Marvin Jenkins

8 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Well, that certainly "Taks the Biscuit"!!😂👍

Looks a great display piece..with a bulb at the objective end it would make a great reading lamp😋.

Kudos to your very talented wife!☺️

Dave

PS: A nice wooden handle on top would look great too!

I think I have heard about you and this handle thing🤣

Sorry for the back to back posts but found one more picture but I couldn’t add any text. I have to say though the mount is very wobbly!

A Christmas present from my wife. All wood construction with plastic lenses.

I make it a three cm f10 frac with pirate trimmings. Even though the lenses are plastic it does actually work and has a variable focal length by sliding the ep tube in and out of the main body.

Marv

I found the Open University were very good and did a range of free courses to get you in the groove.

Marv

7 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

The Geminids is one of those showers I can usually see from my urban garden if the sky is clear. Not this year; rain, cloud and then early hours fog stopped play but I'm glad you got to see them. 👍

So sorry to hear about your weather, it has been horrible down here up until last night. I normally hate the meteor shower alerts but this one came true!

I have done a good few meteor showers for no return but just by chance, last night was great. Seems it is a roll of the dice.

I was out at 5pm and the dreaded winter fog was no where to be seen.

I took my 130 newt out and didn’t use as  the meteors were coming in sometimes two to three a minute.

Just stood in the cold taking it all in. A couple of really bright colorful ones too. For once I really could tell where the radiant point was.

Marv

54 minutes ago, callisto said:

You'll have to browse through Dave Bryant's site  http://www.spacerocksuk.com/

⚠️WARNING!...Very addictive 😂

Looking forward to getting it under the microscope tomorrow. This is the start of the collection as a little bird has told me a skeleton pallasite may be on it’s way for Xmas.

Marv

Rock from space! Actually FLO, but from space first. NWA 869 Chondrite sliced and my first ever meteorite.

Still my birthday and what do you always get on your birthday? Socks!

On 01/12/2021 at 22:00, Marvin Jenkins said:

Turns out it is my birthday. Best birthday ever.

I have no intention to bump my up or run over anyones entries here, but I have been gob smacked by these books. I have seen so many + points in the past but I just didn’t get it.

I had a rare night of clear skies but I chose to read through the books instead! Joking, I had a cold”.

They are an absolute inspiration.

Marvin

Turns out it is my birthday. Best birthday ever.

So do I. I have always thought those prominent bright stars should look exactly that.

M 

Is the author really called Storm? If I had that name I would change my sir name to ‘In a teacup’.

A big warm welcome from a member who has a brother residing in Melbourne. Visited a few years back, very nice place.

Marv

On 22/11/2021 at 10:35, irtuk said:

As I am entering my second month of 100% cloud cover I rather wish I had chosen to study the buggers

I bought a book about meteorology. Seems clouds are more a part of Astronomy than Astronomy. You are going to see more clouds than stars so you may as well learn about what is in your sky most of the time.

The night sky needs to be understood from the perspective of an earthbound observer. Weather is going to be your biggest God.

Marvin

2 hours ago, John said:

This thread has more mentions of Tasco than any I've seen on SGL for many years !

Tasco, Tasco, Tasco,  three more and if you say them really fast one will appear😂

Orion 130 short tube on an EQ2 mount bought for me by my wife five years ago, after moving to a dark location.

the OTA is great, the mount is awful. Touch anything and you need to send it a letter by registered post before it settles down.

Despite the mount I saw mind blowing stuff. The best bit is my diary. First five nights completely clear, not a cloud and I am moaning there is no moon!!!!

How the times have changed. Marv

The wine I drink melts the nose off your face so no need for a receptacle.

Joking aside I do like a Sauternes with a good blue vein cheese on special occasions. Thankfully no one I know likes white wine so I have it all to myself

Marv

6 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

The golden rule of camping is to remember that any fool can be uncomfortable.  Even on six week long cycle tours my camping was in comfort. Good mountain tent, the right clothes, Thermarest mat and seat-converter and (very important) a glass drinking vessel for the wine!

lly

I always assumed the glass drinking vessel was the bottle the wine came in🤣

My garden is covered in heavy cloud and starting to rain. The weather people say this is at least for a week. The estuary birds Lapwings have come inland so for once the weather people are right.

I don’t think it is a question of home or away. You have to do what you need to do. We all know it is not just a cloudy week or two. It is the timing! I have had virtually no night skies clear unless they are on full moon.

Remove the weather and the phases of the moon we would all be smiling. Do you think the moon and our planet and our weather are linked somehow 😂

If you can improve your skies by travelling, then do so. What do you have to lose but a few cloudy nights.

Marv

Just goes to show I shouldn’t believe everything I read. Apologies if I have offended you Barbarina.

Marv

I am just going to go outside, look at the clouds and get depressed. No problem with focus here.
M

10 hours ago, Epick Crom said:

Hi Marvin. Nice report, I have been watching Jupiter and it's moons inch ever closer to 45 Capricorni every night. Interesting as 45 Cap is masquerading as a fifth Galilean moon! 

I would love to have more than one night in a row to see the orbital progress and especially in relation to any back ground stars but the weather…….! The incredible alignment and almost perfect magnitude had me wondering about that fifth moon.

How is the Astro from Perth? My brother lives in Melbourne and is a citizen now but lives right next to the Stadium so doubt if he has seen a star in years.

Marv

1 hour ago, yuklop said:

Its nice to hear of more such mounts still in the wild. By all means dump photos here, and don't worry about hijacking! If they are in the same place, it just makes it easier for future searchers.

Regarding AWR vs onstep. I have thought about keeping the AWR system and I may well set it up with the AWR first, since it'll take we a while to source and solder the onstep. There will be inherent backlash from the gearbox (although I have to say it is a very nice gearbox!), that onstep won't have and also, onstep is just so good. I have onstepped my LX200 mount, and really like how the system works, now I understand it all. And really, once you've onstepped once, it is a fairly simple conversion. 

I am just excited to get this mount installed, so main decision equipment-wise is whether to defork the Meade 12'' LX200 Classic, that is installed now, or not. I should, as its a lovely tube, but on the otherhand the whole onstepped LX200 works so very well, and was such a lot of work to get working that well, it seems a shame to defork it. I'm sure I can pickup another already deforked 12'' OTA at a decent price and keep the system I have whole for me or someone else in the future. 

Time will tell.

I am so jealous of your decision conundrum. What an awful place to be🤣

Marv