Captain Scarlet

I generally use the top clamp for a small spotting scope I have, a standard manfrotto tripod plate fits the Vixen dovetail clamp quite nicely. At its minimum 16x mag, it makes a decent “super-finder”.

This is beyond exciting, even though i ordered it in December and it’s just arrived. The problem is, “it” is in Ireland in lovely 21.8 skies. And I am in Middlesex with 19.15 skies for at least a few months.

… “it” being a Klaus Helmerich carbon tube for my OO 300mm mirror, currently temporarily residing in my much-perforated old steel Skywatcher blue tube. It will save me many kg and more importantly will be STIFF and remain collimated when I stack Paracorr and big eyepieces into the focuser

On 11/04/2021 at 20:24, John said:

"Praesepe" - not a name that's used often enough IMHO

Apparently it means "manger" in latin.

 

It’s probably my favourite celestial-object name. I have a boat which needs naming and that’s going to be it.

First Lunar occultation I’ve seen, very cool! It simply vanished. Having people nearby all witnessing it at the same time and hearing several simultaneous “ah”s and “wow”s around was quite special!

Thanks to @Stu for organizing an impromptu (distanced) WAG session.

As the title suggests, I have a Canon EF 400mm f/2.8 lens. Those raw numbers suggest its effective aperture is 143mm. I would love to use this lens for visual from time to time.

The problem is, the distance from the lens’ rear flange to prime focus is only 44mm, ie the depth of a Canon EOS DSLR. I assume that is not enough to accommodate the light-path of a 1.25” diagonal. I suppose I could use it Japanese-style straight through, but I’d prefer not.

So, my question is, does there exist some sort of focal extender or other arrangement to create more back-focus to allow such a diagonal?

Cheers, Magnus

14 hours ago, JeremyS said:

... @F15Rules was subsequently reported to have been appointed to handle the situation ...

... I expect @johninderby might be a little upset to have been passed over for this position?

4 minutes ago, Stu said:

I find that looking directly at the cluster, then flicking my eye away from it works well to make the stars ‘pop’.

Have you tried M13 in the 105mm Magnus? I reckon you should get some resolution around the edges with that.

Yes that could be another way of describing how I was looking at M3.

I haven’t tried M13 with it yet, it doesn’t clear the edge of my house until 1am at the moment. It’s on my list now though...

I was observing M3 in my 8” newt last week and it was better than I was expecting. With direct vision, it was a prominent smudge, but if I looked about 1 glob-diameter to the right, suddenly it was like a pepper-pot of faint stars. Really remarkable difference. And this was in a 19.15 location without moon.

Then last night, with a bit of low moon and through my 105mm LZOS frac, it was back to “full smudge” with no hint of resolved stars. (But the seeing was quite good so I managed some decent doubles to compensate).

Magnus

21 hours ago, Stu said:

I do think so. I almost felt like a bit of a gooseberry! 🤣

If you’re really lucky they’ll breed and you can retire selling off the offspring!

The closest I can come to that is my Kowa TSN-883 (88mm/510mm) for which I got Kowa’s astro-eyepiece adapter. The adapter can only do 1.25” eyepieces so my Pan24 is as wide as I can go. That combination gives me 21x, 3.2 degree FoV and 4.1mm exit pupil. Still quite nice though.

I too do hanker after a Nagler 31 though...

M

Oops I just remembered I never answered this.

I did run them through MTFmapper, and the results demonstrate that both my skymax 180 and my M603 seem to be truly terrible. I was left scratching my head, as they certainly aren't terrible when I look through them either at night-sky objects or terrestrially. As you can see I photographed my A3 test target at about 35 metres, essentially the minimum focus distance for either scope. Various things could have conspired to render the sharp edges on the test sheet to become soft: missed focus, either because the cardboard target-back might have shifted in the wind; poorly printed; camera-shutter-shake. Or, the scopes ARE terrible, but I don't think so.

I'll have to do it again with better-controlled conditions.

Cheers, Magnus

Part of the point of the exposed glass rear of the mirror is to allow it to radiate heat quickly enough to adjust to temperature changes in good time, as the mirror becomes the wrong shape if different areas of it are at different temperatures.

M

The rules dictate Jeremy you need to put a price on each item. I'll take the 120 and the chair please

I certainly did notice a difference. In March 2020 I escaped to SW Ireland and for various reasons only returned to the UK exactly one year later.

My perspective is being able to notice a step difference after an extended period of time, rather than infinitesimal changes over 365 days.

I started a topic on it, and rather than retype everything, I’ve linked to it:

I have the WO one that vlaiv pointed out, and am very happy with it. I use it for terrestrial viewing with my Skymax 180, my Intes M603 and my LZOS 105/650. I have said "Wow" on numerous occasions when looking at birds from a distance. It does show a single spike when looking at, say, Vega, but that's to be expected in any prism with a "roof" I think.

4 minutes ago, Space Hopper said:

Excellent.

Take a look at M37 in Auriga.

Its a magical view through a big refractor......

Look for the prominent red star in the middle, one of my highlights...

Nice. Your account reminded me that I thought I’d (first ever) seen M101 through bins as well, and I checked that indeed I had, on March 14th with my 12x50 Nikons, but I had a bit of an advantage! My sky that night was 21.94. I found it by knowing that m51 and m101 are roughly equally spaced each side of Alkaid, perpendicular to the “saucepan-handle”

Cheers, Magnus

10 minutes ago, Seelive said:

I thought all existing PAE data were erased if you performed a new star alignment?

I agree it certainly should do, but I vaguely recall reading somewhere that it didn't, and that those PAE settings can pollute things. I may well be wrong though, I can't recall where I picked that information up. Erasing the historical PAE data on its own (without restoring the whole handset) has worked for me in the past, but that may have been coincidence. (There is an item in the menu structure somewhere to erase histprical PAE settings). Worth a try anyway...

Try restoring the handset to default settings. It “remembers” historical “PAE” settings which have thrown me before, until I erased them. But if your mount was obtained new and if you have never used PAE, that will be unlikely to be the cause.

9 minutes ago, Ken82 said:

Haha, same here! I took a chance back in 2015 although I could have afforded it getting it past the wife is another matter! 

Luckily we have years to work on that problem!

When I very first started out in this hobby after only a little reading around I put myself on the waiting list for an AP 130. I got a reply saying essentially “you’re on the waiting list”. I’ve heard nothing yet; that was June 2017.

My reasoning was that although at that time I was a total novice, by the time it came up I MIGHT be able to afford it, and I would certainly be more experienced.

Here I am now, less of a novice and I probably could stump up, but still waiting...

Cheers, Magnus

@Commanderfish a difficult question. Berlebach or Manfrotto, which do you prefer?

Magnus

I too have this mount, I find it works well. Are you starting off from a "home"-style position? IE RA axis pointing at the Pole, and counterweight bar pointing straight down from that position, so the scope is "on top" but pointing at the pole? If so, the first slew should be in the vicinity.

The mistake I made on first getting it was doing the polar alignment according to how the reticle was positioned, and thinking that was Home Position and starting from there. Once you've done the alignment, do you then rotate around the RA to get the bar pointing down before starting alignment?

Cheers, Magnus

Wow beautiful. I too have the little sibling, the 105/650, and I aspire to the one you have! Well done.

Magnus

Having not addressed my 8-inch newt for a year or so I have nothing better to do, after lining up finders and collimating, than to photograph it. Clear sky until 20 minutes ago and now the clouds have rolled in 🙄