Captain Scarlet

1 hour ago, StuartT said:

(I don't know my way around the apps, but presumably there is a way to search databases by RA and Dec?)

this shoud work? (on a computer rather than phone I think):

http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-fcoo

8 minutes ago, Second Time Around said:

… Having bought a Glatter Paralliser as part of my collimation kit I found it very easy to use.  So I now use it as an adapter as well.  Its single slanted screw automatically puts the eyepiece parallel with the focuser tube.

I'm fairly sure it's also threaded to accept 2 inch filters, although I haven't tried this.

I’ve just checked and yes the Parallizer is threaded for 2” filters. I also use mine now exclusively as my 2”-1.25” reducer. Ingenious and so simple design.

Returning from local restaurant the sky was unexpectedly clear. So I donned cold-weather observing gear: dry robe, Sorel Arctic boots, gloves and 15x56 bins and by the time I got out, clouds had arrived grrr. A few gaps allowed views of Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, M51, Leo, Bootes and that was about it. The only good news was as soon as I’d got back in, I heard the sound of heavy rain on the windows!

Oh well some stars is better than no stars I guess!

M

I had 2 Baader 2"/1.25" adapters at one stage, but sold them both. I discovered that with a 1.25" (Glatter) laser fitted (which has no undercuts) every time I released and re-locked the adapter the laser was pointing to a slightly different place. I tried the same on other makes of adapter as well, plus other units with built-in compression rings. I found the same behaviour on all my compression-rings, and have since removed the brass ring on everything and now where possible only use direct-contact grubscrews, and now never have that problem.

You can categorize “focusing” into two groups: 1. Those where the point of focus is fixed and you move the eyepiece forwards or backwards to meet it; and 2. those where the eyepiece stays fixed in position and you move an optical component of the scope to change the position of the scope’s focus.

examples:

A Newtonian has a fixed focus point, and you use a Crayford or rack and pinion mechanism to move the eyepiece’s focal point into the focus position.

A Mak has a focus knob which changes the separation of the two internal mirrors thereby moving the focus-point into the focus of the eyepiece.

Cheers, Magnus

20 minutes ago, Dean Hale said:

I've been lusting after the 18.2mm. Ordered from 365astronomy as FLO didn't have them in stock.

It’s right to be lusted after. Lovely eyepiece.

1 hour ago, Dave scutt said:

Another day,  Another delivery. 

Instead of clouds I got snow and a telrad 4" riser speedy delivery,  came before the telrad 

Haha this is extent of our snow a little further south of you. Just getting a ski out.

8 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

Mmmm, new shiny thing! ❤️

Seriously, that looks gorgeous, Magnus. Was it expensive?

It cost €300 but I think that included a “patience discount”, and no holes! I’ll be doing the perforating myself once I get the VX8 to Ireland 

Yes @ONIKKINEN it is Helmerichs. I ordered a tube for my OO 300mm mirror in November 2020, and I think he got COVID just about that time and was out of action for quite a long time. It eventually arrived in March 2021, and I was (am) very pleased with it. On that basis I expressed interest in a 200mm tube but he said that he needed time to rest or something like that and was temporarily not taking orders. Suddenly out of the blue in february he emailed saying did I still want that 200mm tube, it was ready. So, the result is that it will still take time but he seems to be "back up and running". My strategy with him now is "order and wait", I'm quite patient.

M

A few months ago I bought an Orion Optics VX8 from Grumpy Martian (whose account no longer seems to exist, I hope he’s OK).

Although the mirror is their ultra grade, their tube is somewhat flexible.

So this arrived today from Germany, it should be MUCH stiffer! ( @ONIKKINEN might be interested too as a further upgrade to his imaging setup)

Starting off of course with the obligatory picture-of-cardboard-box.

Cheers Magnus

In late 2020 I was about to sell my Panoptic 35mm eyepiece because the distorted "seagull" stars at around 50x magnification in my 12" newt when looking at Open Clusters were really bothering me. I attributed the distortions to the eyepiece. Then on reading some more I realized that perhaps I needed a coma corrector, so I bought a Paracorr2. What a difference! It completely transformed the stars from objectionable to entrancing.

Magnus

4 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi

Be sure to read both seronik and telia's collimation myths;)

If you are simply using the telescope with an eyepiece to look at stuff, get the secondary somewhere near, then leave it; other than reflection, it has no optical properties. Then go out and observe.

Cheers

Indeed. In my book, the positioning of the secondary mirror is not strictly part of collimation. It's merely a prelude to it, and getting the positioning wrong only affects illumination. As alacant says, get it somewhere near.

To add some detail to that: when you place your eye at approximately the point of main focus (with a collimation cap or cheshire pinhole), if the secondary looks roughly circular, and you can see the whole primary mirror and some of its surroundings, you're good to start the "collimation proper" (i.e. lining up the optical axes of the focus-tube and the primary mirror).

