Stu1smartcookie

1 hour ago, wesdon1 said:

@Stu1smartcookie Nice! I love those reassuringly chunky alloy knobs on those plates, it just feels so much more secure! 

That diagonal looks ace too! 

yes i've read nice things about the diagonal ... as for the clamp , the originals were not bad but of course the dual knobs on the ADM are preferable

ADM , Skytee Clamp ...and a 2" Stella Mira Diagonal , delivered this morning by the Royal Mail . 

1 hour ago, Ratlet said:

I mean, you probably could.  Once 🤣

pass the salt please 

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

This eyepiece is popular. It's the best thing since sliced bread 

But let's be honest, you can't see much with sliced bread...

... true but you cant eat the EP 🤣

13 hours ago, Highburymark said:

Probably a symptom of almost no new eyepieces for the past 4/5 years, combined with the unique popularity of the 3-8. 
What other launches have we seen? 
Tak TPL. Two new Pentax XWs. APM zoom. Maybe a couple of others I can’t think of.
Think this is the new normal. It’s a completely saturated market. SVB did well to exploit a rare remaining niche, where the only alternative is 4x the price. APM to a lesser extent with its zoom. 
 

 

 

 

Also a sympton of "bad weather Syndrome" as talking about equipment fills the void of actually being able to use it . IMO its a good EP for the money ... just about sums it up

8 hours ago, SwiMatt said:

The seeing was quite poor here tonight, but I got a nice view of the Beehive, first through binoculars and then at the lowest magnification that my Mak allows - 60x. The building in which I live gave me an assist and protected my view from the moonlight.

I ended my (cold!!) evening with a binocular look at the feet of Gemini where I think I glimpsed a washed out M35, and then found the Cheshire Cat in Auriga, but couldn't see any of the clusters in there.

Glad you had a chance to get out and view something.

Walking along the seafront in St.Brelades Bay , Jersey … looking at a second clear sky in a row , without any optical equipment .. I snapped a photo of the moon , freehand when the sky was still blue … I edited on the phone and used a black and white filter which enhanced the contrast a bit .. original added too … couldn’t resist another moon shot 

2 hours ago, Louis D said:

My 152 Achro is fine for sweeping star fields, but so is a 6" f/5 Newtonian which is much lighter, cheaper, and color free.  The 152 does very poorly on planets and double stars at moderate to high power thanks to excessive CA.  DSOs appear about the same as in the Newt.

@Stu1smartcookie What exactly do you find the 152 Achro to do particularly well or better than other comparable scopes?  The only thing I've found it good for is extreme testing of violet-cut and red-cut filters to find out which (combination) yields the best image of various objects.  Because I love tinkering with optical combinations, I find it fun.  I'm trying to justify why I'm holding onto it.

I didn't buy it for planets , that's why I have an 8" SCT  ..

I bought one (again) for widefield viewing . To me it's the perfect combination ..but  of course no scope is perfect and there will be the doubters although I'm not sure why as no opinions were sought.I really like refractors and although I don't dislike reflectors for me they are awkward beasts. ( I have owned many ) . Anyway , not sure why I need to justify a purchase . Ultimately every scope that is bought is inferior in some way .. I suppose in a perfect world we would all buy the James Webb telescope . 

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Reason enough to purchase another one Stu.

I think Elena will nab those , Alan ... i think thats fair trade for letting me buy another one 🤣

54 minutes ago, callisto said:

Your gonna have to name these scopes 'boomerangs' Stu  😉 

 

Mark.

Mark , i've got that damn song " my boomerang won't come back " in my head now ...lol

20 minutes ago, Rob said:

I always keep coming back to take a look at this scope and nearly talk myself into purchasing!. I still may TBH. 

Rob , the scope is a real looker , which does help . I used it last night to look at a few trees 2 miles away and there was no false colour . It WILL show a bit of colour on the likes of Sirius and vega and of course the moon but its negligable and the pure 6" of aperture far outweighs any CA impurities . The good  thing is that the glass is listed as japanese and german schott , and is well corrected at the factory ... also you get a small bag of Haribo's lol . 

I am well late here but i have just purchased my 3rd 152 mm v3 Starwave ... the first i regretfully sold but i bought it back , but then had to sell it again when money was a bit tight . Now i hve just bought another from Altair Astro ... I love this scope and fondly remember my first views of the Leo triplet through it . And of course , i can do it all over again as its Galaxy  season . 

My first outing for over a week. Lots of high cloud ( as is the norm these nights) making the moon look less contrasty , but still happy to see it . Tried to look for a few DSO’s but , due to the diffuse light from the moon and the persistent cloud it proved to be fruitless.  So just contented to look at the likes of castor and regulus and a few other bright stars . In a normal ( if there is such a thing ) clear night this would be the absolute basic I would expect but we have reached such a “low” when it comes to actually using the equipment, that any patch of clear sky is now seen as a little victory .

One thing I did try was my new 6.3 reducer for the Celestron c8 … bought to use as a visual aid for a wider view … probably a bit fiddly when I want to revert back to view planets , but , I reckon it’s a good addition

Coverage in Indianapolis has to be the best so far ... Absolutely amazing . 

