Captain Scarlet

Sounds like a very nice mirror, I have two OO mirrors myself. Magnus B.

Definitely it sounds like bad seeing. And observing from inside a warmer room, you’re looking through a stream of warm air pouring out of your door or window, that’s a well-known effect even amongst birders. I have a fabulous 140mm refractor with which I’ve seen Saturn’s small moon Mimas on a very good night. But the last time I took it out, the seeing was really bad, yielding views similar to what you describe, so I just abandoned and came in after a few minutes. It’s just bad luck you had one of those nights for your Starfield’s First Light. Don’t lose heart, it’ll be fine I’m quite certain. Cheers Magnus

Here in SW Ireland our experience of the recent 2024 April 8th Solar Eclipse was that it was to end in the Atlantic just short of us. If lucky, just before sunset we’d get to actually see about a 35% eclipse very low to the horizon. I was lucky: I glimpsed it for about 4 seconds in a gap in the horizon-clouds. But the closest to totality, somewhere about 90%, was actually going to happen shortly after the sun had set, when about 5 degrees down. In other words, during Civil Twilight. So, I thought, Twilight should be for a while significantly, perhaps even noticeably, darker than normal. I decided to take SQM-L sky-darkness measurements in the minutes leading up to maximum coverage and compare them to what I would expect on a normal evening. In the event it wasn’t naked-eye noticeable. But it certainly shows up in the data. Since early 2020 I’ve been collecting darkness data from my now-home site using a Unihedron SQM-L. Every time I’ve noticed a clear dark sky, I’ve nipped out and recorded the darkness, often several times. Using that data, together with concurrent Moon altitude and phase, Sun altitude and angular proximity of the band of the Milky Way, I’ve built a simple statistical regression model to be able to predict what darkness I can expect on a given night. Now that I have nearly 400 data points, the model is usefully accurate. One “darkness-factor” I have noticed but haven’t yet included in the model is “time of night”, to the extent that early evening after dark is definitely brighter at zenith than late evening when everyone’s turned their lights out, so it can certainly be made more accurate. For a moonless night, I can expect to predict a darkness value to within 0.4 magnitudes, and within about 0.2 in astronomical darkness. Milky Way proximity seems to make a surprisingly large difference, up to 0.4 magnitudes. The chart shows darkness-value (y-axis) plotted against the altitude of the Sun (degrees below horizon). It shows that a typical evening displays a steady darkness-progression as the Sun sinks through the various Twilights, levelling out at whatever the local LP allows. An aside, regarding darkness for places with different levels of Light Pollution: I’ve found that as the Sun sinks through the Twilight Zones, (6, 12, 18 degrees down), measured darkness will be the same regardless of location until the local “LP” level is reached, whereupon the darkness “gets off at its bus-stop” and stays at a certain twilight level. But that’s an article for another day, I think. No prizes for guessing which the “Eclipse Readings” are. They’re the ones at the far lower right. The red points are the actual darkness readings (LHS), blue points are divergence from predicted modelled values (RHS). When I started taking the readings, the Sun was 3.5 degrees down and the Eclipse was around 75-80% eclipsed. By the time of my final readings, it was 4.9 degrees down and the eclipse closer to 90%. The blue diamonds show that twilight went from over a full magnitude darker than expected, to fully 2 magnitudes darker. This was not noticeable by eye, as the eye was adapting much faster than the light was changing. Another aside: In a full total eclipse, which I experienced near Falmouth in Cornwall in 1999, as totality happened the darkness fell suddenly much faster than my eye could adapt. It really was someone turning the dimmer switch down! It was like a curtain falling. I’ve not read that phenomenon described for this one yet. Anyway, an interesting little snippet of data. Thanks, Magnus

An annoying belt of broken low cloud was passing, and luckily because of quite high wind, they were moving quickly. I got literally 5 seconds of a view. By the time I’d brought up my camera to my face, the cloud gap had passed and that was it. But I got to see so I should be grateful. The twilight-eclipse was around 90% so didn’t in the end noticeably affect twilight, though I did take SQM-L readings every 30 seconds or so, and I expect that data to show extra darkening over expected. I’ll process that tomorrow and post up what it shows.

Raining at the moment but it is actually due to clear tonight. Fingers crossed.

