vineyard

Wow!

Yep I jinxed myself - raining here now as well  - but glad you saw them too @Luke (independent corroboration otherwise it would be like the fish that got away ) 

Looking v good today in H-alpha - some beautiful strings of prominences.

Cheers

I noticed the same clear skies & took a quick peek via the Telementor & a 16mm O and 10mm O.  Couldn't get both in the same FOV (long f/l I guess) but they were relatively close to each other.  Will try faster wide-field scope and an 18.2mm Delite next time 🤞🏾

The belts were nice & visible and I thought it looked like a moon was almost kissing Jupiter (on the left hand side of the planet as seen through a refractor?)  but I didn't have time to look longer - darn.

Fingers crossed for the 21st!

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Been waiting for this for 10 days..

Feels like Christmas!😊👍

Vintage Carton Japan 60mm F11.8 refractor in complete, mint condition with EQ mount, finder, eyepieces etc.. imported by first owner direct from Japan.

Dave

Now that is a very elegant scope.  Congratulations & well found!

Thanks both @Stargazer33 & @pete_l v helpful.  I also spoke w Pulsar about base depth, and they recommended 60cm depth, so that's what I'll go with.  Cheers all.

17 hours ago, Luke said:

Very nice! I was close-ish to getting a solarscope at one point, I should have gone for it! I have very rarely regretted buying quality.

That's my experience too - quality holds value, and stuff like Solarscope etalons will always re-sell.  Never too late?

41 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Terrific images Vin. Another Solarscope lover here. Had to take a deep breath before investing but it’s been so worth it.

Thank you!  Yes re the deep breath...and yes too on it being worth it - every time I look at the sun through it, its just breathtaking.  Can't imagine what it'll be like through a DS setup (your feedback on your set was actually v helpful in nudging me!).

11 minutes ago, richard ashbee said:

very nice thanks for sharing, what scope / camera have you used for these

Hi Richard, thanks.  The camera is an ASI178MC, but I want to swap to an ASI178MM b/c I prefer lunar & solar to planets so the mono is better for that (more resolution than the colour).

For the solar bit, I now use a Solarscope SF-50 front-mounted etalon on a little widefield scope.  The SF-50 is amazing. I started with a Lunt 50 and enjoyed what that showed me - it was a great starter solar scope, but I found myself frustrated by its limitations.  Anything more than the SF-50 is unaffordable (for me anyway) - even the SF-50 was a b-i-g stretch involving lots of kit selling...but it has been absolutely worth it.

Cheers,

Vin

Hello,

Here are 4 different versions of the same image (JPEGs to reduce file size).

Stay safe,

Vin

Hello,

Hope all safe & well. So it looks like a pier is a go. No room for ROR, so it will have to be open-air.  I'll share the journey on this thread, and start with Qs.

The current mount is an HEQ5Pro, but perhaps eventually that might be upgraded to something beefier (but not by much).  The kit that would be on it would typically be a 4" frac, but perhaps in the future that may go up to 6-8".  I use a Pegasus UPB which connects onwards to the mount, the cameras, dewstraps, and backwards to the laptop.

1.  The concrete base.  I'm thinking a square of 90cm by 90cm, but how deep would it need to be?  I think I remember reading a SGL thread that as shallow as 6" (so long as that is below the frost line) can be sufficient?  Would that be cutting it too fine?

2.  Aesthetics will be important (as part of the successful negotiation ).  Right now, I'm leaning towards a Pulsar (Todmorden is a no-go unfortunately).  I suspect I will need to put a pier extension on top of that, with the mount on top of that.

3.  There'll be 12V electricity running to about 60 cm away (all-weather plug points).  Ideally I'd like to run a data cable in to the same all-weather power board, and from there into the house, so that I don't need to use wifi.  But what is the longest that a data-cable can run?  (I'm a bit confused about powered vs unpowered data cables).  And for the data cable jack that enters the house: is it like an old-fashioned  telephone point that I can then just run a USB cable to my laptop?  Or would it better to use Powerline adapters to connect the data from the pier-side to laptop-side?

