Sunshine

Great first night out! always exciting to hear about first light especially with a large dob which just sucks in photons like a black hole 😂. Regarding detail on planets especially Jupiter, it is good to have a look 

at your collimation and see how close to perfect you can get it. Jupiter has so much low contrast detail it tests telescopes limits. 

Clear Skies and enjoy!

Merry Christmas to all of you at FLO! thanks for making the greatest forum possible!

Wonderful images!

Welcome to SGL!

34 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

Mine is the early Thomas Back CNC one and they weigh a fair bit more than later ones, mainly due to a focuser that would survive a nuclear blast.

It looks like it was designed to handle a rocket propelled grenade round.

Nice report, it is satisfying when you finally split a tough double.

Welcome back Nathan!  I look forward to your reports, one never really leaves astronomy.

Great report! congratulations on what seems to be a killer refractor which will continue to wow you for years to come. Those XW's which I too have a few of are the icing on the optical cake!.

A warm welcome to SGL from not so far north but temps in winter can dip to -30 regardless, it seems I'm nowhere near as brave as you if you're observing in those temps. It's no wonder Albertan's think Ontarian's are soft 🤣

Welcome!

4 minutes ago, gorann said:

This was my surprise tonight with my dual RASA8 rig. No idea how it got in and no idea how to get it out. I guess I just have to live with him/her until he/she dies and falls of the corrector plate and hopefully ends up in a corner and not on the main mirror. Any complaints on my star shapes I will direct to this insect of the family Chrysopidae. Yes, I am an entomologist too so it may be a insect revenge......

There must be an opening somewhere but given the commitment it took to get in, it deserves to be there 😂

No idea but i tried asking Siri and she paused for a very long time then hung up.

Was listening in, didn’t chime in as you were in good hands as it was, great to hear it’s sorted out!

Another simply beautiful image on display here, wonderful.

These are beautiful!

Looks like a case of solar chicken pox, nice image!

2 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I actually don't mind it at all

I'll probably be covert agent of Bortle regime that infiltrated rebellion?

Not covert at all as you’ve just revealed yourself! Now I see why you wear a mask in your avatar.

It seems there are others who feel the same as I when it comes to bortle. A rebellion against the bortle scale is on the horizon and I shall gladly lead us to freedom!! face paint and all.

I introduce the Milky Way visibility scale. Now I have to figure out the levels of visibility and how to determine them. 

5 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Article: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/light-pollution-and-astronomy-the-bortle-dark-sky-scale/

Interesting! Thank you, Jeremy, but I still hate the word bortle 😂

In my early years as an amateur the word "bottle" didn't come across my radar, this is back in the mid 90's. When describing the quality of skies we used magnitude, I recall reading an article in an astro magazine describing

the beautiful sixth magnitude skies of Arizona. Forward a decade as I dropped out of astronomy when I got married and had to get a real job and a home, suddenly I encountered the word bortle!. Right away I knew I hated it, I can barely 

say it, it sounds awful, not sure how one can hate a word but I do.

When did "bortle" happen?

3 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

I have a bad dose of Takitis and my dream scope would be a Takahashi TOA-150. However I would swap it for consistent dark skies with stable seeing. Indeed I would swap it for 1 good clear sky a week, local street lights malfunctioning and a constellation of telegraph wires disappearing in a bunch of sparks

Malcolm

You make a great point, a dream scope is worthless under garbage skies.

5 minutes ago, John said:

Tim Wetherell's masterpiece is one of my all time favourite scopes !

This is even more impractical and unlikely for me but I still admire it - one of John Pon's achromats, this one is a Zeiss 10 inch F/15:

 

A scope with a focal length measured in Km’s.

1 minute ago, johninderby said:

Maks and SCT have corrector plates on the front so you can’t use a simple fan. You can use a specialist cooler  that is inserted into the scope through the focuser and circulates air through the scope and blows it back out. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/asterion-cooler-cat-for-sct-maksutov-telescopes.html

I’ve had both maks and SCTs but have now moved on to a Classical Cassegrain which is open at the front so cools down faster and no dewing problems. Also uses a proper crayford focuser and fixed primary instead of the mak and SCTs moving mirror tpye focuser.

 

Have to say that is a beautiful looking setup.

11 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

Interesting. Do their internal design make a cooling fan difficult or impossible to incorporate?

Honestly, I have never heard of a cooling system for a mak, maybe there are some models I am not aware of that are cooled. Don’t let my experience stop you, as mentioned there are many here on SGL who love their maks and have gotten around their weaknesses with inexpensive and nifty solutions. Maybe have a search in Mak related threads here on SGL, you’ll have a better understanding of what they offer vs what you want. Would I buy another Mak? YES! now that I am aware of some tricks others have used to make the experience easier I would gladly have another, one look at Jupiter through a Mak and you’d be sold.

Rest assured that "dream scopes" and I just quoted myself 😂 are most certainly not restricted to bank busting triplets and gargantuan dobsonians. Having said that, I can speak of Mak's as I have owned one in the past few years and loved the planetary and lunar views they produce. One drawback which was a dealbreaker for me was their long cool down time and relatively narrow field of view comparing to a refractor. Unfortunately I do not have time to let a scope cool for an hour or longer, this combined with my yearning to have a quality refractor led to my selling my mak, I do miss it, though. There are some who wrap their Mak's in insulative material which they say helps greatly with the cooling issue, if you love planetary and lunar combined with great portability then a Mak may be the scope for you. There are many tips and tricks on Mak's here on SGL for Mak owners, they are planetary/lunar killers.