Marvin Jenkins

Nice to know us B3 dwellers have just enough eye sight to do it. Observational astronomy is on the decline, we all know that. It is not a result of AP becoming more popular but just that you need to be driven and dedicated. Most of all you need dark skies. #jetstream has them but at a cost in life style most country dwellers would run from. I personally would love to have that darkness. #jet stream, what do you think the Bortle limit would be? I saw repeat nebulosity around the running man with a 5” newt in B3 skies. Am I seeing things as I think at that aperture you are B1 or better. Just want to say that I am a completely worn wreck at 50 but my eyesight is crazy good. Often I go places with friends and say look at that, and then I spend sixty seconds working out what they are doing.🤣 Marv

I get it now. I am not going to ask about why it is bright in the middle or this lovely thread about a comet next to a cluster will degenerate into camera statistical madness. Keep us informed and do please post the result. M

Keep us informed and do please post the result. M

I did wonder about that. You are clearly way ahead of me in AP.

Just realised you have the comet bottom left and the cluster top right! BRAVO

Is that a huge bank of cloud?

Well I am clouded out here despite the forecast saying clear. Please do get out and give it another go. I would love to see the results. Marv

The open cluster sure is a great companion to ZTF. To be honest I didn’t know it was there until I looked at the display on the back of the dslr. I must try harder at observing. My star chart clearly shows it as something special. Gfamily, thank you for the compliment but #Scooot image is what I would like to produce. Yeh, I don’t like all those stupid names for clusters. Call me a geek all day long but much prefer NGC classifications. Marv

I managed to get out last night and got one three minute shot with my dslr and kit lense. Going out tonight to image it with the 150 pds, any tips? Marv

For me it would be a wide field single exposure with a dslr. I just love the colours and it was also my first Great Comet (Neowise).

Okay good to know. I use a newt so this is new to me. The forecast looks good for me for a while (madness) so I will add sketches as they come. I hope you get some opportunities and have a go at sketching. After all it is just some black dots on a circle. Marv

Why the green colour?

Thank you for the drawing compliment. I am trying to get my hand in to attempt some Lunar sketches. The quality of the sketches on this site are amazing. I think of my solar sketches as just information recording. I hope you get to see ZTF. There is a heads up on a different thread on here that ZTF is right next to Mars tonight (right now) so fingers crossed you have some clear skies. Marvin

I have just come back in and will second #kev about the current sunspot activity. It is busier than Bishops hat right now. I did a little sketch on a pre prepared sheet that I have photo copied to try and build up a collection of observations. Just white light but I love it.

Tell me about it. I ordered a Geoptik adapter plate so my EQ5 mount could go an EQ6 tripod I was given by a friend. I ordered from RVO but chose to have it sent to a friend in the UK instead of directly here to France as the shipping was £40! My friend then popped it in the post to me for £8.40 and over a month later it has not arrived. This is the story of What the postman didn’t bring. The worst bit is the adapter was supposed to free up the 1.75” tripod that came with the EQ5 mount. This tripod was then going to have my AZ5 visual kit on it instead of the wobbly tripod supplied. I am always just one step away and £100 out of pocket. None of this is the fault of RVO I should add. Marv

I don’t agree with that at all so I moving the Dobsonian that wasn’t even in the last top three to the only spot. No1 John Dobson, you absolute ledge. I would have loved to have met you. Doing what you did and not looking to make a buck! How the world should have learned your lessons. Some have of course but very much in the minority. I for one started this vote with the idea of finding the most historic scope but just like all those programs on tv I am buying a Bugatti and moving to LA. The light pollution is awful though. M notice I have cut my name down to a letter like Prince. The LA life will do that to an astronomer.

