Geoff Barnes

On 26/08/2019 at 09:17, John said:

I've been giving my favourite deep sky object, the Veil Nebula, some scrutiny tonight with the help of my 12 inch dobsonian and trusty Lumicon O-III filter.

In a few weeks time the Veil will be clear of our trees and I'm eagerly looking forward to my first view of it with my 12 inch Dob. I only have an Astronomik UHC filter and am wondering if I should get the 0-III for the best results, or do you think I should get decent enough views with the UHC?

Unfortunately the Veil will be very low on my northern horizon so seeing won't be great but I  still think I should be able to see the brighter parts.

At last! A clear sky and no wind - good seeing and my first successful session for what, 8 weeks? I don't know it's been so long!

I concentrated almost exclusively on Jupiter and Saturn, got to make the most of them while they're so high.

Saturn was awesome! With both the Skywatcher Planetary 4mm A, B and C rings and Encke minima clear as a bell, Mimas, Dione and Rhea on one side, Enceladus and Tethys on the other. Nice shadow of the planet projected on the back of the rings and four distinct coloured bands on the disc.

Jupiter was nice and clear too, but not much happening on the surface tonight, no GRS and apart from a couple of festoons I couldn't make out any other unusual features apart from all the main belts and bands.

Had hoped for my first view of the Veil Nebula tonight but alas it's still behind the trees, another month and I should be able to see it.

Annoying cloud cover then came over so I packed up, but just so thrilled to have been able to brush the cobwebs off the 12 inch Dob at long last and get some quality views, it's been a long time coming but was well worth it.

Spring is just around the corner here so more opportunities should be coming soon!

22 minutes ago, continuum said:

I have been considering Astronomik or Optolong.  Does anyone have experience of these brands?

I think the general consensus on here would be that Astronomik are among the very best and, as I have an Optolong HBeta filter I would say steer clear.

2 hours ago, Rusted said:

Now what was the question, again? 

That got answered right at the beginning Rusted old chap. Nice to read your autobiography nonetheless!

11 hours ago, devdusty said:

Out of interest where do you find those detailed light pollution maps of the UK ?

Chris P

Here you go Chris, just type in or zoom in to your location....

  https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=4&lat=6589541&lon=582262&layers=B0FFFFFTFFFFF  

Could well have been maw, some sunspots are absolutely huge, like this one in 2014.....

I'm pretty sure Go-To telescopes will work anywhere on the planet so long as they have the coordinates entered correctly wherever you are situated.

Yes, as Buzzard75 says, that is the beauty of a Go-To scope, you can use it manually to look at brighter objects, and use the onboard computer to find those faint and invisible targets for you.

I use mine in both modes during most of my viewing sessions.

2 hours ago, Louis D said:

I'm thinking about getting the 30 pound Hubble Optics UP12 12" Dob to replace my 110+ pound 15" Dob.  After multiple back and shoulder injuries, the 15" is just too much to lift even in pieces.

Impressive specs for the Hubble Dob Louis, look forward to your first light impressions.

Hi Adidaz, I had similar problems with my SynScan Dob at first, it turned out that the AZ power cable was not fully pushed into the sockets both top and bottom ends, you need to push them in very firmly until you hear them click home. I did that and all worked perfectly. May not be your problem but that would be my first thing to check.

Such a shame. It stayed clear, transparency was 7/10 but the wind got up and seeing was atrocious 2/10 at best, very wobbly.

Nevertheless, I persevered and got a few brief glimpses of detail. 375x was hopeless, 300x pretty bad, I ended up with the Morpheus 6.5mm at 230x which was as high as was usable and even my Hyperion zoom at 8mm 187x was sharper but obviously smaller image.

GRS was central and I'm sure I could make out the central darker spot was much larger and more distinct than I recall.

The South Equatorial Belt seemed much thinner than normal and even appeared to be two thin strips with a brighter central divide.

Along the North Equatorial Belt there were two very large dark brown ovals and possibly a third smaller one, certainly a lot of activity going on along there.

Need an up to date image from Avani to see what's going on in detail.

So not an entirely wasted session but so very frustrating with the poor seeing conditions, next chance seems to be next weekend according to the forecast - more snow on Monday!

57 minutes ago, chiltonstar said:

and a Europa transit if I'm not mistaken! Too low for us near the North Pole but you might see it Geoff?

Not here Chris, another 12 hours away down here. I'll be happy to see anything after 2 months of cloud to be honest!

I'm getting cautiously excited! Clear blue skies and gentle winds at 4.30pm, could this be my first chance for 2 months???

GRS due to be centre stage between 9.30pm and 10.30pm, I'm going to throw everything I've got at it up to 375x with the Vixen SLV 4mm and see what's possible.  

I don't know what the problem is??? 😆

I was the site manager at Hampshire Corporate Park just north of Southampton, a 20 acre landscaped business park where B&Q, Norwich Union Healthcare and Natwest Bank had their office headquarters.

