Captain Scarlet

I very recently took the very same risk, and bought a Stellarvue refractor directly from SV in California to me here in West Cork. Luckily it arrived in perfect condition and it's a peach. The costs, which perhaps you know as you have done your own research) were:

USD cost of (scope + shipping) (I exchanged my EUR to USD using Revolut, and used Revolut to make the USD payment - all went fine)

VAT on import (23%)

Customs (4.2%)

Customs clearing fee (2.5% of Customs value IIRC)

Luckily all is fine so no need to return anything.

Cheers, Magnus

I have the Nagler 31T6 and I _really_ enjoy it, especially on my 105mm f/6.2 . @Stu swears by it on his TV Genesis I believe. Around or slightly under £500 is the going rate in the UK I believe.

Cheers, Magnus

Finally! A clear night beckons. Out and acclimatizing for the new toy. A quick cruise around looking at terrestrial daytime high-contrast objects and edges at (an amazingly perfectly usable) 586x showed no fringing whatsoever (for the benefit of those familiar with a certain other thread 🙃). Northerly targets tonight.

22 minutes ago, Astrobits said:

I was also going to suggest a liquid ( water, oil ) bath as the reference flat. I believe that the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington uses an oil bath as reference. …

@PeterW?

How do you use your AZ-EQ6 in manual mode, Gerry? Just keep the clutches at a certain light tension (or totally loose?) and push it around? I occasionally use it that way but it’s irritating. I would guess it needs to be extremely well balanced in alt and the tripod head perfectly level to use without any friction at all.

Jealous of your weather, Magnus

Fantastic vivid report. SO jealous of your SH objects. And all at Bortle 6/7. Well done.

Magnus

18 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I hear canaries going cheap at the moment 🤔

Very, very good. You must’ve been waiting years for the right moment for that one

9 minutes ago, Stu said:

Oh, just tried that on an iPhone 11 Pro and it didn’t work 😕

When I do it there’s also a little cross bottom right of the post which allows it to be revealed or otherwise - do you get that small cross?

52 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Ah, got it (I can’t see signatures in mobile view on my phone), super scope, I plan to go the same route at some point.  Sorry OP for diverting thread. 👍

If you put your phone into landscape mode the sig should appear. I learnt that today from @Littleguy80 .

4 hours ago, John said:

… then my Vixen ED102SS popped up for sale at quite a bit less from a trusted SGL seller, so I opted for that instead … Vixen is named after one of Santa's reindeer, apparently !

I must say ED102SS is a decidedly odd name for a reindeer 😄

2 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

Try viewing in landscape mode on your phone. I stumbled across this recently and found signatures appear that way

And so they do! Thank you for that.

Magnus

I’ve wondered for a while about telescope “nomenclature“ in general, but Japanese scopes in particular, especially Takahashi. E.g. TSA, TOA, DF, DC, DZ etc.

From looking at and drooling over the pics of the Japanese store above I’ve discovered that “TOA” stands for Triplet Orthoscopic Apochromat. “D” stands for Doublet. So what is the “S” in TSA? Short?

M

Very nice read. What size is your dob? It may well be in your sig but I don’t know how to see a sig on my phone.

M37 is a favourite of mine. I always look out for the prominent bright red star in a darker patch right at the cluster centre, a lovely sight.

Cheers, Magnus

I must admit I hadn’t heard of DPAC until you mentioned it, Gerry. Interesting. Is the test something you can perform yourself or will you send it away?

I think it’s standard for a premium refractor that you get a free night or two of clear, you pay good money for that, then back to business-as-usual total wipe-out. That’s certainly been the case for me, 10 nights now of continuous Stratus. Except tonight, when it’s clear! But 50mph wind making the house shake. 

Anyone going? @niallk ?

I’ll be there, open to anyone, sounds fascinating. Would be good to meet any SGL-ites there.

https://corkastronomyclub.com/james-quain-sundials-13-mar-2023-8-pm/

Cheers, Magnus

On 08/02/2023 at 00:17, Ibbo! said:

2 Taks in action this afternoon

 

 

I’ve heard of “off-axis guiding” (TBH I don’t know _exactly_ what it means). But that image seems to be taking the concept to an extreme? 🙂

Very nice and lovely read. New scope is even more exciting than new bike, and I wouldn’t have believed that were possible!

Well done, Magnus

Getting ready for tonight, shootout on the Moon.

Hello and welcome Bogmonster. Another appreciator of Irish skies here, between Baltimore and Skibbereen.

Cheers, Magnus

How about another filter, a cheapo and effectively disposable one, reversed so the crenellated rings meet each other, and with a lump of something epoxied to one side to provide purchase? Or perhaps thread-locked to a nosepiece if you don’t fancy destroying a filter

Not at all astro-related but I was cycling into work one morning along New King’s Road in London, when all of a sudden something seemed not quite right, my vision seemed weird and unbalanced. It occurred to me I might have lost a lens in my specs, and before I could engage my brain I’d stuck my finger directly onto my Cornea, with predictable  fall-off-your-bike results 🤦‍♂️ 

Magnus

Is this not a tailor-made project for those of us who do spectroscopy? @andrew s et al? 

Accidentally put in uk-style date instead of US without thinking? Aligning on and selecting stars would correct for that, but solar system stuff would be off.

edit: except there isn’t when I last checked a 26th month! So can’t have been that 😄

My power supply plug into the battery is a bit loose and occasionally momentarily loses connection, that really throws it!

20 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

… I've never seen an SV140, but if I did, I guarantee it would have a camera attached. …

If you ever happen by SW Ireland Don be sure to let me know and to drop by Baltimore, County Cork. You can have a look through my SV140, which will only very rarely have a camera attached, and would be a DSLR. Likely you’ll only be looking at clouds though, though they will be SQM21.8 clouds! 😀

Magnus