markse68

This feature really caught my eye earlier on in the evening- would love to know how it formed as it presented a bizarre vision of a gigantic fish skeleton with vertical filaments catching the light! It looks like maybe something moving horizontal gouged a path between the craters 🤷‍♂️

1 hour ago, John said:

and then I was able to split Sirius at 240x and 300x while there was still some light in the sky. The faint glimmer that is the Pup star became somewhat more tricky to see once the sky was dark though.

I caught a glimpse of the pup again I think  tonight but not as steadily as the other night but the moon was again magnificent so all good 😊

Don’t you have sky safari Baz? Mine gives an alarm every time it peeps over the horizon- been tracking it past few evenings with the scope and a wa ep- I don’t think you stand much chance with much magnification by hand. Can see the solar panels though which is pretty cool. It doesn’t half shift!

Yes- for past few days- well since it first showed really it’s been fantastically clear and beautiful hasn’t it! Don’t know if it’s just the high pressure we’ve been in or  probably a combination of that with the significantly lower pollution but every evening’s been glorious.

21 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

What a spectacular lunation it was this evening

 

 

 

Tonight between clouds I explored the terminator region with my xw3.5 for 460x and the view was crisp and detailed- didn’t take any pics but spent a good amount of time on that crack. The longer I looked the more I saw- they say that don’t they 😉

13 minutes ago, John said:

Good one - sounds like your conditions were much better than mine tonight. Every time I've observed it with my 12 inch dob, even under the best conditions, the B star has glimmered faintly out through the glare that surrounds Sirius A. Not at all like observing a "conventional" double star (eg: Rigel) although the separation between A & B is about the same as Rigel and its companion.

I've found 265x - 318x the optimum magnification for seeing this. Pentax XW 5mm or Ethos 6mm. My 1st ever sighting of it (about 4 years back) was with the same scope and a 6mm Baader Genuine Ortho eyepiece.

I have spotted Sirius B a couple of times with my 130mm triplet refractor but it is more obvious (though still hard and not consistently seen) with the 12 inch dob.

You have done very well to get it with your 8 inch dob IMHO

 

“Lucky” I think John 😉

I’ve  had a few less than spectacular evenings the past month bemoaning not having much to look at what with  Orion setting earlier and my skies being pretty useless for dsos. But I’ve had to keep working through the cv lockdown so took my scope with me and have had just the most enjoyable 3 past early evenings of perfect skies and great seeing. The pup and starlink transiting the moon tonight have been the icing on the cake 😊

Thanks John, I’m convinced it was and confirmed with 2 eps- Sirius itself was less noisy than your sketch the seeing was so good and according to sky safari with a double flip it should look like this now which is how I saw it- unfortunately for some inexplicable reason Sky Safari doesn’t show Rigel b to double check 🤷‍♂️

42 minutes ago, Stu said:

I didn’t see it Mark, tried the Nag zoom up to pretty high power but no luck. However, your suggestion had me out in the garden at the right time to see this, which was amazing, so thank you for the heads up!

 

Haha- I was going to post about this too Stu- I was looking  at the lower part of the moon (lower in ep view) when a sharp white dot passed in front of it. Then another then another- maybe 5 of them. Figured it must have been starlink- first time I’ve seen them! Unfortunately I was quite tight in with I think a 10mm ortho so I didn’t see the trail but it was very strange and pretty cool 😊

53 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

I had a look at Sirius aswell earlier at X300 probably a bit to optimistic of me 😁 however it was very shimmery, I couldn't resolve it at that power. I might have another look later at about 150 or 200 mag to see if I can split!

I think it was a case of right place right time Baz- now when I look the seeing has deteriorated - the moon is shimmering and Sirius is back to its normal fuzzy shimmering and no chance. Earlier though between gusts when the scope settled I even saw it with my xf8.5mm- I’m sure it was the pup

11 minutes ago, Stu said:

Thanks Mark. I’ve got the 8” f8 out so if I can escape bath duty in time I will have a look. I must say Venus looked excellent just now.