4.  For all weather protection, it'll probably be an inverted old laundry bin (thin wood), with a Telegizmo 365 cover over the top of that.  Insulate the inside of the laundry bin.  Leave the bottom of the cover open enough to let it ventilate.

I'm sure I'm missing things in this cunning plan?

Cheers & stay safe,

Vin

That looks like a combination you are going to have a lot of fun with!

Those - actually not just those but all your - images are stunning. 👏🏾

Congrats & thanks for all your help & tips John - they are much appreciated - here's to another 15 to come  

Hello,

Here are some HA & WL images from 1st December.  The processing could be better, but it was just great to spend time watching the Sun - it's really sparking up.

Cheers,

Vin

I missed this when you first posted it.  Thank you for sharing.  Not only was it clearly great viewing, but you really evoked things v well.  Yes simplicity is great! 👍🏾

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

When you have such scope - you can have the best of both worlds. For DSOs and resolution when larger aperture is a bonus - use scope at full aperture.

Want to have the same color correction as Telementor - use aperture mask and stop down lens to 60mm - you'll get equivalent aperture and F/ratio and hence color correction.

For example, I can easily stop down my 4" F/10 to 66mm and F/15, to get specs for "classic" achromatic refractor.

I did this on my short focal length refractor. Want to see color free images of planets (up to x80-x100)? - use 2" opening on lens cap. With my StarTravel 102 F/5 that gave me 2" (50.4mm) F/10 scope. That is Conrady standard - CA ratio of 5 or more.

I'm going to try that w the Vixen 102M - there's a removable smaller lens cap which I guess makes it around 50mm aperture which would then be f20 - will report back when I can do a side-by-side - cheers!

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Great, aren’t they? Here’s an over boosted version to show them better. Probably looks rubbish on a PC but ok on my phone.

 

I'm not sure what it looks like on a phone but on a laptop it looks like an oil painting - pretty good!

That's a lovely report @Stu& what a Zeiss-geist!  I cannot get my hands on a T2 prism for love nor money but apparently they should be available from mid-Feb?  Of course there's always the Zeiss Baader T2 prism for about a GBP 100 more 🤨 ...must be patient.

That full disk of the moon is superb for all the 'tendrils' it shows.  Didn't have a chance to set up last night, but busy trying to get some solar in now.  If it stays clear tonight, I'm definitely on to Luna again.

Cheers!

Thanks Mark - that's v kind. Not a patch on some of the sketches other SGLers share, but hopefully w practice they'll improve.  I want to get to the stage of being comfortable using black paper (feels like there's nowhere to hide w that!).  That's a great idea on a hand-drawn full disk map.  I'm finding that sketching really makes you observe better - I notice & appreciate more things.  And the way the features change their appearance depending on the angle of sunlight is quite something.

Thanks too re those app suggestions - will check those out!

Cheers & stay safe

Great conditions last night until the fog eventually rolled in.  Stayed at 3mm on the Nag Zoom all evening - 280x was crystal clear & effortlessly sharp - even the floaters calmed down after a while, wonder if could have gone even higher?

Spent most of the time around Montes Harbinger (was able to easily & clearly see features as small as 3km across) & J Herschel areas. Some very poor sketches below (some relative placements could be better, esp the features at 2pm in the Montes sketch).  I've used quickmap.lroc.asu.edu to help identify features.  Is there a way (or an alternative source) where you can put in your location & time, and it shows you the moon in the orientation and w the terminator location as you would see it?).

Stay safe all.

That sounds like it was a good session John & the report really conveys the real-time pragmatism of going with the flow & still being rewarded.  "Sometimes less is more" - yep! 👍🏾

Thanks all. @John that table is v interesting - so I wasn't just imagining (or mis-remembering) it!

@markse68& @Stuyour various posts on the Telementor were v helpful when I was researching the swap offer.  I wouldn't be brave enough to take the scope apart like you did Mark, but luckily @sungazerhas looked after it so well, that there is no need.  Yes, I saw the eBay activity too - I wonder if the steamy price that the first one sold for drew the others out?

