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Zermelo

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Everything posted by Zermelo

  1. Louise, I'm not competent to offer advice on your imaging questions, but it's good to see you online again and I hope you find a solution that lets you carry on in your new environment.
  2. Yes, the SW Freedom Find feature uses dual encoders, and you can move the mount manually (provided you remember to switch on the dual encoder feature in Synscan each time you set up - the default is "off"). However, once you do that, the gotos for the remainder of the session are generally less accurate, because the second set of encoders are located on the coarse side of the gearing. I've found that it is still accurate enough to locate objects within an optical finder, unless it's having a hissy fit. But I believe that the Star Adventurer doesn't have FreedomFind in any case.
  3. Ah, you can't with that one. I have the same mount and scope, and I ended up doing what was described above - fitting a RACI finder to the existing shoe and pointing the viewing end upwards.
  4. Do you know which mount it is? With some of the SW mounts, you can flash the controller with a different version of the software, to switch between left and right hand operation.
  5. Looking forward to that one. Before the end of 2026, perhaps, with current weather patterns.
  6. The constraint of the speed of light applies to inertial frames of reference within the theory of special relativity. The expansion of space itself is described in the theory of general relativity, and is not constrained in the same way.
  7. When I saw the title, I assumed the point of the thread was that some members would find it quicker to list what they didn't own. Personally, I've not been going that long, and have only sold a few eyepieces so far.
  8. Agreed, especially if you avoid the outer extremities. A steal at £54 for that quality. I find the 6mm to be a bit tight on eye relief, I'll be interested to hear how you get on with it.
  9. I see you're UK based. Have you looked at any of the other threads on green lasers (including warnings) ? e.g. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/374218-laser-pointer
  10. These mounts seem a lot happier with some counterbalance, either a second OTA or some weights. It turns a lot easier on the Az axis. btw, I bought a SW 1.75" steel tripod for mine.
  11. I love how this ship wouldn't look out of place on the cover of an old sci-fi magazine
  12. This is why I bought the AZ-GTiX, which has a stated capacity of 6kg one side and 10kg total. My previous mount was rated at 5kg, but when I uprated the finder, got a 2" diagonal, etc. it was pushing it.
  13. Stu has covered the essential points there. One lesser consideration is that if you have significant astigmatism in your observing eye, this tends to be more visible when using larger exit pupils. So, it can be preferable to obtain the same true field by using an eyepiece with shorter focal length but wider apparent field, the same tactic as for obtaining a darker background sky. As Stu says, it will be more expensive to get these wider fields that are well corrected to the edge. And it may force you into a 2" format.
  14. This view from SkySafari gives an idea of its position and distance :
  15. I saw it three years ago, just visible in my 6" Newtonian from Bortle 4.
  16. Me too. Of course, I love to look at more spectacular sights too, but detecting those barely-visible objects tickles the stamp collector in me.
  17. M31 is (from our perspective) oval shaped. In a modest scope, especially in a light sky, you're essentially seeing the nucleus, which is also oval shaped. It's easy to imagine that you're seeing more of it than you are. With a larger scope/better skies/better dark adapted eyes, you see more of the outer regions, though it still looks oval. One thing that will change is the apparent distance to the satellite galaxies, M32 and M110. When I first looked at M31, I was surprised at the gap between it and M110 in particular, having previously seen the photos from Hubble, etc.
  18. I bought mine for less than that!
  19. Don has previously linked to this bench review of zooms by Ernest Maratovich. The Svbony 7-21mm comes out particularly well. I have this, and the 9-27mm, and the (identical, OVL version of) the 7.2-21.5mm, and I find all three perform very well. The AFOV does vary a lot with magnification though, which is where the APM wins out. Svbony also do a 8-24mm, but I've not seen any reviews of that one. The Baader mk IV is widely liked.
  20. "The darkness of the Horsehead is caused mostly by thick dust blocking the light of stars behind it.The lower part of the Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. The visible dark nebula emerging from the gaseous complex is an active site of the formation of "low-mass" stars. Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars just in the process of forming." Wikipedia
  21. (i) There is inevitably some subjectivity in deciding whether or not there is a "black" dividing line. As already mentioned, as you move away from the centre of the Airy disc, the brightness tails off over a finite distance, it isn't immediate. So, for pairs that are on the cusp of being split, it will be a judgement as to whether or not the point half way between the stars is at the same level of blackness as the rest of the field. Obviously some observers will be more optimistic than others in making this call. I remember a previous thread where someone posted a graphic showing the light curve dimming and brightening between the stars; possibly @vlaiv (but then I always think it was him). (ii) on the seeing: yes, I'm sure this can affect decisions too. When operating at high magnifications in less than perfect conditions, the stars can be jumping about quite a bit. In a very brief moment of stillness, I think the eye can be tricked into seeing a gap where there was none. I've also experienced observations where a star has appeared briefly to be - at the very least - resolved, but I suspect that it was another artefact of the seeing - the image of the star has been "flicked" very quickly to one side, and back again, and the persistence of vision suggests two adjacent discs. I expect the actual effects of imperfect seeing depend on the size and motion of the cells in the air column, and probably also the size of the instrument objective.
  22. @John may know a few, he's North Somerset.
  23. It shows some very nice colour variations.
  24. We are temporarily staying in Ashburton, South Devon, and all that I could manage to bring was a pair of 10x50 binoculars. We walked to a pub for a meal tonight, and came back across the fields, with most of the streetlights hidden, and the sky was very impressive. Naked eye, I could just see the double cluster and the clusters in Auriga. These were decent in the bins, as were M42, M45 and M35. To my eye, the seeing looked quite good, so I hope some of you out there have more powerful kit out.
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