Marvin Jenkins

I did make a solar filter for my newt some weeks back and I haven’t seen the sun since.

I may well have broken the sun too. No solar activity either.

M

I am using the force but the weather is getting worse. Perhaps I accidentally moved to the dark side!

M

WOW. So when it is not made anymore off the back of comments like this, how are you all going to see it on YouTube? If it is not made anymore.......

Guess we can all watch repeats of the great Patrick for ever more. Perhaps we can call it “The Patrick for ever more“

With nothing of educational value available on TV why are people on this forum calling for astronomy on mainstream tv to be closed down.

Endless programming about dating, dancing and baking and some of it on ice. How is it many of you, the fellow membership want this abandoned from terrestrial tv? 

Just watch an edit on YouTube! Are you kidding me? Next time any one of you moans about light pollution from urbanisation, or the lack of education of the up coming youth, look in the mirror.

You might not like the latest format and presenters, but the reflection In the mirror might be the least palatable thing on the menu.
 

Marvin Jenkins.

signature in full because I want SandN to continue to educate the up and coming not those already here.

I like weather descriptions, so here goes.... Ripping it down with horizontal rain. Followed by huge rain filled gusts of wind, blowing rain into anything with a vertical cover.

Drenched! Utterly! Localised flooding. “Standing water in fields, on the top of hills”. The latter lyric should be put to music.

How in this reality is South Wales a great site for astronomy versus my ‘here’.

If I ever hear a UK observer wax lyrical about ‘us southerners’ I will explode. The whole thing is a lottery.

Just to keep it on thread so the mods don’t hit me on the head, and andrew 63 objects, I hope a whole load of you get to see Mercury. It took me at least two years and now I have seen it four times and amazingly, pointed it out to my wife whilst walking our dogs. She said “that’s nice”.

My wife couldn’t care less, but I know she is six of the eight planets. How do I get her to complete the last two???? 
Marvin

It looks like a tumbling chain of galaxies. Really interesting capture. Boggles my mind to think hard about I what I am looking at in regards to distance, size and mass. Just a few galaxies in the palm of your hand, ridiculous.

Marv

I was just saying look at the dust lane in 3987 and you took the words right out of my mouth. Fantastic work as always.

Marv

Great photo and welcome. Great site here, good bunch of helpful people. If you have any questions you will always answers.

Marvin

Hi Jasonb 

I was bought a 130 newt on an alu eq2. It was too much for the mount with lots of wobble.

I have found that after trying everything to remove the shake (sand filled legs, packing washers etc) the wobble is inherently in the mount head not the tripod. Upgrading to a steel tripod is probably not the answer.

I now use my eq2 as a laptop stand. When I moved up to an NEQ5 pro the difference in what I could see with the newt was amazing with no wobbles.

There is no shortcut on mounts. For me it would start with eq3 for very small scopes  and EQ5 for medium scopes and onwards.

Marvin

I will echo #jiggy67 it will all become second nature after a few trips into the night.

The best thing is that you have not gone Goto with motors at the outset. You can simply place the tripod pointing north, unlock the two clutch knobs and move the scope around to where you want to point it.

Polar alignment and all that follows can be the next the next phase. Enjoy the night sky without added complications. Observe a few things, moon, bright stars, see where it takes you and upgrade from there.

Defiantly use this site as an repository of knowledge, but do not be afraid to contact your local Astro club. I can be certain you will have good people falling over themselves to help you and answer your questions.

Other than the night sky itself, the biggest kick most astronomers get is getting a beginner up and running. I have been on the receiving end and it will make me be a helper in the future.

Good luck and ask questions.

Marvin

I don’t normally comment on this sort of thing as I am sooo new to AP but I love that image. The definition really works. On an expert AP side I might be entirely wrong but I do tend to row against the tide in life. Good stuff, I would be well happy with that image hanging on my wall.

Marvin

Hi wbblefish, good to see the enthusiasm is still high. I noted an earlier post you made about the questionable idea of posting your newbie observations. I can say that newbie observations are often the most revealing and informative.

We have all been there at some point and the obvious questions are not something to shy away from. I now realise that posts like yours, charting your journey are of major benefit to the newbies right behind you.

At the beginning of the journey the last thing you need is endless stuff about eye relief and calculations regarding aperture and focal length, that will all become a lot clearer when you have loads of scopes and no more money.

I will say that I put a lot more currency in planning and opportunity over equipment, especially when starting out. Hard to believe but your biggest drawback is lack of knowledge not scope size. I do not mean that in a derogatory way, but we all learn the skies as we go. There are veterans that can see stuff in your scope you think impossible.

