Captain Scarlet

Seems a bit drastic to have to get divorced just to wash your mirror 🤣. On balance, probably worth it 😉 Seriously though I think by August I’ll be permanently esconsed in SW Ireland so I look forward to meeting you there!

I’ve read the bricklayer’s book. Very good. M

I suppose this eBay find could mark the start of my self-build 20” dob project. Edit … and I’ve just opened it to find a nice note! Magnus

Oof. I reckon that was most likely caused by someone doing secondary mirror collimation/ placement with the tube resting on its bottom. I’d agree that’s an absolute no-no.

Actually dropping something down the tube is likely not as bad as all that, unless the object is big or the tube is pointed very high. Obviously it's not something you want to do. Whenever I've dropped stuff down the tube, it's hit the tube-side and slid down to rest in the gap around the primary. It's been inconvenient, fishing it out again, or pointing the scope "down" to let it slide back out, but an allen key or some such is unlikely to hit the primary. Also, I have a SW 200p solid-tube newt. I've had to bolster it with an air-conditioning ring-clip near the focuser to stiffen it up, because beforehand simply changing altitude would throw the collimation off. M

I’ve found that my LZOS 105 takes a fair while to cool down such that the extra-focal spikes disappear. Obviously dependent on temp difference but 40 minutes at least is a rough guess.

I just had a quick look (2348) before bed as the clouds have cleared. Through my 15x56 bins, I had it as very very slightly dimmer than HD220057, which is mag 6.94. So a smidge over or perhaps just at 7.0 . Cheers, Magnus

I never used the 55 I think so was unable to warn you of the problem, hopefully a barrel extender sorts it out! M

Interesting, 6 mirror clips. My (rather older) 300p cell only has 3 clips.

Broken cloud here more cloud than clear and totally covered in Cass direction

I had it at an estimated 5.6 last night, 2322. A smudge dimmer IMO than HR8894

Haha no. I’m in mag 19 skies and that direction for me is very bright so naked eye no chance, I was only just able yo make out the W of Cass naked eye. I had my Zeiss 15x56 binoculars.

After being shamed by @PeterW for not bothering to venture beyond my garden (living room actually) to skirt obstructions, I went out to a local alley with a view N and with @Stu’s help found it fairly quickly. Pretty pleased, and maybe a faint hint of M52 in averted knowing exactly where it was but not sure. M

I have an Oklop skymax-180 bag, superb. IIRC it has hand-carry handle straps, but also satchel-straps to carry it rucksack-wise. Really really good. M

Was it your scope? 🤣

Oops sorry I meant your Z66. Perhaps mag is something to do with it for me, my Leica zoom goes only to 48x. I might try simply hand-holding a higher-power eyepiece in the larger “hole” to see if that works… Anyway, Izar beckons in a proper scope and thanks for the reminder

Glad to be reminded of Izar, I’ll have a go too next clear night. Have you tried for Polaris B with your Z61? I have a Leica 62mm spotting scope which I sometimes use as a “super finder” and have just about managed to detect Polaris B through it only once out of several tries. A couple of those times were with the scope side by side with my LZOS 105, through which Polaris B is always easy. Cheers, Magnus

I just bumped into Alice and Bob. They’re both confused, angry and sulking

The FLO website for the mount says "Payload Capacity: 18kg for imaging and 25kg for visual". i.e. 40 pounds and 55 pounds. I believe the Orion Atlas is the same so it seems odd they'd quote different numbers. Anyway, at 66 pounds (for visual) and admittedly with a much sturdier tripod than the supplied one (mine's a Berlebach Planet) my set up has worked perfectly like that for several years. M

I have a Skywatcher AZ-EQ6, which quite happily handles (for visual) my Skywatcher steel-tube 12" newt plus finders and Paracorr2 plus heavy eyepieces. All told that's getting on for 30kg (66lbs). I believe in the US it's marketed as Orion Atlas. Cheers, Magnus

It’ll make a very interesting comparison with the panoptic 35. The Nagler has smaller focal length hence greater magnification, but wider FoV. I’ll do the comparison and report back in due course. Sadly thereafter the Pan 35 will likely be released to help fund this.

I guess two out of three ain’t bad 😉

A monster arrived in the post this morning: … and by way of comparison with a Pan 24:

How much money do you have? 🤣🤣

I sold exactly one of these for £150 a year or so ago. Good mount actually. M