Sunshine

I feel I may be one of the younger ones at 47, good thing is I feel like I’m 20, talk like I’m 16 and complain like I’m 10.

More clouds 😭

1 minute ago, JeremyS said:

🤔. No, but if one is struggling to see through the eyepiece, there are solutions 

Those should come with any dob over 14 inches, pass this on to FLO!

2 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

And others are hedging their bets

Fur lined open slippers, did you pull this image from Websters "oxymoron" page? 😂

Welcome to SGL!

Funny how some equipment threads barely break a page full but this keep feet warm thread is heading into five pages, I guess everyone has a bad case of cold feet especially when it comes to AP. 😂 

Thanks for the replies folks! It seems I have nothing to worry about, the scope I was referring to is my only one, my TSA-102 (the 115 is long gone) with an ADM dovetail which seems to be made of a more solid maderial than the stock dovetails I’ve seen with scopes I’ve had like the skymax 150. 

This is a wonderful image! a nebula of some sort I assume? I have never seen it before. If I were to name it I would call it the box jellyfish nebula (I have a feeling that already exists) haven’t checked.

beautiful!

Would you have any reservations about mounting your scopes using a Vixen dovetail sideways on an alt azimuth mount? considering there’s only two screws anchoring it to the rings. Or should I be getting a losmandy bracket where I can use 4 screws? I mentioned sideways because I’m assuming those screws are under constant vertical load compared to an equatorial mount where the scope sits over top the screws. Is this paranoia? let me know if I have a point as my local shop has a 9” losmandy in stock.

53 minutes ago, RobertI said:

It’s a lovely looking marriage. A very solid looking mount worthy of the Tak. Not sure I can work out what all the knobs on the are for though! 🙂

Thanks, the red knobs which are two on right saddle and one on left are for tightening saddle on bracket, the green arrow points to the altitude friction knob, yellow is azimuth friction, and the blue arrow points to a set of knobs which allow for the left saddle to be precisely aligned with the right saddle so both scopes are aligned to the same target. There are more adjustment screws on the back of the saddle which just like the screws which move a mirror for collimation, allow for saddle to be finely align with each other.

I’ve had a few days out with my new alt-az mount and so far it’s been great but that’s another equip review thread, in the meantime I’m all smitten with how the scope/mount look together, like a teenager with a new phone I feel like I have to post it 🤣

Wow, the contrast and detail are beautiful!

1 hour ago, JOC said:

I've just seen a bit on the beeb about unfolding the solar shield.  A big object made of 5 thin sheets of 'foil' which sounds somewhat delicate.  The first thing I wondered about was how such an object is protected from 'impacts' from meteors etc. ?

I wondered the same regarding micro meteorites and stuff, maybe they’re very sparse way out there away from earth where there’s debris speckled around earth from countless launches and stuff. One would think that sun shield would look like a spaghetti strainer after a few years.

Great news!

25 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

to preserve the precious fuel.

Thanks for clarifying that, as for the fuel, well someone is going to have to take a pod or something out there with a fresh gas can!

Question about Webb's orbit and orientation, because the mirrors will always be facing away from the sun with a huge sunshield behind it, how will they image any portions of sky/targets that lie behind it? it cant swing around cause the sun will fry the mirrors. Maybe those targets will be imaged when it has made a 180 degree orbit around the sun? where it will be directly opposite to where it was in its solar orbit therefore exposing an area that was previously behind, I dunno.

Am i making any sense? its hard to describe.

2 minutes ago, jjohnson3803 said:

I believe the BAA photo info listed it currently at around m=14.4.

Oh, well that puts it out of range for me, bummer.

On 28/12/2021 at 07:26, Dark Vader said:

Not exactly for Christmas, but arrived on the 23rd. As a result of a recent payout from a former employer coinciding with FLO knocking 50 quid off, I decided to upgrade my eyepieces.

As is usually the case, the weather has been shocking since 🙄

Whoa what a haul! enjoy those, it isn't every day any one of us recieves 4 beauties like that!

26 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

This is the current location and will drift to the east a few minutes of arc per day over the next ten days.  Would dearly loved to have imaged it but there is no chance with the weather - as per usual with anything remote exciting happening in the world of astronomy in the UK.

You just run the Ephemeris tool to get the JWST coordinates for your location and then enter them into Stellarium.   Remember parallax has a slight effect but less so now that it has been going for a bit and is 350k miles out.

Not sure what its apparent magnitude is but it would be awesome to see it through a 4" refractor.

On 27/12/2021 at 04:55, kirkster501 said:

They said that even in tests, very occasionally the sunshield didn’t fully work.

Oh no! don’t say that! It isn’t helping my anxiety about the whole thing!

Welcome to SGL! soon to be renamed the Clouded Over Club,  and you're the latest member! 😂 kidding aside, enjoy the forum!

5 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I’d like to do more visual observing

Does this mean maybe trying out one of them fancy telescopes that use mirrors? 

Have a go at collimation using only the collimation cap, if the secondary looks round and entered within the focuser tube, primary mirror clips are equally visible around edges of secondary, and the hole in the cap lands dead on with the dot in the middle of the primary then you should be good to go. Collimation can be a rabbit hole, it can quickly get out of hand as we strive for perfection and constantly check it. Don't let it get to that point, also don't forget to gently tighten the mirror locking nuts after collimation, don't tighten one all the way before snugging the others. Tighten one just so it makes contact with mirror then move to the next and the next, then again snug them little by little one after the other or you could throw off collimation by tightening one too much straight away. Once you get the optics collimated then it won't need much adjusting each time unless it takes a serious knock, it should only take a few min if it does need it after.

Great to hear, thanks for the info!

Hard to describe “meh” but you got it right, just means like oh well not worth it.