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Supernova74

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Everything posted by Supernova74

  1. Hi guys I have been debating for quite a while now in taking the plunge into some kind of imaging and have heard through the grape vine that the revolution R2 video Astro camera is suppost to give some half decent satisfactory results and your talking to someone who is purely an visual observer and apparently the main dealer is modern Astronomy for the camera. In the ideal world it would be nice to to go into long exsposure imaging however my meade LX90 is not really designed for long exsposure Astro imaging and would need a wedge most probably anyway as an alternative rother valley optics stated that I could do live stacking with my current scope and basically use one of the ZWO cameras as a video camera with live feed to laptop etc.however from a beginners perspective the time I purchased a ZWO camera of decent quality camera for planetary and deep sky half decent laptop with decent processing speed looking at best part of £1000 and from the very little clear nights we do get as I don,t have the luxury of an observatory of as yet don,t really fancy playing around with a laptop and imager in freezing cold just to discover made a silly mistake when processing data etc so would appreciate guys of any feed back the way to go and views and opinions
  2. I had the black diamond more recent version of the skywatcher 150mak the crayford focuser directly fitted to rear cell however early versions skywatcher changed to larger thread and at time I think it was only 365 Astronomy that sold it and was,nt cheap
  3. Hi to you on the Astro lounge intially I had an fascination of the night sky and Astronomy when I was a young boy of around 12-13 now and my first scope was a tasco 50mm refractor yes still remember £49.99 in Allders department store and really was that long ago now as I remember trying to stick the scope outside a small window and hoping to find Halley’s Comet and in those days I was,nt aware of more specialist dealers were around and even exsisted.then as I discovered of buying Astronomy now in my local WH-smiths an certain logo came up of a rather classical looking large brass refractor and as curiosity killed the cat I was instantly bedazzled and woundering where is that scope then and as I read the advert below bottom of the page there came a rather prestigious looking sounding name which was broadhurst, clarkson and fuller better known to younger folk as telescope house and then nagged my father to take me up to EC1 Farringdon road on a Saturday morning those was the days of Dudley fuller who came across a bit like dell boy of the Astronomy world a lovely guy knowledgeable yes old school and very helpful aslo peter gallon and Dave the three musketeers so to speak coming to the rescue to the amateur Astronomer from beginners to Advanced observers and in those days imaging was really not heard of and you could even try eyepieces out and accessories and try em out before you decided to purchase those was the days when dealers were not trying to rush you over the telephone to make a rushed transaction thay actually seemed to care and spent time with you and telescope house is most probably one of the oldest companies which originally started in 1786 or there abouts and that’s something to be proud of so bring on heritage and tradition I say.however it was,nt until the last few years or so now I recently got back into amateur Astronomy and purchased a second hand 150mak and I was still aware that telescope house still was trading and have had moved a couple of times and cannot help feeling since they moved from Farringdon road London thay lost that magic of me remembering as a young boy of the 6”brass refractor in the shop window.so the current telescope house is now in Kent I think and have emerged with bresser germany and now are the distributors for the brand also Exsplore scientific and as from what I can gather perhaps trying to take on to much more than thay can handle as Kerin Smith is a great guy and very helpful and what I can gather is pretty much trying to run the business pretty much on his own and perhaps a secretary or admin staff as nine times out of ten emails are never returned and even tho there is also a sales line still cannot get through for help and advice so personally cannot help feeling that telescope house should just concentrate on sales only or distribution as for what I’m seeing cannot clearly do it both
  4. Hi there my young apprentice I see the list goes on lol sounds very Star Wars!? Anyway the topic at hand as good starting point and assuming your eyepieces are 1.25” thread OVL/skywatcher do a good little starter package for £30 this also includes a neutral density filter which is good on the moon and also planetary observing also various colours do certain things ie for venus blue,purple work well mind you venus rapidly vanishing in horizon now quite early in evening filters also work well with detecting bands of juipiter and Saturn etc regarding light pollution filters do work to a certain degree and gives you better contrasts of the night sky ie darker backgrounds however no miracle cure there another very good filter I recommend is an O111 filter this is a must on some nebula to even detect and planetary nebula this works well on the veil nebula in Cygnus and as you got better sky than I have should be a good partnership with your eyepieces
  5. Anything from China with no well know brand name I would avoid like the plague to be honest there are some good alternative clones of Exsplore scientific eyepieces and some good exsamples are at opticstar under there own brand name and I can imagine thay wouldn’t sell rubbish not only thay are the Meade distributors for the uk thay got an reputation to look out for also.myself personally I would stick with established Well know dealers and on the plus side if you ever try to sell a well known brand like Televue,Exsplore scientific,Meade,etc get a good chunk of your money back
