Captain Scarlet

Not at all Dave I too feel the same frustration for the same reasons. Thank you - yes they’re always on my list, some of the very few that I can always remember.

Lovely report. I have Telrads and I’m afraid I’ve moved on from them, for the very reason you mention: they fog up before anything else. A shame because when not fogged up, they’re superb. Baader SS V is what I use now. Next up try M51 and M81/2 both in Ursa Major. They’ll be fabulous where you are in a 10”! Cheers, Magnus

Thanks John. I’ve seen it a few times in my 12 inch, where your description “faint and indistinct” still applies, although in that scope it’s not difficult IIRC. Good you’ve got it in your 4 inch. It’s on my Spring list so I’ll definitely give it a go with mine next clear night!

In my 7 or so years of observing I’ve never got organized enough to put together a seasonal List _before_ the season. Occasionally I’ve compiled a list more or less after the event, then forgotten it for the next year. Now, thanks to @Stu’s latest session, I have already got a good list going. I want to add some PNs, a session for which I’ve never actually done. See the screengrab below. What else should I add, and please share your list! Cheers, Magnus

Very nice. I’ve been thinking about a pocket pair too, I’ve narrowed it down to your Zeiss’, and the Swarovski 8x25. Did you consider those? They seem to be similarly priced. Magnus

I have a feeling it’ll be Imperial. It’s a while since I fitted mine but I remember being surprised. Though I shouldn’t have been as I think the A in ADM might stand for American.

Sensible attire in my view: much easier to change shorts quickly when the Tak slips in its cradle!

Nice one Stu and thanks: I’ve stolen some targets from you for my Spring List. My Orion List, now complete, is already more or less past it, not having been used 🙄 such has been the weather. Whale and Needle will be new to me.

The customs duty is likely to be around 4% M

LZOS no question. If it’s the wrong choice, you’ll have no problem passing it along at no cost. M

No I think it’s doing what Taks do best - drying rack! 😉

I had exactly the same thoughts about a year ago here in SW Ireland where like you it’s very dark, yet there’s no local astro society. I printed out a few flyers saying “8pm last Thursday of the month” at a local pub with a convenient field at the back. I posted the flyers in a few local pubs and other places with notice boards. I expected no response but was pleasantly surprised and we now have about 10 regulars. As for registering with the FAS (IFAS here), all very well but it will require the club to have various democratically elected officers etc, so for us it’s far too early for that. Advertise it, and as someone said to me “you’ll be surprised who comes out of the woodwork” which I was. Cheers, Magnus baltimoreastronomy.com

I got the Aurora alert but so far it’s just a bit too cloudy. Still going on apparently (2130) so fingers crossed M

As @Stu has mentioned, I do mount my 12” newt on an az-eq6 in alt-az mode. It handles it perfectly easily even though it’s about 6kg “underbalanced” as I only have 15kg of counterweights to match the 21kg of the full OTA. Although I have replaced the stock 2” steel tripod with a Berlebach Planet, and the stock saddle with an ADM. Setting up is easy, but does take 20 minutes or so. I put the mount head, counterweights, tripod and rings all separately into a wheelbarrow and trundle it around to where I want to view from. There I set up the tripod, level it across both horizontal axes using a good spirit level (the universal bubble levels are useless), and attach the az-eq6 head. I attach the mount’s counterweight extension bar and slide on 3 x 5kg weights. I attach the rings to the saddle and open them up. I go back to my garage and collect the tube. It lives on its end, so I slightly tip it over, put fingers under the lower edge, other hand’s fingers grasp the upper edge and using my legs (not my back) I simply stand up and turn the whole tube to horizontal and very slowly carefully walk it out of the house. Carried this way, it’s a fairly easy carry and I’m standing up straight. Once back at the mount, I simply “walk” the tube horizontally into the open rings, close each ring and tighten them up. Both clutches should be tight when doing this. I then slide the counterweights to the end of their bar and lock them down. Attach finders eyepiece CC etc and ready to go. All positioning of rings in mount, OTA into rings is done with pre-measured bits of tape. Loading up the wheelbarrow includes old cushions to protect sharp corners meeting. Cheers, Magnus

Too tired after a busy day to drag a scope out despite a clear although freezing and windy, I donned a dryrobe and 15x56 bins and sat outside for a while after midnight. I briefly toured M101, M51 and M81/82 before a sheen of cloud came across. Naked eye were Coma cluster and M44 plus Alcor as clear as I’ve ever seen it. Perhaps my eyesight is getting better with age! Magnus

