Ships and Stars

I'm thinking something along the lines of a simple but robust alt-az mount, almost like a 'dobson fork' for large binoculars. Even with my old AZ4/25x100 combo, the bins struggled to stay in place when going up past 45-50 deg. I've plenty of time at the moment to work on a design!

Mega tap and die/drill set - it may seem non-astro related, but this is going towards the construction of a tripod and fork mount for my Helios Quantum observation binoculars. As I may be unemployed in the long run, if the fork mount is a success, I'm thinking of making a few of these and gauging reaction...👍

Welcome from NE Scotland. You have some seriously dark skies your way!

Haha, I won't be selling the Morpheus! It's one of the few wide angle EPs I can use wearing glasses. My 300p is undriven, the 500p has GOTO, but the APMs perform well in both, I think they are an excellent bargain for the price and the quality seems up there with the best. I hesitated on the 9mm APM, but this time of year I find myself using it the most for galaxies and lunar views.

Perhaps I'll try one someday instead! Ouch, not a good impression...

Hi there, I don't know if the 100 deg FOV is your thing, but I have the APM 100degree 20mm/13mm/9mm eyepieces from Astroshop.eu which are a fraction of the price (£201-£235) as the TV Ethos line and are arguably the same or similar performance as the Ethos depending on who you ask. I have the 17.5mm Morpheus as well, it's a wonderful eyepiece, but I've barely touched it since getting the APMs. Tons of choices out there but the APMs are solid contenders. Besides the 100deg versions, there are also the flat field etc. Some great eyepieces that won't make you cry (too much) if you drop and break one! 👍 https://www.astroshop.eu/eyepieces/15_10/m,APM?sort=2&size=2 BTW, I'd love to try the ES 25mm 100deg EP some time, but it will be a while

PS the galaxy evolution article on Wikipedia is quite interesting, plus this was in the further reading section: Mo, Houjun; van den Bosch, Frank; White, Simon (June 2010), Galaxy Formation and Evolution (1 ed.), Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521857932 Thanks again Vliav & Stu.

PS if there are any academic texts on galaxies that anyone knows of, that would be great. I've downloaded the astronomy text from Rice University, the galaxy section is a good starting point.

Thanks, after this I may invest in a phone holder now for the eyepiece. I was using a 100degree APM which helped a lot. I tried a plossl and it didn't work very well, phone placement is much easier (perhaps not surprisingly) with uwa EPs. Fainter stuff of course will require a DSLR or dedicated astro camera, a route I might go down someday.

Does it have lock screws next to the adjustment screws? If these are locked down they will need to be backed off. I've only used a dobsonian, not a SC scope however. One thing about small fasteners or any stuck fasteners, you only get a few chances to loosen it before the head starts to round out. Make sure the hex key etc you are using is the proper size, am sure you realise that. If I have an internal hex round out, my next move is to gently tap in a torx head and see if that will grab.

Thank you! Going to read up on this, as a visual observer, I'm generally happy to just resolve some faint structure, the astrophotography opens up a whole new dimension. 👍

Thanks Vlaiv and Stu! Helps clarify some basics I've not fully appreciated when viewing galaxies as faint fuzzies, even through my big scope, it's only when looking at the excellent photos on here that I begin to think more about these things. I may consider imaging some day soon. I'll dig around online for more articles, Wikipedia is usually the first port of call but didn't see the link for galaxy formation before, shall check that out at home. Out for my daily walk if I don't get blown away, pretty breezy at the moment! Thanks again!

Hi all, some very basic or hypothetical questions here I can't seem to find online at the moment. I was just looking at an excellent image of M101 Pinwheel Galaxy here on SGL, and noticed numerous bright areas dotted throughout the spiral arms. Does anyone know if these areas are massive emissions/reflection nebulae or newly formed stars? Or a mix of both? Sort of like our Milky Way? I see some HII regions internally in M101 listed on Stellarium, but they don't seem to correspond. What is the difference between an HII region and a nebula? Can you have a smaller galaxy form inside a 'host galaxy'? Sorry for all the questions but thought I'd go ahead and put them in one post. If anyone knows of a good detailed text on galaxies please let me know. A fascinating topic that I've not delved into a great deal. Cheers all. (photo credit: Dr George Jacoby, NOAO, Kitt Peak) https://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0512.html

Excellent photo! Does anyone know if any (or all) of the pink areas in the spiral arms are emissions nebulae? Or 'star nurseries'?

