Stu1smartcookie

On 19/06/2023 at 02:49, Jim L said:

Almost stepped on this handsome fellow at an observing site. He was buzzing away but I never heard him because I had earbuds in listening to a podcast. Fortunately we parted friends.

I will NEVER worry  about clouds again 😂, after seeing this i am more than happy that we don't encounter such creatures (generally) in the UK 

4 minutes ago, Grump Martian said:

A brand new 30 mm Explore Scientific 82° eyepiece. Looking forward to holiday late night star gazing in Swanage in July.

Very nice , Martin

Looks great Steve 

On 10/06/2023 at 19:15, Bloodline said:

Has any one got anymore thoughts on the actual Dx 5 scope itself?

A 5" sct is a nice starter scope , it will show you quite a lot .. i had an omni 127 ... i really liked the scope ... the DX5 will be good on planets and the moon 

On 10/06/2023 at 14:32, Bloodline said:

Starsense again finds the target but would need to be manually moved but doesn’t track, no alignment needed

Not true ! you need to align the starsense with an initial 2-3 minute alignment and after that the sky need to be dark enough for it to "see" stars , not just one or two . The app will actually "tell " you that . 

Having said that , i love the starsense and use it on manual mounts whether it be placed on my scopes or the mount itself . 

It will only work properly when the sky is clear . That may seem obvious, but it does lose position sometimes ,if there are a few clouds about . its nothing major as it usually recovers . 

The other good thing about the starsense is that once aligned you can move the mount anywhere and it will find its position WITHOUT it needing to be re-aligned , thats a brilliant feature . 

GOTO's are brilliant but they also add so many variables that can fail at anytime . I have neighbours with small kids who , at this time of the year have their windows open at night . They dont want to hear whirring and screetching noises as the goto motors spring into action . 

So , my choice is a combination of the two ... i have a mount that accepts tracking motors but i use the starsense to find the targets first . 

One thing you might want to consider is that the starsense DX5 will also accept ather light weight scopes ie small fracs . So its quite versatile although the tripod is quite flimsy . 

19 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

I think us in the west have had the best of it and not many cloudy days. You can bet that'll change now at least its not any astro darkness so no scope time until way August for me

Yes , its certainly been good weather in the west ... changing now as you wrote , i agree regarding observing in the summer . Its ok for luna and trying to find venus during the daytime , and of course a bit of solar , but , bring on the autumn .

5 hours ago, bosun21 said:

How are you getting along with your Dwarf Stu?

Hi Ian , only just seen your message.. I love the dwarf .. it's such a breeze to operate , mind you the iPhone app isn't up to much, whereas the Android app is fine. 

On 04/06/2023 at 14:14, AstroNebulee said:

Taken on Friday night whilst hunting those elusive noctilucent clouds. (no I didn't see any) 

Venus setting in the west whilst I was sitting in a beautiful Cornish field, watching the moths flit about and all the wildlife sounds. 

Composite of one short and one slightly longer exposure. Taken with Canon 600D and Samyang 14mm f2.8 blended in photoshop. 

Lee

Great Photo Lee ... simple , and yet it portrays the beauty of our hobby ... of course over here in cambridgeshire its recently been blowing a gale and thick cloud ( although its better now ) so its lovely to see such a relaxing scene .

17 minutes ago, Dave scutt said:

Just had a nice delivery, 

Welcome to the Dwarf league , Dave .

The little tripod is soooo much better than i was expecting it to be . 

I had a similar thing with my 152mm starwave ... ( a scope that i sold and will buy back soon ) .. i think there is a way of tightening the focuser although i wasnt brave enough to try. But it is unerving although it never caused any real problems 

1 hour ago, Roy Foreman said:

1 hour ago, Roy Foreman said:

In west Somerset it has been clear each night for about two weeks or more

 

Envious , as in the east we have had cold winds and grey clouds with the occasional clear hour or two 

On 01/06/2023 at 11:49, Geoff Barnes said:

I won't have a view of this, but for those who do it should make a pretty sight over the next two days.... 