Put another way: if (from the focal point) you can see the whole primary mirror, the focal point (your eye) is receiving all on-axis rays reaching the primary (rather like "if you can't see my wing-mirrors, I can't see you!"). Seeing the whole primary mirror means the focal point is "fully illuminated". If, in addition, you can also see (from the focal point) a roughly circular area around the outside of the primary mirror's reflection, then the full converging light-cones from some off-axis rays also get fully reflected by the secondary, thereby providing an area rather than a point of full illumination at the centre of the image.

If your view of the secondary is not perfectly circular, and/or the reflection of the primary and its surround are not concentric, (and the collimation proper has been done correctly), the worst you'll suffer is uneven illumination across the field which you simply won't notice unless the mis-positioning is gross.

Collimation proper then simply involves using the Cheshire as a "gunsight", pinhole at one end, crosshairs (out of focus) at the other end, with fuzzy cross-hairs aimed at the central doughnut (aim by using the tilt screws on the secondary). Then adjust the primary to get the reflection of the bright rear of the cheshire to also coincide with the same point. Those last 2 steps, the collimation proper, are extremely easy and the only really important parts of the whole process.

Cheers, Magnus

21 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

As I expected, Ms cajen came in, took one look at it and said, " It's huge! It's not staying there!" So didn't want to go to plan B (storing the two parts separately - didn't want the OTA standing on its end), so evolved plan C - under the stairs, along with some substantial furniture shifting. Even she's now happy....😉

 

Phew! I was worried for a moment that Plan C might involve some damage to Ms Cajen!

1 hour ago, cajen2 said:

No, obviously, the one nearest is Neptune! 😄 The Earth is covered by transparent plastic, presumably indicating atmosphere. It's annoying, because first I carefully painted the continents and icecaps, but when you put the 'atmosphere' on, you can hardly see them! 😥😆

That’s right I think because I think if you look really really carefully you find lots of the very small people can’t see through it the other way either!

If you look really closely you can just about make out some hexagonal mirrors burning up 🤣 😱

Courtesy of @bogdanbacila a nice Barlow all the way from Romania 🇷🇴 

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Fantastic session Magnus, well done for being bloody mindedly persistent, it certainly paid off.

I’m sure, as Robert said, the rain probably help clean the skies and improve the transparency. I’ve only ever seen M51 spirals in @mapstar’s lovely 22” dob but it was a very poor night so whilst amazing, it wasn’t as good as it could have been. Perhaps the 16” will do it from here, or near here.

Thanks Stu. I'm looking forward to a report of how your 16" gets on in your new place. I was about to suggest you "nip" over to The Lizard as a dark sky site, but on looking it up I realized it's still a further 3 hours drive from you!!

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Great sounding session. I'm looking forward to my 300 arriving though I feel light pollution will spoil my views somewhat.

When is it due?

12 hours ago, cajen2 said:

Wow, quite a session, Magnus and shows how persistence can be key! I think I'd have been able to view about a tenth of what you managed.....😥

That newt of yours sounds a bit tasty, btw!

Thanks ... it started off life as my first upgrade, as a SW 300p. Over the years since I've replaced the secondary, primary, focuser and the tube itself. All that remains of the original are the spider and the primary cell, which has seen better days. The spider is fine, though I plan to build a better primary cell myself. Trigger's Broom as someone christened it!

11 hours ago, RobertI said:

Great session, fantastic to hear what you can see with a 12”. I guess transparency was really good after rain, perfect for galaxies. 👍

That hadn't occurred to me at the time, Rob, but yes you're likely right. You take it for granted at the time and only when looking back realize that something was very good about the session.

3 hours ago, Len1257 said:

Time to invest in a 4 wheel trolley perhaps Trolley ? Would certainly help with all the gubbins! Well done and an ispirational writeup. 

I was thinking wheelbarrow, actually, as there are steps and a rough change of gradient. I'll just have to avoid the temptation to put garden waste or soil in it though!

M

Lately it’s been very windy, but last night promised to be a relative lull before resumption of gales (45mph gusts as I write at midnight Sat 6th Feb), and forecast mostly clear with occasional bands of cloud. Strong wind was only due to die down around 8pm so I only started setting up then, and decided to go the whole hog and get the 300mm newt out (Helmerichs carbon tube, OO 1/10 300mm mirror). I wanted to look at galaxies in Leo and possibly Virgo, i.e. East to South, so I dragged my Berlebach Planet tripod, AZ-EQ6 and all the gubbins round to the clearing at the back of the house. My stuff is stored in a repurposed garage on the NW corner of the house, i.e. totally opposite side from where it's stored, and the set-up process takes about 20-30 minutes involving multiple trips around the house for counterweights, tube-rings, cables, eyepiece case, finders, Nexus, battery pack, collimation kit, observing chair, and of course the OTA itself. I'd decided that there was to be no dew, so I risked not bothering with running power leads for the hairdryer. Luckily, there was no dew.

I’d got almost everything out and was about to start the final trip for the OTA when I heard a pitter-patter on my jacket. A bit of rain from a band of passing cloud, fine no bother. Very soon it turned into rather heavy rain, then deluge and it was clear everything had to go back in, FAST! Once I’d got everything back in, quite annoyed, I posted a frustrated few words on the “what did you see tonight?” thread.

