Greymouser

@Ags Well, I haven't had chance top do much with it, it has been a very long, quite stressful day, but it seems to be a very good book. Showing you around the moon, as you would expect from an atlas, with some brief descriptions. The fact that it is ring bound will make photocopying pages very easy, so I can use it outdoors in the dew, without risking the book. Like your book. 

If it is something other than maps you want, have you considered Haynes Moon Manual? I found that quite an entertaining read. https://www.amazon.nl/Harland-Owners-Workshop-billion-present/dp/0857338269/ref=sr_1_6?__mk_nl_NL=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&crid=3V872F3MIIUKW&keywords=haynes+moon+manual&qid=1661894823&sprefix=haynes+moon+manual%2Caps%2C61&sr=8-6

Hope that is of some help?

For me today, firstly after seeing others with one of these, I thought I would jump on the band wagon and give it whirl, because at this price, it is well worth a punt.

Goodness, look at my disgusting toes! In my defence, I have been in the garden and this is pre shower...

Then this book, which it seems is well recommended, I can see why.

Now all I need is @Ags to hurry up and publish the book, so I will be sorted!

Hi and welcome to this great forum. Good choice joining.

@globular I have hardly used it the last few months, because I have hardly had any sessions, under the stars. To many other commitments; a very tired failing body and clouds. However, my view is still the same, it is a very good eyepiece and the figures sound about right, though I far from an expert. I have used very few zooms. Hope that helps. 

2 hours ago, Peter Drew said:

I thought we had already seen them all.    🙂

Yes. I also bet we will see an awful lot more of them! 

I'm thinking there is something wrong within the NASA management. Was there such problems with Apollo? I mean with way over budget and way behind schedule? I don't recall reading such, though I was way too young at the time to be aware. It's almost a British level of organisation. As @DaveL59 said, the new HMS Prince of Wales has just broken down as it went out of port and the new HMS Queen Elizabeth appears to be in dock at Birkenhead, undergoing who knows what!  So much for state of the art equipment, though both probably has more to do with the lack of engineers on board...

Hello and welcome to the forum. I agree with Sunshine, must be great wit the whole family involved.

Excellent. Can I see a little detail on one of the moons? Or am I imagining it?

Hi and welcome to the forum. I suspect you will have plenty of knowledge to share.

5 hours ago, Sunshine said:

That is the epitome of reduce, re use, and recycle!

More than that, for us in Blackpool we used to get them for free, as otherwise they would be thrown away. Because they were usually rushing, there would often be loads of them too. They also tasted good too!

Nearly started a new thread, but this seemed a good place for this post, if not a mod can single it out I guess. It is on a similar theme.

Today I received a parcel from FLO via DPD and for the first time I can remember from DPD, got a damaged box/parcel. Not huge damage, but a hole in the corner, which has allowed a little damage to the woodwork and more importantly, a missing rubber foot on my new Berlebach NIX II chair. The rubber feet just slide off, so if in stock easily solved.

This is extremely disappointing, as I was looking forward to using it this week and it is out of stock, so considering current circumstance, it will be weeks before a replacement can arrive. The chair was loosely packed in the box, allowing it to slide about quite freely, all it would take is a sharp brake and Bob's your uncle! I feel I should be able to improvise a replacement, but not sure why I should. Certainly puts me off buying Berlebach, if their packing is so poor. Which is a pity because I have been considering a tripod. Worse still someone else bought me the chair.  

I have e mailed @FLO of course and am certain they will resolve it, but it is all so disappointing.

10 minutes ago, fozzybear said:

chips peas and gravy a staple diet up north and a dollop of scrappings (fish batter)

I had a friend from London visit, ( actually more my wife's friend, ) we introduced him to mushy peas and gravy. His shock was a picture! He talked about something called liquor and pie and mash???  Worse still, his then girlfriend introduced him to Kebabs and Jalapeno peppers raw and as a side food dish. She is of Indian decent and chilli is a standard thing, Jalapeno peppers are a light, easy snack for her. For him, he went bright red and got severely laughed at...

4 minutes ago, matelot said:

Thanks for the welcome, and the heads up on the Norman Lockyer.

In respect of fish and chips - particularly here - can't beat one particular local fish and chips, mushy peas, a sausage on top, ramekin of raw onion courtesy of the chef, and all topped with curry sauce. That'll do! 😁

Don't get me wrong, a good curry sauce has its place, but mushy peas ain't it! Gravy all day long... 

Welcome to the forum. Wonderful part of the world you live in, but I have been told, they don't even serve gravy in the chippies down there! Please tell me it ain't true? 

Thank you. Only had a quick look, but I would say it is looking good and I am looking forward to it's release. Will look more tomorrow.

Reminds me of when my wife was giving birth to our son on the maternity ward in Blackpool. I was on the ward with her, 24 hrs/day, to help care for her and every night/morning, we would here the lions roaring, from nearby Blackpool Zoo! The Lion enclosure was only a few hundred yards from the ward. A strange sound, only beaten by some of the strange sounds out of some of the other babies! One sounded barely human!

Hi and welcome to the forum. A great start you are having there!

Welcome to this great forum.

You are diving in at the deep end, starting with astro photography! Braver than me!

Excellent images, perhaps a shame, you couldn't tease out more detail on the moon, on the first one, but that is perhaps being too critical. Very moody.

Not had a planned observing session for ages, for one reason or another, so with a good forecast, I though it was about time.

I set up fairly early, as posted in the show us your set up at night thread :

( That didn't link right, hey ho. ) Anyway, I left it and thought 40 winks would be a good idea, intending to go out about 2.30 am, catch the best of the Perseids then a little Jupiter. Of course I over slept, waking up about  4.20 am, but never mind. still chance to look at Jupiter, but a short emergency, meant I didn't get out until after 5 am.  

I went out, saw that even though the sun was up/almost up, but behind houses, I could still see Jupiter. The scope had been sat waiting, so it was a fast move to viewing Jupiter, first with my ES 26mm. View great, banding easily seen. Went to the Morph 12.5, perhaps my favourite eyepiece, Much better. I could see the two main belts, along with hints of more detail, even in the polar regions. Others had said that the planets were perhaps better in close to daylight, now I can see why they say it. ( Stu or John? ) The viewing was very steady and very good. My F13.2 refractor performed very well, snapping to focus easily, presenting a very sharp CA free image.

I did try my 7mm Delite, but I am just not sure about this eyepiece and the view with the Morph 12.5 was better. Not sure, but I thought I may have seen a meteor, even though it was quite bright by now, maybe I was imagining it, but it was in the general direction of Jupiter.

One thing I did see was an awful lot of planes flying over, including one very high, in full sun, quite vivid, which left me wondering what the pilot was thinking right then. Out of curiosity, I looked it up on Flightradar24: It was the Minneapolis - Amsterdam flight, due in Amsterdam at 8am. Flying at 39000 feet and doing 470 Knts. I quite like planes, almost a plane spotter too I guess, but I thought I was doing an observing session on Jupiter!  There were an awful lot of contrails though, so my patience was stretched with them.

The thing is, even though it was only a very short session, it was very enjoyable. Watching the world wake, people, birds, with the Pigeons and Doves first. I even quite liked the growing drone of the traffic! Went in got a coffee and a sandwich and back to ten minutes of relaxation and a little food. All in all a good morning, reminding me why dawn is the best part of the day. Must do it again soon.

( Best bit was, it was lovely and cool! )

Hoping for some meteor action tonight/early hours:

If not or I get bored, this for a little Jupiter session:

Welcome to the forum, good choice joining.

I would agree with DaveL59, the starsense DX102 looks very good, so much so I have been tempted. Even though I have far too many scopes.

Welcome to the forum.

