Sunshine

35 minutes ago, DaveL59 said:

how on earth did they transport that huge light bucket tho, on the back of a semi? 😮 

No idea, it’s a 36” canon I wondered that myself lol

My first official star party was more than I could handle, a MASSIVE! turnout after a two year covid hiatus made for tents and trailers for an almost km long stretch. Event trailers, speakers from various fields including Dr. Ian Shelton who first reported supernova 1987A while working at Las Campanas observatory in Chile.  My first night was a bust as the clouds set in but an announcement was made that in the event tent they were showing Interstellar on the screen which was great!. A food truck served late into the evening which was nice as it turnout to be a spot where fellow amateurs would congregate to order food and mingle amongst each other sparking new friendships. This was great, people came from far and wide, cars one after the other throughout the day made their way into the park once the red cellophane people at the gate swarmed everyone’s cars with painters tape hurriedly covering their headlights with efficiency, I began calling them the cellophane ninjas which earned some chuckles around the food truck 😂. 

While on my way back from that food truck I heard two gentleman speaking and sure enough I recognized one as Trevor Jones and his wife Ashley, I had to stop and say hello, Trevor was friendly as can be and Ashley took out photo then I left them alone as everyone seemed to recognize them and were eager to exchange words. 

The two nights I have spent at Starfest which was a two hour drive from my home has been a whirlwind of activity, so many people to meet during the day as groups of friends would make rounds around the park to shake hands and check out others telescopes. Several times while sitting in my lawn chair next to my tent small groups of people would pass by and say hello, almost all would gather around my 102, some even taking photos as though it were a celebrity, words like “beautiful” spoken amongst  themselves while looking at my scope made me feel proud.

Then there were the Imagers, ( “the imagers” used affectionately of course)  a group of five came so say hello, they were inspecting my 102 as though it were an alien artifact then while speaking amongst themselves in clipped and hushed tones I found myself surrounded, one of them asked why there was an eyepiece instead of a camera in my scope. There was no exit as two of them stood to my flanks but I stood my ground and said “this was made by human being for the enjoyment of other human beings” it is an instrument for inspiration and wonder, it is not merely a tool one uses , like a wrench. They thought that was funny, two of them admitted they also have eyepieces and we shook hands and they were off, it could have ended badly had I not stood my ground, watch out for imagers.

Last night as we all waited for sundown on the rolling hills the chatter of hundreds of amateurs all laughing and setting up their gear was wonderful. Some scurried from the food truck clutching their food so they’d be ready for sundown, I had never seen such an astro spectacle like this, a sea of tents and trailers under a beautiful night sky. This may sound odd but it was so wonderful that the observing part almost took a back seat to the experience of the event itself and the friends I made, I found myself giving starsense demo after starsense demo, the imagers seemed to love it and they seemed to spend a lot of time looking at Jupiter through my 102, I called them out on it, threatening to tell their imaging friends about all the time they’re spending at my eyepiece 😂.

Wow is all I can say when recalling this past couple of days, some planned to stay the four days, next time I surely will stay for the whole event, sometimes while walking around the ocean of tents I thought about my friends here on SGL, it would have been nice to have you all here, too!

Trevor and Ashley Jones of Astrobackyard 

In every corner of this large park far from city lights, tents and more tents. 

Beautiful image! exactly how I see it in my 8" dob...😭 no.

Nice! much nicer than the gigantic garbage bag I use.

15 hours ago, gorann said:

Finally, after a long bright summer I am exposing again. Got the dual RASA8 rig up an running in Obsy 1 and aiming at the rather obscure nebula LBN534 in Andromeda. I spent much of the summer adding an extension with a pier to Obsy 2. Soon a dual Esprit 150 rig on the Mesu 200 I bought from @ollypenricewill move in there.

Dual RASA 8’s plus dual Esprit 150’s 

someone control this man! Just wait, sooner or later they’ll let Hubble go for less.

2 hours ago, matelot said:

We call them scraps, not scrapings - regional terms. It's all the bits of crispy batter that's come off the fried fish. Never waste 'owt! 🤣

That is the epitome of reduce, re use, and recycle!