An hour or so later I went outside and (of course!) it was clear again. Could I be bothered to go through all that effort again? No. Yes. No. OK yes, but only on to the patio outside the ex-garage, much closer and quicker to set up. My unobstructed view from there is NW around to E, anything else has to be above about 35 degrees, so Leo was out  of the question, or so I thought (wrongly, luckily ).

Once set up, I aligned on Polaris and Alcyone, forgetting that my last outing with the Nexus DSC had been with my AYOii, and it was trying to tell me that Alcyone was below the horizon. I did this twice before realizing I needed to select the AZ-EQ6 in the Nexus. That done, and aligned successfully, my GoTo was unusually accurate the whole night. Every target went almost bang on. OK time to start observing. I put in my Ethos 13, giving me 141x and 0.71 degrees FoV, and actually didn’t use another eyepiece the whole session.

I started off by going through the list of objects I’d last found in Ursa Major through my 15x56 binoculars on a windy night a few nights previously: M51, M101, M108, M97, M109, M63.

M51 was astounding. Clear spirality around the brighter half and lots of nebulous structure around everything. I won’t forget that for a while. I think the best I've ever seen.

M101 was also surprising. I can find it quite readily in the 56mm binoculars but it’s very diffuse. At 141x magnification, even with 300mm of aperture, I was expecting it to be stretched out so much by the long focal length as to be undetectable. Not a bit of it. Its core leapt out and seemed rather bright. Hints of structure.

M108 appeared as a bright elongated mottled smudge, quite different from my few-days-prior barely detectable smear.

Very nearby, M97, the Owl Nebula, similarly was also (obviously) far far brighter than through the bins. Brightness notwithstanding, the owlishness was on the edge of discernment. I tried my Oiii filter and couldn’t decide if it made a difference, which means it didn’t.

M109 which I hadn’t observed before, was a “tick”, nice, not too much to see except definitely a galaxy, and definitely on the bright side.

I’d tried for M63, the Sunflower Galaxy through the binocs the other day and didn’t find it. No doubting it through the 12”, of course, though being another face-on type galaxy, detail was hard to come by.

Leo Triplet - I’d run out of my Ursa Major list, so I moved on to Leo, which I was surprised to see had now topped my southern-aspect roof and might be good. I found M66, with M65 just nearby and both were prominent and lovely. However, only two out of three (Leo Triplet). Last time I observed these through this scope, which IIRC was early January, I couldn’t find the third component NGC 3628, but tonight there was no doubt. Almost as bright and prominent as M’s 66 and 65, I could even just about imagine the meat in the burger (aka Hamburger Galaxy). A very nice view and one I’ll be returning to as Leo gets higher through the season. I didn’t quite have the FoV to see all three in one go and I couldn’t be bothered to change eyepieces.

M42 - My Western view suddenly became clear, clouds had up to then been obscuring that direction, so I turned 90 degrees to look at M42. As ever through this 300mm scope, the nebulosity was entrancing, 3D-like. Immediately too the Trapezium E was there, and F came and went, mainly as it was still a bit gusty so I had to be patient for the still moments. Seeing seemed decent though.

Next up was W Orionis, a carbon star, and yes it was decidedly orange, leaping out and no doubt which it was in the star-field. I do enjoy the very red stars. W Orionis and others were from a list of doubles and carbon stars I’d made up from SGL reports. But it’s been so long since starting the list, that most were by now too low to see properly. The only exception, aside from W Ori, was WZ Cas, another carbon star with a blue nearby. Again no mistaking!

My final target for the night was Uranus, and then to bed.

Quite glad to have been stubborn and set up my alt-az + biggish newt up TWICE in an evening, and I had some memorable views.

Cheers, Magnus

2 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

The forecast was for clear until 1am so I got 80% of the way through setting up my 12” on my az-eq6, was just about to collect and mount the OTA itself into the rings when the clouds suddenly came and the heavens opened. I covered everything up to wait for it to pass but the rain just got heavier. Just finished bringing it all back in again. Extremely annoying.

Nothing if not stubborn, I went outside a little after packing everything up, and of course! it was all clear again. So I dragged everything out again, 12” newt on az-eq6, and I’m glad I did. 1am now, too tired to write it up this instant, but I’ll do so with a separate Observing Report tomorrow. Nice night in the end.

The forecast was for clear until 1am so I got 80% of the way through setting up my 12” on my az-eq6, was just about to collect and mount the OTA itself into the rings when the clouds suddenly came and the heavens opened. I covered everything up to wait for it to pass but the rain just got heavier. Just finished bringing it all back in again. Extremely annoying.

Thanks for the reminder… 😊

That’s pretty much how I imagine an ent!

1 minute ago, powerlord said:

Oh and if you are one of 'us' types.. and you have not got yerself a 3d printer yet - what is wrong with you man!!! I've had one for 9 years now (well still got that one, and got a newer one too) - learning CAD was a steep learning curve, but then it's awesome - any idea/invention/widget you think of - 30 mins in CAD and I've designed it and it's printing out.

STOP! I've been hankering after / resisting one for years and you're not helping