I first saw it about a year ago (maybe two, I’ll have to look it up as I recall last year’s Orion season was mostly poor weather) with my 12” newt. And then again a few weeks ago with my 140mm Stellarvue refractor. Magnus

This is likely parallax between the focal plane of your polar scope’s objective (front) lens and that of the eyepiece or the position of the reticule plate. First focus the eyepiece so the cross-hairs are in perfect focus. Then focus the main body of the polar scope to brings stars into focus. Then all the focal planes are at the same place and there should be no parallax. In other words any star should stay in the same place however much you move your eye. If your polar scope is embedded in the mount you’ll need to remove it to do this. It should just unscrew from the mount. Magnus

Yes indeed I do mount my 12” on my az-eq6 in alt-az mode. As Stu says, my current set-up is a carbon fibre tube and all-in including rings eyepieces CC etc it comes to around 23kg. Before, I had a SW 300p with blue steel tube, that was 28kg! They were both fine on the mount. I’ve never had problems I might associate with being undermounted. It seems to tolerate being slightly out of balance very well. I’m strictly visual. As for eye height, I use a Planet on its lowest setting, and anything above 50 degrees does need a step, I use a small set of 3 steps. To mount it, I mount the rings/dovetail first, then place the tube into the rings, very easy, avoiding trying to place the dovetail into the mount “blind”. I have an ADM dovetail replacing the stock one. @StuartT I believe also mounts his 300p on an az-eq6. Cheers, Magnus

Having an exit pupil significantly larger than your eye’s pupil is not necessarily a bad thing. It makes eye placement very comfortable, allowing you a range of movement of your eye whilst still “filling up” your own pupil. I’m told that telescopic sights for rifles often deliberately have excessive exit pupils for just that reason. My own 8x56 pair of binos are very comfortable, though of course somewhat heavy. On topic, I have a pair of old Leica Trinovid 8x42s and they never cease to elicit amazement when I lend them out. Magnus

How much d’you want for it? 😉

I’ll echo what @The60mmKid said. I have a Kowa 88mm spotting scope, which has a pure fluorite front element and is as “apo” as they get. Its focal length is 510mm so f/5.9. It has an adapter that accepts 1.25” eyepieces. I lent it to a neighbour for the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction a couple of years ago and we were utterly gobsmacked by the view. As for comparison to a 90 Mak. The Mak 90 has a ~30% central obstruction. Suiter in his famous book says that to a very close approximation an obstructed scope will deliver the equivalent unobstructed contrast of ‘aperture minus CO’, ie in this case 90 - 27 = 63. Ie effectively a 63mm scope. So yes, definitely go with the TS, and a reasonable quality 10 (54x) and a 4-5mm (108-145x) eyepiece will give all the magnification range you need. In fact get the svbony 3-8 zoom, very highly rated and inexpensive. my tuppence worth Magnus

I too have a perfectly suitable tripod. One question though. What aneasthetic does one use to remove the leg?

Yes I have two of his tubes. One I bought, a 300mm, in Nov 2020 and a 200mm in Feb 2022. Your description pretty much matches my experience. He got COVID just after I ordered the first one and he went silent for months. Then it suddenly arrived. On the strength of its quality I asked despite him having said he was stepping back for a time whether he could do a 200mm. He didn’t answer for months, then suddenly emailed “did you still want that 200”? I said yes and it arrived. It just seems to be the way he conducts himself, I know a few craftsmen who produce lovely stuff who operate in a similar way, so it doesn’t surprise me. I’m very patient so I don’t mind. I look at it that he’s not a crook, he makes things I admire, I can wait. @ONIKKINEN also has a tube of his which he bought directly. Cheers, Magnus

I spent a few minutes wondering why my 1.25” eyepiece with a 2” skirt simply would not focus. Of course I had the cover still on the 1.25” barrel 🙄

Getting something to work that’s not easy to use. It may be second nature now but hark back to your very first sessions, where everything seemed to go wrong and you failed even, say, the alignment. And once you’ve got it figured out, being presented with a scene of beauty with an endless list of things to see. Or not, on bad nights: that sense of “will it, won’t it” making it all the more special when you get the good seeing. And the sheer pleasure of owning and using extremely fine equipment. Magnus