It's bound to have an overall reduction on LP, how much is another matter dependent upon your local 'built' environment. In large urban areas the reduction might not be readily apparent due to street lights, etc but some large businesses or properties may have reduced light output and vastly reduced numbers of cars on the road can't hurt, but in more suburban/rural areas or adjacent to large industry that's quiet, it's perhaps that much darker as to be noticeable. I think the main advantage as mentioned above is greatly increased transparency though reduced contrails, jet and vehicle emissions and perhaps lower factory emissions. Less aerosols, particulates etc in the atmosphere. There have been quite a few articles comparing NOx levels to last year, and many urban areas globally have seen dramatic drops this year. Strangely, Bristol and environs were seeing higher levels than last year, while the east coast of the UK showed the largest reductions, perhaps this was due to prevailing winds when the quoted measurements were taken this year. We had easterly winds at the time coming off the North Sea, so presumably other areas in the SW have cleared up now as well. A bittersweet experiment really!

I just took these tonight by quickly holding my average Motorola G6 smartphone up to the eyepiece - SW 300p flextube (non-GOTO) with APM 9mm 100deg at c.175x magnification. It utterly blows away what I could ever manage with a full-frame 36mp Nikon D810 and 600mm tele lens with 1.4x teleconverter on a tripod with remote release. I find the moon tricky to photograph with a DSLR for some reason, very rare for me to really get a tack sharp photo over the years, and it wasn't for lack of trying, even tried my DSLR on a Baader 36mm using eyepiece projection and the mobile phone snaps are better.

I am assuming your scope came with 25mm and 10mm eyepieces, not sure what the 114/900 ships with. They probably won't be very good quality, a decent eyepiece that's not crazy expensive like the Starguiders are a good choice, says a 25mm and a 10-12 or 10-15mm for a bit more magnification when sky conditions are good. For wide angle eyepieces such as 68 degree on up to 100 degree the price can easily exceed what you paid for the scope, but have a look at the First Light Optics website to get a feel for what good eyepieces cost. You don't have to buy the really expensive ones, but generally the wider the field of view, the more expensive they are. I'd maybe get one decent BST eyepiece at the moment and make sure your scope is collimated - I use a laser collimator to align the secondary then a Cheshire collimation tool to make sure the primary mirror is properly adjusted. Good luck! There are loads of guides out there on how to collimate, it's kind of hard to explain in a post, but lots of guides and videos out there if you are not sure how to do it. PS lots of people have the big Skywatcher dobsonians - they are excellent for the money and the looks might grow on you, lol, they will show more and more fainter nebula etc the bigger you go.

A fair jump up in size and weight, but not unreasonable with a tripod or perhaps a monopod at a push. I just lean my elbows on my van bonnet, car roof or a wall. On the other hand, 25x100s are getting into seriously big territory.

There are some really nice Helios Lightquest HR 20x80s on a certain online auction website for £300 buy it now or best offer. They have been on there ages, probably because the listing is not very good (The title simply reads: 'Binnoculars'). They don't look like they've been used. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/binnoculars/184155808124?hash=item2ae08aa17c%3Ag%3A5GcAAOSwzG9eNYIb&LH_ItemCondition=3000 A saving of c.£189 or whatever you can negotiate. Always a tiny chance they are out of collimation, but that's just part of the territory and it's fairly unlikely, these are some robust binoculars. They are collection only, but I just arrange a courier (Parcel Force actually, they will bring the label and collect from their doorstep) to stop round as usually the people are tired of the item not selling (collection only doesn't sell well), have done that with my last two pair of bargain binoculars, 15x70s and some gigantic 20/40x100mm obsy bins. Just a though.

And you don't even really need a finderscope for the moon, just sight down the tube and then hunt around a little when you are close, just takes a little practice. The finder will show images upside down as well. A raci right angle correct image finderscope will run around £50-60 new.