  6. Hi mike telescopes can be a little daunting at first and brands like Meade,celestron,Bresser,and definitely skywatcher is a major contender in very good value for money and mostly quality and have a whole different range of telescopes to choose from to beginning level intermediate and Advanced I would definitely suggest a scope which is pretty much maintenance free to start off with and the function of goto capability will help you learn the night sky a lot quicker alignment is easy with most of thease scopes and you can even control your scope via sky safari and celestrons own sky portal from your smart device ie iPad or phone this app is free with celestron however you will need to purchase the WiFi module separately.then this allows you to remotely control your scope with a planturiam of the night sky it’s just a question of choosing an object like to observe and press goto.aslo you may of heard there is really not such a thing as a perfect scope and some do things better than others visually so I would definitely recommend something like a maksutov thease are more narrow field of view than a sct cassagrain design and pretty much maintenance free and offer sharp quality optics for the money thease perform very well on the planets and the moon and splitting double stars etc.then the sct cassagrain is more of the work horse of the telescope world and will offer you a wider field of veiw than the mak not quite as sharp as the mak optically however a better overall design for doing a bit of everything
  7. Good evening to you all and was woundering has anyone on the Astro lounge ever been to a place called headly heath observing as this is quite near me approximately 10miles from my location apparently it does offer some quite dark rural sky,s and just proves you don,t have to travel to far if you do a little bit of research as dark sky’s is king for any telescope I understand in the lounge people are all over the uk and few abroad so I may not get to many responses from this topic I also understand that there is a public car park and is under the national trust and the source of information I found online called go stargazing and lastly according to the online statement I hear is one of the best locations in surrey to observe
  8. Hi guys and thankyou for the advice regarding flocking my Sct cassagrain telescope!however I decided to go against it after talking sct telescopes a while back who happens to be the Meade Engineer for the uk.in similar terminology as I’m also into hi end Audio and home cinema etc and from what I’ve gathered and I’m no expert in this at all for exsample it’s like going and spending £100 on a interconnect cable then you upgrade for a £200 one and can you hear the difference maybe yes maybe no not until you switch them over then you can decide as for instance one maybe smoother in midrange and the other maybe have tighter deeper base etc and it’s not until you start spending £500 for exsample you might start hearing some more benefits to the sound same really in flocking telescopes as the only way I can imagine you will see any true benefits is if you had two identical scopes side by side and see if you notice the difference I’m not saying I’m right or wrong just what I believe and besides I wouldn’t be happy to dismantle the correcter plate on sct and maybe have a little accident ruined scope
  9. Hi guys has anyone heard of this scope listed above I must admit I’m very sceptical on its actual performance as firstly does,nt seem to be an awful lot of information about this so called telescope And where is it!? Seen a couple of short videos on utube etc mind you not always the best reliable source of accurate information from what I’m aware it’s apparently has around 4.5” Aperture or there abouts and claims to be 30 times more powerful than a conventional mirror based scope of similar size sorry I just go by a general rule of thumb if something is to good to be true it useally is and has some built in camera imager built inside the scope itself and is in real time hay presto images good as if spent hours over M27 for exsample I’m purely an visual observer however I’m interested in other folks point of view
  10. Lol if you want noisy should own a Meade LX90 however has an function that allows to put it on quiet slew slower however have no problems of worring waking the neighbours up no the modern goto mounts are not that noisy at all more of a humming type sound I think
  11. Lol the Porsche will only kill you in end or perhaps wrap it round the tree!? The telescope will not tho but will also rinse your bank account
  12. I’ve been debating for some time now about binoveiwers for telescopes and mostly here good reports and reviews in people useing them I also understand there plus and minuses in useing them the draw backs are as most manufacturers use bak 4 type prisms similar or the same to cheaper alternative to star diagonals and perhaps some stray light through the optical path you also from i hear you loose roughly 10% of light reaching your eye so in general respect if your useing a 10” scope loosing around 1” Aperture of your scope.there seem to be a few contenders on the market worth considering ie like the major contenders are OVL ,Omegon ,and similar brands seem to be at the same price point for around £150 then the next step up I’ve heard good praise about are William optics at £279 which include x2 of there own eyepieces including in the package maybe a good starting point then Baader planetarium and televue at the other side of the spectrum which are high end cost £1000+ another dent in the wallet.the only draw back also is you seem to be limited on what actual eyepieces you can use as all have 1.25” push fit or did I also hear some where that an adaptation can be made to the more high end range so allows you to use 2” eyepieces also!? As in the ideal world it would be amazing I can imagine useing thease for wide field views of deep sky.but seems to me do most people use thease for planetary observing and of course the moon as do seem to offer a 3D like experience as I can’t imagine thay are a lot easier to use with out eye strain and better eye relief which kinds of make sense really as we are useing both eyes instead of one and trust me still cannot get the hang of just keeping both eyes open while viewing through the telescope eyepiece have to close the left one otherwise just find it distracting maybe it’s just me.And finally the most important report I’ve heard which I’m in between two minds about that people actually state thay seem to see more by using binoveiwers which definitely seems to be an interesting topic to talk about and open to debate the true,s and falses about is it possible to see more or not to be or not to be so to speak!?in theory how can that be however I’ve kind of come up with my own conclusion I don,t know maybe we can as the day we are all born we open our eyes not one two of them and like thay also say two hands are better than one and always will be in my eyes exscuse the punt.so just maybe we can see more as our eyes links to our brains so in theory maybe we can for exsample just like a computer the more input you type into the keyboard and more research you do are,nt you more able to see more information brought up to you on the monitor screen.