Welcome to SGL! John, the only place where a thread can go from telescopes to fish scrapings in a single post.

 what are fish scrapings?

I tried explaining to my wife that Tak scopes are made by spiritualist dudes in a cave around Mount Fuji and the scopes bring good fortune and prosperity, so I should get a 120, yeah it didn’t work.

Gorgeous!

On 24/08/2022 at 03:08, moonsafari said:

@Nicola Fletcher@SthBohemia@Stu@dweller25@badhex@HollyHound@MalcolmM @JeremyS@BGazing

Hey all,

Given that I'm starting off with the following rig, does anyone have any recommendations in regards to a Barlow or the Tak extender for my FC-100DF, or would it be worthwhile just adding one more high powered eyepiece to my rig below?

– 1.25" Tak prism diagonal
– Pentax XW 10mm and 20mm
– TeleVue Nagler 13mm Type 6
– 1.25" Celestron variable polarising filter

Thanks so much, you've all been incredibly helpful. Still waiting to finalise my tripod and mount setup this week, but was able to grab a sneaky look at Jupiter last night!

My eyepieces are also Pentax, I have the 2.5x powermate Jeremy mentioned but I rarely use it preferring higher powered eyepieces instead as the Pentax eyepieces with the powermate are awful long together making it

unwieldy when turning the diagonal. As for 75x being your upper end magnification? try not to insult your Tak so early on in your relationship 🤣

12 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

The year seems to be marching on….

 

Specific to Britain and Ireland, nice!

1 hour ago, OK Apricot said:

I mean, this kind of gives me chills. You get so used to a prevailing theory and take it at face value, but then you remember; astronomers used to think Andromeda was a nebula within the galaxy and the galaxy was the universe, until new data and theories arrived... 

Even if not and models can be rejiggled, JWST is something else entirely! An instrument like this at our disposal...  😳

Regarding the BB, I firmly believe that just as in the last thousand years, long held theories were proved wrong so too today we may well be proved wrong about long standing theories. Our universe is far from being revealed to us and with every miraculous instrument like the JWST is, new light will be cast on our view of cosmology. Now this doesn’t mean I don’t believe the BB theory, just that we as humans have held many theories to be fact which in time have been toppled. Remember the “force” of gravity? just to name one.

22 minutes ago, Craney said:

Does it do star-trails ??

🤣🤣 Oh boy this made me spit coffee all over my computer screen 🤣

Incredible! JWST being an infrared telescope I would assume the pink spots are indicative of hot spots correct? 

11 minutes ago, Richard_ said:

I think you're missing an important sign for your tent 😁

Now that it is set up I may as well pull the trigger on a TSA-120 and head straight out there with my beddings.

When once I scoured the planet for a Baader BBHS 2" diagonal without success, I decided to get a 1.25" Televue everbright dielectric as my eyepieces are 1.25 anyway. No complaints at all regarding the TV which is a bit pricey for a 1.25 but as we all know, big names equals big money.

Ready and excited about a few nights under dark skies at yearly star party a couple hours drive away, this year will be a bit of a banner year due to a two year shutdown thanks to the bug we all heard enough of. If all goes well and the weather cooperates it should be a great time, just airing out the tent overnight in the back yard, neighbors must think my wife kicked me out.

Remind me of things I should be bringing with me as I do tend to forget everything 🤣

Congrats on the TV eyepiece! though I could not open the image.

Those are amazing! untracked dob you say? i'm inspired!

On 20/08/2022 at 04:22, JeremyS said:

it had to be done

I love this attitude, we only live once.

Welcome to SGL!  and what  beautiful scope you chose, congratulations doubly! it looks so shiny and new I'd be compelled to cradle it like a newborn.

Love the second most, just beautiful!

Welcome to SGL!

Wonderful lunar image! 

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Getting ready for action 

Wow, what a wonderful setup! you obviously trust yourself more than I would trust myself not to knock those tall eyepieces off that tray when reaching for one in the dark. You must poses feline like agility!