Nah, don't chuck it away! Make sure it's collimated. The mirror needs to be cooled down to the outside temperature, or higher magnification will be blurry. The included 25mm eyepieces tend to be a lot better than the 10mm. Lower power is also sharper. I'm sure it's fine for lunar, just make sure everything is adjusted/collimated/cooled down. And don't try too much magnification, lower power to start with. Maybe later try a better high power eyepiece like a BST starguider eyepiece, perhaps 12-15mm. Then if you want to upgrade you can use it on your next scope. The atmospheric conditions need to be right as well, no high cloud, and if the jetstream is overhead it can cause scintillation or that boiling look through the eyepiece.

Mind-blowing, isn't it! I took one look at full-resolution, saw it was open license, and immediately took it on a memory stick to the print shop and said 'could I have this on your largest print please'.

By the way, I love this photo (it's the one I've hanging on my wall). A good way to visualise where/how big the HH is in relation to that part of the sky and the Flame Neb/Alnitak. Credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo, Oct 2010.

PS JOC apologies if I was explaining things you've known for ages, I get excited talking about the Horsehead and that's it, I'm away with the fairies 🤣

Hi JOC, No need to reply to any/all of this! I've written a small book here and you probably know a lot of this, I didn't realise how many posts you had until I hit enter! Barnard 33 or B33 Horsehead is a dark nebula and can be a very tricky one. Some astronomers have spent quite a lot of time trying to see it, sometimes years. It's kind of the 'crown jewel' of faint nebula and has an almost mythical status amongst many visual astronomers. It's so faint, unless you have a massive scope, it's more of a case of 'detecting' the silhouette, rather than actually seeing a nice dark cloud in the shape of a horse's head. To imagine a dark nebula, simply think of a cloud of black coal smoke from a old steam engine or an old diesel belching out a trail of black smoke, that's pretty much what a dark nebula is like. Most of the time we just can't see them in space (someone please feel free to correct me here anytime I talk cobblers please!) But in this case, B33 happens to stick out in front of IC434, an emission nebula that produces its own faint glow from ionized gasses, kind of like the principal behind the workings of a neon light, but much, much fainter. So that's the only reason we can see it is because it's silhouetted or backlit by IC434 pumping out this very faint glow. Astro photos are amazing and clearly show this in vivid colours we visual astronomers can only dream about. I have a 20x30" print of it and Barnard's Loop hanging on my wall in fact. To imagine it though a telelscope, think of looking at a randomly shaped bit of matte black paper lying atop an almost 90-95% matte black background, and that's sort of what the HH looks like, there is not much contrast at all. Then try doing this under starlight, lol. I've read somewhere it's possible with an 8" dob, but you will need really dark skies and get your eyes as dark adapted as possible and pick the right eyepiece magnification as Gerry mentions above, or just take a few different ones and try them. An observing hood or a parka hood is a big help for these really hard ones. I don't think an expensive eyepiece is needed, I've seen it through a cheap £25 plossl, but that was with a 20" f4 dobsonian at a dark sky site in the Cairngorms, which I recently measured at 21.80 to 21.85 SQM, so very dark. A decent Hb filter is pretty much mandatory. I have a 12" dob as well and just detected the HH with it from a 21.6 or 21.7 site, though I knew right where to look as I'd just seen it a few nights prior with the big dob. So I've observed it directly with a 20" dob, and 'detected' it with a 12" scope using averted vision. Try tapping your scope or moving it side to side very gently, the movement can tease out these very difficult nebulae, but that's all part of the fun and thrill of the chase even if you don't get it the first time, or the fifth. Either way, it's going to be a challenge with an 8" scope I think, but who knows, your own fully dark adapted pupil could be better than most folks whatever your age, and if you get a really perfect night, then it's game on. Another idea is to go to a star party or a local astro club session and see who has the biggest scope there and say hello and ask them if they've seen it (Hopefully they will say 'Sure, you want a bash?) Alternatively, you could make us all jealous and use a £4000 night vision tube with your scope and look at it plain as day from central London, haha. Either way, it's a fascinating nebula to talk about, and being able to see it is a real milestone for many observers. PS the Flame Nebula near Alinitak is a good indicator of whether or not conditions are good. If you can see the Flame Nebula, then you stand a very good chance. BTW, the Flame Nebula is arguably more interesting to look at than the HH! Cheers.