Zermelo

I'm not convinced there are many SGL members outside all three of those circles.

Did you see this thread:

Aurorawatch sent a red alert earlier, so we walked to a spot out of town with no street lighting and a decent northern horizon. As the last glow faded in the west, we strained our eyes to the north. Was there a faint, mauve tinge to the sky there? We both thought we could see it, but not definitively. Aurorawatch had by now downgraded to yellow, so we headed back. Next time...

That's a very interesting observation, John. So, the seasoned planetary observer might be "cycling" their kit between larger mirrors and smaller lenses, on a scale of several years. Or, perhaps more likely, they buy the new kit to suit the current planetary placements, but somehow "forget" to sell what they already have 😊

It is due to be clear here after dusk, but I expect it will have subsided by then.

It may or may not be relevant to the decision that the Altair version (I have this one) has a steel body, and is heavier than some of the others. [EDIT] I just looked it up, 331g

Thanks for that suggestion. I hadn't picked a walk for tomorrow, and we've not done that one yet : Pil Tor, Top Tor, Rippon Tor, Buckland Beacon and down into Buckland in the Moor.

Welcome to SGL. I'm based temporarily in Ashburton, during an extended house move. We've been doing as much walking on the moor as the dreadful weather has allowed, and have already been around Venford Reservoir (in the rain). It seems to have turned today, though - a very nice walk around North Bovey, etc.

The CN thread linked to above discusses this.

So do I, but someone needs to 😊 These might be the next Starguiders.

Is your Mak a Skywatcher? You can actually replace the visual back if you wanted to use a 2" diagonal. There is some vignetting towards the edge, though I've not noticed any myself. I've used a 1.25" Tak prism and a 2" GSO dielectric and I can't see any difference. I prefer the 2" as it feels more secure with heavier eyepieces, but I rarely use 2" EPs in it. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/336529-sky-watcher-mak-127-visual-back/#comment-3662339 https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/356717-sw-127-mak-ota-with-2-focuser/

I bought one second hand. It seems the same as the GSO: http://www.gs-telescope.com/content.asp?id=126

FYI, three different Herschel 400 lists linked to here :

I think you may have meant "new moon"? That would be my preference, at least. 😊

I think I heard on the radio recently that the period from October to March was the wettest on record.

Quite a beauty, John. Is the body lacquered, or are you going to be polishing it now and again?

This is quite interesting http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/astromath/ueb/Unequalbinaries.html

Very good, Heather.

Where did you find this, please, John?

I'm sure this point has been made previously in these pages, but there's an enormous irony in so many people using, as a prime observing list, a set of objects that was created specifically for the opposite purpose. I've previously thought that this would make a good quiz question (Only Connect?) if I could only think up two or three other examples of "things that were being widely used for a purpose diametrically opposed to their originator's intentions".

Excellent, that makes sense. Now that I have a dual saddle mount, I can pair the Mak with my 4" acro, and switch between them depending on the magnitude difference!

We are indeed.

I've split it several times in my SW127 Mak. I'm still not sure if the "effective" aperture of 119/120mm affects the resolution as well as the image brightness. In any case, I've split doubles in the Mak below the theoretical Rayleigh limit.

Indeed, and I use both. I was answering "isn't it just a Web page?"

Thanks, just added to my own strategy list