I think for us in Baltimore Ireland (51.485N 9.346W), we might see the first bite, but totality happens when the Sun is nearly 5 degrees down. However it should mean that civil twilight will essentially go straight to full darkness not long after sunset, so we might see some effect of it. We're not quite far enough West. Cheers, Magnus

A couple of packages from USA, one from Starlight Instruments and one from Stellarvue, each containing adapters to be able to fit my Feathertouch to my Stellarvue scope. Storm Kathleen just coming through so it’s going to be a few days before I can give First Light. Magnus

A few years ago I acquired a 150mm Mak, an Intes M603. It was somewhat “tired”, so I set about freshening it up. I replaced all the screw-and-bolt type fittings, some very worn, cleaned and re-aligned the primary to the focus-tube and otherwise had the scope completely dis-assembled into all its constituent parts. On re-assembly, just as I was about to re-attach the secondary-mirror unit into the corrector plate, the secondary mirror fell off into my hand! Its glue had lost its stick. So the whole scope, once put back together, was in a state of completely random alignment. Because it’s a Rumak-Mak, both primary and secondary are user-adjustable and collimatable. Out of pure curiosity, I decided to have an observing session before any attempt at re-collimation. Just to see how bad it could be. And it was BAD. During the day, local objects simply would not get sharp. During the night, “best focus” on a star was actually two separate brightish blobs connected by a streak. Out of focus patterns were a horrid hybrid of all the worst aberrations you can imagine. It was fascinating, actually. I drew diagrams of the in- out- and “at”-focus patterns: When I did collimate it, all became good again and it’s a lovely scope. I still have it. I documented my travails with it , if you need something to help you nod off 😆. Cheers, Magnus

An unexpected lovely clear night. I took out my OO/Helmerichs 8” newt on Skytee2. I only really wanted to see 12P Pons/Brooks, which I did and which was splendid as First Light for my Morpheus 12.5 (thanks @bosun21) at 80x. Jupiter was a boiling mess with a side order of CA (low and directly over Baltimore village). Sigma Orionis was striking, the sometimes-faint C star quite clear. Trapezium was too low really, E fleetingly evident. I wanted to see Mu Cephei, Herschel’s Garnet star and very red it was (also naked eye but not bright enough to see colour). M1 was barely detected, odd as I’d expected it to leap out in 8” of aperture. On checking the secondary, dew was the culprit so I called it a night. Very nice to get out with a newt though. Just about qualifies for a full report I think after a dearth, to follow tomorrow. Cheers, Magnus

@josefk you do yourself down. They are true-to-life sincere (and very good) sketches to be proud of, I really think you should change your mind. ( @theskyhound ) M

Finally managed to get the weather to see it. Quite obvious tail through both 15x56 bins and at 36x through 105 scope. Magnus

So far, Mercury through an actual scope (rather than simply “ticked off” by eye which is what I managed a few days ago) and at 21% phase too and very little atmospheric colour. Very pleased, certainly the best view I’ve had of Mercury ever. Comet beckons a little later 🤞. Edit: so finally, FINALLY, I bagged the comet after many cloud-foiled attempts. The tail was very evident through both 15x56 bins and at 36x through my LZOS 105. Doubly pleased. Magnus

Our local Astro club meet tonight, and a very good showing. Of people, not skies! Forecast clear, so it was when I started setting up. Literally the exact moment my scope touched the mount, I heard pat-pat-pat on my jacket. OTA back in the car for half an hour or so, then it seemed to clear. As we were all back out and I’d just done my alignment, the heavens truly opened! So what did I see tonight? Just Alcyone, my 1-star align. All kit, OTA, eyepiece, diagonal, finder, lifepo4, handset etc etc now arranged on my table, dabbed down with towel and drying. Magnus

I recently, from our classifieds, got a 3” Feathertouch focuser which I plan to attach to my Stellarvue SVX140T refractor, replacing its stock focuser. Inevitably I need extra adapters, one from Starlight and one from SV. I ordered and paid for the relevant bits from Starlight in the USA last night, to be delivered to Ireland. Immediately on doing that, I went to my email to check whether I had an acknowledgment. Rather than the usual auto-generated “order confirmed” message, I got this pair of emails: ”Magnus, Hello. I think I can get this shipped out today still. My FedEx guy already came, but I have to take another package to the facility so I will take yours. I do have the address in Ireland. I imagine it is beautiful and maybe out in the middle of nowhere? It won’t give me an estimated delivery date. Sometimes the stuff I ship to England gets there in 2 days, so you should have it next week sometime. I didn’t use USPS because they have recently lost a lot of my international packages. Your FedEx tracking number is I hope your day was good. …. Also, FedEx really wanted my business so they gave me some really nice international rates. I haven’t had time to put it on the website. Chris will be issuing you a partial refund for the freight cost difference. Dena Joseph President Starlight Instruments, LLC” The email was within minutes of ordering. What a lovely-sounding company! Cheers, Magnus

Personally, and as the happy visual owner of a skymax 180 (and author of the reverse engineering skymax180 thread) I would go for the CC8. Dewing of the corrector plate on the skymax is a terrible problem. M

Got it properly naked eye tonight, brilliant.