The moon is achingly beautiful tonight too

@Stu check Sirius tonight as it’s super stable right now and I’m pretty sure I saw the pup 😃 If Rigel b is at 12 o’clock, the pup is at about 4. Using a 6mm ortho in my 8” f8 dob. Very faint but definitely there I think. Can’t quite believe it after trying so many times 😊

I’ve really enjoyed the past couple days dusk/early evenings offerings and now the moon has made an appearance, all the better- twas  beautiful tonight with excellent seeing again

2 hours ago, jimjam11 said:

Bike shops?????

At a time of global crisis what I really must do is go bike shopping...

Most bike shops do servicing too and if you have to go to work because your boss insists then probably better to cycle than get on a tube or bus right now I guess

Crisp even with my 3.5 giving 460x here Stu! Can’t make out any surface detail but the terminator is beautifully sharp and v.little ca. A perfect micro moon! This is so much more fun than the past few nights I’ve been out.... Starting to realise the benefits of a refractor though as the diffraction spikes are rather annoying! Going for Sirius now- wish me luck 😂

Venus right now is the clearest I’ve seen- sharp as a tack 

There’s not very much very interesting that I can find these past few evenings of gloriously clear skies from my location so set up this evening for early view of Venus and hopefully Uranus- needed a bit more height to see over the fence 😉 not quite night yet though 

I had a look at Venus last night with my dob too Stu- scope wasn’t well acclimatised but I had clear and quite extreme colour shifting going on- blue on the terminator and red on the limb. I put it down to atmospheric refraction as being a dob I shouldn’t really be getting CA?

Few holes to fill but I’m in no rush and hopefully have enough birthdays left - I guess I’ve committed to it now though  😬

Hi Azrabella, I have this ep- had high hopes for it but it didn’t really do anything that a similar fl plossl couldnt do other than colouring the image with a yellowish cast. I may give it another go but I haven’t used it in a while...

Yes it is isn’t it! Very steady seeing too. I was fascinated by the 2 little flashes of bright white on the terminator in Mare Imbrium- I think one must have been Mount Pico.

The Straight Wall was creating  a peculiar geometric effect too. And crater Moretus was incredibly 3D appearing to rise from the surface with almost vertical outer walls. 

Wonderul 😊

Hi Craig, good thanks I think- well actually it’s been such a long time what with the weather that I don’t really recognise the stars up there anymore... 😬

I haven’t noticed an issue like that with mine but I made the focuser base quite broad and to fit the tube closely, and I’m only using it visually so probably nothing like your load. Are you sure it’s not the secondary shifting? I check collimation with a collimating cap each time I set it up  in normal use position with focuser pointing out sideways and it’s seems to be holding collimation pretty well- past couple of times it didn’t need tweaking at all which is nice

A bit vintage now perhaps but I’ve read good things about them

On 06/02/2020 at 18:01, Spider-Man said:

 

Hi I have an opportunity to acquire for visual imaging, a 2nd hand (manufactured 2000) Russian TAL1 reflector telescope for about £60.  Is this a reasonable price,?

 

If the mirrors and other optics are good then I’d say it’s a bargain- sure if you hang around you may luck out and find one cheaper but it’s a lot of scope for the money 👍 The build quality is industrial and really a class above what you could buy for 3x that price new. 

On 07/02/2020 at 17:51, Jiggy 67 said:

I have recently fitted the moonlight CR2 Dual Speed Focuser to my SW 200PDS. The one I fitted has the standard 50mm travel.

...Can anyone recommend an extender or suggest any other solution?

 

There’s a German ebayer - “classic-telescopes” listing 2.37” moonlite tubes for about £30 delivered. A LOT cheaper than direct from moonlite! Or maybe you could adjust your primary mirror back a bit with the collimation screws if it’s just too short?

“Take a few moments to let your eyes adjust, then count the number of stars you can see within the rectangle made by the four corner stars. Don’t count the corners, but if you can see them, do count the three stars in the middle – the belt.”

that seems a bit of a strange statement- are there really places you couldn’t see orions belt?

Nice work Rusted! Is there something going over the outside of the tollok bush? They’re designed to expand inwards and outwards to lock eg a gear to a shaft- if you use them one sided like the image you’ll not get full torque nor concentricity but I guess you may not need either? Maybe there’s a sleeve or something missing from the image though 🤔