  13. I remember the days of owning a small Tasco refractor 2” I believe back in the early part of the 80,s as John said once upon a time thay actually made half decent optics in few of there scopes unfortunately in this day and age avoid like the plague!!?the brand kind of joined the band wagon and went down the department store,Argos route with unbelievable claims on the side of the box 525x,650x magnification power etc with pretty little pictures of blown up constellations and planets and for the most part from a beginners point of veiw often felt very disappointed like myself.some of the later models I found some of the lenses were actually made of plastic also.saying that tho I managed to pick up a scope which was 60mm Refractor on azimuth mount from back in the day when it was called Dixon’s model ASTRO 400 or something similar in brand name really great little scope.then on a different note even tho I respected Patrick Moore dearly for his knowledge of Amateur Astronomy and patron of my local society I truly feel he was not always right on his debate on 3” refractors, 6” reflectors are the only scope worth having as remember telescope house in Farringdon rd and peter gallon which also used to be a member of my society unfortunately put some prospect customers off.and lastly on a different note did,nt Issac Newton start off with an 2” reflector!? And made some major discoveries please correct me if I’m wrong And all I can say now thank god for the like,s of skywatcher bringing good quality affordable,amateur telescopes to the market from beginning level and more advanced amateur Astronomer
  14. You guys are lucky the local Authorities usually don,t give a dam regarding light pollution etc especially Epsom counsel rates are way to high will not even fix a pot hole in the road lol mind you after 1:00am that dreaded light goes off in alley way three doors down it’s amazing how just one lamp or street light can make the world of difference would,nt it be nice just for one night only the whole uk would turn all the lights off in the uk!? Can only dream about that one think you will find your 10”scope will gain a aperture or to theoretically speaking of course however the only good thing I’ve noticed with this COVID-19 epidemic I’ve noticed cleaner clearer sky’s anyway a lot less pollution and also light pollution as no major office blocks burning unesscery energy
  15. Hi guys I’ve just purchased an 12v Dew heater band from rother valley optics the other day it also has an built in heat control also which is handy however I’m a little stuck on what the best power bank supply is best to use I’ve heard from the dealer that thay are quite forgiving on the juice so to speak (power) I’ve decided to go against another mains cable just to trip over or the cord to wrap around my Meade 12” ACF I’ve also been looking at thease tracer power banks which personally think are a tad exspensive for what thay are however portable and small as in the ideal world I’m thinking of attaching the small power bank to side of forks with some kind of Velcro straps.i don,t know maybe tracer are a little over kill for what I intend useing it for anyway.ive had a little dig online and eBay and a little dubious with a product with no brand name puts me off a little I’ve seen a power bank on Amazon which is around £40-50 which has 2.1mm jack which is required to run the dew band heater and is 12v etc etc the capacity of the power bank is 3000mah lithium ion and another slightly more exspensive model at 6000mah would either of thease batteries be sufficient to run for a good 3-5 hrs and the brand is called talent cell !?
  16. Hi people I had to come in early this evening or should I say morning typical as it was a lovely clear night initially I was wondering while I was observing how the objects seem very dull or dim love and behold my correcter on my 12”Meade sct ACF dewed over I always use the Astrozap regardless of weather conditions really annoying really as obviously it does,nt do what it’s supposed to do any suggestions do I need a heated one maybe!? However maybe a few strong words to the supplier would,nt go a miss in the nicest possible way of course lol .
