jjohnson3803

On 15/03/2023 at 12:47, Stu said:

If you have an iPhone, Moon Phase Photo maps is good at showing the names of the craters along the terminator. Also available at https://www.derekscope.co.uk/the-moon/

D'oh!  And I just bought a copy of the "Atlas of the Lunar Terminator" for an inflated IMO amount...

I have an Innorel RT90C, but I've never tried a SkyTee on it.  It supposedly can handle up to 40kg, but there's max advertised load and then there's practical astro load.

Somebody who's ex-military said the key is for you to own the night and not let the night own you.  I suspect that's a lot easier to do psychologically when you're wearing body armor and actively hunting your opponent.

I have set up at remote sites next to my car with the window down in case I have to dive in.  Not quite sure how that would work though given my age and (lack of) athletic ability.  Maybe donkeys are the key.

As a mainly DSO observer, many was the night that I cursed the moon.  Now I embrace it.

Virtual Moon (link above) has an ephemeris tab that you can set the terminator to specific time and you can turn the terminator off.  Quite handy for planning and identifying features.

I use Moon Chart by Astro Visuals on my iPhone, but it obviously can't show as much detail as VM.

The red dot is Clavius, the terminator is as of about noon US Central Time.  There's a sidebar you can set to show crater info, etc.

Don't know about yours, but Celestron Skymaster 15x70s are known for having a lot of quality control problems, at least here in the US.  I had a pair that I binned b/c I could never get them properly collimated.  I probably should have cut them into two monocular barrels because the quality of the individual lenses seemed pretty good. 

Also, some people have trouble merging bino images regardless of the collimation / quality of the binos.  I have trouble from time to time, but it's usually due to fatigue and then I switch to using just one eye at a time.  YMMV.

On 10/03/2023 at 06:03, Baatar said:

Berlebach Castor II carrying ST120 and 102/F7 triplet refractors.  [...]  Castor II actual capacity might be lower, as this rig is reaching its limits, but stable enough to be usable, maybe also due to Manfrotto heaviest duty tripod.  

Which Manfrotto is that?

If it's cloudy when you go to bed it will be clear well before dawn, especially if the forecast calls for morning clouds and you decide to sleep in.

If it's clear in the morning when you leave for work and you hope to have an evening observing session, it will be cloudy by the time you leave work in the evening.

If you phone weather app says it's cloudy, it's mostly clear outside.

The neighbor will turn on all their outdoor lights and let their brain damaged dog out randomly at any time between 21.00 and 05.00.

If a neighbor leaves for the weekend, they will leave on as many lights as possible for the duration.

Best to always look out the window when making any observing decision.

Wow!  That's just a fantastic pic.

Thanks.  I have two UHC filters, but was thinking the H-beta might be a good adjunct.

I had an M2C and just couldn't love it, no matter that it was a thing of great beauty - had to have my s-l-o-m-o.  Anyway, I wound up with a ScopeTech Zero.  It's a bit pricey, but it's light and folds down quite compactly for travel.  It handles my ST50, ST80, and 72ED quite well.  I'm not as impressed with it when I put my 102ED on it, but that might be because the R&P focuser on the 102 is rather stiff.

Rumor has it that the Zero is not being sold in the US right now due to a patent dispute, but I believe FLO has them.  I'd suggest grabbing one if you think it could work for you before they become unicorns.  You can always resell it later.

4 minutes ago, Guy65 said:

Thanks - certainly gives me food for thought. I have pretty dark skies within say 45 mins - it's just the hassle of packing everything in to the car, finding a good site, setting up etc.  

Yeah, there's that.  I live in crazy LP (western suburbs of Chicago) and there's really no substitute for heading to darker skies.  I used to have a C8 on an equatorial mount and it was too much hassle to haul places, so I switched to smaller, grab-and-go refractors.  My small fracs have done surprisingly well in B2, 3, 4 skies.

Assuming you prefer to observe at home with your current scope, I'd suggest open star clusters, double stars, and the moon.  I can see a lot of nice clusters here and while I used to consider the moon as an annoyance, it can be quite fascinating if you spend some time studying it.  

I have a couple of nebular filters and they help some at home, but not a tremendous amount.  I am considering getting an H-beta filter for emission nebs as an experiment.

1 hour ago, Bargy said:

I have been thinking about this subject though as the street I live on seem to be pretty lit up, as well as all the neighbours on either sides seem to have their gardens lit up like Christmas trees.

That's a common problem for people who live close to other (less enlightened? 😁) neighbors.  Many people set up light blocking screens of various sorts when observing from home.  I use black polyester shower curtains on a PVC pipe frame or a couple large, shallow cardboard boxes clamped onto my deck rail, but you can find a lot of different ideas on the astro forums.

(I really wanted to plant a row of arbor vitae to provide a natural screen, but the home owners association wouldn't allow it.)

3 hours ago, Franklin said:

Sad times we live in, but very real.

If I'm planning on going out somewhere I tend to go very early in the morning rather than late at night, a few hours before dawn the whole world seems to be asleep, including all the mindless boneheads

I normally observe pre-dawn because fewer house lights are on.  And there's nobody around except the ducks, geese, and coyotes.  One morning not long ago though, my neighbor's dogsitter decided to walk the dog around 0330, right past me.  Scared the woobaba out of me.  I scared him as well because I was motionless and quiet as he came up on me.

I have a couple of club sites that are remote and presumably secure, but I admit it takes a little time to damp down the primal fear factor if I'm there alone - could be a Sasquatch lurking in those corn fields!  😄  Campgrounds don't bother me at all, but I prefer not to turn my observing into an outreach session, so I stay stealthy.

Being in a cemetery or forest preserve after dark here usually invites the attention of local law enforcement, so I don't go to either of those.

In the interest of full disclosure, I did install AstroDevices encoders on my Twilight-1 mount that I used with SkySafari on my phone.  They usually worked well with just an occasional glitch and I was able to find fainter objects a lot faster than without push-to.  But I sold the mount and the encoders with it, so I'm back to a DIY az circle and a digital Wixey for altitude, using alt/az from SS.

I can't say I miss the initial WiFi, etc, set-up that I had to do when using the encoders.  It wasn't difficult, but it was yet another distraction before being able to observe.  And aside from two AA batteries (one for Wixey and one for red torch), I don't need to power or charge anything now before observing.

Anyway, whether you love or hate technology, anything that gets people out and observing or photographing the sky is a good thing IMO.  

19 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I'm not sure why people take things so personally, or why some are so antagonistic. Or why some need to take an opposite stance. It's just a hobby after all, and there's room for everyone 

😄  Spend some time around model railroaders.  There's the "Ehhh, it looks fine to me" faction and then there's the "rivet counters" who nearly have a stroke if a car (wagon) has a slightly misplaced detail.  

Some people have found lids from plastic containers that fit their scope and some use plastic shower caps.  Just a couple of other ideas.

Here's what I'm mainly using now.  If I want to go lighter / smaller, I have a converted 50mm finder I can use on the Zero.

Observers' situations and people's opinions about a "good" scope vary substantially.  One will insist you get a Dobsonian reflector and another will insist a refractor is the only to go.  Every scope has strengths and weaknesses.  And a lot of experienced observers have more than one scope because of that.  Anyway, suggest you have a look at Ed Ting's scope reviews on YouTube as well as check scope reviews on sites like "Sky at Night", etc.

One must have item is a stable / sturdy mount.  If your mount is wobbly, your viewing experience will be poor no matter what kind of scope you have or how much you spend on it.

JMO.

I vote for HOO.  

Feeling a little minimalist today (or just desperately in need of a mojito).  Wondering how often people decide on a great night to leave all the kit inside and just go look at the stars naked eye.

I have five refractors which I love, but sometimes it feels like a hassle to haul any of them out.

Close enough and pretty cool!

Spectacular!  What software are you using to generate the map with objects identified on it?

Physics joke:

What's new (nu)?  Energy divided by Planck's Constant.  

🤣

I'm outside Chicago with heavy LP so my skies are probably similar to yours.  Here's a short tripod-mounted exposure of Orion from my back deck. This was taken last fall and dawn is coming on.