Stardaze

I’ll be sure to check that the frac is neutered whenever I make the plunge. Maybe you have to keep them in at night to stop em 🙄

I can see myself owning 20 year old scopes in… 20 years’ time 🙃 Current scope only a year old but tend to buy to keep. How old do you estimate your 12” dob to be @John? Presume you’re the second owner if you had the mirror recoated? I’d like an Orion 12” and quality 102 refractor, eventually. Always great to have aspirations 😀

Luckily my Bresser has two large holes Barry either side of the base, which serve as hand placements to carry. Recently though I’m suffering with a persistent long-term stomach injury which means I can’t lift anything heavier than a kettle and so I’m in the process of buying a sack truck and adapting that. Just another option to wheel the dob out in one piece that you may consider. Good luck with whatever you choose.

Yes, I don’t think I’ll be buying new either, but they don’t come up that often which tells a story. Enjoy!

Think I’ll end up with one eventually, super! Did you buy new Stu?

That sounds awesome. We’re just outside of Looe. I bet the ST102 is a perfect travel setup on a relatively light mount.

I don’t think it gets any better, over looking the coast, all with a beer in hand, on a lovely summers evening 😀

We’re currently down on the south coast holidaying so just a tripod and the 15x70’s were packed to share with some of the family, providing the weather plays ball. We were treated to a little glimpse through the clouds Sunday evening but last night the clouds parted around 9.30 and revealed the Milky Way as good as I have seen it this year. The measurement on clear outside is 21.57 mag for here and although there looked to be a slight kick from the jetstream, the seeing for the binos was pretty good. All of Ursa Minor was clearly present early on. I really wanted to see Antares from here, which was right on the horizon out to sea when we found a spot overlooking the peninsular. Could really see the surrounding nebula and within 20 minutes, she was lost below the horizon. I showed my sister and her husband some easy targets to begin (Perseus double cluster, M13, Albireo) but they were keen to see Jupiter and Saturn which were very prominent. Jupiter’s Galilean moons were really clear and a quick check in sky safari confirmed Callisto and Ganymede, but Europa and Lo were very tightly positioned. We came back later to see those two disappear into one, just before we packed up which everyone thought was pretty cool. We spent an hour hunting around the Milky Way picking out a few globulars (M5, M14) and just taking in the denseness of Cygnus directly overhead, a real treat in such dark skies. M27 popped really well in the binos now that the eyes were properly adapted. I really wanted to capture RS Ophiuchi too before we packed up, but my fellow gazers were too keen on the two planets before heading back. Tomorrow night looks like it has potential, so fingers crossed I’ll maybe head back on my own for a more selfish gaze. We all stood in awe looking up at the great rift before we left far too early.

Thanks for the heads up, hopefully it’s looking ok for tonight.

I thought I had responded last night but got caught with the final confirmation again. There’s currently some items at 5% here to help the travel industry, namely food etc. But I can’t say it’s noticeable this week whilst we’re away. I think the trade are happily making up for last year, not that you can blame them, that’s business.

And the problem is that because it’s so rare in B2C trading, you do assume it’s inclusive of VAT over here. @Mr niallhas it spot on, because it’s included into everything, we consider the cost as being the price, with everything built in at the time of sale.

Wishing you all the best too Steve, take care.

Love your enthusiasm there. Really enjoyed reading that, it’s nice to be able to hear of your perspective from where you are. We arrived yesterday to our holiday home after a very long drive and whilst the cloud cleared late on, Hercules was directly overhead here at midnight. Really hoping to catch Sagittarius over the week, very low down here on the horizon but it’s the best shot i’ll get.

Great report though doesn’t help my itch for a 102 frac, really do want to see the veil in one piece through an eye piece. Next year….

The baader fluid is spot on. There’s plenty of videos previously posted here if you do a quick search. The basic approach is to use a blower to remove as much as possible first, then a couple of sprays on the cloth (not the lens!)and dab the areas obviously needed. New part of the cloth, spray and very lightly finish in the usual motion. If you need to get into the edge, use a cotton bud but finish with a dry cloth. I normally use a lens pen brush to knock any persistent dust particles off too. I bought an EP secondhand recently and had to do the same.

I bet they’ll come up just fine.

Orion optics recoat mirrors, details on their website.

You can’t go wrong with that, love mine.

One of my final missing pieces arrived this morning.

Awesome, definitely envious of this session! Sounds picture perfect with the dob challenge at zenith worth the effort.

Totally agree with Stu, sounds like a reflection.

It's no bother Louis, live and learn hey. I should have read a little more into it. I still want the product, it's just I've spent a fair bit more than I should have, never mind.

Got royally caught with this, shipping a filter from the US. Customs duty and processing fee was £20, which when added to VAT and a poor PayPal exchange rate, meant I lost out. Annoying!

Oh, and I may have said something previously about kit, being a part of an interest/hobby for some. As much as I may have tried to be sensible and justify this to myself, I have moved from a basic starter package to a 10” dob with 5 high-end EPs and filters within a year 🙄 It helps of course, but it’s not everything.

Some really good insights into what this pursuit means to individuals. In the end, it is all about enjoyment, however that’s derived. The process is something that I wholly understand, certainly more so with AP. But, for me, the basic, simplified approach with visual is what I connect with at my time of life. Maybe when the hustle of this rat race recedes later in life, and more importantly, I have more time to burn the candle on a week day, I might have a dabble in AP. For now, grabbing a couple of hours when I can, whilst constantly learning along the way (equally important to me), offers escapism from life as it is right now. Ironically, it was the slow down of last year that made me reach for my old scope that had been sat redundant in the garage for 5 years.