I am thinking the same thing as fozzybear. I have that mount but the goto kit so I was reluctant to post. Your first vid clearly shows the mount motors working so I don’t think you have an issue. I am presuming with this motor kit you find the object with the clutches off. Lock clutches and center objects with the knobs then use the controller to follow the object. One question? I don’t do anything internet based except this place. Is it normal that your videos are YouTube? Most people on here from my experience put up a video without a third entity involved. Perhaps this is how it is done now🤷🏻 Marv

Sorry #Celerondon but the voting has closed. Your provider may still charge you for you call. The voting requirements were that Gals frac and JWST were excluded, I assumed they would distort any voting as first the most obvious and the last being the most recent so also the most obvious. You mention a cynical judge in your carefully worded but sadly late reply and I have to agree as judge and judicator of this vote that I am cynical and do not agree with results at all. I have decided to scrap the vote! I now declare the winners. 1/ Telrad 2/ Red dot finder 3/ Tasco small starter scope. Just so you know there is no corruption or voter fraud on my part, my suggestion did not win.

I have decided to call the voting to end. Please do not vote after this message as you may still be charged. In third place The Hubble Space Telescope. In second place Herschel 20 In first place by just one vote The 100” Hooker. Just in case anyone wants to know The Dobsonian was the best of the rest and with all the telescopes on Hawaii, only one gained one vote. Thanks everyone for voting. Marv

Don’t use up your valuable time, unless I am wrong of course. 46P Wirtanen does not appear to have a longer name. Iwamoto is C2018 Y1 Iwamoto. Panstarrs appears to be C/2017 T2 PanSTARRS. So if I am not mistaken ( please wade in) the Panstarrs observed 17/07/2022 is C/2017 K2 Panstarrs. Records complete and actually ZTF is my eighth comet. How the time flies. M

I have been thumbing through my Astro diary after observing Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF. I thought ‘that must be my fourth comet’. However it is my seventh, possibly eighth since 2019. My first was 46p Wirtanen the full title I will try and find in other resources. I need help with the following. I would like to know the full titles for the following comets to complete my records. Iwamoto observed 13/02/2019. Panstarrs observed 13/04/2020 just a few days after C2018 W2 Africano. I look back to my earliest notes and can’t believe the lack of detail. I haven’t even noted constellations🙈 I have an entry for C2017 K2 Panstarrs dated 17/07/2022. Could this be the same comet? I doubt it as they are more than two years apart. A big thank you to anyone who can give the full titles of the comets and clear up the question of whether the two Panstarrs are the same. If they are not, I am up to eight. I promise I am keeping much better records now to prevent a repeat of this in the future. Marvin

Not sure I completely understand your last paragraph. But I was under the impression that EEVA was actual observation in real time using a camera to stack an image to be observed there and then. I personally don’t think it is a case of good enough EEVA and good AP. They are two ways of using modern technology to observe real time or produce a picture. I am pretty sure that one day my eye sight will not be as good as now and the love of actuality observing could be extended with this method. The EEVA section on here I find fascinating. Marvin

I have mounted the little thing on a leftover Orion EQ2, which I am giving to my friend John. It is not a good mount at all but I have shimmed everything including leg pivots and even filled the legs with dry sand! Anything is better than the spindly thing it came with and it means John has slowmo controls for the first time. John has also committed to replacing the diagonal with an Artesky unit and purchase an 8-20 something zoom EP. I hope this gets him out even if it just Lunar every now and again. Marvin.

The Celestron is excellent optically but you need to upgrade the diagonal, put an RDF on it and buy a few EPs or a cheaper zoom. The tripod it comes with is wobbly rubbish so by the time that is all sorted you may well be able to but something better for the money. For photography I wouldn’t recommend it at all. However…… the end of the focus draw tube has a photo thread that accepts my Nikon t ring! next clear night I am going to put it on my guided eq5 with a dslr and see what I capture of Pliedes or M42. Marv

I am touched by your input. The night sky is something I cannot put into words. You have your experiences with your scope that are as valid and real as anyone else. I hope you have clear skies and I am sure you will enjoy them as will I. Marvin