jjohnson3803

I just noticed the first used See* for sale listing in the CN classifieds.

Nice!

I'll have to get on the site. Looking at which constellations are visible and the time stamps and also where the sun comes up, I agree the cam is pointing roughly east. My favorite screen cap so far:

Last time I had an eye exam, my doc said, "Nah, they're wide open" when I asked about my pupils dilating. He didn't actually give me a number though, so I guess I should ask specifically.

Short answer: Not. I'm in a suburban to bright suburban zone. I do get out to dark sites though, either specifically to observe or when I get a chance while traveling for business. I'm mainly wondering about the class to cut down the bouncy stars sans tripod, but have a decent amount of aperture. I've never owned a pair of roofs and I'll be near a store with a boatload of Vortexes on display while traveling in a couple of weeks. Always nice to bring back a souvenir. 🙂

I have a little extra astro money on hand and I'm seriously considering getting a pair of 8x42 roof prism binos. I have 15x70 IF - kind of heavy, really need a tripod, Aculon 10x50s - they're ok but a little hard for me to keep steady, and a pair of 7x50 military surplus porros - built like a tank, less bouncy views, but maybe a little low on the mag. So what says the collective mind? Would 8x42s be redundant, considering what I have? There's a good chance I'd sell off one or more of the others if the 8x42s did the trick.

I use a couple of LP maps online for the big picture, but use this to estimate by eye:

Because if they hide behind the Internet, they won't get punched in the mouth? 😉 I think it's akin to road rage. Some people think it's ok to act like jackaloons as long as they have a steel shield around them. I prefer Qigong myself.

I'd suggest a short tube 80 (ST80) - an 80mm f/5 refractor. They give reasonable views of the moon and other objects and are cheap enough that you're not out a lot of cash if you decide you don't like it. They're also pretty easy to sell, but selling a used one might not be worth the hassle since they are pretty cheap new. You will see some chromatic aberration when looking at bright objects - looks like a purple fringe on things - but a filter can cut that down quite a bit. Actually, some people don't even care about it, so YMMV. Take care to get a good, solid mount. Even a scope with fantastic optics won't be any fun if your mount is wobbling / shaking. I'd also be wary of Amazon. They sell good stuff, but they also sell some junk. I live outside Chicago and have ordered several things from First Light in the UK. Never had a problem, shipping via DHL isn't that expensive, and things arrive quickly. Actually, I have an order due to arrive today. Good luck!

And the mystery deepens. I downloaded Synscan onto my iPhone and I can save user defined objects, both celestial and terrestrial. Still can't get anything to save in Pro on my phone. I can save user defined objects in Synscan on my iPad also, so it appears to be something with using Pro. I don't have easy access to a voodoo priest right now to sort this out, so I guess I'll just run with Synscan for now.

Yes, check the plumbing section. I bought a number of 1.25-in rubber O-rings to use as parfocal rings for less than $1 US each.

Lovely looking device you have there.

After being a member for several years, I've come to the belief that a fair number of posters on CN are cranky old goats who derive joy from arguing for the sake of arguing. My ignore list is probably forty members long now. (Maybe that makes *me* a grumpy old goat. 😀) I agree there's a lot of knowledge though, so I do sift through forums from time to time for technical info. Anyway, I find SGL to be quite informative with civil discussions even when disagreements arise.

I went to uni with a person who pronounced it "bettel- gweece". And he was an astro major.

Bourbon and Diet Coke with a shot of lime juice. Oh wait, that's for breakfast after I'm done observing. 😁 Seriously, If I drink anything it's usually warm Irish breakfast tea or a Diet Coke for more caffeine. Occasionally, I'll drink sweetened coffee but it has to be decaf or I get too jittery.

No, I'm using the app on my phone in normal mode, but not connected to the mount. Sounds like I either have to be connected or in emulator mode.

Revisiting this - I tried entering Omega Cygni's RA and Dec on the User Objects -> Celestial Objects screen in SynScan Pro. It seemed to accept the info and I hit Save. I went back out and then revisited the Objects screen, and there's nothing showing under the Objects list / pulldown. I used JNOW and entered the name where it says "Current object". That happened twice. I wasn't connected to the mount, just playing with the app. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? Thanks!

I was about to order one, but decided to hold off. The pix posted here and on other forums are impressive for the size / cost, but I have a niggling feeling that ZWO will come out with an improved, second generation system in a year or so. I spent decades in software engineering and the first release of anything was always driven by marketing concerns / timing over quality. I'm not an imager, but I was also wondering if the novelty was going to wear off. I don't want to get bogged down with post-processing (at least not yet), and the best S* pix I've seen are, of course, those which have been post-processed. I'm sure it would potentially be an nice adjunct to whatever kit one has already, but I personally wouldn't put all my eggs into the S* basket just yet. YMMV.

I finally was able to take out my new AZ-GTi and went ripping through a bunch of objects last night and this morning to test out the go-to and tracking. M41, NGC 2345, CR32, CR140, CR135, NGC 2451 / c Pup, M93, M47, M50 last night. Omicron Cyg, Omega Cyg, NGC 6871, Chi Cyg, Albireo, the Coat Hangar, and U Sge this morning. Still have to do some more fiddling with it and then I'll go back to observing objects instead of ticking off a list.

My right eye is "stronger" uncorrected, but I use my left eye for observing. I find it more comfortable than using my right eye. I usually do wear eyeglasses when observing though. I think my eye doc said I have more floaters in the left, but I don't recall details. I should compare the next time I'm lunar observing.

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Excellent, thank you. I just ordered one from FLO. I'll probably use it with a lightweight Benro tripod for traveling.

Reinforces the belief that there's a lot of rubbish on the Web. OTOH, I'd hope that somebody somewhere is monitoring it, just in case. According to science calculations, it's time for my breakfast.

Well, yee haw! After sitting on the shelf for 2 months since I got it from FLO due to bad weather, etc. I fired up my AZ-GTi for some actual observing this morning. It's only +15F though so I observed inside from my loft. I have windows to the S and E, so I was limited to Vega, Sulafat, Sheliak, and Antares and only a 1-star alignment, but I'm happy with how the mount works, especially since I had to approximate where north is. I'm still fumbling with the app on my iPhone, but I'm a kinesthetic / visual learner, so I'll hopefully get better the more I play with it. Now I need to figure out how to connect to SkySafari so I don't have to scroll through menus. Also wonder if a hand controller might be a good thing to have eventually. Cheers!

The Suburu live feed is my default viewing when skies are cloudy here. Saw a bright sporadic once, but didn't do a screen capture.