russ

3 hours ago, Sabalias said:

Something has gone horribly, horribly wrong

That is one nice looking watering can. A work of art. And finished in Tele Vue green to boot.

On 03/12/2020 at 22:26, John said:

Thanks very much Stu

I don't know what the membership was back then - maybe 100 or so ?

I guess members like @Ant,  @GazOC or @russ might know - they were here before I was.

 

Congrats on your milestone John. I don't think we even had as many as 100 members when you joined.

I have the Takumar 50mm 1.4. Cost peanuts but absolutely love it. So well built, buttery smooth focus and defined clicks on the aperture. Used it for my recent attempts at Neowise. A little blue fringing on the brightest stars.

That's really nice. Well done. 

Simply incredible 👍

Epic set of images Ant. NLC and the Comet.... Wow. How lucky is that. Wonderful looking image. 

1 minute ago, chiltonstar said:

It was nicely visible here at 23:30 last night with the 15x70s. After ten minutes or so dark adaptation, it was visible without the bins, although nothing like Hale-Bopp of course! A stack of 6 frames with a 90mm macro lens:-

Chris

That's stunning...well done!

5 hours ago, Pompey Monkey said:

Lovely picture and the best comet I've ever seen!

I can see the same noctilucent clouds from Portchester (Hants) Too.

Oh no, i packed away too early. Was the comet easily visible from Portchester? I was looking around 1am in Eastleigh but couldn't spot it.

12 hours ago, Dantooine said:

Very happy to come home from a 12 hour shift to find my “final” eyepiece for my set waiting for me. 

I need one of those..... I used to have one, it was awesome. 

That's a great timelapse. Also subbed and liked.

13 minutes ago, John said:

It is Russ

 

Yes John, that is absolutely stunning! Wow

20 minutes ago, Ant said:

Start of a new chapter, last day today, new role on monday (well actually an revisit to an old role lol). New Kit - what can possibly go wrong  

That's awesome news. It's gonna be great!

13 hours ago, Ant said:

This is my latest arrival. My first steps back into astrophotography. Asi120Mini and finder guider.

I have an ASIair enroute. I will probably push the button on a new mount as well at some point. Quite like the look of the EQ-35.

Ant

Great to see you getting back into it Ant  

On 07/07/2020 at 17:14, John said:

StellaMira Losmandy plate for use on my 130mm triplet refractor. Lovely quality item. It sits really nicely and securely in the ADM clamp on the T-Rex mount.

Just got to bolt it to the tube rings on the scope now.

Many thanks @HollyHound

 

The mount looks epic John.

Perhaps ask for Celestron's help first before writing off the SLT mount. Or as you say, it could the chance for an upgrade. 

You'll have no problem selling the OTA on its own. The scope has a standard Vixen dovetail, so will attach to whole host of different mounts. Perhaps you may want to do that yourself instead of selling the scope. Its a great scope, identical to the Skywatcher Skymax 127. The C6 is also a great scope, we have one, it replaced our Skymax 127 many moons ago. I only did it at the time as the C6 was cheap and the 127 sold for the same money. Otherwise i wouldn't have bothered. 

Perhaps if you are going to upgrade, it maybe worth going up two rungs on the ladder to the C8? The jump is a good one. Difference between the 127 and C6 is small.

I've had so many dobs down the years, starting in 1986 with a homemade 8.5" f5 in a hexagonal wooden tube. I sadly do not have a photo of that scope. It was a one off and a beautiful thing. I sold it to buy my first car a year later aged 17. Which meant i then had the car to get me to the dark sites but no scope to use. Doh!  

Anyway here's the dob's i do still have photos for. One is a cheat. It shows my Orion Optics 12" f4 on the EQ6 as i can't find a photo of it on the dob base....sorry. Dobs that i don't have pics are Skywatcher 150P, 200P and 250P solid tube dobs. Orion USA XT8 and XT10 (my fav). I love dobs!

Scopes below are:  Revelation 12, Meade Starfinder 12.5, SW 250PX Flextube and Orion Optics 12" f4. 

That's excellent.

Decided against better judgement to try Jupiter again, last time was 20th May. It was so hot in the house I couldn't sleep anyway. So may as well be outside under the crystal clear skies they forecast. 

First problem, forecast was pants. 100% covering of high cloud, and only the very brightest stars visible. Jupiter was in the thick of it and Saturn not visible at all. Seeing was 3/10 if i was being very generous. Can't believe I even bothered grabbing the laptop. So after much swearing and cursing I ended up with not much.  This was about the best of a very bad bunch. Best 20% from 1698 frames. Taken on the 200P with Explore Scientific 3x and QHY5L-II C.

The moon popping out from behind Jupiter is Io.

I'll try and tune in for these, right up my street. 

This is my Newt setup. An old circa 2004 black HEQ5 and a newish 200P. I really am pleased with it.

Good that they put it on a standard Vixen dovetail, so the owner has the option to stick the scope on an EQ3-2 or EQ5 if they want to track an object. Nice little touch. Just a shame about the focuser.

That's excellent. Great job! 👍

On 09/06/2020 at 13:09, Stu said:

I think we are now at a sensible position which is more along the lines of ‘use whichever magnification works for the object and your kit and situation’

 

That's it in a nutshell.  

For me a useable magnification is what ever works on the night. Start low and work up until the image looks worse than the previous view. Also depends on the subject and height in the sky. Jupiter looked rubbish the other morning at 100x but the moon, slightly higher in the sky, looked epic at 300x.  

I never bother with all the 50x per inch nonsense. Some scopes won't reach that, others surpass it with ease.

Yes that's definitely one of the drawbacks to the hybrid and EV cars at the moment. They do impact on boot space with the battery and if EV, all the charging kit. Seems daft not offering the hatch.

Have you tried Astroboot for the counterweight and tray?  Probably the best chance of finding those. Or a wanted ad on here or UKABS. My EQ3 was missing the polarscope cover and Astroboot had one.   

Russ