jjohnson3803

I've tried a couple of pricey friction mounts and found them to have too much stiction, even with the OTA balanced, etc.  How is 75 for fine movements like you can do with slo-mo?  I'd get an AZ100 and eliminate the question, but I already have other reasonably performing mounts with slo-mo and I'm not sure my astro budget can accommodate a 100 right now.

Also, is a guide bar / handle a nice to have or a need to have or ???  

Thanks!

So... anything new or noteworthy from ZWO on the S*?  (I shut down my FaceBook, etc. years ago, so I must rely on other sources.  😉)

I am watching the calendar to get the intro price if I do order one.

On 17/07/2023 at 15:57, woldsman said:

Retirement should help but as others note, the budget will take a hit. 

Which is one reason why I'm still working, although I find myself thinking more and more of chucking it (work) for good. 

1 hour ago, Roy Challen said:

Luckily, I'm very much a morning person, so getting up at 2 or 3am isn't a big deal as I'm usually up at half three anyway. It's always quieter, there's usually less in the way of street lights being on, and the seeing tends to be better. 

Same here.  I rode an 0600 commuter train 5 days a week for many years, so my internal clock was set to "early to bed, early to rise" years ago and I've had no luck resetting it to staying up late to observe.  It is a bit easier for me to stay up late if I'm at a dark site camping, but I tend to wake up early anyway.  A short nap (about 30 minutes max) later in day helps.

(Most) galaxies are right out for me at home as are a lot of less bright emission nebulae, so I've been mainly concentrating on open clusters.  Globulars are marginal at best with my scopes. 

A few months ago I started trying some wider doubles and they're slowly taking up more of my observing time.  The objects obliterated by LP here will have to wait until I can get out to a dark site I guess.

There are double star lists all over the place, but I'm wondering if the Cambridge atlas would be a good thing to have.

Plastic container tops.  Tupperware in the US, not sure of brands in the UK.

I've been in email contact with SW product support, but they sent me info on the wrong bolt so I'll have to send them a picture.

I just stumbled across this thread and the product looks quite interesting.  I was considering a Revolution 2 imager since I'd prefer to do EAA without needing to drag out a laptop or tablet, but the number of cables and reportedly obtuse UI really made me hesitate.  This looks (potentially) like a good solution.

How about variable star observations?  Maybe pick one or two to concentrate effort on?  Reports could be sent to BAA or AAVSO.

Related question - Why are many (most?) of these mounts out of stock or more coming or whatever?  Reminds me of a restaurant with an extensive menu, but the server tells you only a few are available.  Or am I just looking at the wrong vendors?

The comments about noisy motors is interesting.  I really don't fancy making much noise at 0300, especially if any neighbors have windows open.  I much prefer stealth and solitude.

I'm told the AZ-GTi can be used manually without firing up the go-to, so that would be a huge plus for me.

On 19/06/2023 at 16:43, JOC said:

Until I joined SGL, I had no idea that the fabulous night sky shots that I too had seen in magazines and calendars could be taken (hypothetically) in my own back yard with the right equipment.   I had always assumed that they were shots taken with satellites or huge stellar telescope arrays.  I am still amazed at what essentially very keen amateurs can achieve and how professional they appear.

Many (most?) amateur photos today blow away what professional astronomers could do back when I was getting my undergraduate degree and we used astronomical emulsions on glass plates.  103aO was the bomb, baby!  😉

My G-n-G's are manual, but I did have a push-to for awhile.  I'm happy with them, but I am considering getting an AZ-GTi since I live in heavy LP and a GT could be helpful for finding (some) fainter objects.

I agree it's a personal choice - what I might find to  be a hassle (cables, power supplies, etc.) might not bother others.

Given the amount of light pollution I live in and that my club dark sites are at least an hour away, I'm starting to seriously consider pre-ordering a Seestar.  I could buy another achro or maybe an apo, but I already have a 50mm, 72ED, ST80, and ST120.  I'm thinking EAA would give me a better return than buying yet another visual scope.  Operating temps, humidity, etc. could be a concern, I guess.  

Can't quite bring myself to pull the trigger yet.  OTOH, I think the intro price is good until the end of July, so I have a bit more time to ponder.

Anybody know the size of the setscrew that locks the AZ axis on a SW AZ5?  M6 is too big and an M5 is too small.  Maybe a 12/24 or 12/28, but I'm surprised it isn't metric. 

Thanks!

Add:  I guess it's proper name is the clutch tension screw.

Everything I've read (so far) indicates no threat of an extinction event here.  There is some debate that staring at it might cause eye damage, but I think that's a bit far-fetched.

It would be spectacular to see, but it's going to ruin the looks of Orion for me once it fades.  🙁

I'm strictly visual except for the occasional wide angle iPhone shot, but I've gone back and forth about getting into more serious imaging.  I mean, really, why spend thousands on equipment that may or may nor get used at the whim of the (usually cruddy) weather when I can download free images taken with everything from a 50mm to Hubble?  And then spend hours on my laptop trying to process the things.

But then I consider sunsets, seashores, wildlife shots, and so on.  I could download fantastic pictures of all of those too, but there is something compelling about capturing my own images, whether they're judged to be "good" or "mediocre". Maybe b/c it's a creative act in a sense?

EAA is probably going to become a no-brainer here given the ever increasing light pollution, but the new and relatively inexpensive / affordable Seestar and Dwarflabs rigs have me pondering going with one of those.  Of course some would say that's not "real" observing.  <sigh> 

Outcome is TBD.  😁

On 17/06/2023 at 05:43, 900SL said:

What about Alien abduction? I've heard on good account this is a real and present risk for the American astronomer at dark sky locations. Or will a chupacabra bite your neck? Interested bystanders need to know!

Nonsense and fairy tales.  What you need to watch for here is Sasquatch.

I was casually wondering awhile ago who even sells film anymore, much less does commercial processing.

I do recall seeing something somewhere on how to build your own hypering chamber for cheap. 

As I was drawing up a potential target list of open clusters yesterday, I was flipping pages in my Bright Star Atlas, Norton's, and Jumbo Pocket atlas.  Then it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't have to flip anything if I used SS+ on my iPad - zoom in, zoom out, pan around easy-peasy. 

I love collecting paper atlases, but...

16 hours ago, StarDuke82 said:

I have been wanting to take the skysafari plunge for awhile but didn’t know if it was worth the cost but you all have talked me into it, also I downloaded the free version of stellarium and compared the main difference is stellarium has a daytime view and night view and can fast forward to the evenings view which I kinda liked about the app. 

As a longtime SS+ user, I find the time controls on Stellarium more convenient (on my phone at least).  I often hit the fast forward button by mistake on SS+ which takes me too far into the future too fast.  But I agree picking one over the other is probably more a matter of taste than functionality.  I don't use several features of SS+ like social media, orbit, or galaxy functions.

On 10/06/2023 at 06:15, Saganite said:

That, I like very much.  I have just lately been toying with the idea of using a dedicated tablet instead of my phone, an idea given to me by Stephenstargazer on this forum.

Lately I've been occasionally using an iPad that my wife got several years ago to run SkySafari .  I still usually use my phone out of habit, but I have to say the much larger screen is a lot easier to read.  Being able to take notes with a stylus could be quite convenient.  And the aging battery on the iPad is getting to the point where it needs a charge after a couple of hours.

Not sure what AMZ UK has, but there's this for example:

iPad holder

On 24/04/2023 at 16:43, Ags said:

I'm not used to star hopping in dark skies and when I do, I struggle. Too many stars! 

You'd think "too many stars" would be a good thing 😊, but I struggle under really dark skies also.  I usually use a combo of Wixey and AZ circle with a little hopping at home.  In the wild, it can be hard to find little patterns and such to use on when hopping.