Stu, yes I won't be letting this go - especially after seeing that CA table.  I might tinker with it though  incl possibly putting some rings on it so that I can mount it on my driven SP for when I try to be brave enough to sketch (I somehow think a Telemator mount will be too rich & rare for my taste!).  The floaters were quite noticeable, but hopefully once I can figure out BV'ing this, then they'll reduce.  And for sure re the build quality - the thought that has gone into all the little things on the mount - it really is as smooth as butter, and the setting circles work (I had to learn the hour angle method but it's quite straightfwd & now I can get more or less where I want to get to!).

Here's a pic of the setup from earlier yesterday evening  v happy to be part of this club!

Stay safe all,

Vin

Hello,

I recently swapped my Primaluce 72ED apo w @sungazer's lovely Telementor setup.  Had a chance to sit with it & the moon for a decent chunk of time last night.  It was beautiful.

Being inspired by some of the amazing sketches on SGL, I thought I'd try my hand but am v-e-r-y rusty (don't even have proper pencils) - one thing I've noticed is that sketching definitely makes you pay more attention on what you are looking at.

Anyway, not knowing my way around the moon that well, I instead sat down at the scope w a 2nd hand copy of Cook's Lunar Atlas, and a handful of EPs (the 25-H & 16-O that came w the Zeiss, and a Delite 9mm & Nagler 3-6mm Zoom).

Spent time looking at:

• Copernicus, Fauth A, Reinhold, Mons Wolff
• Ukert, Pallas, Murchison, Triesnecker, Menelaus, Manilius
• Clavius, Rutherford, Longomontanus, Blancanus, Scheiner, Wilhelm, Heinsius

It was really nice. With the CZJ EPs, it was as if there was no glass in the way. Just so sharp - crisp clean pinpoint viewing, and really well framed. The Delite 9mm also held its own v v well - I think v much the same sharp details & subtleties as the 16-O, except w Luna filling the FOV.  I think the 16-O perhaps gave a better overall aesthetic, but to be fair w a LFL comparison, I suppose I should compare the DL9 to a 10-O to see if the higher magnification was slanting the comparison either way (how much does a 10-O sell for these days - oh ok maybe not then 😂)

I also took a Baader Contrast Booster filter with me but tbh I ditched it v quickly.  It really wasn't adding anything (in fact it seemed to be taking away from the image?).  The scope and the EPs were sharp enough straight up - and I guess w the exit pupil being quite small, it wasn't too glaring on the eyes at all - very crisp & cool.

I also played with the Nag Zoom a bit.  There were moments of good seeing when I could take it to 3mm (280x on a 63mm scope!) and it was still v sharp!  But most of the time I kept that at 5-6mm settings (140-168x).

Seeing the lunar maria and the subtle dips and rises and features (and scattered 'newer' smaller craters), and the bigger older craters, the little peaks within the craters, the shadows cast by the mountains, was quite hypnotic.  Need to figure out how to BV it now!

I'm seriously impressed & v happy w this scope.  It should be great for lunar.  The gunsight finder is easy & bang on.  The focuser is also smooth - no backlash.  The TM mount is butter smooth.  Fine control only moves you so far equiv to 30 mins stellar motion I believe, clearly less w the moon), after which you have to reset it, but for general observation that's not a problem.  For sketching I guess it would be helpful for it to be driven like a Telemator mount.

A really nice scope.

Stay safe & clear skies all,

Vin

(PS - I really want to do a side-by-side w the Telementor & my Vixen 102M.  From memory it looked like the Telementor had much better colour (I couldn't see any false colour on the limb or anywhere else) - and the Vixen is no slouch there.  So is it better glass, or longer f/l, or both?  When I looked at the limb through the DLT9 it looked e-v-e-r so slightly more yellow-ish in places...but I could be mis-remembering.  I say this b/c I subsequently came across this post on CN where the comment from Kevin Barker is intriguing and could be consistent w what I thought I noticed?  Only way to make sure is to do a side-by-side!)

Hello, I've used it w the flattener for widefield AP & am pretty happy with it.  The v helpful video that @blinky refers to is in this linked thread (along w some sample images I took).  There is a way of putting filters in as well.  Much cheaper than a Redcat, and the weight that comes w the SkyGuider Pro should balance the whole kit (it did for me w an ASI294MCPro). Cheers.