Captain Scarlet

Interesting, I hadn't been aware of the potential for prisms to be noticeably better than even expensive mirrors. See here https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/mirror-vs-dielectric-vs-prism-diagonal-comparison-r2877 key quote "... As more and more field observations were conducted with the 80mm APO on Jupiter, it became apparent that the prisms were providing another level of performance that the mirrors were not."

I recently imaged the Moon, which is more or less the same size as the Sun, using an 800mm focal length combination onto a Canon 7dmk2 crop sensor. On the basis of the images I got, I could probably stretch that to 1500mm focal length before cutting off some of the disk... Magnus

I work for a South African company, and they're forever "sure, let's make a plan" . Which I've learned to roughly translate as "not now" .

Here it is from UK I think

Very nice from my top window in Sunbury too...

superb, I love it! Did you design what you needed re focal lengths spacings etc or was it just trial and error?

If you try to use their site to order a new Uni tripod, one of the mounting-plate options is that for EQ-6, so they're definitely available separately. But I can't get the site to show me one separately. It looks as though you'll have to wait until August to find out the cost M

I’ll be trying for Jupiter a little later, it’s too low behind some flats for me right now. For the short time before it disappears behind a Magnolia. Need to eat first though...

They are definitely real objects at varying heights that respond to changes in focus. One or two have had visible structure, and with a wide field at 30x-ish there will often be 3-4 in the same field of view, travelling different directions at different speeds. Now I know what to look for, I might try to get some video in due course...

With a spare clear sunny afternoon today, I decided to set up, mock-polar align and generally fiddle around. I found myself looking up at random blue sky about 15 degrees away from the Sun, and seeing small rather bright white seemingly fast-moving objects crossing the field of view constantly. At 30x mag, I would see one perhaps every second. As I travelled up through the magnifications in the hope I could make out some shape, they remained too small to discern any shape, even at 108x. They were at different heights as I needed to use the focusser, mostly traveling South-ish but not always, and st varying speeds. But all the same objects as far as I could tell. Have any of you done this and seen the same? i have no idea what they were. Migrating birds? Satellites? Space Junk? Dust particles at just the right angle to the Sun? Looking forward to reading your ideas... Cheers, MAgnus.

Hi Brian I have done precisely this for myself fairly recently, also because I wanted to build “my own” tool rather than use the various available apps. I found the most accessible (actually very accessible) guide was that by Paul Schlyter, at this link https://stjarnhimlen.se/comp/ppcomp.html There’s also another version of the same page with more worked examples IIRC. After finishing that project, I got the Jan Meeus book, and in retrospect I think I did it in the right order. Schlyter’s merhods get you to around 2 arcminutes of accuracy, and are quite easy to follow, whereas Meeus is a bit more involved and benefits from one having done some slightly simpler groundwork. Meeus will allow you to get as accurate as you like though, and I’m using it to refine my own project. Good Luck, and keep us informed how it goes... Cheers, Magnus

View North West from our patio near Baltimore Ireland... ... and South (Mars visible about 12degs up at the time IIRC):

Thanks - I'll keep an eye open. Hopefully this is such a simple matter of plain fact it won't come to that...

For the first time ever I’ve edited Wikipedia. One of the regular uses for my home-grown “skymap” spreadsheet, aside from using it to learn the heavens and plan observing sessions, is to check out astronomical events when they come up in my reading. Just now I was reading about Otto Struve in Wikipedia, and apparently in June 1914 Struve made preparations for the upcoming Solar Eclipse of 8th August 1914. So I automatically checked it out, if for no other reason than to test my spreadsheet’s accuracy. Imagine my surprise when it suggested that there couldn’t possibly have been a solar eclipse on that date. But there was one on 21st August that year. I mentioned this to a colleague who said “why don’t you edit it?”. I hadn’t realised that anyone can edit Wikipedia, so I did. I expect that plenty of people on here are Wikicontributors/editors? Cheers, Magnus

... I’ve thus temporarily evicted my Astrotrac to accommodate them plus my new 3.5mm...

My understanding, from someone who used to work in a related area, is they all get their UK raw data from the Met Office, who obviously have first dibs on their own data, but thereafter they do their own modelling. And she also says the Met Office has the biggest and best models with which to forecast. Personally, that bears out with my own empirical feeling, that the Met Office’s forecasts seem to be the most reliable. But I realize I’m risking treading on sacred ground here... Magnus.