  17. Hi guys hope you are all keeping well and enjoying this streak of nice weather.Anyway I’ve often wounded as my current scope is a meade 12”LX90 ACF and time it has a moonlite focuser on etc is quite weighty even tho I do find the scope managble strength has never been an issue however after a long night observing session fatigue and tiredness kicks in unless you drink a gallon of red bull or coffee would it be ok to leave the scope out overnight if I used a couple of tarpaulin sheets over the scope with a few weights then following day unasemble then back into storage
  18. Hi people I was wondering has anyone had any experience useing the ZWO dispersion corrector my current set up is an Meade 12” ACF sct I understand it comprises of useing to Scott glass prisms in conjunction with each other do you get any unwanted artefacts or defects by useing prisms in this device and do thay actually work!? Price wise thay seem not to be to bad and not an Astronmical price excuse the punt.i also notice that the ADC has a bubble level what exsacly is that for and can I use it in a star diagonal also it’s sad thay don,t do an 2” eyepiece version which is a shame however I can most probably see the reason why that most medium to high power eyepieces are 1.25” which mostly I view planets with anyway.it would also be interesting to know if anyone has tried it on some deep sky objects which are lower in the meridian even the device is only specifically used for the planets
  19. Yes definitely worth considering the skywatcher 150ED if it was my money most probably would especially if you considered the higher end refractors  have money left over for a nice imaging set up also 

  20. Hi people I’ve just purchased the moonlite sct focuser from the nice guys at Rother valley optics definitely seemed to be more of a deal there on pricing.for tho,s who maybe considering one for there sct cassagrain well mine which is an 12”LX90 ACF gosh it’s a lump seems very well made and engineered nicely however the claimed gold looks more like a copper orangery colour.Anyways I would definitely consider useing a counter weight system which I have which I made myself for around £60 and it looks just as good on others on the the market really had to tighten up the clutch after the moonlite,diagonal and 40mm ES 2” eyepiece was onboard besides it puts less stress on the drives
  21. If your after a Big Bang for your buck surly the skywatcher Evostar 150ED is an contender I’m no expert in the imaging department however read the reviews for yourself has some secret glass recipe not the same schott glass in there sibling range weights in around the 9kg mark and will not need a paramount to hold it also has a focal length of around 1200mm lol I think the way I look at it I rather go for the BMW M3 then the Bentley as always seem to pay more for the name unless you can afford one of course.no expert again in the Takashi APO,s however read the reviews even tho the skywatcher 150ED pro came very close for £1550
  22. Hi guys and girls have I got to much time on my hands at the moment as I have wounded does flocking telescopes really improve the viewing experience as like some things do come across a bit gimmicky and you watch a utube channel on a subject and everyone joins the band wagon for exsample I purchased the baader planetarium 3.25” to 2” twist lock adapter and as a general whole is a great product and better than tensioning thumb screws with your expensive accessories etc however there are claims like the Peterson engineering eye opener for the sct cassagrain has a full 2” opening and apparently has the potential for improving light transmission through the optical path up to 65% I do find thease claims maybe over estimated as a sct cassagrain has an central obstruction with mirror and surly if it was worth doing wouldn’t all the manufacturers be doing this on there products this is the same with the baader twist lock adapter.i do find Astronomy a little like hi-end Audio for instance some times it,s not worth paying out an additional £100,s of pounds on an interconnect cable from your amp to CD player and find it differcult to hear any improved performance so has any of you on this forum have any positive and negative thoughts in flocking your scope kind regards to you all sean
  23. Hi guys and girls I would like to talk about light pollution filters in a little detail I currently live in Stoneleigh which is around 10 miles away from central London.if anything to go by my sky bortale rating is 6 not to bad considering so close to central London and on exceptional clear nights able to glimpse the Milky Way however rare!.my main filter I use like the bread and butter of filters is an baader IR-cut moon and sky glow Neodymium filter and generally use all the time just to generally clean things up a little however don,t notice a great difference with or without.the other filter I use is an ES O111 filter which I swear by and is a must for enhancing emission nebula etc especially on the veil in Cygnus and the M27 dumbed nebula stands out better. I do understand that filters are no miracle cure In more light polluted sky’s and sometimes subtle differences is between seeing objects or not at all I currently was advised by a dealer last year to go for an CLS filter which was supposed to enhance viewing on some star clusters and especially galaxies however I sold it after a few nights of observing as was left a little disappointed as if anything I found it made veiwing worse or was I missing something so I’m looking for any other suggestions for another filter that maybe worth investing in as if there is such a thing would like a better light pollution filter also something to enhance galaxies on.
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