Zermelo

I think that's because the case is also meant for the Hyperions, but I keep a UFF and a zoom in there.

In an inspired punt, Santa brought me the one Morpheus needed to complete the set (and the only brand new one I have). Also known here as the "they cost how much?) ... and a Christmas family shot:

Welcome to SGL. You should get some great observing with that scope and the eyepiece range you (will) have. On the 25mm, I would stick with the stock EP for a while; they are not that bad, and I think you wouldn't notice so much improvement with a Starguider as you will with the stock 10mm. On the Barlow, again, experiment with it a few times, in different conditions, and see what you think. Compare the views between, say, the Barlowed 18mm with the 8mm. If the Barlow degrades the image to your eyes, consider getting another. I doubt that your 3.5mm will get much use in that scope, though.

And this, as a spreadsheet: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/862337-2023-eyepiece-buyers-guide/

... and more comfortable than the BCO 6mm, another option at the same focal length.

I see another book project in the making ... "101 Uses for a Tak Lens Cap"

I was just watching a bit of that. I think it's been on before? (your spellchecker has converted "Michaela" to "Michael" 😊) Lovely Arabian oryx.

Both my SW mounts are essentially silent when tracking; I assume you're asking about the noise when slewing? The problem with using SynScan on the SW mounts is that you can't set a maximum slew speed when using goto. For manual slewing there are 9 speed levels, and I find anything up to level 6 to be acceptable, noisewise (I share your concern for neighbours' sleep, especially if I'm out in the summer, when I might be aligning the scope at gone ten). However, goto operations (including alignment) always use the top speed, unless the scope is already close to the intended target. One answer to this is to use the SW dual encoders ("FreedomFind") on mounts that support it (mine do). You can then slacken the clutches and move the scope silently. The downside is that the goto will usually be less accurate afterwards. Recently, I've been avoiding this by using the motors manually (at lower speed and noise) to get the scope somewhere near the next target, then issue a goto, which will be carried out fairly quietly. This approach preserves the goto accuracy. However, there's no answer to alignment, so I try to do that once only, at the start of a session. As others have said, belt mods - for those mounts that support them - may be the answer.

I've heard of astro suppliers throwing in a bag of sweets with each order, but I think Peter goes one better with a free gift of juggling balls.

"My God - it's full of LEDs"

In the same neck of the woods, and just brought in the scope that's been sitting outside for three hours, waiting for the clear evening promised only this afternoon by CO and Metcheck!

That is hilarious, thanks for sharing. Even with all the new age language, it accidentally managed to hit the spot: "Fluorite ... aids in staying focused"

Thanks. 2.4.11, no accompanying notes in Playstore, and the SW release notes page only goes to 2.4.8 at the moment. But I just tested it in emulator mode, and it has fixed the "white screen on goto" bug. [EDIT] Release note page now updated for latest version: ## 2023-12-13 v2.4.11 Changes compared to v2.4.8 • Fix broken night mode. • Android SDK to 33 (Android 13)

I've just come in from a very pleasant couple of hours with the 150mm Newt. There was some low cloud about early on, but it mostly cleared up, just an occasional bit of higher mist. The seeing seemed to be good, and the Svbony 3-8mm zoom at x250 split a couple of 1.8" doubles in Pisces, Alrischa and HD 9817. Jupiter was crisp, with quite a bit of detail in the equatorial belts, though I wouldn't be brave enough to assign any to the list of features above. I took in the three Auriga Messiers M36/7/8, and also M35 in Gemini, all with a Svbony 10mm UFF. I bought this recently for £16 and I'm very pleased with it. It framed all of these clusters nicely, with pin sharp stars. I also used it on IC 1805 and NGC 457 in Cassiopeia. I finished on Orion, poorly positioned above houses, but the UFF showed some very subtle detail in M42, and I think the Trapezium F star was just visible with averted vision. The same eyepiece definitely showed four components in sigma Orionis. I wasn't particularly looking for Geminids tonight, but saw at least a dozen, including some brighter ones with trails. As tomorrow is supposed to be the peak, that bodes well.

Further South, the forecast is for a couple of hours early evening, but cloudy at the moment.

As @Mandy D said above, the tread will be accelerating even with respect to the wheel hub or vehicle, as circular motion is accelerated. When you consider it from the perspective of the road or external observer, you add in a constant horizontal velocity (assuming the vehicle speed is constant) to that circular, accelerated motion, resulting in the cycloid. I think the instantaneous direction of the acceleration is still towards the centre of the wheel at all times (the derivative of a constant velocity offset will always be zero and won't contribute), so "accelerating" vs "decelerating" would need to be defined relative to a specific direction in the road's frame of reference.

I think I see what you're getting at, Olly. Agreed, you could take this to mean either: (1) A specific, physical point on the wheel's outer edge that is, at the moment under consideration, in contact with road, or (2) The location in space identified by the intersection between the wheel's outer edge and a line drawn directly downwards from the wheel's centre They happen to be co-incident for the purpose of the current discussion. I suspect an information modeller would represent the physical points on the wheel circumference as one concept, uniquely identified by (for example) the angular offset θ from some reference zero on the wheel, while the concept (2) above would be more like a role ("bottom of wheel") that can be fulfilled by any of the circumferential points at some appropriate time t (another role of interest might be "top of wheel"). These roles are defined relative to the vehicle, not the wheel. If the motion of the car were known, it could be modelled as a constraint between θ and t (quite simply, if the vehicle's velocity is constant). I might choose different words, but yes, in sense 2 above, the "point" of contact does move relative to the road, even though any "point" on the wheel (sense 1) that is fulfilling the role of "bottom of wheel" at a given instant will be at rest, relative to the road.

The point of the wheel in contact with the ground is instantaneously at rest, with respect to both the road and a stationary external observer. Over time, from that perspective, the point on the wheel circumference traces out a cycloid, with speed varying from 0 to twice the vehicle speed. From the perspective of the wheel hub, the point on the wheel edge traces out a circle at constant speed, and is never at rest.

That doesn't surprise me, I've had keyboard issues with other apps. To be fair, it must be difficult for app devs with Android; as well as the different versions of the base OS, and the different flavours from the device manufacturers, they also have to deal with user-selectable keyboards.

Evidence of fission, possibly resulting from neutron star collisions: https://www.space.com/nuclear-fission-neutron-stars-heavy-elements-gold

Another DM classic - graphic below was included in an article on the possible effects on the Earth of the recent increase in solar activity. I wouldn't give us much of a chance.

You may, or you may not:

I think you need to break the improvement down across different dimensions, as other commenters are already doing. Light grasp (hence image brightness) Limiting magnitude Resolution Contrast Colour rendition Image stability? (that question about whether an increase in aperture can actually degrade an image, in indifferent seeing) And the type of target may have a bearing on this too, for example larger aperture resulting in smaller Airy discs, which some observers prefer and some do not.

And possibly one of the better ones, if it's clear: https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/2023-geminids-best-all-time/

That's awesome - if you spend enough with them, they throw in a surface-to-air missile! Or is that only for american customers?