ScouseSpaceCadet

Booked. 😀 'er indoors can't come so just me, a 3 man tent and a crate of beer. 👍

Thanks for the heads up. I've been procrastinating about taking a trip that weekend for ages, so just tried to book on mobile using three different browsers but can't pick a pitch! I'll sit at the PC later and sort it.

If you need a butler I'm great at folding things and cook a mean Pot Noodle©. 👍 Enjoy your new home. 😀

Months have passed since I've had a good session and tonight promised much. Unfortunately the mid evening pristine sky turned, with wobbly seeing and so so transparency. Anyway, undeterred after two star aligning the AZGTI using Altair and Alkaid the gotos put each target into the fov of the Skymax 127s 24mm 65° eyepiece . Not that I really needed to use goto for the eventual targets to be honest. Starting with Saturn. The Cassini Division was just about evident but wobbly seeing kept me at mid-low mag so no atmospheric banding tonight. The moons Titan and Rhea were obvious. After Saturn disappeared behind next door's trees (grrr!) I picked out M2. The 7mm Nirvana-ES helped darken the background sky enough for the odd twinkle to pop but ultimately the view was as expected under Bortle 7/8 late summer skies, a fuzzy ball with a brighter fuzzy core. M15 next, more of the same but overall smaller with a tighter, brighter core. Finally Jupiter. Still in the SE and scraping house roofs, so not ideally positioned and combined with the sky conditions lets just say I've had far better views. Still, despite the uninspiring observations it was nice to get out for 1hr 10mins observing and find I'd not forgotten how to use the kit! The cat gained her astro wings, accompanying me on her first late night astro session. And I just remembered I've left the light shield tarp set up and locked up ... 🙄

The Skymax 127 has been pointing north since 10pm. Friday night, clear skies and gas giants appearing at a not too unreasonable time. I'm actually excited! 😄 Even the mop handle and taped tarp light shield is up. Is this really happening or a dream?!

There's some nice kit listed on the thread, however having tried a travel scope kit I discovered I couldn't be bothered! The binoculars kept coming out first anyway. So, if jollying under dark skies (excluding star camps when the kitchen sink goes) at most 15x70s, a monopod and trigger grip or if keeping things super light, hand held 10x50s.When away I can observe objects with binoculars an 8" newtonian would struggle to pick out at home.

Ahh... Texas... Cowboy boots, the Alamo, Longhorn cattle, Nasa and clear skies! Welcome. 😉

Bortle 8? Houston you have a problem... (Sorry 😄). Welcome. 👍

Welcome to an internet oasis of calm and joy (most of the time 😉)

I can't fib, it took me a good minute or two to get the joke. 😄 Its cloudy as usual these last few weeks here. Brechin is only five and a half hours drive so I'll get there for darkness! Friday and Sunday are promising... we shall see... The southeast of England seems to be getting all the good weather lately. At least us northerners have water though!

There are much better barlows out there that really do leave the stock bundled barlow standing. Obviously there's also a price to pay, however used bargains can be found. My GSO 2.5x ED barlow was £15 used and an absolute bargain. The same rule applies for most equipment. For instance my Opticstar PX-35C planetary camera (retailing at £99) was a tenner from Ebay. Far from the best out there but it got me going. Keep an eye out for BST Starguider eyepieces especially 5-15mm. They come up for sale regularly used as people upgrade to wallet busters. 😯

I had the same experience at Kielder. Truly amazing and through binoculars, sock blowing! The oval smudge was as big in the sky as the op's image. I'd recommend an Autumn Kielder campsite visit to anyone. The facilities are clean, but the site remote, so don't forget anything and wear long trousers! I'm considering a visit again this late September or early October, but to be honest the current petrol prices are putting me off the long trip.

You've opened discussion about those protests on a public forum, so one goal achieved. When passionate people protest, movements grow and action often follows. As much as I'm one of those watching tv and saying, 'Omg look at those nutters', I hope they continue. The world needs those, 'nutters'.

Daily police force sausage roll consumption between 10am and 8pm.

I *really* like mine... Enjoy. 👍

Referring to your final paragraph, solar and wind power across the globe is still massively outstripped by fossil fuel power generation, with the latter increasing significantly in emerging industrial nations like India. The causes of global warming are a cumulative effect and we cannot just take use localised heatwaves as a measure. In the UK alone across the year, temperatures are rising just enough to reduce snowfall in places snow was gauranteed each winter. Rainfall patterns are changing, leading to an increased risk of flooding and so on. The climate is changing rapidly. It's obvious to see and if climate experts are blaming global warming due to fossil fuel consumption, farming methods, deforestation etc then I'm happy to believe them.

If I'm lunar observing then the Skymax 127 on an AZGTI is great if you want to point and track without the faff of star alignment. Very occasionally I'll do some white light solar with the same combo. If a long session is on the cards then the Altair Starwave Ascent 102ED on a Celestron AVX is a nice match. The telescope feels rock solid on the mount. Polar alignment doesn't take very long and I prefer hands free tracking. Although back to the ultimate question. The telescope I've used the most these last six months is 10x50 (and 15x70) binoculars... Clear skies and free time just haven't aligned so the binoculars come out for quick sessions. Plus I like watching the birds flitting about and checking out the aircraft flying over so the binocs get used regularly.

Brilliant... It's mind blowing when one realises the densely packed stars across that image are tens, hundreds and thousands of light years distant from each other. My little brain can barely cope! 😉

Yes a very simple and well made chair, but if you're hovering around the weight limit it's not for the faint hearted!

I got one last Xmas but I'm scared to sit on it! So last week bought a new exercise bike... Hopefully this Xmas I'll be able sit on the chair without sweating every time it creaks... 😱

The latest version of Moon Atlas 3D is on my Android phone and used occasionally however it no longer seems to be on the Play Store...

This is tricky. Are you trying to satisfy yourself or your friends? Are they just along for the ride waiting for you to show them stuff? If so, you don't need more aperture. With patience, 4" - 6" under dark skies will provide an inexhaustable number of objects to observe. Increased aperture will obviously allow you to go deeper but, will a truss dob or similar actually speed things up so they get their eye in? Your friends need kit of their own. Three people with binoculars, simultaneously sharing an experience is more fun than one person trying to find objects while two others queue up.

Quick answer: https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/are-there-rainbows-on-other-planets/

Up here on the outskirts of Liverpool it's a very muggy 35°C. Humidity feels higher than yesterday and overall it's rather unpleasant. I'm working from home in my loft and a sweaty mess! Luckily there aren't meetings today, so I'm free to roam in just swimming shorts... I'm glad we're not in the 40°C zone!

2020 was a good year for me too. Luckily the weather played ball and on several occasions I enjoyed views similar to the above. Observing with two set ups together - a Skywatcher 150P reflector and a little Skymax 102 Maksutov punching above its weight. During a couple of sessions lasting several hours, watching Mars albedo features rotate into view was a treat. Fun with relatively cheap tiddlers. I'm looking forward to this year's opposition to try out the recently procured Skymax 127 on the red planet. A Mars 2020 night: Giles_B bide your time. Come late Autumn, weather on both Mars and Earth permitting, you should get better views.