Captain Scarlet

@Nicola Fletcher did you just roll up on a whim or did you have to book? I'm 3.5 hours drive away and fancy a visit! I hadn't realized it was so close. Magnus

I have a 20" Nichol mirror sitting in a case in a cupboard at the moment, awaiting a house sale to release funds to start a dob build. This, especially the sketch of M1, has just made me even more eager. Lovely sketches, a skill I might try to learn. Magnus

Yes I’ve stolen theta Aurigae for my next list too. Edit: I've just tried to look up Theta Aurigae B as a separate entity in its own right. It should have one, as a mag 7.2 star, surely? But Sky Safari only refers to it as a companion to Theta Aurigae A, I can't get it to appear separately on a sky-shot in SS. None of the identifiers I get for it from SIMBAD are recognized by my version of SS7, which I think is Pro, and I've set the limiting magnitude in settings to max. Also I've seen SkySafari screenshots of double stars with orbit and sep angle on a single screen, can one do that for this double? Calling in @Stu as our resident SS expert!

I do what nyctimene does re eyepiece case is last thing out, close it immediately etc. If, in spite of that, I find my eyepiece dewing, I take it as a sign that the evening’s observing is coming to a close.

A double I really enjoyed was one that took me by surprise: Meissa, the brightest star in the cluster that makes Orion’s head. I’d had no idea it was a pretty double and when I saw that it was, inexplicably it gave me joy! M

I too am in the camp which considers Almach superior to Albireo though they both are beautiful. Especially too considering that Almach is a true gravitationally-bound system, whereas Albireo is an optical.

It reminds me of recent stories about Parmesan cheese. Apparently some producers have been adding significant quantities of cellulose, yet still labeling it 100% Parmesan cheese. They should be lined up against the same wall.

Not clear skies 😕

Yes I was thinking I could sell it and the rest would all be free! Why has no one thought of this before?

Haha now I’ve done the livesky thing and guess what, I suddenly have twice as much kit as before 🤦‍♂️

I also have a question about SS7 (and 6 too actually but I only discovered the issue when upgrading). I’ve re-added all my “gear” in the equipment section. I’ve noticed a couple of errors in their pre-loaded stuff: - TeleVue Ethos 4.7 SX and 3.7 SX eyepieces are actually 110 degree eyepieces, but SS has them as 100 degrees; - In the CC and Barlow section, it only allows 1 decimal place for any Barlow effect. So the Paracorr2 cannot be set to 1.15x, it simply reverts to 1.1x; I know neither will result in an egregious error when displaying FoV on-screen for a particular set-up, but I feel that if they’re there they might as well get it right. So, my question: where does one point this sort of thing out? I see they have a forum but everything posted there seems to get drowned out and never commented on or seemingly read, there’s so much. Cheers, Magnus

Very nice. I've stolen Zeta Aqr and Nu Ceti and added them to the list for my next session, whenever that might be. Magnus

As the OP I should add that I am now the owner of an ICS Astro Stuhl, and so far am happy with it though I’ve only used it once, on uneven and hard grassy-pathway. M

I’ve just looked at FLO’s website. The skymax is offered at £979, the CC8 for £949

One extra thing. I myself have just fitted my Diamond Steeltrack to my VX8. Because the tube itself is a bit narrower than for example than that of the SW 8”, the pair of supplied shims is not _quite_ enough for the middle of the base plate to avoid touching the tube. I used some extra washers to lift it that extra 1mm or so.

The Mak 127 was more or less my first scope. It was superb, and most people’s reaction to it is the opposite of yours. IE they’re surprised how good it is compared to expectations for something so inexpensive. I only don’t have mine now as someone offered a one-to-one swap for its bigger sibling, the Mak 150. That in itself shows how well-regarded it is. Which leads me to suppose yours has somehow got itself miscollimated, or (hopefully not) worse (dropped it damaged), unless the culprit is the diagonal or the eyepieces. Hooe you sort it, Magnus

I have a good collection of gloves now, but at this time of year it creeps up on you. You start off thinking it’s fine with bare fingers at say 8 degrees, but a bit of wind and they start complaining eventually! The gloves I had to hand were thick leather gardening ones I used to get the 20kg tube out of the utility room and onto the mount so not ideal for little plastic buttons on the Nexus. Your baffle for the SQM-L doing great service by the way!

@johninderby what's that little peashooter-lookalike in your bottom picture? A laser?

Superb Joe! M110 should be easily doable with a clear enough night with 10" aperture and at 16 degrees up. Keep trying clear skies permitting. Your M31 in Perth is our 47 Tuc or LMC/SMC or NGC 4755 Jewel Box. I've never seen any of these and would dearly love to! Magnus

A clear night tonight so I briefly specifically tried for M1 Crab with my Zeiss 15x56s. Not a sausage, or any imaginative hint of it. But I’ve readily seen in my 6” from here. Edit: this was bothering me so I went out again. At about 0115 I bagged M1. A fuzzy patch completing an equilateral triangle with a couple of slightly brighter local stars all about a degree NW of Zeta Taurii. Quite happy with that. IE: just visible, in 21.5 skies, 0115, with 15x56 binoculars. Perhaps a wisp of lightest cloud.

The “problem” with the nexus dsc I find is that it’s so good in native mode, I feel less urge to use it in a different way. I must force myself to smartphone it…

How annoying. I just opened SkySafari 6 on my phone, and sure enough up came a banner saying “upgrade now to 7 for half price”. Navigating my finger to the “buy” button I accidentally touched the screen elsewhere and flicked the banner away! Now I can’t get it back grrr

I’ve just remembered another object I viewed that night, worth a separate post as it always piques my interest when i observe it: the glob NGC 2419, aka the Intergalactic Wanderer, a glob rather far out from our galaxy, and hence quite dim even in my dark skies and with a 12”. M

it could well have been:

I have owned the TS Monorail. It was terrible, the fine focus had lots of "bounce" to it, it was not "direct" at all, I found it unusable. I upgraded to a Baader Diamond Steeltrack, and now I own 3 of them, one on my VX8, one on my Helmerichs 12" carbon tube, and an SCT one on my Intes M603. They are superb. People's main objection to them is that they usually require new holes to be drilled in the tube, but you clearly have no problem with that. However, your VX8's tube is itself also quite flexible. I bought an air-conditioning-duct ring for my similarly flexible-tube Skywatcher 200p, and that also made quite a difference to local stiffness. Cheers, Magnus