I have been at this remarkable journey for just three years and I have so much to learn and this forum has been a God send. However, when you can get on Stellarium or whatever you use and plan what is possible, it will become easier.

Just to show you how planning should be perfect I am 109 of 110 in the Messier list. Due to the lack of planning I missed M68 in Hydra so I have my fingers crossed for the future. So close but so far due to poor planning. It is a summer target!

Good luck wibblefish, I think with better weather you are going to see what you want.

Marv

Welcome to a great site.

Sit in front of the log burner with a dog laying on my feet.

Hi everyone, after spending a couple of hours yesterday making my first solar filter I got to observe our star for the first time at about 15:30 my time.

I am very happy to report that I saw my first spot which looked like a black figure of eight, along the equator but very far left just a short distance from the limb. There were other light structures by the spot and at moments of calm I could see some granulation near the edges.

I found the following picture on SOHO for today which is pretty much spot on. Sorry for the pun, that has probably been done to death in the past.

Marvin (new solar convert)

We got him from a rescue, so he was castrated as part of the deal. So conventional cloning is not on the cards.

I did think about DNA cloning but I fear his helix maybe alien.

Marvin snr 

DOG, not just any Dog but this dog... His name is Marvin jr and if you need to get up early he will oblige by silently walking up to the edge of your bed and lovingly sneeze snot into your sleeping face!!!

Despite the horrible wake up, he gets you out on the early morning walk (-4) as soon as you can see your hand in front of your face.

Walking up the lane with my wife I looked towards the brightening horizon and saw the most amazing fine crescent moon, then a small but very bright point of light lower and to the left of the moon, Mercury!

I pointed this out to my wife who unknowingly has now managed to rack up six of the eight planets and couldn’t care less. I also pointed out the inner most planet to Marv jr but he was as interested as my wife, preferring frozen puddles.

Not my first time with Mercury, but I always consider a naked eye view in freezing exceptional circumstances to be one of those rare moments in life.

Marvin and Marvin jr

Why do people question M1 as the founding object of ‘Charlie’s list of annoying objects’. If the comet confusion idea is real, how did Messier include M40!
M40 is clearly just two stars of equal magnitude and I fail to see how anyone could get confused and mistake it for a comet.

I remember my first observations of M40 and saying out loud, “you have to be kidding me”.

As for M1, is there any possibility that it was much brighter in the 1800s than now?

Marvin

As opposed to your arch business nemesis Wobblefish and Wibblewing Inc, which deliver very poor service.

Marv

Welcome G 

To sleep out under the stars is fantastic, just not tonight or I would die from exposure. Have a great time on the forum.

Marvin

Hi QM. I have an NEQ5 pro with a 150pds and do limited DSO imaging with a Nikon DSLR.

The SynScan upgrade kit is brilliant although the installation instructions were laughable.

I am limited to 60 second subs as I do not have any guiding kit as yet. I like the setup very much but tend to think that the 200p might be a step too far. I am sure the mount with a 200p would be fine for visual, but with guide kit and camera, maybe filter wheel might be pushing it too far.

I will say that my setup is troubled by a breeze. If it gets a bit windy then my stars turn to white tadpoles. The 150 is fair bit smaller than yours.

You have obviously had some success in the past, so I won’t say ‘no way’ but the 200 maybe pushing it a bit far. I have attached a pic of the dumbbell taken with mine.

Marvin

As an edition look into the Caldwell catalogue. 

Hi Capt Slog

What a great endeavour you have embarked upon. Already mentioned, lots of moon really limits DSO hunting.

Don’t forget that some of Messier’s finest are naked eye objects like Pleiades. I had to laugh to myself when reading your OP. You mention M1 being close by, and I thought you were referring to the Crab Nebula but then realised you meant the motorway!

Get informed about the phases of the moon if you are not already (I have a free app on my phone) and happy hunting. Also, be aware that some Messier’s are seasonal.  As you can see from my signature I am 109 of 110 and keep kicking myself that I missed M68 in Hydra. Now I have to wait till early summer and it will most definitely cloudy.

Keep up the good work

Marvin

Socks glorious socks! A late delivery from friends in the USA.

To prove I am not off topic, what about those old eye pieces? 
M

That’s interesting as I have been interested in photography since the film era. I still look at older lenses and think ‘I know it is old but it is not a multi lense zoom’.

I had a great 200mm Prinz prime lense on an old SLR and only wish I could get something for my modern Nikon. Slightly off the EP thread but that old school stuff seems very high quality.

Marv