Pixies

A few times when I've been trying to split a tight double and not sure if I have, I'll try an ortho and often that sorts it out. Putting the ortho in the focusser does feel like "rolling up one's sleeves".

Indeed. I was on holiday and it is a A105M (it used to belong to Franklin).

That's the finder for the EQ "Polaris" variant of the old Vixen refractors. It's a completely different type of design. There is no actual finder tube within the holder, it's all one piece. The alt/az "Custom" had the more standard finder. I have a couple in various states of repair. I'll try and dig them out for pictures, later.

One of the great advantages of the plus and Pro versions are the observation features. You can create your own observation lists, use the inbuilt ones or downloads. Use these to plan your session. Also record the sessions and observations. I can click on an object and then review all past recorded observations,.

OK - now I can compare. Just have to wait until August for dark skies again....

OK - found one at last.

I had my eye on that before. Let us know how it goes.

Ah! A gentleman with a similar attachment to mowing as myself! Albeit, you do appear to have a field!

Had the Vixen SD81S for a good few weeks, but tonight is the first possibly clear night. Apologies for the state of the lawn. We're doing No-Mow May!

I think it's "alessi teutsch 10"

I've been to a couple of Spring Astrocamps and have tried the Leo Triplet from there. Last year, the hamburger was as clear as anything but this year it was a lot harder to see. Leo is quite low now we're later into Spring and you might suffer from poor transparency. M51 is near the zenth and the sky will be a lot clearer.

I have some manual EQ mounts with additional motors - so not used for goto. True - once you have aligned on your target manually, as long as the mount was accurately polar aligned, the scope will now follow the target. However, for visual observing you don't normally get too hung-up about very accurate polar alignment, so you will find that the target will drift off centre after a while, and if you are at high magnification, it will be moving out of view. Being able to quickly and finely adjust both axes is useful, especially not having to move your eye from the eyepiece. A quick press of the buttons will let you centre things. Slo-mo controls will let you do this manually too - as long as they are within easy reach. Also useful for star-hopping using a wide-angle eyepiece. So - not essential if you only want a driven mount to follow a target, but pretty convenient. Slo-mo knobs on extensions are a cheaper equivalent,

This might help. There's also the question of which make of bob you are after.

Oooh - a box with Japanese writing on it! Who could it be from? Starbase? Buyee? No - it's from @Franklin of course! With a little Oklop bag: It's for the following, which the postperson didn't deliver. I had to pick it up myself. My first fancy-glass refractor. It's been cloudy ever since! 🙄

Yep - do one at a time: remove one old bolt and replace with one of Bob's, then repeat. Don't take two or three out at once. That way the collimation won't change much.

What scope is it, and which end?

Have you had a chance to observe M13 in the new 10" scope? The difference compared to the 5" will be shocking

There's plenty around the summer triangle, that's now rising in the east. Cygnus, Lyra, Saggitta, Vulpecula. Lots of clusters, globulars, planetary nebulae. My first scope arrived in May and there was plenty to observe as I started out. Globulars: M13, M56, M92, M15 PLanetary Nebs: M57 - the Ring Nebula (no filters necessary) M27 - Dumbbell Nebula (good with UHC) Open Clusters - Coathanger, loads in Cygnus Doubles: there's Albireo and the always fantastic and challenging Double-Double (epsilon Lyrae), which can become a bit obsession-making trying to find the lowest magnification to get a clean split. And as the summer comes along, with a dark Southern horizon, there are endless targets around the galactic core in Saggitarius. this is the time of year you learn to love binoculars!

I took some pics of the aurora back in February from the local beach. Here is the processed picture compared to a copy I have adjusted to look more like it did to the eye.

Just back last night. Decided the Monday night forecast wasn't worth waiting around for. Saturday was a washout and Sunday was looking poor, but then it cleared at dusk. Before midnight we were limited to the west and then the clouds started building. But then suddenly it was clear (with Aurora) and stayed clear until dawn was approaching. Then the heavens opened! But those many clear hours were great. Missed a couple of fireballs too! The usual thing: head down with eye on eyepiece - then lots of "Oooh! Amazing! - The brightest thing I've seen in ages...." 🙄 Great to see some old faces, and some new ones too!

Yep, we were seeing aurora from South Wales tonight, at Astrocamp.

I picked-up a new scope on the way. Look what's following me down south (sorry).

There was an email sent out yesterday, with a link to this Spring's Astrocamp guide. They've included a list for a "Cwmdu Marathon" - 42 objects to observe through the night (hoping we get some full nights' of observing). Anyway, I've made up a 'skylist' file of the objects to import into SkySafari, if anyone's interested.

Just packing things up now. Can you bring whatever power/batteries you need for the AZGti? I don't have any spare that I might not be using elsewhere.

Preparing to try to split Rigel with an 8" dob: