Barry-W-Fenner

I see that FLO have a used 4mm SW planetary eye piece £5 cheaper. In great nic apparently bar a couple of small marks on the barrel. Do I pull the trigger 🤔😁 Baz

Hi bingevader,I do have a x2 barlow but am not a huge fan of another lens in the optical chain. I do use it on occasion but would prefer a high power eye piece as my main go to option for splitting and globular. Regards Baz

They really have achieved so much. Incredible to think that if they make to to the next nearest star it will be in 40k years time. These distances are truly incomprehensible to try and get your head around. Keep going little fella! Excuse my ignorance but how much further until they reach the oort cloud?

I would be happy to increase the disc size of the planets and as pointed out by John I am hoping the higher power will help to locate the points of lights which are the planets moons.

Hi rwilkey, Thank you for the heads up, it is good to have a view from someone with experience with the 3.2. What scope did you try it in and what mag did it give you when testing? I do have the 5mm in my collection and I think I will be purchasing sometime in the 4mm region as per the suggestions above, however I am yet to have a read about them and make a decision. 😊 Baz

Hi gents. Thanks for the opinions. There is some nice looking eye pieces that have been recommended. I am not to bothered about sticking with the BST and am open to these suggestions. I was using the BST as an example as I am familiar with them and have an understanding of how they perform. I didn't think there was to many other options that performed as well for a modest outlay. Some of the examples given are still in my budget and look like they will be able to give high power viewing of globular and tight doubles. I will have a read up on about these eye piece later and will no doubt be back with more questions 😂 Baz

Afternoon all, I touched on this in another thread and would like some opinions on the 3.2mm BST eye piece. I have been enjoying trying to split doubles at the moment using my 5mm BST in the 200p this is giving me around x240 mag. Would It be of benefit acquiring the 3.2mm and achieving x375 mag? In clear seeing conditions will this help splitting tight doubles and provide a nice image? Or will I be better of with the 5mm and x2 Barlow combo. In my limited time at the eye piece I am not a huge fan of using my barlow and adding another lens to the optical chain. I would also be interested to know if the 3.2mm would benefit viewing Uranus & Neptune also. Any advise welcome. Thank you Barry

Thanks for the heads up Mark, I will check this out. Sounds like the perfect excuse to book a trip 🙂 Barry

That there is a thing of beauty! Excellent fit and finish

Hi Mark, Excuse my ignorance but i have no idea what is occurring in Gib on that date 🙂 - Google here i come... Baz

🙂 I really enjoyed my time over there. Beautiful weather and the scenery was stunning. The views from the top of the rock were spectacular. I would really like a holiday home over there. but that is pie in the sky 🙂 I hope you enjoy your time out there next week. Barry

I have a canvas of this on my games room wall. It is a very powerful image. Unfortunately it isn't a particularly good picture when printed on canvas, the detail is quite poor and I would like to have a high quality picture done to replace it. Baz

This pic gives the best view of where i previously had the rigel installed.

Hi all, Upon uncovering my scope last night i found that my Rigel finder had come unstuck and was on the floor. I was considering moving it anyway as I had it the opposite side of the finder scope which meant i was quite a large lean over the tube to view through it. Ideally I would have liked it between the focuser and right angle finder however this is not possible on an 8" dob. Any suggestions on the best place to mount the Rigel folks? Another point would be what did you use to stick it on the tube? I dont want it falling off again. In regard to using the Rigel, How far away from the lens should you be beofer you see the two red targets? I am roughly 6-8" back from it before I can see them. Thank you Baz

Is NGC1027 a nebula? I do not recall seeing it on my Sky Safari. Baz

Thanks Stu, Your help is appreciated as always!

I have mainly used Cassiopeia for star hoping to the local clusters which near by. I really would like to see a triple so I will have to pay more attention to constellation Cassiopeia - Sky Safari here I come in search of this triple... Baz

Just had a read through this and can confirm that in my experience the planets have looked just like the above through my 8" dob. Really accurate reading! Regards Baz

Very nice shot John, That is similar to how it is looking here. I am watching it slowly vanish into the blue sky with a cup of coffee. Fingers crossed we get to view it again tonight.

Oh my days, What is going on with this weather. Clear blue sky all day here yesterday, I was planning to get outside last night and have a look around for the 1st time in i dont know how long. Sure enough after the evenings chores are all done the cloud rolls in and down comes the rain all night. 😞 Baz

I must admit I find it a little odd that the app includes high trees, mountains and other objects that obscure your view of the horizon. I know you can change this to transparent but then it gets a bit disorientating. My vote is they keep the lush green grass and have uniform hedge row around the perimeter at a 2mtr height limit. That way the virtual birds still have nesting grounds and we get a clearer view 🙂 Baz

My wife also showed me this, I was totally bemused by the beliefs of this chap. I really liked it when they showed him live pics of earth from if I recall correctly the ISS. He shot them "CGI" images straight down 🙂🙂 Baz

I managed to see it either Friday or Saturday before the storm. The sky was clear enough tonight but I struggled to find it unfortunately. I would really like to spend a bit of time on Mercury if the chance presents itself. The opportunity doesn't seem to come along to often.

As an amateur in this hobby reading this sort of topic is a big help to me. I started out by viewing the large Jupiter & Saturn last year, They were so easy to locate in the finder that I was naive enough to assume you just aim up and view a target... With no real understanding in the earlier days of LP, transparency,seeing I am amazed now that I managed to locate some objects such as the Snow ball, Eskimo, Ring and cat eye nebula's. After all the effort I put in to locate them the only one I can honestly say which I had any enjoyment viewing was the Snow ball. I don't know how these objects fair on the "difficulty scale" to find but they sure did frustrate me and take the enjoyment out of the hobby. I have now grown as an amateur astronomer in part thanks to the insightful and helpful advice on these forums to know what is more realistic to view from a light polluted location. I have eased back and realized that you cant bend the sky to your will and you need to take it for what it is. Since then I have managed a peek at all planets except Mars, Neptune & Pluto ( I like to think of this little fella as a planet 🙂) the most prominent stars, clusters and Orion Nebula. And following on from a recent thread on here I have been enjoying splitting stars. More importantly, The frustration has gone and the enjoyment improved considerably. That said I do have unfinished business with DSO and in particular Galaxies, I have had no real joy with locating these except for Andromeda. This can wait until I can get to a dark sky! Thanks all. Barry

I just had a look out of the window and to my shock the sky is now very clear. I thought I would go outside. The wind is still blowing very fast. I decided not to bother, as you mentioned John I imagine the seeing would be like jelly!! 😊