Nigella Bryant

Thanks Carole, yeah, will be worth it when all the works finished and I can relax and just observe and image.

Cool, mines 30 meters, lol but only 2 the rest go out at 12 midnight.

Definitely rage against the coming of the light. I've the new led lighting where I am and I must say that light is directed to the ground not the sky. I've bought myself a D2 led light pollution filter for my modded dslr in anticipation.

Hi Rusted, yeah, I'm going to have to raise it up as there's a bank where the observatory is going to go and the bungalow is in a dip. It'll eventually look over the roofs.

I do have a 70mm TS and GTI mount with wedge and guide scope so could take that outside and do some imaging but the garden is so overgrown it'll take me some time just to clear a space, lol.

Yeah, wonderful and bortle 2/3 just down the road.

Oh, goodness Peter, I hope it won't take me that long, lol. Pics attached, I've good sky from North to South West. Nothing from South West to North.

Thanks Jeremy and Peter. To be honest I'm not looking forward to all the hard work at 61 but hopefully my last move in life, lol.

Thanks Gina, are you in Devon too?

Hi all, just moved from Bristol to North Devon last week. Upshot is from bortle 8 to bortle 4 skies. Downside my observatory will be out of action until it's all been rebuilt. Winter not the best time, lots of ground work to be done in the next few months, the garden is completely overgrown. Can't see me getting it all done till next summer in time for the Mars opposition. At least I've my lunt 60mm DS and the Solarquest Mount so I can still do solar observing. I've an12inch f4 OO newtononian and the neq6 sitting in my spare room, it looks lonely, lol. I got in touch with Devon County Council and they've been brilliant and installed cut offs on two lights near the property and the other street lights go out at midnight so it's quite dark. Been outside just between cloud's and I can't believe how many stars I can see. The skies amazing. Anyway, watch out for an observatory rebuild in the future, lol.

Just love it, given me idea's, lol.

Yeah, it only came on band at the end of the piston's travel. Should be able to test it tomorrow (Monday) as it's forcast for clear skies during the day. I have been able to get decent image's. The thing that's perplexed me was the plumbers tape, weird.

A close up of the large prom.

Yeah, supposed to be clear Monday where I am, so hopefully be able to test it.

I know Dave, weird, the PTFE tape was wrapped around the rings but squashed up at the end, like when you wrap a water pipe, glad I investigated.

Hi all, after observing the Mercury transit I was convinced it wasn't performing at top notch. It's 8 years old and bought second hand last year. Anyway long story short, I got in touch with a well known firm who sent me two sets of O' rings free of charge and free of postage. Today I proceeded to disassemble the pressure tuner and was surprised what I found. First it was full of grease and I mean congealed at the bottom of the tuner. Second there was some wired stuff like screwed up plumbers tape (pic attached). Third the two old rings where not the same and the front one very soft and pliable (Red, pic attached). I can only assume the previous owner had some issues and attempted a DIY bodge. I could be wrong and lunt has changed the O'Rings but that doesn't explain the plumbers tape. I've now installed the new rings which are black and hopefully it'll be fine.

Hi all, I contacted Bresser eu, as my lunt 60mm solar telescope is 8 years old and I thought perhaps I should service the O' rings of the tuner as I wasn't sure if it was retaining pressure. I got in contact with Bresser and they sent me free of charge and postage two sets of O' rings. That's service for you.

I hadn't thought of this image as celestial motion but I guess it is. Image taken 11th November 2019 with lunt 60mm ds and zwo asi120mm camera, stacked in autostakker 3 and false colour added in photoshop CS2.

I might be wrong, but I think I remember reading an article that during sunspot minimum there's more cloud due to less energy reaching the earth. This may be completely bogus so don't have a go, lol. It's logged in the back of my mind, lol.

Hi all, will be posting my Mercury transit image's here over the next few days, of processing. Now has to be several days, lol, life.

Just a quick process of two images, not perfect but something to post on the wonderful day.

Managed about 30 avi file's, sun gone behind houses for me at 3pm universal time. I'm freezing cold now after 2hrs of struggling with cloud, computer malfunction, completely dead pc and resorted to laptop.

Yeah, fighting cloud's but got some imaging, missed the start because of clouds. Hopefully be able to process something. Increasing cloud as from 3.40pm. Note, company of one of our duck's, lol.

Supposedly clear here from 1pm in Bristol. Have to be out this morning but hopefully back by 12noon and set up my equipment.

Looks focused to me going by the edge of your image, well done. You'll be able to tweek focus once Mercury is on the disk.