I have two 90-degree 1.25” diagonals, and I did just that a year or so ago out of curiosity when my SV140 arrived. It worked very well, but as @Louis D says, to get the image upright you have to view it from the side. Attached a picture of it when _not_ viewing from the side, where the image would have been 90 degrees rotated IIRC. Magnus

Finally got to see Mercury this apparition, through 10x50 bins and _just about_ naked eye. Then a wodge of black cloud appeared in just the wrong spot. Hopefully I’ll have another opportunity in the next few days, but at least the box has been ticked this year. M

I‘m another one in the camp that disagrees with the notion that mirrors rarely need cleaning. The most telling thing in the first (quite funny) cleaning video was where you see the part of the mirror that had been under the side-clips, and contrast it with the surface immediately adjoining. A huge difference, that I also see whenever I’m cleaning my mirrors. And looking at my own reflection in such a mirror it’s obvious the contrast is heavily dulled compared to that small bit of reflection from the tiny “under-the-clips” bits. When I look down the tube of my 12”, having not cleaned it for a number of months, I see a blue-ish haze. With such a mirror I’ve been disappointed by the visual experience under the stars, then comparing a day or so later to a cleaned mirror, the difference is, er, night and day. Massive difference in what I poorly describe as “overall sparkle”. I’ve been puzzled as to the source or mechanism for this haze. It looks like condensation when illuminated, but it’s not water condensation. It does clean away though. The penny only dropped a few days ago when browsing Kriege & Berry’s dobsonian book. Talking about condensation, they say that a thick mirror (stored in say a garage) rarely dews up in the field, but does dew up in storage, as the area daily heats up and cools down, and the thick mirror’s temperature lags behind. That daily micro-dewing gradually sticks and deposits any very fine dust in the air onto the mirror. It makes sense to me. So, I’m very much an advocate of a regularly clean mirror, and the visual difference in overall contrast is to my eyes dramatic. Cheers, Magnus

Well blow me down with a Feather(touch). Thanks to @steppenwolf, my SV 140mm refractor will before long be adorned with the ultimate focuser. Not sure what to do with the extant one, SV native 3.5” I believe, but it has very much the feel of Baader Diamond Steeltrack about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s made by the same. Also @bosun21 for the Morpheus 12.5, which may well oust my Ethos 13. And a couple of eBay delights, a BCO 6 and an old “25x” Zeiss microscope eyepiece that cost very little. Magnus

check the price and you’ll see how serious I was being 😁

If I were you I’d opt for maximum stability and go for the Berlebach Graviton. It’s only slightly more expensive than the Planet 😉 M

I have an az-eq6, and I regularly mount my 12” newt on it. Although these days it’s always in alt-az mode, I did initially balance it all up in eq mode, see the attached picture. The scope shown, a steel-tube 300p, was 28kg with attachments, significantly heavier I think than the OO12. The mount was quite happy with it, though as @John suggests, it does take a while to cart it out and set it up (and pack away afterwards!). cheers, Magnus

Skymax 127. My very first scope was a Skymax 180 (which I still have) but for light-polluted use in London my wife shortly afterwards bought me a Skymax 127. Then a member here offered a straight swap for a Skymax 150, which I accepted, so the 127 departed. Skymax 150. A somewhat battered Intes M603 (also a 150mm Mak) came up on here, which I restored (and still have). So the Skymax 150 was sold. Skywatcher 200p. I bought this as the largest aperture likely to be useful from London skies. But the tube was flexible, changing collimation as I changed altitude, and the secondary was smaller than the principal light-cone, so it was really only ever a 7” newt. Luckily just then a VX8 1/10 (which I still have, though re-tubed with carbon) came up, so the 200p went. Skywatcher 300p, sort of. This one’s a bit involved. I’ve got rid of almost all of it in several stages. Trigger’s Broom one might say. Bought from here as my dark-sky larger-aperture companion to the skymax180. As it was it served me very well. But I later replaced the mirror with an OO 1/10. I replaced the tube with a Helmerichs carbon. I replaced the cell with an OO cell, and the secondary with a Hubble Optics. Only the spider and secondary boss remains (they’re quaking). I’ve just sold my Leica Televid 62apo spotter to a friend here. I occasionally used it as a super-finder on my skytee2, but since I got my extraordinary Kowa 883 a number of years ago I’ve not taken the Leica out for birding. That’s it I think. Cheers, Magnus PS I’m eagerly anticipating @Stu1smartcookie’s response. I reckon it’ll take him a few days to compile 😁.

Yes that’s right, AZ-EQ6 in alt-az mode. My most memorable planetary moments have been Saturn/Mimas recently with my 140mm refractor, and Mars, at opposition, just when I first got the mirror which is now part of my 12” newt. At that time I had just evicted the SW mirror from its 300p blue steel tube and drilled a lot of holes to provide temporary accommodation for the longer-FL OO mirror. Mars that night was like an atlas-map with the 12”. I have observed Jupiter through it but seeing hasn’t cooperated. The best I’ve seen Jupiter has been through its smaller sibling, my 8” newt. Magnus