josefk

excellent atmosphere and realism @MZack - i really like those!

Future super finder for your future M210 🥴 i'm gently pulling your leg - this hobby has a way of having us going in circles in more ways than one 😂

hi @geoflewis i really like the smaller scale capture at shorter focal length. Sorry to chop one of your own pictures and send it back to you (and i'll possibly demonstrate my own ignorance now) but i suppose this is the NTrZ detail that is the outbreak your referring to: From your smaller scale picture (and if i mentally shrink it down a bit) the darker parts of it ought to be observable visually now with steady seeing and some care...maybe... Cheers

...and a foggy finder curtailing a session is even more annoying than losing the main objective. Its so trivial and yet such a pain. Jokes aside, I'm actually intrigued by the wrist warmer/ankle warmer discussion above, i keep meaning to measure my finder circumference to see if a 330ml drink can cozy would fit as a kind of permanent insulating jacket.

Thank you @Trillion for the sketches and description. I've skipped a clear sky opportunity this week (drained from work and couldn't face the cold) but your vivid description put me there in the observing moment with you. 👍 Super sketches too - a very busy and interesting NEB and SEB. Fingers crossed for a clear opportunity tonight or over the weekend. 🤞

i wish i had asked for advice in a thread like this - great advice all round! @Van Maartens - i don't have a Mewlon but i have 85mm and 130mm tak refractors and 185mm and 254mm Cassegrains of one sort or another, so little and large complimentary scope pairings in the way you consider. In 185mm Cassegrain vs. 130mm refractor the 185mm scope wins on scale and/or brightness due to its aperture but the 130mm always wins for sheer joy of wielding it and the aesthetics of the view. I don't find much utility benefit from dual mounting these scopes as the 185mm Cassegrain doesn't bring a winning difference to see a whole new class of DSO than the 130mm can reach on any given night. The 130mm doesn't make the 185mm obsolete but they overlap quite a bit. In 254mm Cassegrain vs. 130mm refractor the 254mm clearly brings a whole new capability to DSO candidates that are possible and even though the view isn't as nice as the 130mm it doesn't matter - the sheer horsepower of the larger aperture wins - my observing log is getting stuff in it that just isn't in reach of even the 185mm scope. Dual mounting these two scopes to combine their strengths is awesome, hard work but awesome!!! 85mm refractor vs 130mm refractor - not as overwhelming a win for the 130mm as you would think. i've never dual mounted them i don't think but when i'm using the smaller refractor i don't miss the bigger one (and visa versa TBH). The exception is certain very specific things - i can't see Enceladus with the 85mm and i haven't managed the Titan shadow transit with it so in last chance saloon for that event next week i will reach for the 130mm by preference. Your 100mm and the possible TSA-120 along side it are obviously even closer in capability than my 85mm and 130mm. My advice - (contrary to your preference for the smaller Mewlon) is go big on the Mewlon 210 and grab a whole new level of DSO capability to compliment the excellence of your 100mm refractor for brighter and/or bigger objects.

Don't part with them! It's lovely EP characteristic/quality 😀 edit: MOPS? Masuyama Ortho something?

Thanks for the tip @JeremyS but no no - i have the 18mm Tak Abbe Ortho in a pair - i just regret i didn't buy the (at the time not needed) 12.5mm TAO while they were still around... The 18mm TAO are quite extraordinary and i wish i had a full set in that range to see if they're all like it - i don't know what it is exactly but they feel like there's no glass between you and the sky (which is ironic and a bit wierd because they're also normally stacked with BV and GPC and/or tak 1.5 extender or 2x powermate (i.e they're hardly ever alone in the diagonal while they're pulling off this disappearing trick)). 🤷‍♂️

The epsilon appeals to you and me both @Ratlet - you could hike the 130mm version up to the top of Snowdon or a highlands high top or somewhere more exotically remote and dark with a lightweight tripod to sit it on - that would be a fabulous mini-adventure. i also like the epsilon colour scheme quite a lot. 70's scuba.

My Berlebach observing chair is in my top five favourite astro related bits of kit quite honestly @bosun75 @Peter Turvey - i wouldn't be without it now. Before i had it i used to rotate my diagonal to get a comfy viewing angle and this puts west all over the place. Because i didn't mind that at the time, i didn't anticipate just how nice having west more or less always around 8pm to 10pm or so in the EP FOV would be - all from sitting comfortably!

I couldn’t really make the case for a pairing at this focal length while Takahashi TAO were still around on the market even though I kind of knew “when they were gone they were gone” and I may regret it. I do regret it as I LOVE my 18mm pair of that EP range. I now have a much shorter focal length GnG set-up (than back then) and enjoy binoviewing with it so on the better nights I hope the x140 or so these will now enable in that set-up will bring some reward. Not fancying the cold EP tops though - may have to jury rig something softer/warmer if eye relief allows…

i also think it's a good question. I regularly use 24mm Panoptic mono and bino and 18mm Tak TAO mono and bino and have never sensed any difference in eye relief between the two use cases. I have both 1.7x GPC and 2.6x GPC but have used the 2.6x GPC almost exclusively the last year so my recent "sense" is based on that one. It is possibly an unreliable sense.

This is also Scott Harrington's work. The charts are Globular Cluster oriented because they're what i'm trying to see visually at the moment but this excel is a bit broader. M31GC(Brightest75).xls

Nice images @CraigT82 and i appreciate the fascination. Do you know this resource: https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/ANDROMEDA_Atlas/frames.html. i understand it to be the last word on the matter but personally speaking i find it a bit difficult to make sense of in its online layout. i have some Scott Harrington .pdf guides and star charts too - i can't actually refind them online right now to post a link so i've attached them. Field Guide_A Field Guide to M31's Brightest Observable Globular Clusters & More.pdfField Guide_Main M31 Observing Charts.pdf651485-Andromeda's bright globulars overview finder chart.pdf651487-Central Andromeda Globular Finder Chart.pdfField Guide_Halo Globular Cluster Finder Charts.pdf

Do you want to resize @cloudbuster so you can keep the original frame proportions (with a border) and avoid the IG square or are you asking about resizing resolution wise? If the former then the app "Whitagram" is free and not full of ads (probably means some valuable part of my soul is being sold by them to some other 3rd party in order to use it)...you can do this: