jjohnson3803

I have a couple of REI folding camping chairs with arms that recline to about 45* and have a headrest that adjusts up and down - very comfortable.  They're light and small enough to keep in the trunk / boot.  But they don't have any kind of footrest and have unfortunately been discontinued.  I do like the looks of that camping bed.

The most wishful thing for me would be a plot of land within a 3-hour drive under dark(er) skies - my home is a Bortle 7 or 8.  It would have clear horizons and most preferably be on a lake.

Something that I might be able to realize is finding my "Goldilocks" refractor.  I have fast 80mm and 120mm fracs and a 102ED.  Love the sharpness of the 102, but it's on the heavy side for grab-n-go and on the upper end of what my mounts / tripods can handle.  I don't do planetary observing, but I like doing lunar as well as deepsky.

So do I buy a 70ED or an 80ED or a 90 achro or a 102 achro?  The EDs would be better for lunar observing but the achros would keep the load on my mounts down.  And which scope(s) do I sell to help finance the new one?  🤔

On 01/09/2022 at 17:42, col said:

I think I’ll do some more research on sketching, it’s a very appealing thing to try.

I have zero artistic talent, but I've tried to sketch a few open clusters. It's fairly easy - bright stars are fat dots and faint stars are small dots.  I'd suggest starting with OCs.  FWIW.

I use a kettle charcoal grill cover for short periods.  I don't know if I'd trust it in really bad weather or for long periods.  It's been fine for my use so far though.

On 29/08/2022 at 23:38, 900SL said:

I learned many years ago not to buy vapourware, or be an early adopter.

As a mentor once told me, "Never be first and never volunteer."  😉

On 26/08/2022 at 13:28, col said:

But is there anyone out there that takes pictures of what you actually see in the eyepiece.?

Nothing tweeked in a programme or sharpened in photoshop, just the real image as it was viewed live.

I do that with my 15x70 binos.  I put my phone cam on one barrel and have a look through the other.  Not very sophisticated, but no need for a guidescope or flip mirror or whatever.

I almost cancelled a short camping trip over Monday b/c I didn't want to miss watching the launch.  Good thing I decided to go camping anyway and just watch a replay on YouTube.

I'm an early riser (probably conditioned from riding an 0600 commuter train for 20 years), so I usually wake up about 0300-0400 without an alarm.  But if I nap before a late evening session, I usually just sleep through.

On 25/08/2022 at 11:22, Mart29 said:

Love the images , very nice . Exactly what I'm after. Looks like I already have what I need , just need a soild phone holder 

You might want to check out some of the astro-specific camera apps for smartphones.  I use StarryCam and Nocturne which are both free and do a much better job IMO than the standard phone camera.

There are video cameras available that eliminate the need for a laptop.  (Beware: the video vs. EAA vs. astrophotography discussions are huge and complex.  That rabbit hole is deep and a lot depends on personal preferences.)

See:  Straight-up video output  for example.

I'm in the US, but I subscribed to S@N.  I think it's a very good magazine, but with COVID (I guess) and mailing delays, it always arrived several weeks late, so I dropped it.  I can usually find it at my local bookstore if I'm inclined to get a copy.

I've been impressed with AN, but I can also get that at the bookstore.  The SPA magazine does look interesting, but I'm not a member (yet).

I'm sure it will get off the ground just fine, but I have some doubts about it accomplishing the rest of the mission goals.  Apollo 11 was launched on my birthday and while I've always thought highly of NASA (a family member got into an argument with Musk over safety issues), the decline of the organization and debacles in the years after Apollo make me a bit skeptical.  And if Boeing has anything to do with anything... well...

I hope I'm completely wrong.

On 14/08/2022 at 11:07, Gem85 said:

I have a south facing garden and it looks out to a very large field! I must admit I have a very good view of the night sky from my garden! 

Although I had to compromise on some obstructions (tall trees), a south facing yard (garden) was a requirement when I moved to a different house a few years ago.  The view to my west is totally blocked, but I can live with that.  Sort of.

Just a note on stability - make sure whatever mount you use is completely snugged down onto the tripod.  I was having some shakes with my ScopeTech Zero on a Manfrotto 475B which was quite irritating.  Turns out my Zero was not fully screwed onto the tripod because the az axis is designed to slip a bit - it wasn't much of a gap, but it was enough to cause some extra wobble with my 102ED.

As an aside - I thought my Twilight-1 tripod was identical to the SW above, but my pod only has 1.5-inch legs.  

I use a rectangular frame made of PVC pipe with black shower curtains hung on it.  The bases for the frame uprights are just round plywood tabletop disks with a PVC flange screwed onto them.  I painted the PVC and the tabletops black with cheap spray paint.  You could cut the uprights at an angle so they could be pounded into the ground, I guess.  PVC pipe is cheap and it's easy to modify the design if need be to suit different circumstances if you press fit the PVC instead of gluing it.

You could probably make a T-shaped PVC frame if you go with the banner idea.

You can find sat info on the Heavens Above web page.  There's an option to plot flyover tracks on star charts for a person's location.  It might take a little digging to find the object though.

Heavens Above

Aliens?  Let me tell you about the purple orb I saw...

Do geosynchronous sats ever flare?  I've seen a few rather bright unknown stationary "stars" slowly fade out over 5-10 seconds.

On 11/08/2022 at 03:00, Zeta Reticulan said:

The curse of buying new equipment combined with OCD is even worse.

I think the 10mm in the first pic is slightly out of alignment with the others.   (Just messing with you.  😁 )

Do I have everything I need?  Probably long ago.

Do I have everything I want?  LOL, far from it.

I'd really like to find my "forever" scope and cull the rest, but that might be as likely as finding a unicorn napping on my back deck.

9 hours ago, Orange Smartie said:

This is what I got about 2 years ago:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/sky-watcher-heritage-150p-flextube-dobsonian-telescope.html

It's a table-top telescope, so you'll need to place it on a table/upturned bucket or box etc.

Finally, I mentioned "Turn Left at Orion". This is an absolutely brilliant book and will give you an idea of what you can see and what it will look like (not like Hubble or James Webb images, unfortunately) throughout the year. Again, highly recommended.

Somebody somewhere took a wooden barstool and cut shallow holes into the seat with a Forstner bit.  (My woodworking knowledge is quite limited, but I think that's what they call it.)  The three feet on the bottom of his tabletop Dobsonian fit into the holes.  Quite inventive IMO.

Absolutely agree about "TLAO".  Fantastic book for beginners and even for more advanced observers.

On 08/08/2022 at 17:50, LukeSkywatcher said:

The donkies would always be with me, curious as to what I was doing.

I've observed with a couple of jackasses, but never with a donkey.  🤔

After re-entering the hobby several years ago with an ST120, I thought I'd try an ST80 (Meade Adventurescope) as an experiment.  It's become my most used scope - I had it out this morning for a quick look before leaving for the office.  I did add a 2-speed focuser which cost more than the scope, but I'm happy I upgraded.  It's very easy to mount and transport and since it cost about $100 US, I'm not going to lose my mind if something happens to it.  My only complaint is that it's a creme color and I'd prefer black to match my mount and tripod.  😉

Mine doesn't give spectacular views of the moon and planets, but I have a 102ED (at 6X the cost of the ST80) for that and my ST80 does quite well with other classes of targets.

I do need one of those t-shirts though...

I usually use a photo tripod with an elevator column and a pan-tilt fluid head, but I have limited mobility tilting my head back so things become difficult above 60* or so.  Lying back works to some extent, but then I those 5 legs to deal with.  😁

I think a parallelogram mount would be good, but the weight and bulk is more than I want to deal with for bino sessions. 

I've spent some time studying the Sironek design and have most of the parts, but I've not tried to put anything together yet.  Maybe something similar could be made with PVC pipe and fittings.

All things considered, I think a mirror mount would be best, assuming I can find a reasonable quality front-surface mirror that isn't crazy expensive.

Well, my back deck needs to be replaced.  Maybe if a small chunk hits just right...

Oops, guess it's too late.

My son lives in LA and I love it out there myself, but he has to deal with wildfire smoke and air pollution.  Add light pollution and sadly there's no such thing as paradise.  Ironically he spends his most of his free time in Mexico.  🙃

1 hour ago, Nyctimene said:

Try to maximize the number of observations by taking even the slightest chance of gaps in the clouds. That means, keep your equipment stored at ambient temperature, with easy access to an observing spot; check the weather forecast - and get used to observe the moon, even the full moon (crater rays; concentric craters). The same goes for the sun in white light (using a filtered off-axis mask). For observations of just a few minutes (often astonishingly rewarding), keep some binoculars ready.

I quite agree.  I keep a small refractor (minimal cool down time) on a lightweight tripod by the back door so I can get outside on short notice.  My 10x50 binos are nearby if I can't get the refractor out.

I prefer to observe in the early morning but have learned from experience not to pass up a clear evening.  There's no guarantee a clear evening leads to a clear morning the next day.  (I actually had that reinforced today: clear last night, but I was tired and went to bed so of course there was 100% cloud cover this morning.)

I also run the Windy app on my phone so I can check weather satellite views in near realtime.  Very handy for checking if there might be some gaps in the clouds coming.