Pixies

And if you pay with PayPal (but not Friends and Family) you get additional cover in case things go wrong. You can always offer to add the extra charges to the total if the seller only want to use Friends and Family to avoid having to pay the charges.

The seeing was average/poor tonight although the transparency was good. Mars was 'boiling' with only a rare few of those magic moments we've been having recently, where suddenly everything clears leaving high resolution detail. It was very different than last night, when despite the high winds, the seeing was great. I made another Mars sketch, and that's in the Sketching section. The night was getting cold and the wind dropping. I thought I'd make the most of a Sunday lie-in and stayed out for another hour or so. Looking east from the sheltered spot at the far end of the garden. Here you are out of the glare of the streetlight in the back lane, but under the tree, you can sometimes be thwarted by the odd leaf getting in the way. Which it did for Uranus. So I whipped out Skysafari (in night mode) and picked some targets in Perseus and Auriga, who were climbing ahead of me. Firstly I tried the edge-on galaxy NGC 891. I got a faint hint with averted vision, but darker skies are really needed. Then the much more conspicuous M34. I thought it looks like a garden spider with a pair of googly eyes. There are a few clusters around here, so I thought I'd stick with them. On to Auriga. M35 was just hidden behind the top of the wall: so next was M37. This was the first time I had seen this open cluster. It looks more like a globular cluster, with a dense concentration of multi-coloured stars. The zoom set at 12mm framed the brightest stars visible, nicely. Really pretty and something I'm going to be regularly revisiting, I think. M36 next - the "pinwheel cluster". This was a little underwhelming compared to its neighbour M37. M38 was much better. I can see why it's called the 'starfish' cluster. Two final clusters to go. The description of NGC 1857 sounds great, but it was rather unimpressive to my eyes. Averted vision helped locate some star chains, but darker skies needed again. NGC 1664 though, is a swirl of star chains which appeared to me like a long-tailed manta-ray. It's described as a 'kite' and I guess that makes sense. Another cluster I really admired and I'll add it to my favourite cluster list (which I started tonight). Looking up as I started packing things away, I could make out the Milky Way faintly overhead. Orion was peeking-out over the house roof. It was getting cold and felt like winter was coming.

The seeing was average/poor tonight although the transparency was good. The image of Mars was 'boiling' with few of those magic moments we've been having recently, where suddenly everything clears leaving high resolution detail. Last night I had a brief view of Mars, and despite the high winds, the seeing was great. The patterns I saw were distinct and clear but unfortunately I didn't have time to do any sketches. So today I was strict with myself and sketched only what I saw, not what I remembered from yesterday.

I would like to point out that the above is tongue-in-cheek and I am actually in awe of the images that you AP lot can make. If only I had the money and patience!

Astrophotography Setup. A gathering of expensive scope, guide-scopes, cables, motors, a huge driven mount, more cables, cameras, laptop, dew-heaters, cables, unicorn tears, and cables.

An 8mm BST Starguider is one of the better ones in the range. It'll provide 50x magnification, so good for a lot of deep sky objects. You could barlow it, making it 100x in effectively then an f/8 scope - so will behave nicely.

Mine has been put away until Dec 25th. It's going to be my annual to open on Christmas morning.

Literally stick a Telrad on it?

Hi, There is a sticky thread in this section for member contributed observing lists:

Sorry mods. My Australian heritage means I forget that's seen as a rude word.

[removed word] - completely forgot that was the issue here. You might have a chance by slight twisting of the secondary and then trying to see whether you adjust the tilt to have the doughnut and eye-hole line-up as well as the primary image concentric. But it will be trial-and-error and if the primary is out, then probably impossible. Perhaps worth a try if you fancy it. Otherwise, I'd contact FLO

Correct. You don't want to line up the doughnut with the c-cap yet. That's the problem. Once the secondary is aligned with the primary (concentrically) using the secondary screws - then you align the primary back to the secondary by getting the c-cap eyehole inside the doughnut - by adjusting the primary screws. Does that make sense?

I should make clear - you still need to adjust the secondary tilt to get the image of the primary concentric. Don't adjust the primary at this point.

That's the problem. If you had a Cheshire, you would line up the doughnut with the cross-hairs. But with a collimation cap you can't do that. You need to centre the image of the primary under the focuser. Usually, you do this by making sure all 3 primary mirror clips are visible. You see - your secondary is positioned pretty well: But the secondary tilt is off: You want the outside of the primary (with clips) concentric. The doughnut should be in the centre of the reticle above It would be much easier with a Cheshire. But you are nearly there.

What's the eye relief like on the 82deg ES? Any good for spectacle-wearers? (asking for a friend)

In binoculars, this was probably Delta Lyrae. The famous blue/orange double star in those parts is Albireo in Cygnus, but this is probably difficult to split in 10x50 bins Also - if you still have clear skies, try the double-cluster in Perseus and also the "Alpha Persei Moving Group" which is a very odd name for a large open cluster of stars around Mirphak (the brightest star in Perseus)

Don't worry - Mercury is at greatest elongation on 1 October. Plenty of timer to prepare!

At least Mercury is the first thing to find and is in the evening. But looking at the above, week certainly be the hardest the see

Lovely sketch, Mike. I'm itching to get another shot at Mars but it's been all clouds since last week. All I'm seeing are posts from people saying how the past few days have been the best so far! I have a new EP. New filter. And I've sharpened my pencil! C'mon the sky!

Looks pretty tight!

At the moment: Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are all easily visible with the naked eye. Uranus and Neptune are high and can be seen with a telescope easily enough. So - assuming that Mercury was visible, that means one could see all the planets in one night. Mercury is at greatest elongation on 1 October - visible in the evening after sunset. So that looks like a good opportunity. How easy is it to find Mercury with binoculars? I've never tried. And how common is this situation (seeing all in one night)?

How do you collimate a scope that can't be collimated because it can't go out of collimation (but it has) 2 terms of Mathematical Logic at university never prepared me for that!

I would assume it does.

By reading this.... 🕵️‍♂️

Still worth noting the issue with the seller. They might have some advice, or be able to contact SW for support. Was it one of the major stores?