glafnazur

I'm going to miss the newsletters, many thanks Steve and all the best.

Superb images Paul. 

17 hours ago, Mircea said:

However, last night I was able to split Rigel / STF 668. The main star is of blueish white color , no doubt.

But what is the color of the companion ? How do you see it ?

Last night the seeing was bad, I was able just to confirm the existance of a companion, flooded by the intense, pulsating light of the primary star.

But in the past, in my 200mm Dobsonian, with a steady image, I saw the color of the companion as indigo.

Mircea

I would have said purple, but as I am notoriously terrible identifying colours and shades of colours, I googled indigo and I'd say you are spot on with that.

On 20/11/2023 at 18:13, Astroscot2 said:

Love this little book, brings back so many memories.  Robert Aytons artwork is excellent. 

My first astronomy book love it  

Great image, the detail is amazing

The paragraph below interested me. I used to do this and then read that quite a few people leave the lens cap off so I started doing that, maybe I'll go back to cap on.

When bringing from a cold environment to a warm environment, put lens caps on for the scope and eyepieces, and put them in their case if possible. Close the case to trap in the cold air, then bring the cases inside and let them slowly warm up over 12-24 hours. This is to prevent frost from forming on a lens surface (even on the inside of the tube

4 hours ago, Nikolai De Silva said:

Growing up with images similar to these in the Larousse encyclopaedia of astronomy is why I have always loved mono images.

2 hours ago, badhex said:

Magnus I can't be the only one who looks at your outrageously good horizons and becomes instantly and insanely jealous each and every time 😂

I was thinking the same thing, way better than all the trees and houses that surround me

Hi and welcome Pete.

The best way to avoid GAS (gear accumulation syndrome) is to stay out of imaging, it's a rabbit hole that gets deeper and deeper 😄 Seriously though, if I were you I'd just enjoy taking my time under the stars for now, get to know the sky using a sky atlas and get to know your scope and eyepieces and every now and again just look up with your naked eye and take it all in. When I've been observing recently I've been taking little 5 or 10 minute breaks from the scope and just enjoying the stars and working out what constellations I can actually see from my back garden. So far I've been lucky to see half a dozen or so meteors in these breaks and 2 or 3 of them were really bright ones.

Baader diagonal also are very good, I've got the 2" Dielectric and it's the best diagonal I've used.

Nice, it is almost looks like it is in 3D

Just now, Ags said:

Retirement is over a decade away for me, which I can hardly complain about. But working from home full time has given me a little more flexibility in the mornings and I can can do a bit of astronomy midweek.

I started counting down at just over 10 years and now here I am with less than 4 to go, it has gone quickly, possibly too quickly now I think about it …..

10 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Had breakfast at 9 this morning  

Now you're just rubbing it in  

Wow that's a fantastic image, so much detail 👍

I'm patiently waiting until I retire in just less than 4 years. Then when a clear sky does crop up I won't have the dreaded 'but it's work in the morning' thought putting me off. And as someone else mentioned there'll also be early mornings to consider. I just have to survive that long 😁

I've always fancied the 8" classical cassegrain, the reports are very good. Don't forget your c6 will have a sizeable obstruction too so I reckon you'd still notice the difference with the CC.

I've ordered a few scopes from FLO, including an Esprit 100, and all have arrived very well boxed and in perfect condition. I'd certainly have no problem ordering another from them.

I have finally managed to get first light with my Vixen A80MF Achromatic Refractor and I must say I'm quite impressed 🙂 I set up on the drive which is not ideal as there are two LED streetlights, however I managed to position myself so my ever burgeoning magnolia blocked off the light from the nearest one. 

I started off with the moon and I was blown away by how sharp the moon appeared. I started with the Morpheus 17.5mm (x52) and I could see the whole of the moon and the detail was exquisite. I followed up with the ES 14mm (x65), Morpheus 12.5mm (x73), Morpheus 9mm (x101) , ES 6.7mm (x136) and finally the Morpheus 4.5mm (x202). Views through all eyepieces were superb except the 4.5mm which I think was pushing it a bit too far. 

I then moved onto Saturn and again I was surprised at how much detail I could see, and Titan was easily visible. With the higher power eyepieces I could see a belt quite clearly and the Cassini division. I spent a long time on Saturn.

I then had a quick look at Albireo which didn't disappoint, pin sharp stars and when I defocussed slightly the colours stood out more. I scanned the milky way enjoying pin sharp star fields and then decided to pack up - work tomorrow 😞 

As I was about to pack up I noticed that if I moved the scope I could just catch Jupiter above the tree opposite on the green. So I managed a quick look at Jupiter and the four Galilean moons before I packed up. All in all it was good first light and I am looking forward to using the Vixen in earnest.

That looks really nice 👍

That's looking good 👍

Another super image Goran, love the little PN and blue reflection nebulae.

Great image Alan, I zoomed into the image as far as I could (500x ) to see if there were any more weird objects and I found a few more stars with 'horns'. There weren't many but interestingly they all appear on red/orange stars.

These were on the right hand size of the image

and these were on the left hand side

I must say your focus must be near perfect as I zoomed in to 500x and the stars still have great shapes, I found this cute little cluster of different colours that made me smile. 

That's a fantastic image 👍

I've had a Sega Toys Homestar Flux (Satin Black) Home Planetarium Star Projector for around 5 years now, I bought it with some birthday money. I quite like it but the price has shot up since I bought mine. 

You've got me interested in this, I hope someone somewhere has one and responds. Reading the blurb on the FLO website it sounds great. I like the fact it has a segmented lens tube design to make it suitable for binoviewing.