I am no where near you either, but I feel sure your ranch is a great place for skywatching.

4 hours ago, craigg said:

The biggest problem for us for now, is the increase in water in the atmosphere as a result of temperature rise.  

 

Short term, without a doubt, the increase in energy in general in the atmosphere, is going to cause us very great problems, in our lifetimes. Medium to long term is the current mass extinction event we are in the middle of, almost certainly caused by human activity. The scientific evidence is compelling. I am sure you all already know, but here is a catch up. ( If you have the time and inclination. )

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20121101-a-looming-mass-extinction

Quote

In around 300 years time, 75% of all mammal species will have disappeared from this planet. That's the startling prediction from Anthony Barnosky, a palaeobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley – that’s if the current rates of extinction continue and the animals already threatened or endangered are wiped out this century.

Barnosky studies biodiversity changes and extinction rates that occurred in the deep past, and compares them to trends happening now. Since life first evolved billions of years ago and flourished, diversified, and made our planet what it is, there have been five mass extinctions. Each was triggered by a cataclysmic event and resulted in at least 75% of all species going extinct. The last of these events occurred 65 million years ago, when a meteorite slammed into Earth, throwing up persistent clouds of debris that darkened the sky for years. The resulting change in climate led to a mass extinction that included the dinosaurs.

https://populationmatters.org/news/2020/06/human-caused-mass-extinction-still-accelerating

Quote

The study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) by a group of scientists including Population Matters Patron Paul Ehrlich found that out of almost 30,000 species of land-dwelling vertebrates, 515 already have fewer than 1,000 individuals left. More than half of these species have been reduced to 250 or fewer individuals, mostly mammals and amphibians. The species on the brink include the Sumatran rhino, the Clarion island wren, the Epañola giant tortoise and the Harlequin frog.

There have already been five mass extinction episodes over the last 450 million years – each of these were caused by catastrophic environmental changes such as massive volcanic eruptions, depletion of oceanic oxygen, or an asteroid strike. The sixth mass extinction we are in now is due to human activity.

https://www.britannica.com/science/human-induced-extinction

There is so much other information out there on the web, if you care to look. Even though it may seem to not really have much effect on humans if we are heading for a monoculture, it very much will.

Then there is this from this morning on the BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62378157

Quote

Catastrophic climate change outcomes, including human extinction, are not being taken seriously enough by scientists, a new study says.

The authors say that the consequences of more extreme warming - still on the cards if no action is taken - are "dangerously underexplored".

They argue that the world needs to start preparing for the possibility of what they term the "climate endgame".

But this new paper says that not enough attention has been given to more extreme outcomes of climate change.

"I think it's sane risk management to think about the plausible worst-case scenarios and we do it when it comes to every other situation, we should definitely do when it comes to the fate of the planet and species," said lead author Dr Luke Kemp from the University of Cambridge.

I would say it is sensible to plan for the worst, but hope for the best. Particularly in this situation, because no one seems to care much at all and from what I see, the goals often stated will not be reached, but will be far exceeded.

Excellent idea, well done. When does it go into production?

I will now look at the PDF, but please publish the whole plan and guide, ( unless it is already there, ) I would very greatly appreciate it.

52 minutes ago, Neil H said:

Hi I do have an extension tube but if you use it with the Newtonian the eyepiece is about 7 feet up so makes it way to high  , I was thinking of getting another one and cutting it down some thing to look into later on 

My mate just said to me that as I have a really good Newtonian I will not gain by getting a sct of mak other than it's compact , he also said get a big refractor ??

Have you thought about a smaller tripod then? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/tripods/sightron-japan-carbon-fiber-tripod.html

The lazy geek loaded it up with a mount and a C9.25. If I could afford one, I would for my AZEQ 5. ( Might do anyway, after all who needs to heat the house this winter? )

Your friend is right too, you will gain little with a Mak or SCT, but could gain a lot with a very long focal length refractor. @F15Rules, is right.