Sunshine

1 hour ago, cajen2 said:

....now with new super deluxe bespoke home-made dew shield / light shroud! 😛

You’re not wasting a minute! upgrading that sweet scope.

Congratulations a fine scope! you will have so much fun with it. 

Not through windows! that part was cringe inducing to read 🤣

Congratulations on the 150P and I enjoyed your report, it seems a bit of mineral oil fixed the stiffness issue, I wasn't aware the 150 had a helical focuser. You mentioned double stars which in the past 

couple of years has become an obsession of mine, you will love hunting doubles and, I look forward to more reports with this great scope!

Clear Skies!!

It certainly looks as though it means business, it should be a good seller considering its a perfect aperture for grab and go.

A beautiful observatory!

Welcome back to SGL!

That's a cracking tripod! well not literally of course but, it looks awesome!

2 hours ago, markse68 said:

to me it’s always been the bear paw 😉

Mark

YES! that crossed my mind lol, I wondered about a bear paw also 🤣

This is great! it is the exact same method I use for outreach, I enjoy giving people a naked eye tour with my pointer before looking through the scope. Most times I'll go as far as giving them a rundown of our place in the solar system and galaxy as they genuinely are fascinated, I love outreach especially when children are present.

That is an awesome capture of what seems to be a challenging target from your description, amazing!

You are using a C14, maybe this is why I spent half hour trying to find Uranus with my 4" and only ended up cross eyed 😂

21 minutes ago, Username556 said:

Eh I’m going to go but in June 

I’ve been contemplating going to cherry springs for a while now, been to Headlands International Dark Sky Park in Michigan. Loved the spot but it’s a good 6hr hike but we’ll worth it as I stayed a few days in the area. Maybe you should look them up too, they have a ten million dollar facility there with observatory and accommodations, a fantastically planned dark sky park.

http://www.midarkskypark.org

To go to a well known dark sky star party and hang out with like minded astronomers while checking out others rigs and having a great time, need i say more? I would drive several more hours for the same.

20 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

I attract that solitary peice of grit. Others wouldnt be unlucky enough to bump into. Should see my sleek on my Orion optics 245mm 1/10th mirror ouch

One thing I have learned about cleaning telescopes, once the final wipe is done, cover it and LOOK AWAY! because if I keep looking at it I'll find more petty reasons to wipe it again, and again.

just look away, my friend.

11 minutes ago, neil phillips said:

Nerves of steel 

Don’t be apprehensive about it, you can’t do worse than it is unless you’re wiping your lens with a slice of pizza 🤣 a bit of patience goes a long way, coatings don’t just peel off, I suppose we’re all a bit weary of cleaning lenses. What gets me is the couple of dust particles between the lenses but I’m NOT!!! about to start unscrewing the lens cell (would end in my crying in the fetal position) as they don’t affect the image at all.

Lens cleaning wipes bought at a camera store designed for cleaning optics is perfect then a final wipe with a clean lens micro fibre cloth for optics.

To my surprise when looking at my objective in the sunlight I noticed an unsightly amount of dust and what looked like a few spots of lens mould so I decided to give it a clean. Such a satisfying felling when it turns out right, I have always been weary of cleaning lenses as I can be obsessive but with the right tools it’s a breeze.

Welcome to SGL!

Once again I went out with a list of targets but my plans were foiled by one or two targets which managed to steal the show, leaving the others in their wake. Last night it was the double cluster in Perseus and the double double in Lyra, both of which are just sublime under good seeing conditions. First off was the double double in Lyra, sometimes I find it difficult to explain to non amateur astronomers how I could be so taken by a simple four stars, I cant explain it to myself, really. On a night of good seeing such as last night this target makes me wonder how these two doubles could be so identical in their colour and apparent relative size to one another. It seems to go against what I'm used to seeing when looking at random scatterings of stars and their colours, as though nature decided it would puzzle us with a stellar phenomenon which at least to my eyes hasn't repeated itself. Under 240 magnification these two pairs are so identical in their size, colour, and distance from each other its hard not to be amazed. At high powers all four were just beautiful discs with a delicate airy disc around each one, suspended in a sky as black as the background these words are set against. As wondrous a view as they are I also found myself thinking about how incredible modern telescopes are, the ability of modern telescopes to pick out such a small target and resolve them so such degree is as amazing to me as the objects which they reveal.

Next up I decided to do something I never really do as I instinctively  always look at clusters at lower powers, I dove into the double cluster with as much power as seeing would allow. In particular NGC 869 which has a formation of stars in its centre which remind me of a teardrop or, an open parachute with the one star at the point of the teardrop displaying a very delicate airy disc which I have never seen as I never ramped up the power on this target. There were several other extremely faint, minuscule stars around this teardrop which once again left me astonished at the resolving power of modern telescopes. Some of these tiny pinpoints were so delicate that they disappeared when I looked directly at them and reappeared when I looked away from them (averted vision) indeed, it is real and, it works. Looking at these beautiful stars at the limit of my vision astonished me, how can such a small amount of light be so perfectly captured and focused by modern optics, how is it not lost and scattered in the glass which it passes through? simply mind blowing and miraculous. Looking at this pair of clusters at high power was beautiful, the sky was black as a tire with stars scattered like luminescent beads across the black background. Once my session was over, some two hours I had invested in these two targets, I wanted to put names to the stars in the double cluster but I quickly realized that I couldn't. These individual stars within these two clusters don't seem to have numbers or names attached to them, I guess there are far to many. Imaging naming all the stars in M13😂, I wanted to identify this teardrop formation in the heart of NGC 869 but I guess I'll just call them the teardrop and be happy with it.

Clear Skies!

Wonderful image! 

I'd be over the moon if it were mine, its great!

its clearly there! great image!

Fantastic!

It is a beautiful image!

Nice! I will try and spot these moons but, I fear my eyes will puke trying with a 4" 😝 

It would be awfully exciting, though.