markse68

Nice! Shall try to find them both tonight if it’s clear- thanks 😊

Wow Craig- incredible! (Doesn’t look anything like that through mine 😂)

There's some good stuff in there if you skip the ads- the Hale segment was really interesting. Thanks very much 

I’ve got my fingers crossed Baz- need to find that comet before it completely disintegrates!

It’s  been really poor here for past few days- I think the warmer weather is raising moisture from wet ground causing a haziness as the evening cools that means I can’t even see Orion clearly

8 minutes ago, Stu said:

Mine arrived just now, haven’t opened the box yet but looking forward to it! 👍👍

Mine’s still in its box de-viralling since Tuesday 😉

Still a bit orangey here Baz. Trying to figure out the name of this impressive crater 🤔

On 23/03/2020 at 07:54, Stu said:

SkySafari was bang on for me last night, this is the position for 10pm tonight

Hi @Stu, how did you manage to turn off the comet tail in SS? I’ve searched but can’t find a setting and it obscures the field stars. Think I’ve found it now anyway- very dim in a very light polluted part of the sky where I am and it’s so hazy tonight

12 hours ago, John said:

Thanks Jeremy and Dave,

I've just been observing Tegmine (Zeta Cancri) at 257x up to a stupid 450x - amazing with a clear split of the tighter 1.3 arc second pair all the way !

Just waiting for the Moon to clear the trees and rooftops. I'm keen to see what can be seen around that sliver of a terminator tonight.

 

 

 

I tried Tegmine a couple of days ago with no luck but last night I too got a perfect clear split. Ditto for a few doubles in Orion- Sigma, ETA, 32 and 52😊 And I saw the pup again! Still couldn’t find the comet though. Moon was beautiful too. Perfect seeing somewhat tainted by news stories.😞

Not sure why but I can’t see a few of your images on my phone John 🤷‍♂️ 

Is this Bailly (left) and what’s creeping into view to the right (north) of it tonight?

Snap 😉 I agree- Stu’s phone images are incredible. Interesting Stu got a green fringe and I got a blue one with my xw24. Yours is really nice too- loads of detail in there with the lower exposure 👍

1 hour ago, timwetherell said:

Same with Antares, quite difficult in the UK which is a shame because it's one of the most beautiful doubles!

I tried many times in vain to split Antares last year. Really looking forward to giving it another shot this year and hopeful of success with improvements I’ve made to my scope 🤞 But I don’t know if it ever really gets high enough for my skies

10 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

No joy for me Mark. I tried to split it. A bit optimistic of me with the 8"

Mines an 8” too Baz. I’ve found it seems to happen early evening just after it gets dark- for some reason the seeing seems to get worse as it gets colder 🤷‍♂️ And it’s not easy- I’ve been swapping eps and staring hard at it tweaking best focus for ages before I get a glimpse- literally willing it into existence 😉 I also found it useful to reference Rigel to get a feel for the spacing and positioning- the pup is about 4 o’clock relative to Rigel b’s 12 o’clock in dob view

Oh and I forgot the scope has to be perfectly still- I had to wait for lulls in the breeze to stand a chance

Past couple of nights I’ve caught fleeting glimpses of it again- it has to be the incredible clear skies we”re having courtesy of the virus

😂 probably not but it really looks like it- small crater near Schiller

10 hours ago, John said:

As usual I found the Pentax XW's excellent for lunar observing. The 5mm and 3.5mm are so sharp

When I had the 3.7 amd 4.7mm Ethos SX's I compared them to the XW's over a few months but in the end had to conclude that the XW's were the sharpest even in the centre of the field of view. There was not much in it but despite my love of hyper-wide views, the Ethos SX's went to new homes eventually.

 

 

 

I’m finding I see more craterlets with my 4.8 nag T1 than my xw 3.5 but that is probably just because the image is dimmer and less contrasts in the xw. I don’t have the xw5 to compare. 

You could use it for zesting oranges I guess or as a money clip?

I still haven’t seen the comet yet so 🤞 for that. Shame the planets aren’t up yet. Interested in interesting suggestions too so following 😊

Beautiful clear sky here in se London and it was a lovely sight. Can’t quite fit it all in even with my 40mm ep but it was spectacular anyway! 

Another night of fine seeing here despite the cloudy forecast and a bit warmer too and most importantly no wind! Took a few closeups with a compact camera- it's not much better than my iphone really but easier than holding phone to eyepiece

I can only see 4 and maybe hints of a fifth.

Edit make that 6. This is a cool challenge Stu- definitely needs patience  to see them. In the end my Nag Type 1 4.8 revealed the 6 but only after long hard looking. Surprisingly, higher mag didn’t help as contrast dropped. 320x was the sweet spot in my 8” f8. Now my eyes need a rest! 

On 30/03/2020 at 12:11, Chaz2b said:

Latest arrival from the East! My adapter so I can use any of my Canon EOS lens with an eyepiece, next purchase will be a correct image diagonal and therefore use it as a spotting scope, neat, and all for £12.99 delivered.

The only criticism is the release button is a little hard on your finger, looking into glueing a silicone button onto it.

The lens is a ROKUNAR 500mm mirror lens with a Hoya 72mm PL-CIR filter, another skip freebie! In very good condition at that!

I just did similar with the M42 Zenit lens @Space Oddities very kindly sent me 😊 Adapter is a Baader T-mount one so it doesn’t screw down fully and I’m having trouble finding reasonable cost thread adapter (they all go the other way!) but it kinda works.

Beware though- I picked up the diagonal from abs but unfortunately being a camera lens the back focal distance isn’t enough to reach focus with it in place so I’ll only be able to use it as a straight through wide field scope- which I’m looking forward to as soon as I can get a tripod out of storage....(don’t think it would justify as essential travel right now!)

There are a few moon map apps for phones Magnus which are quite good- they show real-time terminator position and identify key features. And you can flip them in settings to match scope view. I’ve got one called Moon Maps and another called Moon Chart on iPhone but there’s undoubtedly others and probably pc based ones too- I remember one with HD in its name?

Did anyone else notice the face peaking out of a crater? 

And this arc of smaller craters each with similar central peaks catching the light. I wonder if they all formed together in a shower of meteorite impacts?