Thanks for the Heads up Geoff ... due to the lighter evenings this will be a bit challenging as a lot of the Beehive will be a bit faint , but its certainly worth a go

For information ... Most of us living on the East side of the country have seen very little apart from thick cloud !! zzz 

I still enjoy reading the reports of others with more luck than us , though . 

I am pleasantly surprised at @John 's  use of the 70mm frac to view the sn2023ixf . . Can't wait to try it for myself ( weather permitting) tonight . 

Hi ... im sure many will comment on your question . I would point out that , depending on how limiting your budget is , generally budget and astrophotography do not mix well . Having said that , why not choose a star tracker and a dslr camera? it will be a fairly gentle way into the hobby and a wide angle lens will be quite forgiving with polar alignement if its not perfect . 

One thing you will need is a stable mount . In astrophotography a mount is the most important thing to consider . 

7 minutes ago, 900SL said:

I decided a while back never to buy anything from Skywatcher ever again. Whilst they do provide a gateway into the hobby, They are not that cheap when you factor in how badly they are designed, manufactured and assembled. Basically money down the drain in my experience. 

It's kinda amusing that for a product that requires precision, they churn out anything but.

I should TM 'making mechanics out of astronomers'

Mass production will inevitably lead to some poor quality . a disapointing yet familiar tale .

Mike,  this confirms two things , 

1 That you are very good at colour matching and painting 

2 You have too much time on your hands  😃

Great Job . 

On 30/04/2023 at 11:19, Ratlet said:

You could always scavenge a starsense unit from a cheap celestron scope.

A great idea that i have taken advantage of . 

13 hours ago, Nik271 said:

There is a supernova in M101 discovered two days ago which is still brightening. I just had a look with my Skymax 127 and it was easy to see, I estimate it's magnitude is 11.5. It's the brightest star southeast of the core of M101, roughly where NGC 5461 is. Take a look if you can, it's one of the brightest SN of recent years!

Great spot Nik ... will certainly look out for it . Apparently we are meant to have plenty of clear skies this week . 

A new EQ5 mount ( spoke to Simon at widescreen at 5:30 last night …. Asked if I could pick one up  and I did at 7 last night … great service ) 

Motor set arrived today ( thanks @bosun21) . 
so an evening of setting up watching the clouds roll in . 

Edit ... yep the gears are not touching in the photos ... All sorted now and working perfectly .

Spot On regarding the database .. it should be upgraded based on location ... a "tonights best" would be great . I also think entering co-ordinates is cumbersome . Solar and Luna are both very good . The speed of set up is a real plus point , and as you rightly say , its a wife pleaser . So, basically endorsing all what you wrote ... i would not call it a toy though . For someone , like me who wants to do astrophotography but hates the thought of teasing data from a pc  its a game changer . Also i was overjoyed capturing the Leo triplet for the first time . I then set my scope up and viewed it in the EP , which was even more magical . 

3 hours ago, Ags said:

I photographed this after Eurovision.

The UK song is stuck in my head now.

To be honest most of us couldn’t hear it due to a sound error . 

A shockingly cool day (+10 and cloudy ) was followed by thick cloud last night and looking at the weather (Sunday)it seems the cloud will persist all day , and into the evening . At least it’s going to be warmer today 😕  zzz 

5 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

Sorry it's not a Tak or Vixen but here's my Starfield 102ED on a SW AZGTiX mount with a Berlebach Report tripod.

yeah , i can't see a need to apologise  ! All fracs are beautiful to their owners and in general . There is something quite traditional about those  ... (whisper it ) real telescopes   

1 hour ago, Dantooine said:

After being out of play for a while due to life’s circumstances, I’ve just picked up an interesting addition, a starbase 80 so wish me luck. First impressions are very good. Nice to be back 😁

Often wondered about this scope .. Ed Ting gave a favourable review . looking forward to reading the report from first light . 

Stu