Captain Scarlet

Fantastic @Nicola Fletcher. Sounds as if you had similar darkness and transparency as I did further west last night. I’d been out for pizza in the local village but did afterwards manage to drag out my easiest kit (105 frac) for a couple of hours until I too got driven in by the cold. I agree 12” aperture on M42 in your sort of dark is something else! 3-D. Have you thought of getting an SQM-L? Magnus

Just in from a short late session with the 105/650. It was interesting to see the star views going from pretty rubbish to, er, refractor-like as the triplet cooled. I had to do M42 first before it became too low, Trapezium E was hinted at but no F in amongst a wobbly cluster. Jupiter was an atmospherically-dispersed red-blue mess. Then Rigel, Meissa, Alnitak, Sigma Orionis all getting better and better as time went on. Meissa especially nice. Mostly at 144x with the Delos 4.5. I swung around to Cor Caroli and Mizar/Alcor. I widened out to the Ethos 13 (50x) and found M51 two clear bright cores with obvious nebulosity. I took in M1 Crab too. Finished off with the Nagler 31 (21x) for M45 and the Double Cluster. Glad I went out, lovely sky when I headed in, I measured 21.92 😳 Magnus

Clear and dry night for me too for a change, and I’ve been vacillating whether or not to take out an easy scope (105) - your post has persuaded me to do it and give it an hour or so. 4” secondary is big but so is your primary: according to Suiter a 25% CO is still just about where you wouldn’t notice a difference contrast-wise from 16” unobstructed. So assuming the mirror is good and collimated, high powers and contrast should be no problem. Slightly jealous actually. M

I quite like the term stargazer. I don’t like the word hobby. And I consider being called a nerd a compliment, I will often self-describe as such! M

Astro regrets. One of my first scopes was a Skymax 127. A member here offered a straight no-money swap for a Skymax 150. No-brainer, right? Wrong. I really missed it for what it excels at: optically superb, very small and light. I even hand-held it once with a dslr stuck on the back! Magnus

lol you made the same mistake again 😁. I once caught the wrong train twice in a row wasting about 4 hours. I think the mount question is directed at @JeremyS? Magnus

Yes it should do as long as everything’s tight and nothing gets knocked. Magnus

I used to have one. I found with the 8-pack of AAs on cold nights the supply would cut out from time to time. I guess the voltage was dropping just enough for the mount to say “not enough”. I got a 10-pack from Maplins and never had that problem again. M

I can think of an alternative. Do aircraft toilets discharge straight into the airstream and/or are they allowed to do it over ground? They’d be frozen before they hit ground. M

Well the Pup was seen tonight, first for this season. An odd session where the seeing varied from moments of superb to often poor. Out for a couple of hours, 70% staring at Sirius. Stellarvue 140 and AZ-EQ6 with Delos 4.5 (208x) allowed me to just sit and look and look without having to nudge. Frozen fingers and misting eyepieces drove me in. Full report tomorrow. Magnus

Very interesting read and as ever beautifully written. Just goes to show that there are a handful of beginner-priced scopes that really hold their own with the very best. Mak 127 such a bargain. Magnus

Before any of that, check the mirror blank itself is actually circular. If it’s not, you’ll have problems whatever you try.

I have had web issues, and spider excrement too, which as mentioned is annoying to remove. I now store my newts primary-down, which may not be possible with your dob. To remove the webs, I swirl a stick around inside from the spider end (apols for the irrelevant pun 😬) having first made sure the length of stick I’m using won’t go as far down as the primary. Magnus

Good to see my 13-&-7 siblings getting on with new cousins

I have an image in my head of road trip = toothbrush, credit card, Nagler T6. Everything catered for 👌🏼

I’ve just watched that video. Unless I misinterpreted, it seems the 3” eyepiece was destined for their smallest telescope, the TEC 140. Although there were two 3” diagonals - perhaps the single 3” eyepiece was a test before ordering more.

My God what a trip! What was the eyepiece situation for those scopes? Were they whatever was installed or could you use your own? Magnus

There was also the Winchcombe meteorite that fell onto a driveway in Winchcombe Gloucestershire UK about a year ago https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/september/winchcombe-meteorite-driveway-on-its-way-to-the-museum.html Magnus

It sounds from your description as though collimation is fine. With Newtonians, yes dew can be a problem. Likely the secondary will haze over first. I’ve used a hairdryer, but it’s a hassle running power out to the rig. Nowadays if I find the secondary dewing up, I call it a day. I also don’t anymore leave it outside to cool. I take the OTA out last thing and use the cooling time for alignment etc. This maximizes my “time to dew” observing time. Many use dew heaters, but I’ve not gone down that road yet. If your secondary dews up, the eyepiece, including the inner side, will be next. Keep unused eyepieces in your pockets if you’re not using many for the session, they’ll stay warmer for longer, assuaging the dew. If the primary dews up, definitely it’s game over for the session. Cheers, Magnus

I would suggest BST Starguiders too. Very easy to pick up used (£35 going rate). For the price, absolutely superb, and intrinsically, really quite good. And for a young child, not too much of a disaster financially or guilt-wise if one gets dropped onto a patio. Dropping a TV onto a patio on the other hand is not a nice feeling, I’ve been there. When she is ready to graduate to something more up-market, you’ll get all of your £35 back.

That’s me done. After dinner Jupiter momentarily showing the best detail I’ve seen yet, but only for short moments, then all suddenly became and stayed mush. Lots of time spent on Sirius too, but seeing stayed bad. Moon behind some branches. Tomorrow clear again, an unprecedented three consecutive nights beckons!

Hmm. I can see Ganymede 15 minutes before it said it should appear. SS was wrong

It seems that Ganymede will reappear from shadow more than a full disc diameter NW from the planet around 2155 or so. I’ll be out for that.

In to warm up after also watching Europa’s shadow transit through my SV140. I could clearly see the shadow at 94x with my BGO 10, I could not see it with my Tak LE 5 at 188x, and I could quite easily see it with my Delos 4.5 at 208x. Dinner beckons then I’m out again later. M

I have one and have used it with iOS quite happily. I didn’t have any problems with other networks around. It can also be used alongside SkySafari on your phone so you align and use SS to guide your session. It’s very good.