially love the contrast, and look at all the find detail in the galaxy itself, amazing!

A beautiful image!

40 minutes ago, jetstream said:

I dont like big, long hvy eyepieces in a frac

I would have to agree, which is why as much as I love my XW's I wish I had lighter and shorter eyepieces, and equally as good of course.

Nothing yet but I hope to considering how the sky looks from my street, can’t wait!

11 hours ago, SuburbanMak said:

I kept checking in the driver's mirror to make sure it was real. 

 I have done the same many times while excitedly driving home from the telescope shop, I really enjoyed reading about your first light and am elated for you!. Let us know all about your second first light when the skies do clear up.

2 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I’m already licking my iPad screen 😊

A tripod sniffer/iPad licker! guilty as charged! 

@mikeDnight your sketches are so beautiful I feel like I can sell my telescope and just enjoy your sketches, don't let @JeremyS read this. 🤣

Hello! I have never known anyone to use the moon at night to align their finder scope as the moon is such a large and bright object which the red dot can be lost on. Also, you would want it aligned more precisely than that as picking a spot on the lunar disc to align to would be cumbersome. Precisely aligning a finder should be done during the day on a distant target like a smoke stack or top of telephone pole where objects are not moving relative to the telescope. Any point on a distant stationary object will do, slimply centre said object in your eyepiece (medium power eyepiece is good) then without moving your telescope, adjust the red dot on the finder so it is dead on the same spot you’re looking at in the eyepiece. 

8 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Lol. She was just trying to find out how much you've actually spent!😄

Oh she knew at the time I bought it, but because she has no interest and also considering the many other scopes which have come and gone, she has no chance of remembering. 

This post reminds me of a conversation I had with my wife a few weeks ago, one of those odd conversations about death we can have with someone we have been with for 300 oops, 30 years. She saw me tending to my dobsonian and refractor and as she walked past me in the basement she said " if something were to happen to you what will should I do with these toys?" I said just sell them, to which she replied "ok I guess I'll just make up the prices" I decided to have some fun and asked how much she would sell my 102 for. She did this cute thing where she put the tip of her index finger to her mouth as she examined it and said " it looks well kept and shiny so maybe I would sell this one for $500?" while looking at me with a smile, just waiting for my approval, I was torn between giving her a hug or start crying. 🤣

I wish larger would be better under light polluted skies but as those larger dobs gather more light from fuzzies the also swallow up that much more light pollution, leaving you back at the drawing board.

Look at that setting, jealousy overload.

I have the 3.5 XW, it’s my main star splitter, almost exclusively for that purpose, razor sharp and comfortable to use.

What a great looking trio! I admit I do like the look of vixen scope even more than Tak's 

This is great! It's like a mars cluster!