ScouseSpaceCadet

Keeping fingers crossed for very early on Tues.There's a Callisto shadow transit to catch at around 1am between the houses and I'm off that day... 🤞 Congrats to those who recently dodged the clouds! 👍

I had a smashing little oil radiator but having never camped using electric, turned the blinkin' thing off to save leccy. I didn't need to there was loads left in the meter! 🙄

The wind went straight through me. Horrible. That was my first cold camp for a long, long time. Lessons learned!

3.2mm is likely too much for your f6.5 achromat. The 5mm I'd go for it. I've owned the BST 5mm for a couple of years. It's a nice eyepiece for the money. Although a decent barlow and a 10mm will do the same job more comfortably and you have the 10mm to use alone. Or instead of a 10mm you could go for 8-9mm ep. The 8mm BST is popular and I like mine. Trying to squeeze out maximum magnification doesn't really work. It's a common mistake newbies make, including me. At f6.5 you will likely introduce chromatic abberation into the view. Unless seeing conditions are perfect, the view will wibble wobble (that's the proper scientific term honest! 😀) . Brighter objects, Jupiter for instance, will just wash out and you will lose detail. Also if you're prone to floaters then you will have those to contend with.

As above "budget" is slightly vague. Although I'd consider anything up to £50 to be budget. For instance, new Astro Essentials 10mm and 32mm plossl eyepieces plus a BST three element 2x barlow will cost approx £100. Those will give you 66x and 20x. Adding the barlow, 132x and 40x. A realistic range of magnification for a 4" aperture f6.5 achromat. Enough range to enjoy star clusters at low mag to seeing decent lunar detail, Saturn's rings and Cassini division plus cloud bands on Jupiter.

Deffo climate change. Spring, summer, autumn and winter - clouds and flash flooding. The only variation is the temperature!

Sunday 27th June at 3am. A 4" frac, wobbly seeing, Jupiter and Saturn. Even the binoculars have stayed in the bag since. 🙄 There's slug trails on the accessories bag and the cat's finding it rather comfy too... When I were a lad summers were long, sunny and hot or is that my memory playing tricks?

This year I've yet to witness one NLC display. ☹️ Last year was great, but mostly at dawn and a 9-5 job now has put those adventures to rest. 🙄 At least there are great photographers on here to provide lovely pics. 👍

Yes please! I bought a winter sleeping bag after freezing my nuts off in March 2020 in the Peaks that needs a run out. 😀

Not chilling, although pics like this are a reminder I'm wholly insignificant in size and life span. The vastness of space and time is as fascinating as it is incomprehensible. Even our solar system is so huge it's quite hard to fathom. I take great delight in explaining to buggles they're standing on a rock spinning at 1037mph, orbiting the sun at 67000mph while the sun drags us around the galaxy at 450000mph. Even those numbers related to our little corner of space are mind boggling. I'd say when viewing space pics or even when looking up at those DSOs, be thankful you have the opportunity to do so. Most previous human generations were clueless and if we evolved later, universal expansion would reduce what we can observe.

Unfortunately despite the agreement here a dedicated amateur astronomy programme would win our hearts, we all also know the real reason the the programme has diversified somewhat over the years. The BBC need to justify the expense of airing what I've no doubt what would be considered by most licence payers to be a niche programme. Without the diverse topics covered, the viewing figures would go down further and the longest running science programme on TV could die completely. The rockets and cosmology hook the casual viewer who may not be so interested in going outside into the cold and there's more of them than us. A rubbish situation I know, but with the competition from streaming services I see no change for the foreseeable. What I would like to see is Pete and/or Paul fit into their probably busy schedules a Youtube channel dedicated to amateurs. The BAA and RAS would I hope be supportive. A trial run would be interesting. Looking at other channels, there is potential for tens of thousands of international views per month but that would be a medium term goal.

+1 A great little YT podcast watched each month. The banter between Paul and Pete is quite funny at times too. 👍

Besides solar system objects, the comparatively narrow field of view and long focal length combined with decent aperture should be great for doubles, globulars and planetary nebula. Install an app like Stellarium or Sky Safari and see what objects of those types are up at the times you will be observing. Start with the 23mm and swap to the 10mm once you find the targets. Some will benefit from the higher mag. Others less so. Put the 4mm away in a drawer.

Hmmm. The plot thickens! 🧐

Doesn't for me? The button opens https://inter-static.skywatcher.com/downloads/synscanpro_windows_11912.zip and the download appears like magic.

http://www.skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/ The manufacturer's support page shouldn't be "well dodgy". 😉

The 8mm BST gets a thumbs up from me too. It's seen action in 8" f6 and 6" f5 newtonians, 120mm f5 refractor, a 102mm Maksutov and 102mm f7 refractor. It won't be replaced any time soon. The 15mm did the job too. Only replaced after being seduced by an OVL 16mm 82° Nirvana-ES that is a very worthy replacement. I took a punt and several weeks ago ordered an Altair Lightwave 9mm LER 1.25 inch Planetary. Early this morning was the first use on the gas giants through the 102mm f7 refractor and I must say it was superb. Seeing wasn't great so high powers were a bit mushy but the 9mm saved the day. I'd previously used it for high power lunar observation via a GSO 2.5x ED barlow and the 9mm delivered. I'm tempted to try the Altair Lightwave 5mm LER and see if it out performs the current BST 5mm.

Very nice... My eyes keep being drawn to the massive focus wheels. Original or an upgrade?

Epic. 👍

They're on Amazon at the moment with the 20% off voucher = £400. A decent price for an f7 80ED if the scope's as good as people are saying. https://www.amazon.co.uk/SVBONY-Refractor-Telescope-Focusing-Achromatic/dp/B086ZGHQCB/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=sv503&qid=1624552544&sprefix=sv503&sr=8-1

Same here. Bortle 7/8 SQM 18.84... Those rare but very welcome fantastically clear nights counter the lp somewhat. There's plenty to see from the urban jungle.

Don't touch the primary (big rear) mirror. Loosen off slightly the three collimation screws on the front of the secondary (small) mirror and in turn, tighten each of them a touch until the central dot on the primary mirror is in the centre of the ring you can see. It's that easy.

A single lunar frame taken with a Canon 450D & Altair Starwave Ascent 102ED mounted on an AZGTI. Actually taken in May and forgotten about. Very lightly processed - A little cropping and a bit extra saturation. I know this type of image is child's play to most here probably, but I was secretly delighted this week when a work colleague saw me messing with a version of this pic during lunch, she was so (easily) impressed, she sent it home, took it to a print shop and had it framed!

The site is book marked. My camping trips this year are near St. Asaph, in North Wales, Ravenstonedale in the Yorkshire Dales and near Craven Arms, Shropshire. I may try this one if I get a free weekend. Thanks.

Are you sure that's not a borrowed Hubble image?! 😉😀 Brilliant. 👍