I remember hundreds of the office bods coming out and standing in the gardens to watch the event. We were lucky that there were a few gaps in a mostly cloudy sky and we were able to see the eclipse quite well at (near) totality. It went quite gloomy, just like dusk really, making the outdoor lighting all come on and everything fell silent for a minute or two. 

It remains the only time I've ever been near a total eclipse so far.

  Twiddling my thumbs for two months down here waiting for a clear sky, my mind was concentrated on ways to improve my set up.

I have been thinking for some time that I should find a way to keep my EP's together more securely than just sitting them on the Dob base as I have been doing. I don't need anything big or flash, I only have a handful of lenses and don't intend getting any more (don't laugh!).

I decided upon one of these rather natty insulated soft padded lunch boxes.....

It is just the right size and even has a handy zippable compartment inside the lid where I store all my cleaning equipment.....

As it is winter here I thought it would be useful to put some sort of heat source inside the box to keep the EP's warm and prevent them fogging up in use.

I hit upon the idea of one of those hand warmer bag things filled with wheat or rice. Couldn't find one that fitted the bill so decided to make my own. Found an old sock, filled it with rice (Basmati as it happens), tied a knot in the open end and put it in the microwave for one minute. It came out nice and hot but a surprising amount of moisture came out of the dry rice so I put the sock into a sealable sandwich bag.

Placed a thin piece of sponge between the hot bag and the lenses to keep them separated and tadaaa! A nice warm dry EP case that stays warm for many hours!.....

Now back to twiddling my thumbs waiting for a clear sky, it's snowing here now!!!  ❄️❄️❄️

Fully realise planets are in terrible positions for you folks in the UK, but no harm in planning for the future when, in 3 or 4 years time, they will be at good altitudes to allow much better seeing and you will get the full benefit of having good quality eyepieces.

With Jupiter and Saturn at 75 degrees altitude here I have had amazing views this year (before winter gloom descended).

+1 for the Skywatcher Planetary EP's, amazing quality for the price. I would have a 4mm or 5mm for Saturn and a 5mm or 6mm for Jupiter for the best high power views. Easily within your budget.

Gosh I wish I could help out here, with Jupiter neck craningly high here I could have a wonderful chance of seeing this white feature, but it has been and continues to be overcast for 2 months and is driving me mad!!!

Snow in the forecast for the next 3 days for us on our mountain!!!

15 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

6:02 pm.

Blue dot is next to the am. Is it not 6.02am?

Hi Peter,

I had one of those with the 3 poles and didn't like it, a pain to fix on and take off and not good quality.

I now have the Astrozap shroud from FLO and it really is super, once it's on you leave it permanently in place as it simply folds down as you collapse the flex tube scope, brilliant design!

  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dew-prevention/astrozap-light-shroud-for-skywatcher-flextube.html

Great stuff Stu, now you've given me a new challenge to go for!

I have to say I'm not too confident on splitting this one though from here, Zeta Hercules only just gets above my horizon at this time of year, slightly ahead of Lyra, and I find the Double Double incredibly hard to split being so low down in the murk and they are an easier split than Z H.

Next time I get a clear night with steady seeing I'll give it my best shot with the 12 inch Dob, wish me luck!  

Welcome back to the fold Fraunhoffer!

As you can see from my signature I have the very same scope and I love it to bits, it is good at just about everything you want to observe, great for moon and planets, wonderful for DSO's, globulars etc, and splits doubles easily.

First thing to note is, as a whole unit it is HEAVY, a 2 person carry or 1 person if it is split in two parts.

I have only made 3 or 4 mods;

The SW focuser was quite good but I replaced it with a 10:1 two speed Lacerta for extra critical focusing at high powers.

I found I had to adjust the primary mirror collimation too regularly for my liking so I installed much stronger springs to hold collimation better - haven't had chance to see if it has improved yet due to 2 months of cloud!

I also have it permanently mounted on a dolly board with rubber castors so I can wheel it around the lawn smoothly which works really well.

I built a very basic marine ply box house to store it in outside which also works very well, keeps the weather off it and keeps it at ambient air temperature so no cooling needed, wheel it out of its box and away I go.

I also invested in an Astrozap shroud which is fantastic as once it's on you can leave it on and it collapses down with the flex

I love the Go-To feature for finding faint objects quickly, and the tracking is wonderful for keeping your subject in centre field of view, especially at high power, no annoying nudging required! But also just release the two clutches and use it manually for speedy slewing to brighter objects.

I've not looked through anything other than an old 4 inch refractor which just doesn't compare.

I've never found dew a problem so far but we don't get really freezing cold much here. 

Thoroughly recommend it as a near perfect all round scope, but a 14 incher? Hmmmmmmmmm……  

You are too honest Avani, I doubt that few if any of us would have known!  

2 minutes ago, Stu said:

Total production: Less than 300

Interesting Stu, I got the 500 figure from CN too, hmm, obviously not set in stone yet.