Sunshine

Those are great first images! you’re in the right place, have a great time and keep posting your progress.

13 minutes ago, Moonlightbaker said:

You might be on to something! I’ll let the 3 sides battle it out I think , relentless nights and monster astronomy both sound good 🤣 

I imagine a group of overly excited and wired amateurs chugging Red bulls and high fiving when they spot that elusive galaxy, would make for a fun tv event lol. As for your wife falling asleep by eleven, if you include a couple of stiff drinks after dinner you may get out by nine.

11 minutes ago, Moonlightbaker said:

Next week I’ll have a go at starting a hour later and getting up at 2 am one morning .  my plan so far has a banking on Saturday nights and the wife falling asleep by 11 . Then me going outside with a redbull 🤣 

This is a tough spot to be in, i have to say. But Redbull observing sounds like a thing, maybe you should look into getting Redbull sponsorship for your sessions! start a new redbull astronomy event on TV? 😂

Hello and welcome!

On 29/02/2024 at 08:13, JeremyS said:

I seem to remember someone on here saying these aren’t too shabby, so thought I’d try

It’s alright Jeremy, we all make mistakes, that is way too heavy and optically inferior, I will be glad to trade you for this one below,  of which i have doubles, I would like to use the one you bought to hold my office door open. 

Usually sip on something that makes objects look better 😅

This is beautiful! I often look at this duo with my dob, they don’t look like this, though.

21 hours ago, quasar117 said:

Is it beneficial or worth it to use an EQ mount over Alt Az  for visual? 

I suppose once set up tracks is a lots easier as you only really need to adjust the RA slomo.

I have used my vixen GP almost strictly for visual, and never bothered to polar align for visual, it has two slomo knobs which I would turn as needed. One future proofing aspect of an equatorial like the Vixen is that motors can be had for fairly cheap, i fixed just one axis motor on mine with a small hand controller for tracking and imaging planets. It’s a simple clutch screw i can engage if i need to and it tracks assuming you are polar aligned. One cannot deny the versatility of a solid eqatorial like the vixen GP, it will easily hold your 102 and will be ready for more if you decide on a larger scope. It is super solid and can be easily and quickly upgraded with a motor or motors, to me, it’s a no brainer. My Vixen GP has been the most versatile item I have purchased in the last decade, it handled every scope i had (except my FS128) haven’t tried that but im sure it could in a pinch, and is so well built. Below you will notice the hand controller and clutch for engaging tracking, and here it is with my Mak 150 preparing for planetary imaging session. When I walked into a local shop and saw the Vixen GP on consignment for $250 CAD I never asked a question, within five minutes I was loading it into my car, best thing I have done.

1 hour ago, Paul M said:

Mr. Varitasium certainly likes to stir the hornets nest!

He recently did a video about electrical energy not flowing in conductors, but in the fields generated by the agitated electrons carried in them, or something to that effect. It caused a bit of a storm in the on-line community. 😀 

And that is its value. He's not teaching physicists, he's opening the average punters eyes to some astonishing subjects. In my limited view, the video posted  above is more a matter of devils advocate playing at semantics, stating the obvious in a provacative prose.

Anyway, he seems to have reduced output in recent times but his work is generally very watchable!

 

Oh yes, but it is perfectly fine to stir the pot when you’re bringing up valid points. He does Quote Einstein and isn’t necessarily making anything up that is not already known, it seems to be a genuine conundrum, I wonder what will be discovered one day to turn our understanding on its head. If we become comfortable with a conventional value simply because another cannot be measured then we may as well throw the scientific method out the window. 

9 hours ago, robin_astro said:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/370302-“we-don’t-really-know-the-speed-of-light”/

 

Oh! 

Omg, what can we trust as being factual and undstood if something I thought was cemented in the pantheon of sciencedom is not what I thought! How can we gauge distances to anything in light years if we don’t know the one way speed of light? light coming from Andromeda to our instruments is a one way trip.
 

1 hour ago, Mircea said:

Bortle is the name of a person who tried to help a bit amateur astronomers. I respect that and I'm grateful to him for that.

