Captain Scarlet

For we Western Europeans, this is as good as a weather forecast: heavy cloud and rain on the morning of 8th December! Nevertheless, it’s in my diary and I shall be up early! Magnus

We all have the virus, and luckily it’s quite a benign one! More seriously: I often get asked “why d’you need more than one telescope?”. My answer these days is always “why does a photographer need more than one lens? - for different focal lengths and apertures.” That usually learns ‘em! Cheers, Magnus

Very much so. Not only do I use my Kowa (like your Svarowski) for astro, I have also used my MCTs for birding. Very high FL scopes are superbly useful across wide mud-flats in cool still air.

I've just migrated onto my laptop where I can see your sig, and as I suspected from the silhouette your spotting scope is a Swarovski, very nice! My GnG is a Kowa TSN-883, and yes I did get their astro adapter and regularly use my other eyepieces. It can take 150x quite happily, I haven't gone higher yet but I have just acquired a 1.6mm Vixen HR and plan to see what 319x looks like through it in decent seeing. Changing between non-Kowa eyepieces is a bit of a pain though, involving unscrewing the threaded 1.25" adapter, undoing the concealed grubscrew/s, swapping the eyepiece and vice versa. EDIT: I also notice you have the Swarovski 15x56 bins. I have the Zeiss Conquest 15x56s, which are superb ... it would one day be very interesting to compare side by side.

Well done. I’d too noticed that was due but no chance for me tonight, solid cloud to South.

I jest by giving you a “haha” emoji but that’s a really moody photo, very nice. Crop out the red lights and you could hang that. Also, a spotting scope I see. I too use a Kowa scope from time to time. Magnus

Weather here in SW Ireland the last few months has been terrible, and tonight has been my first more-than-a-moment session since the end of August. I've just come in from finally having taken advantage of Jupiter's altitude these days, and although I observed only Jupiter, it's been one of my more memorable sessions. I had it in my diary as Europa & Ganymede double transit (thanks @Simon128D ) with shadows to follow plus GRS in prime position. I saw it all, though I did have to drag everything back in hurriedly while a violent squall came through. I had my LZOS 105/650 on SkyTee2, initiually tucked right under my East wall to shelter from the 60kph wind gusts (it calmed right down a little later). The LZOS has a weird finder-mounting bracket, and it was only a few days ago that I got around to sorting it out and attching a finder: my APM 8x50 RACI . It does make navigating a bit easier ! And I also finally attached my slo-mo extensions(after 2 years of ownership), and they too make life so much easier. I mainly used my Ethos 4.7 to give me 138x. I saw Ganymede and Europa approach and merge with the disc, while simultaneously Io disappeared around the back on the other side. At one stage there were three bright white pimples attached to Jupiter's disc. Once the two moons were in fornt of the planet, they disappeared from view, I couldn't make them out against the bright disc. But the rest of Jupiter was far better than I've ever seen him before, lots of detail and subsidiary bands, and for the first time (for me) the GRS was RED! Amazing. Then the squall came and I rushed everything back inside. An hour or two later, all was clear again, so I quickly got it out again to see if I could discern any shadows. I could! And what's more, Ganymede had turned into a silhouette: I could see one sharp tiny black shadow, and Ganymede as a slightly less dark but nonetheless distinct disc. So: double transit, GRS as red, lots of detail, a shadow and a silhouette. A wonderful short double-session. As I write shortly after packing up, there's now heavy hail drilling against the window. I was lucky! Cheers, Magnus before the squall: second session after the squall:

Getting ready for the Jupiter double transit tonight. Sky is clear, but 60kph Westerly gusts abound, hence the scope hiding as close as possible to the lee of the house. No comments please about the state of the wall! First time I’ve ever used any sort of finder on the LZOS (weird mounting bracket), and first time I’ve attached the slo-mos to my SkyTee. They both make such a difference!

Tell me about the wind and rain!! Whilst they should remove spikes, unfortunately of course they will increase the total amount of diffraction 🙁. For stars and DSOs it should improve things but for bright planets, unfortunately not so. But if you can easily remove the masks, it will be interesting to hear your comparisons of with/without. Cheers, Magnus

I used to have the old supatrak az-gt mount and it quite happily handled on many occasions my APM-LZOS 105/650 which is around or a bit over 7kg with diagonal & eyepiece (I’ve just weighed it). The new version 2 mount I’d be willing to bet is the same structurally with improved gubbins, so actual usable payload will be at least 7kg. Magnus

I think you’ve basically described how the Skymax MCTs focus, with a threaded rod attached to a bulkhead on the sliding outer baffle tube on which sits the primary mirror, with the rod poking out through the back of the OTA and affixed with a knob.

If you look through the front corrector plate with a torch you might be able to see? You might be able to tell if a/the nut on the inside is welded or bonded to the tube. Magnus

The obvious explanation is that the SV-numbered ones are sub-contracted to Svbony 😜

Just in time for Orion season, I can now go HH hunting in wider field! Filter courtesy of @garryblueboy and my UK ex-neighbour who finally got around to posting it to Ireland.

I’ve read somewhere the 1.6 is the shortest available eyepiece anywhere. I’m looking forward to trying it on my Kowa spotting scope (510mm => 318x) and my LZOS 105 (650 => 406x), both of which are supposedly superbly figured so should be able to support the magnification. I don’t suffer from floaters AFAIK but we’ll see… I’ll report as soon as I can get to use it

Finally, thanks to my somewhat slow Sister-in-Law network, arrival of a Vixen HR 1.6mm, courtesy of @HollyHound . Magnus

I invited a couple of neighbours over and in the event it was mostly cloudy, through which we were able to get naked-eye glimpses, but the only time I was able to use my Perlenbacher-cardboard Solar Film mask was by holding it in front of binoculars for a few seconds when a cloud-gap appeared, nowhere enough time to get the scope aligned to the Sun. Still, it was better than nothing and the neighbours were very grateful to have been shown it else they'd have only read about it online. Magnus

This afternoon I quickly hacked together a filter to fit over my 6” Intes Mak:

That’s the best comparison of (much vs little vs no) light pollution I’ve seen. Superb. Magnus

Yes I have it logged in my diary as “solar eclipse possibly slightly?” for 10-11am. But thanks for the extra reminder. Weather looks perhaps 10% likely?

Is the finder also a Newtonian? I’ve not seen that before

Alas I don’t think I did measure the primary baffle tube. Next time I have it apart I’ll do so. M

I too have a Skymax 180 and have had it completely apart on several occasions (see here) The dovetail attachment is very solid, and there is no discernible sag in use. Magnus

I have the Zeiss Conquest HD 10x32 and the 15x56. They are (both) very good, optically extremely pleasing as you’d expect, but the focus mechanism in particular is superb: much better than the Leicas or Nikons I have at a similar price point. The only criticism I’d have is that the soft-rubber closely-contoured eyecups are so closely shaped, they are often difficult to pull away in a hurry, leading to missing the bird. I plan to replace those of my 10x32s with some harder rubber generics. But I love them nonetheless, and have no trouble using the 10x32s one-handed. Magnus

Bit churlish of them not to throw in a guaranteed clear sky too 😁 Seriously though sounds like you have a good place to work. Magnus