So, with total cloud cover I , like so many others are being amazed watching the NASA channel ... The total solar eclipse ... Amazing 

8 minutes ago, 900SL said:

You may choose to think that, but I don't consider that to be correct. I'm pretty certain that most astro-imagers don't feel threatened or undermined by the Seestar. Many seem to find it quite cute, like a little nodding dog doing tricks and cartwheels

It has been designed to provide a quick n dirty grab and go / point and shoot experience, and appeals to many who either lack the ability or ambition to bang their heads against the wall that is astrophotography, which ultimately produces far superior results

"Lack the ability" ????? We are surely not worthy ... Honestly , you really should choose your words more carefully .

On 29/03/2024 at 17:54, paulastro said:

I'm really getting fed up with how this thread has been hijacked by pages and pages from traditional  imagers  moaning that people actual have the temerity to  buy an S50 and even enjoy using it!  Shock/horror we don't all want to do what they are doing instead!

As Seestar users we shouldn't feel  we have to justify what we are doing and why.

It used to be a forum for exchanges of information, images and developments in the software etc for Seestars users.  Where users could encourage each other and enhance their own skills and knowledge.

Where someone new comes and looks at the forum now they must wonder what on earth is going  on and probably look elsewhere if they actually want to have some encouragement and help.

I'm considering 'unfollowing' the forum as almost every time I open a post it's not what I want to read about.

I'm surprised that the moderators haven't taken a look at it.

Well said sir.

No Need for me to add any comments really except to say that people i believe get a little frightened of anything that remotely undermimes what thay are doing . IE , someone who has spent thousands putting together a rig which basically does what a little smart scope can do for a fraction of the price . The real problem isnt the tech , its the people who cannot embrace someone with little knowledge who is able to "produce" an image without hours of painstaking processing through a little black magic box . And these scopes will only get better and better . Maybe the astro photography fraternity can't handle it ? One prominent YouTuber actually described the SeeStars as "cheating"!!!!!!! That was enough for me to unsubscribe from his channel . 

16 minutes ago, SwiMatt said:

One of my biggest fears right now is that while central Europe is getting terrible heatwaves due to global warming, we are getting this weather - and it will be the same year after year 😭

I think you are right ..and it's ruining the hobby for ALL of us . There are  only so many YT videos one can keep watching about astronomy  . I hope that we will get some settled weather soon but of course that will coincide with lighter evenings 

40 minutes ago, MonsterMagnet said:

Following on from this post, the Seestar did make it to the island in the South China sea and I have access to targets that I don't see in London.

It's obviously not as good as a full rig, we are all in agreement about that, but I simply couldn't bring that on a mainly city based holiday in Asia.

The skies are dark though and I think the Seestar did pretty well.  Here is 1 hour of 20 second exposures on a section of the Carina nebula (processed in PI), clearly something I wouldn't get to image with my main rig at home.

MM

 

A good point well made . I had a Seestars but sold it as I didn't feel a connection to the night sky when using it( after the initial euphoria of seeing things that I had only seen before in magazines) as I am a visual astronomer... But the portability is one of its, and the Dwarfs main strengths. I actually still have a Dwarf 2 . These smart scopes have their place in astronomy and are here to stay and will only get better. I think we all should embrace things that promote astronomy and being it to people who are put off by the hobbies formerly stuffy image . 

Out for what seems like the first time in weeks … the Williams Optics ZS81 sitting on the nexstar mount .. clouds coming and going but the Beehive looking resplendent. Plaides were nice too … colour correction on the scope is great ( first light for this beauty) . Tracking is better and better thanks to the mounts “sync” control . A good evening 

A friend of mine has just told me this very sad news regarding Alyn.  I , like everyone , am stunned by his passing . Sending thoughts to his family and friends .He will be greatly missed by us all . RIP 

Lol it could be the moon, although nobody really knows what it looks like anymore. 

I would like to have a Tak in my collection, but i am not sure even a Tak can cut through the incessant rain and cloud. In reality i am quite happy with my three scopes . Different focal  lengths and ratios . I might even get to use them one night lol 

2 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Yes it is and I really should not of got it as I have been shafted before from them with the Meade 127mm, the flint and crown where the wrong way around and the focuser was plastic jumped around all over the place I got a Skywatcher dual speed focuser and had a adapter plate made cost me over £250 I really should never have sold that. 

The unacceptable side of buying used , i think most of us have had shall we say questionable purchases .I really hope you are able to sort everything out . 

Shout out to RVO who without drama sorted an issue and sent out a replacement item all within 24 hours . 
That’s great service from a company that knows how to treat their customers. Together with Widescreen Centre I find both a pleasure to deal with . The key is being actually able to communicate verbally . Emails are all well and good but they often cannot convey the right tone . And often are perceived to be rude . Well done Adam and the crew at RVO . 

Sometimes you define a company on how they put things right . The DPD man brought me two items , a polar scope for my AVX and an Aux splitter ! But I ordered a polar scope and an Astro gadget Celestron WiFi module !!! 
RVO , were quite rightly full of apologies and were going to send the correct item out … 

As luck would have it , we are travelling to Yorkshire tomorrow!!! So , a trip to RVO is now part of the route .