Sunshine

3 hours ago, Pixies said:

Have a look at this video made by @lukebl:

There's a very dark area preceding the GRS within the southern equatorial band. Could that be what you saw? You can also see a couple of dark barges on the northern one, too.

Thank you! This is exactly what I saw, what seems like a double GRS and, those two other spots on the other belt, all were very interesting and clearly discernible.

As I write this I am leaning back in my chair taking a short break from observing Jupiter and, Saturn. Jupiter displays some wonderful detail this night with what must be a record (for me) 7 bands but, what is captivating me at this moment is what seems to be a double GRS. What seems like two red spots next to each other along the outer limb of the southern belt and two smaller spots along the limb of the northern equatorial belt. I’m pretty sure I have it correct considering the view is upside down at the eyepiece, it seems there are several equatorial “eye” like storms brewing. 

Not sure why it requires an ERF upwards of 80mm when a quark requires it after 100mm if I’m correct. 

Oh my, it seems amazing but, after a peek on their site and a conversion to canadian dollars it would cost an exorbitant five thousand dollars!. 
 

Insanity!

Great full disc!

45 minutes ago, GalaxyGael said:

A recent outing to image M33

What a beautiful rig!

1 hour ago, John said:

Meade or Tele Vue ?

I've been quite a fan of the Tele Vue brand for years now. I've owned / used most of their eyepiece types with the exception of the DeLite's which I've yet to try.

Currently I have these:

Good luck with building your own collection

 

This here is eyepiece nirvana!

Big as life and awesome Jupiter images!

A wonderful image!

Welcome back!

On 19/09/2021 at 06:25, IB20 said:

Some beautiful set ups in here, I need to stay out of this thread, will cost me a fortune. I already keep looking at the 76DCU which I absolutely don’t need. 😅

You miss the point, my friend, nothing in amateur astronomy is about “need” it’s all about want!.

8 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Great video by Ed Ting.

Was surprised to find I own 2 of his top 3 scopes.

No one on SGL is surprised by this lol

 Welcome to SGL!! 

Let me start by saying your logic is brilliant! you have ordered a book which is pretty much the beginners bible and you seek to inspire your children while getting into a new hobby. 

It seems you have locked targets on what is widely considered to be the quintessential starters scope which WILL provide that WOW factor (wait till you and your kids kids see Saturn!) and

you're right, the dobsonian is the ideal size vs value you can find. Personally I would go for something like a Skywatcher 200P, it is ideal and will show you all those things you mentioned

and more!. 

Best of luck!

16 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

That is a fine blue sky!
Have the maples begun to colour yet?

Yes! the top thirds of maples have started turning an orange bronzish color. For some reason they change from the top down.

10 minutes ago, Spile said:

I sometimes use the long wave transmitter masts at Wychbold (Droitwich) to align my finder.

This sounds like a place straight out of a Harry Potter movie.

1 hour ago, Stu said:

Thing is Paul, a newt in an EQ mount is about the worst combination for star hopping really. Upside down view with the RA/Dec movement is quite tricky to master. A dob is much easier, being Alt/Az, or a refractor on an Alt/Az mount, the latter is what I find best for star hopping.

Did the newt on an EQ star hopping tragedy for a short while but it always ended up with me crying and questioning my IQ.

This morning I found myself looking at distant objects and marveling at the detail one is able to see during the daytime. This tower crane is roughly 500 meters away, yet the detail I could see in the paint and parts was astounding!. At 230x I could easily make out texture in rust, fine cracks in paint, small dents on the ends of pins made my hammer strikes, even a fly perched on the paint which suddenly flew away as if it knew I was spying. 
 

The images here are not nearly as sharp and defined as it is to my eye as they are hand held phone captures (difficult ones at that) as it is so hard to keep steady and centered with a phone. At one point I was looking at leaves off the tip of a maple tree roughly 150 meters away and I could see the capillary like vanes in the leaf, I was just as enthralled looking at random daytime objects today as I usually am looking at night time wonders!. 
 

This was a lot of fun! everyone should use their telescopes during the day and enjoy the details they can see from great distances, it is a load of fun too!.

33 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Ed's statement 12:42 minutes in is probably the most important of the video. 👍

“It’s not about the equipment, but the experiences we have with them and the people we meet” 

gospel.

Ed Ting’s videos are all great, I recommend them all, this one tackles the question thrown around which absolutely no one can answer.

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Yes, but they do come up occasionally.

They are built to last and if like me you are visual only and like finding objects without goto, a wonderful mount for a scope like yours.

A few pics for your interest ☺️..

Dave

I love my Vixen GP but that EM-2 with its stained tripod is beautiful, I will search far and wide for one.

1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

Hi Sunshine,

My FS128 came with an EM2 mount. It's single speed RA drive but has slo motion knobs for manual tracking on both axes too. I fitted a longer slo motion rod to my Dec axis to allow small corrections (which are all that are needed when the RA drive is on and the polar axis manually aligned with Polaris).

There is a 2x RA "speed" control button but frankly it's so slow it's much quicker to loosen the RA clutch knob and manually move the scope to where you want it.

The EM2 is not goto, but nevertheless is a lovely, smooth mount, quite similar, but IMO better than, the Vixen GPDX (a very fine mount itself).

Mine also came with the original tripod, which would be fine on a 4" scope, but struggled with my 5" die to the longer tube and higher weight. So I sold mine and used I stead my trusty old fixed height hardwood tripod..on this the rig is rock solid.

HTH,

Dave

It seems I am correct in assuming an EM-2 can only be acquired on the used market as it seems to be long out of production. It is a wonderful looking mount/tripod combination and, seems to have a higher weight capacity than my Vixen GP should a TSA-120 fall into my lap one day 😂

On 27/08/2021 at 04:19, Cleetus said:

With a telescope like that your choice is between the Berlebach or a Takahashi wooden tripod. Nothing else will do I'm afraid.

 

Wow, looking at your EM-2 once again I see it is a beautiful mount and I would love to mate it with my 102. Is it a goto mount? can it be used manually by way of slow motion control knobs? on nights where tracking isn't a necessity? the tripod is beautiful!. OH NO! something else I want for my 102, now its just an obsession, I imagined my 102 on that mount and it raised my heartbeat and cause me to sweat a bit, seriously. Takitis is not a joke, I fully understand Jeremy now.

I see it seems to be long out of production now.

2 hours ago, Captain Magenta said:

I got my skymax 180 out last night for the first time in 3 months or so. I do like this scope. Although the seeing was as bad as I think I’ve ever seen. Jupiter Saturn and the moon were fizzing wobbly blobs. Not worthy of an observing report I thought I’d put a couple of pics up here instead.

A certified planet killer, I had the 150 though they do take their time cooling. That 180 must take a good 1.5 hrs to equalize, I must say I’m a little smitten with your mount, what mount is it? it looks great!.

41 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

The Matrix trilogy is IMHO one of the best movie series ever..you should watch them..and Trinity...well, she was just a babe back in the day!😊

I find that Tak and Morpheus make an unbeatable combination!👍😂

Dave

I beg to differ, with me it ends after the first, as usual part one’s of many films are masterpieces but, it usually goes downhill after (Alien and Terminator) exempted.

That is Jupiter alright! solid first planetary capture!