Zermelo

You didn't say which spreadsheet you had found on CN, but if it was Don Pensack's, he updates it annually. The 2023 edition is here, and it includes the Stellalyra LERs.

See this post for the actual vs nominal relief for the Morpheus range (and a few other premium EPs) https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/413521-what-would-the-“best-of-each-range”-set-be/page/4/#comment-4412436

Yes, I think that part of it is that the BBC forecast has different criteria. Sometimes it seems to say "clear" when there are no low clouds, yet there is widespread mid or high level mistiness. But recently, the divergence seems to have increased.

The BBC forecasts have been way too optimistic recently.

Will this be one that you won't be able to fit a Feathertouch onto, Stu?

You have found a hole in my filing system, Ivor. When I download a resource like that, I usually create a local URL link to the remote resource at the same time, but I didn't in this case. I do remember that I first saw the map on an SGL thread, probably within the last 12 months. The author may spot this thread and chip in. I've just done a conventional internet search and drawn a blank, but a reverse image search highlighted a few web sites that host that same image. Probably the most credible is the CPRE Dark Sky Diary (a good site to browse on this topic in any case). This blog credits the authorship of the map to the Commission for Dark Skies, and that wouldn't surprise me, except that I can't find the image on the CfDS site.

I was thinking about this recently: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/410435-light-pollution-maps-with-sqm-contour-lines I'm exclusively night-time visual. My take on it is that you want the best combination of dark skies and clear weather. The best information I could find was this:

The 30mm UFF will give a lighter background sky, and reduced contrast, compared with the 20mm XWA. Targets like fuzzy DSOs will be affected most. This will be worse if you're already observing from a light-polluted location. One crude way of measuring it is to go into a completely dark room, wait a few minutes, hold a ruler next to your face and take a flash selfie (but make sure the phone doesn't do a "pre-flash flash", or it won't work. Then compare the pupil size to the ruler in the resulting image. A better way is to see if the optician will measure it for you when/if you visit. Also, you might be interested in this https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/375282-eyepiece-selection-based-on-exit-pupil/

... but possibly not with Mr. Cox's budget - the episode on at the moment has him paddling down a canal with Dr. Becky, to illustrate black holes. Cox would surely have arranged a helicopter trip to the top of a volcano on a tropical island. On balance, I think I'd take Dr. Becky on the canal.

You beat me to it. The UFF performs very well, even in faster scopes. I compared it (actually, it was the Altair badged version) with the cheaper Stellayra Superview, here. The Superview did well enough in my Mak, but struggled at F/5.9. The UFF was noticeably better. Several recent mentions: https://stargazerslounge.com/search/?q=Stellalyra UFF 30mm&quick=1&updated_after=any&sortby=newest&search_and_or=and

I have previously had fast responses from app@skywatchertelescope.net, about different issues

I ordered one of these illuminators from Aliexpress, when it was linked to by @Stu a few weeks back. For under £9 posted, I thought it was worth having a spare, in case my current one ever gives up the ghost.

Better that way than leaving it too late.

Around 30 minutes to go https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/events/2023/9/24/asteroid-samples-return-to-earth-with-osiris-rex/

... but still look fabulous. And of course, if you're talking eyepieces, you'll need a pair (once you've made the mistake of getting a binoviewer)

I don't download the DSS images into SkySafari by default, because they obviously take up space, and some of them are pretty unenlightening. The ones I find most useful are open clusters, if they're located in a busy area of sky and I want to be sure I've found them.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2023/nasa-s-webb-finds-carbon-source-on-surface-of-jupiter-s-moon-europa

In my experience that's the usual culprit, though I think there are sometimes also utilities bundled with vendor-specific Android flavours that do a similar job.

Here: https://www.astroleague.org/double-star-observing-program/ and available in SkySafari import format: https://www.skysafariastronomy.com/repositories/skylist/Astronomical League/AL Double Star List.skylist also http://web.archive.org/web/20170419050003/http://astronomy.eaglecreekobservatory.org/doubles/ https://bestdoubles.wordpress.com/

It seems I was premature. In my most recent session, SkySafari lost connection with the scope several times. As usual, it was actually SynScan causing this and, when I checked afterwards, I found that the Android setting that I'd previously changed had been reset to default. Android tries to preserve battery life by preventing apps from continuously running in the background (it calls this "optimisation"). This is generally a good idea, but not what you want if you're using SkySafari in the foreground and relying on SynScan in the background to talk to the mount. The settings navigation and display sometimes vary with Android version and device manufacturer, but you need to get into the Android settings for the SynScan app, and find the battery settings within that. On my tablet, the options look like this: and you want it set to "unrestricted". Android should then let SynScan run in background without timing it out.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/401135-a-good-night-to-see-iapetus/?do=findComment&comment=4407532 ?

Not quite completely off the topic: https://www.facebook.com/groups/dullmensclub/permalink/1313987909257747/

That's brilliant, I wasn't aware of that. It even has an entry in SkySafari. It would be a good first clue for a question in round 1 of Only Connect, with clue 4 being "unicorns".

Not necessarily within the square.

You can start the apps, but yes, connect Synscan to the scope first. I start both apps at the same time because I sometimes need a reminder of where the Synscan alignment stars are, so I look them up in SkySafari. But I align in Synscan first, then connect SkySafari, and it automatically goes to the current position (i.e. the final alignment star). I find that (uncommonly) sometimes SkySafari will connect, but it thinks the scope is pointing North/level, i.e. where the alignment started. But just disconnecting and reconnecting SkySafari will cure that.