My eyepiece collection has grown a little. Finally my APM-LZOS 105/650 can give some nice magnification, 186x. And of course my Mak 180 can now bring a highly useful 771x 😂

Seeing that you're on the Isle of Man, with quite close access to enviably dark skies, and given that you have high magnification (for planets etc) covered with the Mak, I reckon you need as much aperture as you can. Cheers, Magnus

Not having had time to set up an actual telescope last night, I went outside around midnight to get some advantage from what appeared to be a really clear night. My SQM-L showed 19.00, which with the 80%-odd Moon and Sun only at -15 degrees was remarkable. It appeared to be a beautifully transparent night. Naked eye, Alcor was not just visible but easily evident, certainly the clearest I’ve ever seen it from here in Sunbury-On-Thames. For the first time ever, two extra stars aside from the usual 3 in the Little Dipper were just about discernible too: Yildun and Zeta Ursa Minoris. Also, I could make out the Double-Double naked eye, completing a clear triangle of Vega, Zeta Lyrae and Epsilon Lyrae. With my beloved Nikon 12x50 SE bins, I had a scan around, wondering if I’d be able to see M13. Not only did I see it, it positively leapt out at me, I was very surprised, having had difficulty making it out with my Mak 127 from here in the past. Possibly the clearest I’ve seen it from here, albeit at low magnification. M92 was nearly as clear, though I had to hunt around for it. I was able to make out Ludwig’s Star between Mizar and Alcor, remember I’m only using 12x bins handheld, and finished off with Jupiter, which only served to disappoint me that I didn’t have a scope. Big even in the bins, with 3 Moons attending. I’d be interested to hear if Jupiter was worthwhile last night for anyone else? Just about to set up a scope proper in the hope tonight might be similar... Cheers, Magnus

I have three Berlebach tripods, a Report for general photography, a Uni for my London viewing supporting an EQM-35 mount, and a (monster) Planet for my dark sky currently supporting an AZ-EQ6. Aside from any other (obviously far less important) considerations, their beauty makes the difference between GCHQ allowing them to stay “out” and visible, as opposed to packed away and more difficult to deploy. M

Although I have occasionally stuck a camera on a mount and taken the odd picture, I'm no imager, so can't comment on that. All I can say is that the EQM-35 is specifically aimed at imagers. Which begs the question, why did I get it? The answer is that it's small enough to be reasonably portable from living room to patio, and has a 10kg payload capacity. Uni vs Planet. Uni, with its 60kg ability, is an appropriate match to the EQM-35. But the Planet. It's a monster. I knew it was going to be big, but I wasn't prepared for just how big. If you're going to upgrade to an EQ6-series mount, then the Planet will cope, but it's way over the top for just an EQM-35. Herewith my Planet "in the field" with an AZ-EQ6, my mak180 and my 12" newt...

I'll add some before too long ... I'll also recount my attempt to replace the highly unusual finder-shoe with something more universal.

Removing the backlash proved rather easy in the end. Each drive worm housing has 3 allen-key recesses on it, one tiny grubscrew in between two larger adjustment bolts. The technical term for what I did is, I think, "fiddling around". I loosened the grubscrew, wound in the two outer bolts a very small amount, re-tightened the grub and the backlash was gone. I read around a bit too to see how people had adjusted their EQ3-series mounts, to get a feel for how it all works. Collimating the polar scope involved adjusting the position of the reticule until its centre-point stayed in the same place while I rotated the mount around the RA axis. The three tiny allen-grub screws for moving the reticule position are accessible even when the polar scope is screwed in. There's no end of advice on this and other forums showing how to do the adjustments. The only thing I would re-iterate is to make the adjustment allen-key turns in very small increments. The Berlebach tripod is there as much for its looks as its function. Functionally, it's much less awkward to micro-adjust for levelling than the SW tripod. Also, it turns a scope on its mount into a thing of beauty, sufficient to pass the acceptable-to-my-wife test, free-standing in the living room. I find the standard steel-tube Skywatcher tripods rather ugly, and question the design of screwing the spreader plate against its stops very close to the hinges, introducing more and more energy into a quite springy system. The Berlebach has a spread-stopper, as opposed to a spreader. When ordering a Berlebach, one of the options is to specify what head you want, and the one I got was an EQ5-style head, which is compatible with EQ3 series mounts. I also have an AZ-EQ6 mount, and that sits on a Berlebach Planet, again beautiful. Good luck with your Mount and your renewed interest; I hope you get to use it before too long! Cheers, Magnus

Baader and Stellarvue as well, by the looks, having spent some time researching this...

It seems TS have upgraded their finders since the one I have was made. The one I have is more or less indistinguishable from the OEM Skywatcher ones, including the "drinking straw" eyepiece, except it has TS Optics printed on the side. To get the eyepiece to achieve focus on the reticule, I've had to unscrew it to such an extent that I need spacers and electrical tape to hold it together. Their current offerings on their site look rather better: very similar to the APS ones, in look and price.