Captain Scarlet

Superb read. NAN is something I’ve not looked for yet, I’ve added it to my next list. M

Lovely! Tawny Owl I guess? Magnus

If you can be sure it’s just a bit of dry leaf or debris, I’d ignore it until proper cleaning time. Try completely up-ending the ota if you can, to see if it’ll simply fall or slide off. If it’s a stuck-on “splodge” of something like sap or dew, I would remove the cell and give the whole thing a proper clean. Cheers Magnus

What a great read. I didn’t want it to end. It’s maintained my motivation to get out properly after a couple of recent for-various-reasons frustrating sessions. Magnus

I had a quick look for this last night. It really is much dimmer now. It's very close in brightness to a close-by star which I think is SAO 20610 and brightness 8.97. They are close enough together that I can't tell which is which through my 15x56 bins, one was a bit brighter than the other. So anyway, in the region of 9th magnitude. I'm not sure if I'd be able to see it from London. Cheers, Magnus

The person I bought my refractor from gave up observing on that Walton green precisely because of that pub. Because he had to drive there, the proximity of the beer and its total unavailability broke him 🤣🤣

In the end I saw 10-15 Perseids before it all clouded over around midnight. And there appears to be a biggish white spot on my mirror. Not sure what it is, maybe a spider-ball or spore-spread. Time to give it its first clean it I think.

I had hoped this would be an observing report, but no such luck! My new carbon tube for my newish 12” OO mirror was to have got its First Light tonight, but when even the primary looks like this once it had been outside to cool, it was clear nothing was going to happen. Another pic from earlier in the evening, to actually show off what it looks like: Oh well. At least it’s much stiffer and far easier to manhandle than the SW bluesteeltube it replaced. I did see a short but very bright Perseid though, actually the first “xxx…eid” ive ever seen “on cue” ie where and when it was supposed to happen. I’ve seen dozens of meteors, but never until now the “official” ones, they’ve always eluded me on the nights. Magnus

Nice! What size is it? My own solid-tube 12” newt is currently outside cooling/accumulating dew on an unforecast rare clear night tonight. Cheers, Magnus

Dammit I wish I’d seen this thread yesterday. Last night was a lovely clear unforecast 21.6 night. Tonight I’m in the midst of low cloud and fog. Hopefully this nova will wait for me. M

Well done Stu. I’ve found CO’s estimates to slightly _understate_ the best darkness actually, based on lots of data from 2 very different places. CO stated my Middlesex place to be 19.05, whereas I’ve regularly got 19.15 there. And CO puts where I am in Ireland at 21.83, and I have measured over 22 a couple of times. The MW quite high at the moment makes quite a bit of difference to the zenith reading, so I reckon you’ll easily see 20.8+ from your garden during winter. I look forward to reading about the new toys! Magnus

You went fishing, and caught the fish! Hook line sinker and handle!

Piqued and peaked - a rare combination! 😃

Close. Yes the telrads live on my two newts (not dobs but similar enough) each with its own 4” riser; and the SSVs each sit on a Mak. My frac has a weird APM/LZOS finder-boss which only takes its native set of rings, and I haven’t dared drill new holes yet, so I don’t have any 1x finder for that. M

I agree about both the telrads and the baaders. I now have 2 Telrads and 2 SkySurfer Vs, each mated to a particular scope. As far as pure RDFs go, the SkySurfer V is in a class all its own. Very military. M

The biggest wonder and impact I get from going from bright to dark skies are naked eye and with binoculars. Look for the things you couldn’t dream of seeing naked eye where you normally live, M31, beehive cluster, Coma Berenices cluster, the ladder in Auriga, even M13 for example. Then M51, M101, M81/2, M33 with the bins. Anything beyond that aperture-wise and with filters is a bonus.

Really much dimmer tonight around midnight. About the same as SAO 20606 in my estimation through my Zeiss 15x56 on a lovely clear 21.6 night. SAO 20606 is the bright star in/on M52, and apparently is a variable 8.3-10.6. Making the nova at brightest 8.3 perhaps dimmer. Such a lovely clear night though I can almost forgive the Nova! M

I am 99% visual, but I totally understand why new people to the hobby might opt for AP. One look at the myriad superb results people are getting these days, and how accessible it is, is easily enough to tempt people to get in. Plus much of the equipment itself is very satisfying to handle and use. My epiphany came 6 years or so ago when I visited a 21.8 place and exited the pub one night by chance on a Moonless extremely transparent clear night. It was utterly mesmerising and amazing, all the cliche words. I was completely and instantly hooked, and now I have several scopes, all for visual, and I live in that place! That shocking visual experience simply doesn't happen any more to the vast majority of people who live in severely LP'd places. You look up and it's not "amazing". It's such a shame. M

It appears to have sold. I hope @popeye85 got it? A real treat and something of a bargain for what one day I reckon will become collected

Binoviewers not an option John?

Wow because I’m officially “watching” this I get the “seller offer”. Seller just offered it to me and other watchers for £410.

... and Customs Processing Theft Fee, which is always in there somewhere, even if they decide Customs is not applicable!

and that is certainly what this eyepiece is!

… on the popular auction site just reduced to £445. They don’t come up there very often and I’d be all over it if I hadn’t caved in and gone for new. Advertisement nothing to do with me BTW it just came up on one of my “saved searches”. M

Yes dew creeps up on you. You get progressively less satisfied with what you're looking at, even starting to think the scope's rubbish, then it occurs to you. My Telrad generally dews up first giving me advance warning.