Sunshine

Welcome! these are wonderful images, beautifully sharp and I'm loving the slightly warmer tone than what I'm accustomed to seeing with lunar images.

Great work!

Nice, I remember how much I loved my Celestron C4.5 newt way back in the early 90’s, cut my teeth observing and learning how to use an EQ mount with that scope. Though the tube rings dented the tube if tightened too much, I guess that was missed in the engineering lab but the scope was built like a tank.

Anybody else have odd habits while out observing? maybe some level of OCD thing, for me it’s a strange one. When I’m focusing, especially fine focusing I find I hold my breath like a sniper lining up a target. For the life of me I can’t take a breath until I’m focused which means I have learned to find perfect focus rather quickly for fear of passing out. I’m glad this doesn’t happen during polar alignment. 😂

9 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

crack it if seeing allows. 

Well if I managed to split it like a coconut then you can crack it like a egg! 😂

Oh boy! this night seeing was something special, truly! from the moment I dropped an eyepiece in and turned my refractor to Arcturus I knew tonight was special. One of those nights where stars look as though they're just hanging in the black sky without a shimmer or shake, just perfectly still diffraction rings, unrealistically still. On nights such as these I always remember my nemesis Zeta Her, which for a 4" is always a challenge, maybe not so much for those with hulking APO's but for a 4" it can be daunting.  Starting with 230x and still a perfect unwavering star I rushed for FULL POWER! my pulse increased as I fumbled my 5mm into my 2.5x powermate for 100x per inch, very few night are such powers feasible. Hanging there in the inky black was a beautiful sharp dot with a faint airy disc like a halo, and right there at 10 o'clock was an unmistakable dot! not a peanut or a dancing blob but a dot. If you love doubles as much as I you would understand my childlike excitement over such a dot, my scalp shrunk and got tingly over the whole affair. It must have been 20 times that I watched that star drift across the FOV at breakneck speed but I could have watched it all night, frankly. Bed time was near and I packed up my scope but tonight I go to bed thinking about two wonderful dots.

It caught me a little by surprise looking at my SGL account info, realizing that it’s been five and a half years that I have had the amazing pleasure of being a tiny part of SGL. Oh my gosh I can’t believe it’s been that long, you all have had patience with me. 😂
 

Everyone here has been incredible, so friendly and patient, you folks are salt of the earth kind of people who just want to enjoy the night sky and each other’s company, even if it is just within this digital space, as many of us are separated by hundreds or thousands of kilometers.  Thank you all for your likes, laughs, confusion and even sadnes, I look forward to another five telescopes….ahem, years!

Wow!

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/041/01GA76MYFN0FMKNRHGCAGGYCVQ

Opening these images in full resolution off NASA's webpage so that it is so big as to require one to scroll through portions at a time is mind blowing. 

34 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

I can only imagine that they sent the scope to an advertising agency with the simple instructions to photograph it and create an advert to go in some magazine or other, then never saw it prior to publication. Of course, it was obligatory back then to have the father and son image for this hobby. I can't imagine how awful the view is through that finderscope, which really does not look anywhere near 42 mm to me.

It probably has a spherical mirror.

Price increase just in time for Christmas, too!

I thought father and son but it’s his wife.

19 minutes ago, davehowat said:

Ok so maybe need to send it back then 😜😜, have had it for 40 years now ,lifetime guarantee indeed ...still in its box lol

It’s a classic now!

Oh my word, $870! well at least it comes with a moon filter! I love how the warranty disclaimer stresses “with normal use” I guess they voided their own warranty right off the start, nothing normal in this ad.

What gets me is the $399 with $100 off lol in 1991, with inflation that’s like around $700 now I’m guessing, omg the horror.

4 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

The EQ mount setting is ... interesting🤣

It’s fine, they were aligning to the South Pole. 😅

25 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

I looked at this picture and thought it looked odd, then it dawned on me. Why would anyone have run that ad for a telescope?

While at my local book store I saw a guide to the night sky written by Terrence Dickinson, this was an example of an ad from late 80’s early 90’s where the authors were highlighting department store scopes to stay away from which enticed beginners with flashy ads. This particular ad was from a Sears catalog.

Ooh I do see a Tak EM10 USD mount in local classifieds from a gentleman whom I’ve purchased from before, does anyone have any experience with this mount? i don’t see any manual slow motion control knobs on it so I’m guessing it needs power during use. It is in great shape and working perfectly according to ad.

I like to keep my wishes within the realm of the obtainable to avoid a lifetime of disappointment.

A TSA-120 would be just fine, a new one I can unbox myself!

😂 I wonder how many targets they managed? 

This is beautiful! the other car at far left is perfectly composed, so eerie! 

1 minute ago, dweller25 said:

Having owned a TSA102 and an FC100-DZ I can tell you they are - in my opinion - very different. Overall the TSA being optically better, superbly built, but a bit heavy.

Yes, it is heavy for a 102 Indeed, I think I like that, though. It makes it seem very robust and as you say “superbly built” sometimes I wish it was lighter but I wouldn’t want a refractor which could float on water 😂

I think it's amazing!! and don't worry about "full body" that's a term I would use to describe wine 😂

BEAUTIFUL!

On 02/09/2022 at 06:48, JeremyS said:

Here's a line up of some. FS 60, FC 76 DCU, FS 102, FC 100DZ

 

Your 100DZ looks almost identical to my 102, I notice the finder bracket is a different colour than the focuser, do they not make finder brackets for the DZ of the same colour as the focuser? interesting. I'm loving the colour scheme of your FS102 with the blue, I'm curious of how the FS102 and TSA-102 compare at the eyepiece, the FS102 is a doublet fluorite? pardon my FS ignorance.

First time hearing about grey light but it looks awesome, nice work!

Great image!

Cepheus has some wonderful stars within its boundaries, having some fun seeking them out tonight! 

 This is awfully exciting considering exoplanets have always been ghostly objects who’s presence could only be verified by their effects on their parent star. Directly imaging one marks a turning point in my eyes, kind of like the event horizon project where the first image of a black hole was achieved, or it’s acretion disc at least. So far I think this has been the most impressive and exciting JWST image, in my eyes at least. A deep field is a deep field and has been done before, not to take away from its splendor but, the first image of another world outside our solar system however small and pixelated it may be is simply awe inspiring.

54 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Was clouded out before Saturn was sufficiently high.

Looked at few objects to get the hang of it. The most impressive was M13. With the Apollo 11 (x220) the glob filled much of the field and was scattered all over with lovely pinpoint stars, even with direct vision. M57 was a lovely green with a nice hole in the middle.

Too bad for Saturn but your description of M13 and M57 sound yummy, pinpoint stars are a good sign!