markse68

On 21/05/2023 at 20:04, Sunshine said:

it will only work correctly if the module is mounted directly on top of the dob, looking straight up, I have a friend who mounted a module on his skywatcher dob but had it off to the side a bit and he had issues until he relocated it directly on top of the scope.

Not sure about this Sunshine? I had mine mounted at 45 deg rotation and it seemed to work ok- it recognised the rotation and the horizon on the phone screen was consequently at an angle and it was able to find objects just fine. Maybe the imu gets a bit confused at times but it still seems to work with the platesolving

Mark

2 hours ago, Elp said:

(developer has also released a camera version which plate solves). When I've got the time I will devise a finder shoe and phone bracket combo and will try it.

interesting- been waiting for someone else to do it. 

Mark

I don’t get how they can parent platesolving- it’s been around for a long time i think? Maybe just their method but it’s using 4 stars to get a finger print- other methods maybe possible? 

Mark

4 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

What is that in the background? looks like an alien ship touched down! you did notice that, right? 😅

i didn’t- pretty sure it wasn’t there- only revealed in the photo 😱 Nah it’s a chimney they had to “decorate” for planning permission i think 🤣

M101 was at Zenith- hard to zero in with starsense and as expected- vain hope of spotting it (anything) with a 6” scope from London skies. Oh well. Moon and Venus were very decent though. Trying out my new focuser- lovely  

Mark

13 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Wow that Tal is in for a treat, shows how you value the scope.

I do- it’s a fine scope and deserved a nice focuser  

Mark

This arrived while I was away- 3d printed base for the new focuser for my Tal. Works rather nicely and is “quick release” so i can store the focuser safely when not in use.

Mark

1 hour ago, Captain Scarlet said:

One of these came up, and I was curious. Nagler 11mm (de facto Type 1):

careful now- the old smooth side tvs are quite addictively collectible! Lovely old things 

Mark

Phew- that's a relief Magnus- I was a bit worried you'd be disappointed by the ff but it's great it worked out well for you. As I mentioned in pm I removed the ff in the end as although it was improving the edge of field in my setup, it was unfortunately vignetting the 16mm nagler fov and the field with that ep seems pretty flat anyhow

Mark

13 minutes ago, Telescope40 said:

Hello. This actually arrived yesterday afternoon and amazingly I got first light within the hour.  Lacerta Brewster-angle Herschel Wedge from 365 Astronomy. 

I took a decision on this as wanting to make full use of my Tak FS 128 on Mr SOL. Was getting good views with a Seymour filter. Remembered seeing a post a while ago from @johninderby who bought one for his Bresser 127 frac. He was happy with it's performance and if it's good enough for John, enough said. 

Rather wallet friendly too compared with other options.  It's a substantial bit of kit. I've used with and without a solar continuum filter and also with a polarizing filter. Great views. 

Only slight downside is that I cannot quite get native focus with my Maxbright binoviewers. In focus just a few mm’s short. Once I add a barlow nosepiece I'm back in business with the BV's. 

Anyway. Very happy with the latest addition to my kitbag.  ( Don't really do baked beans but Rice pudding - bring it on !!!!!! ) 

John 

 

Nice! one of these is on my list too

I’ve got the earlier LW tripod and fixed HD tripod- not the same as the current options but similar i think. The HD is enormous and quite ungainly for moving around but like you say- rock solid. The LW is a lot more manoeuvrable. I was using it first with a GM8 then a G11 with an 8” f4.5 newt. I think if you don’t extend the legs which you don’t really need to do for ap then the LW is plenty sturdy. My problem is the whole building shakes when trucks go by on the arterial road close by- no amount of tripod sturdiness helps!

Mark

The starsense app was developed by SkySafari for Celestron I think so we can only hope that one day they will be allowed to incorporate it as a plug-in into full blown SS- would be really awesome then with the huge catalog and ability to make observing lists etc. right now I run Skysafari on my phone for the lists and Starsense on an older phone for the finding. So 🤞

https://global.canon/en/news/2023/20230403.html

Not the postie- had to travel a fair way to pick this up- new focuser for my Tal 150p

Mark

On 27/03/2023 at 19:38, markse68 said:

well the erfle is branded Siberia so not sure if it’s really a Tal but it has the Tal look.

I think this confirms that Siberia does = Tal. Just different branding. Not mine but a rather colourful “Siberia” Tal 2 just showed up on ebay 

Mark

You seem to assume that your eyes are identical to everyone elses? I see some colour- it's very faint and doesn't exactly jump out at me but it is there in certain circumstances. I'm sorry you don't

Mark

Wow- looks enormous! Very very nice too!

Mark

On 03/04/2023 at 21:42, Littleguy80 said:

Nice! Interesting that he’s using a larger Newtonian without a filter. My instinct was that it would be quite bright and hard to make out detail. Definitely planning a go with the 10” dob now  

but he was observing at 2pm in broad daylight when Mercury was at 45deg alt so relative to the sky background it wouldn’t be so bright- I think that’s the secret with these inner planets- bit risky though. I looked at about 7 or 8pm and it was just a kaleidoscope of atmospheric dispersion- my uhc showed me a sharpish half moon outline but it was swimming in turbulent air

Mark

It looks more like a Vixen LV the way the body is drawn with the smooth rubber outer- wouldn't it have been a bit cheeky for them to put a cross section of a competitors ep up like that? The shorter fl LVs were Pseudo Masuyamas with Smith barlow elements from what I can gather though only supposed to have 2 element barlows whereas that shows 3?

Mark

That's stunning Neil- really sharp 

Mark

Thanks Paul yes something like that but as a self contained app- no internet connection necessary  

Mark

I've spent my astro budget for this month but I'll probably get them both next month  

I think there's a gap in the market for a really well designed Moon atlas app for phone/tablet where you have images based on these LRO images/model with realistic terminator, zoomable with every detail identified and more detail/identifiers as you zoom in. That would be perfect  . A much better version of what SkySafari offers which is ok but not great and awkward to use.

Mark

damn- so i need both then 😆 Thanks Franklin!

Mark

On 27/02/2023 at 20:23, PeterW said:

Uses the same LRO data as the 21st century atlas. My only grumble is the contrast/brightness level chosen can make some rima/wrinkle ridges hard to see. Look for rupes/rima Cauchy for example. The hand drawn ones do better here, but fail on the actual, realistic detail. 
the duplex is a solid, useful atlas to have.

Peter

Hi Peter, do you have both the Duplex and the 21st century atlas? How do they compare? I noticed that the 21st C has more pages yet the Duplex has 2versions of each page (refractor/newt view) so is the scale bigger in the 21st C atlas?

Mark

edit- just read your nice review on CN

after waiting months for a sh 1.25” clicklock to turn up in the classifieds, I gave in and bought a new one. It’s very nice. Expensive, but nice. It has 2 long pins that are pressed in against the ep barrel clamping it in place and forcing it parallel to the focuser bore with a 3 point contact- much like the Glatter Parallizer adapter which is also very nice. I like that it has no rubber grippy bits too.

Mark