markse68

I don’t think that’s astronomy specific Mark

couple more The best clear nights are always accompanied by a full moon The brightest best meteors always occur when you’re looking at something else through your scope (pretty sure that must be the case anyway ) Mark

good for serving canapés at star parties Mark

it’s stunningly clear and stable tonight from here too- counted 5 Platolets, Alpine rille is sharp and so much detail in other craters- tack sharp Mark

Jupiter and Venus near conjunction Through my 14x finder Venus through Nebustar at 200x. First time i tried the Nebustar (I) on Venus but I think i’m seeing some greenish markings on the aqua marine blue gibbous disk. It was swimming badly though Mark

The secondary is probably bonded to the hub with offset. If you get a sheet of paper and fold it so it fits between the wall of the tube and just touches the side of the secondary on the rear edge then move it to the focuser side, you should be able to judge by how much it is offset Mark

Bought this nice little tray from @CCD Imager a while back and just received a bracket from the printers to mount it on my diy alt-az mount- perfect for beer and peanuts (maybe eps and sketching stuff too ) and some custom size ep caps for my rag-tag pseudo-astroplan set Mark few hours later… 😁 and finally all my eps now have dust caps

I haven’t used my XWs for a while as i’ve been enjoying my light weight pseudo astroplans but I always thought they were very neutral with no real tone as such but with saturated colour when it’s there. They’re definitely not warm like my old Tal plossls and likewise not cold like the BCO 10mm that was quite a shock to me when i first got it- its sharpness made up for it though. I don’t have any other expensive eps to compare though Mark

If I had skies where I could see more than 10 stars in Orion, I think the idea of learning the sky would be wonderful. Unfortunately I don't and the Starsense explorer turns what would be a very frustrating time into a thoroughly enjoyable one I have starhopped on occasion and it is an enjoyable challenge but I couldn't do it for every target. Of course there are targets that I know the position of and can find easily without any aid but I don't always want to look at the same things Mark

on recommendation from our resident Mars expert @mikeDnight, all the way from America, I’m looking forward to this good read Mark

it was 2 layers of foam so 5 or 6mm i think but that was for my OTA which is likely different from yours Mark

I used a 10” aluminium pie tin off amazon lined with neoprene self adhesive foam for my 8” newt Mark

Hi Andrew, was it a desiccant dehumidifier? I understand that they’re better at low temp than the refrigerant variety but having bought a second hand one, taking it apart and discovering scorched, melted plastic parts inside, they do kind of scare me! Mark

I managed 3- one from work, one from home (bortle 8 ish ) and one from Ashdown Forest (bortle 4) last night and was surprised I could only see a few more stars (15 vs 10) from the darker site, but the moon was really glaring in that darker sky! Much more glare than i’m used to- now i understand why imagers hate the moon lol- from my home site it doesn’t make nearly that much difference with the light pollution washing out the sky anyway. Mark

Yea I think i see twice the number of stars through them than without- twice the mag and twice the mag Mark

haha- exactly! If I get an “ hmm, is that it” reaction I can’t help myself wondering what’s wrong with them Mark

Out with the Flamsteed last night in a freezing northerly but despite the cold it was a lovely evening spent showing several new members a few select targets and getting a few wows It was quite a low key turnout but those that came knew way more about what I was showing them than i did haha 🤣 Targets were mainly the moon and Mars- Jupiter was too low and mushy, Venus pretty sharp though. Started off with a bit of a disaster- set up my scope which normally holds collimation very well but none of my finders (starsense, reddot, raci) were finding my targets! Assuming it was collimation i spent about half an hour on Polaris trying to realign to the finders, but i think my finder mount must have shifted Managed to get it close enough and startest collimation seemed ok but will have to do it properly again today if i have time. Moon terminator was beguiling- some wonderfully detailed craters- one in particular stood out for its keyhole form- Torricelli. Don’t think i’ve ever noticed it before! Theophilus was magnificent with its dramatic trifurcated central peak but I kept getting drawn back to Torricelli and its surroundings. No sign of the new crater though Mars though tiny now was super crisp at 200x with some suggestion of surface mottling but no real discernible detail. Also viewed a few clusters- the double was surprisingly vivid and the Owl (bat!) was lovely as ever Oh and of course M42 and the trapezium nice and sharp- was able to make out the e star but not so confident about f. Had a few tries at Sirius and momentarily thought the pup might have materialised from the glare but not for long enough to be confident. Sirius was nice and tight though. We were lucky with the weather- clear from 7-11 when we packed up, frozen but happy Mark

Was about to post similarly Moon-monkey It’s a wonderful thread and anything to encourage more sketching has got to be a good thing 👍 Mark

should be close to the terminator tonight Mark

Japanese astronomers caught a lunar impact on Thursday- wonder if we’ll be able to identify a new crater? “I was able to catch the biggest lunar impact flash in my observation history! This is a picture of the lunar impact flash that appeared at 20:14:30.8 on February 23, 2023, taken from my home in Hiratsuka (replayed at actual speed). It was a huge flash that continued to shine for more than 1 second. Since the moon has no atmosphere, meteors and fireballs cannot be seen, and the moment a crater is formed, it glows.” Mark

Hi Jason, welcome! Bortle 8 here lol Mark

I don't think glass would slump at room temperature would it Mike? Mark

what diameter is the tube?

That’s a great idea Magnus- longer light path than an amici prism but if you have the focuser in-travel like you do it’s got to be better- larger aperture like you say and no diffraction from the prism roof 👍 Excellent Mark

I’m intrigued 🤔 and feeling very dense and unobservant 🤣 and trying to analyse my mind haha Don’t tell me though- I think i may need to look again on a bigger screen than my phone unless it’s hiding in plain sight. I did notice something odd in one of your images- are you using 2 diagonals to get un-mirrored view? Mark