Mircea

Yes yes, don’t mistake my attempt at tongue and cheek humor as an attack.

5 hours ago, Steve Ward said:

Well as it's somebody's name I think that's rather petty and schoolyard-like , how would you like folk to start referring to something related to you as Jabba or Neddie rather than your real name ...  😄

  It wasn’t an attack on Mr. Bortle, I’m sure hes a fine fellow, he’ll be ok.

I do like the sound of “Neddie” call me Neddie!

Did I ever mention how much I hate the word "bortle" sounds so ridiculous, out of rebellion I invented Nortle, close enough to bortle and at least for me it sounds better.

10 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

New to me Altair Astro 1600m Pro Teck camera. It was to good to resist, lol. Resistance is futile, lol. Not sure but it doesn't look used much. 

A camera that comes in its own hard case means busines!

Have you thought about an EQ mount? i have used a Vixen GP mount for years now and I will be buried with it. If you can find on used by chance I wouldn’t hesitate for a second, they’re quite common even though they are old. They can be had used for well under your budget, they are tanks, mine held my 115mm triplet without issue, i now use for my Lunt 60.

1 minute ago, Moonlit Night said:

I have seen it happen. A 10 inch OO Newtonian hit a concrete floor, quite a noise. The scope in question was 2 months old. The bloke in question sold the rest of his gear a little later.

Was this due to a faulty saddle?

31 minutes ago, RobertI said:

the stock saddles had a habit of failing and the scope falling off (happened to me)

What? for real? this can be a catastrophic issue! I can’t imagine, this is insanity! oh gosh I would loose my mind.

Patiently waiting for Tak to make a dob.

31 minutes ago, quasar117 said:

Always wondered if QC is any better on the Stellalyra. I would imagine not, though probably just luck of the draw.

There's a used AZ75 for £650 (I think) on ABS. Not sure if could justify a brand new one. Does the AZ75 have slomo controls? 

I believe it does not, you won’t miss slomo on a mount like an AZ, my mount (not an AZ) does not have slomo, if the mount is silky smooth and built as well as the az’s are, slomo is not a necessity. I am a firm believer in buying a mount not necessarily for the scope you have, but for the scope you’ll want in the future. We all upgrade, being future proof saves money and heartache, as i said, buy once, cry once. Az mounts are supreme, refined mounts tested by users of SGL, don’t let me pressure you. But of you could find a used one, it will be all ypu need for a long while, maybe for good.

A big welcome to SGL!

23 minutes ago, quasar117 said:

Are there any other suitable mounts for the Starfield apart from the Skytee2 and giro type mounts that are sub £400?

 

I'm pretty certain I would be become frustrated with the AZ4 with the balance and stiction issues, so will be ruling that out aswell.

APZ and Cubo are out of budget. 

Only other I can think of that might handle it is the Vixen Porta 2?

Looking at our sponsors website I am attracted to these two mounts, both seem to have a load capacity that would handle the 102 at roughly 12-13lbs with accesories. Wait a min, looking at the images I realize these are the exact same mounts just rebranded lol. If you were willing to smother the grenade and blow your budget, the AZ75 would be on a different level all together. A buy once, cry once type of mount.

18 hours ago, Greymouser said:

Got this from FLO a little while ago, only just now got the chance to post because so busy:

Not sure about the foam box, might have to upgrade that... Not sure how wise this purchase has been either, I am very spare time poor at the moment, but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained!
Also got a few little helpers too:

That's a dew shield; Bhatinov mask; dust cover and EQ5 tripod convertor, not sure it will work for the SS50, but I think it should. Fantastic delivery from FLO as usual too, thanks guys.

Nice image of the box but im afraid you’ve blown out the core.

Nice report, I have heard only great things about the AZ100 mounts, it seems it handles your 128 with ease, and goto is the icing on the cake. A family member recently printed a second saddle for my starsense phone module which will allow me to take the module off my starsense dob and use it on my alt-az mount with my 128.

Hello and welcome to SGL! you’ll have a great time with that scope, one thing is true, just when you’re ready to use your scope the weather ruins the fun.