Sunshine

Welcome to SGL! joining a local astronomy club was a great idea, have fun discovering your universe! 

44 minutes ago, Vroobel said:

It is, indeed! Look please at the star test Out and In. 😳

You're going to have a lot of fun with this scope, enjoy it to the fullest!

welcome to the 102 club!

46 minutes ago, Vroobel said:

Hi everyone! 🙂

Tonight my brand new Altair ASCENT 102ED/1122 F/11 gets its first light. Some optical test, including the start test, shows that it's really Planet Killer. Let's check by looking at Jupiter and Moon tonight using Japanese Genuine Abbe Orthos 9mm (249x) and Fujiyama HD Orthos 7mm (321x). 😎

 

Congratulations! it looks like a wonderful scope with a load of focal length makes for a planet killer! enjoy and keep the images coming.

22 hours ago, iapa said:

 

 

Theres a ghost in this video, creeped me out proper.

The Borg has got you! 

These are two beautiful images, I imagine setting up my scope in that setting and spending a night there.

Welcome to SGL!

13 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

It's my grab and go, lol 🤣🤣🤣

You meant to say grab and go, to the hospital 😂

On 12/09/2022 at 13:30, Nigella Bryant said:

Well, not night time but I've just set up the SCT on my new Eq8 r pro mount in anticipation of the planets being visible from my location this year. Saturn still to low for me with lots of trees in the way. Just got to get one more cable. Everything had to be examined and passed by AstroCat, lol. 

This setup is intimidating, I would feel small and insignificant in its presence.

Alya, or Theta 1,2 Serpentis is a beautiful double in Serpens about 130Ly away, the components are separated by 900 AU according to SkySafari. What I love about this pair is their almost identical apparent magnitudes, sizes, and color which makes them hard to tear my eyes from. It seems they are locked in an orbit spanning some fourteen thousand years which makes their relative positions seem unchanged for as long as they have been observed and likely into the distant future they will still appear the same. If you’re  looking for a wonderful double,  try Alya in Serpens, I have been observing them this night for so long I’m questioning my sanity.😂

It took my first good refractor to spark my love for doubles, the Orion Eon 115 and my current 102 to refine it, now there’s no turning back. With every passing night I sit in awe discovering wonderful doubles. When once I thought they were boring, now everything else seems to take a back seat to those delightful doubles.

FAKE!! 🤣 kidding, i mean its so beautifully done it looks pained or rendered, this is absolutely gorgeous. I'm not an imager but I can say I haven't seen this sort of contrast and detail before, amazing.

Gremlins? no idea what you mean but if it's what I think, don't feed them after midnight.

My wife loves watching classic 70’/80’s game shows and quite often telescopes are given away as prizes. They usually are Meade and Celestron refractors or the occasional SCT on bonus rounds, something you never see these days on modern game shows. While watching one just now she brought to my attention they’d be showing one a contestant won, I think it’s cool, it seems stargazing was more popular back then, I snapped a pic of my tv screen for those of you who may have owned this same model. It seems to be pointed in the right direction, at least. 😅

On 08/09/2022 at 10:57, Stu said:

Past experience and building up a picture of what to expect really is important. I’m sure Zeta Herc had probably been visible to me a good few times before I was actually able to pin it down in a 4”, so I had to see it fully resolved in the Mewlon 210 before seeing it on the Vixen FL102S.

Very good point regarding experience on one particular double, Zeta Her looked much like the simulated image Zermelo shows in the OP on many many occasions where I have tried to split it. If I was satisfied with that as a split then you would be hearing from me weekly about splitting Zeta Her, but I myself am not completely satisfied with this and prefer to be patient and wait for that moment when it smacks me in the face with an unmistakable split, and when it does it really is special. This is only possible once maybe twice a season if I’m lucky.

Looks great, I am so about to pull the trigger on a Quark! have you mastered the tuning yet? any tips you like to extend? Thanks!

18 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Pic's of the solar obsy roof open as promised.

i'm loving that raised observatory, I'd be out there all night in a lab coat peering through the telescopes feeling like I was the last person left on earth, I love that!

This may have been posted once before as I vaguely recall, I'm not bashing SCT's as there are millions of them out there with happy users.

The cartoon is funny, though.

I must admit I do love the red tube, it must look awesome in the flesh.

Brilliant! those are steady tripods, I've seen them in construction equipment stores and wondered about just such a mod, they can be pricey.

5 minutes ago, tomato said:

Yes, I remember Colditz, it made a minuscule improvement to my German vocabulary, but  I didn’t find it an enthralling board game. 
This is all off topic, but last Christmas I got the Jaws board game, I’ve never come across such a convoluted set of rules or mind numbing game play.

Notice it’s the same company who makes my Alien game? Now you see why mine hasn’t been played yet. Reading the rules gave me a sensation as though I was leaning back in a chair which was almost about to tip but didn’t. 

24 minutes ago, Marvin Jenkins said:

Thank you for the compliment, it is inside my house. I live the Quercy Blanc region and all the stone in this region is white limestone, a left over from a shallow tropical evaporitic sea.

My house is an old stone cow barn that I have rebuilt over ten years. 
Oddly this building and the couple of others around it were once a Friary.

There is a castle up the road that once owned by Richard the Lion Heart and his houses stonework is much more impressive😂

Marv

Sounds like a dream!

On 08/09/2022 at 12:18, Marvin Jenkins said:

As the title implies this is a frac at f15 which is an alien creature to me due to being a newt man. (Possible new super hero Newtman)😂

This Bushnells frac is not mine and will be returning to its owner, but it is need of a good clean and has some maintenance issues.

It is a 60mm aperture with an fl of 900mm. Ian going to do everything I can to get it properly working.

It comes with a few small eps and two of the most ridiculous barlows I have ever seen.

I have never used a slow frac and the mix of rescuing a scope like this is balanced by wanting to point it at the moon.

Marv

My eyes kept going to that beautiful wall, I love it! this is inside your home? beautiful.

On 08/09/2022 at 06:05, mog3768 said:

Actually had for a couple of weeks but only just got around to posting. A Bresser 152L It is a big scope as you can see it

Dwarfs my equinox 120. Brought mainly for solar viewing.

Oh great I guess that means you have no need for the equinox! please send it my way I'll dispose of it for you for free! 😝

Those are BIG! solar images, nice work.