josefk

Somewhat inspired by @Stephenstargazer rig above (thanks 👍) - here's my attempt to:

1) give me options to move a bit of weight behind the pivot on the AZ100 to enable "further forward" balancing of a front heavy triple mounted on the other side and therefore reduce the arc the EP travels through, and

2) give me easy fore and aft weight compensation (about 10cm and 2kg worth in the current configuration) for eyepiece changes or swaps to and from BV.

3) mount a power source on the moving part of the mount

It isn't trialled in anger yet but i'm confident of some benefits. The MOLLE pouch has 1.1kg of counter weight in it plus a 13.6Ah power source for a USB dew band. 

I may also mount an RDF on this "accessory sledge" to either compliment or even replace a scope mounted finder.

3 hours ago, Alan White said:

Not postie but myself in person at PAS today. Tempted by being available and a small show discount.

Should sit well with my shorter XW and play nice wearing glasses.

Delos 17.3

 

All looked at by my fellow SGLers looking at our goodies

Great eyepiece Alan. I love mine doing two different jobs in two different focal length scopes. I find it very “comfy” and easy to get behind. 

...and while i don't like red anodised kit and strong branding typically - this red anodised WILLIAMS OPTICS losmandy plate was the heaviest losmandy plate i could find at the show. I have a cunning plan (nicked from a fellow SGL member) for a counterweight & dew control and/or powerpack & accessory sledge for the offside of my AZ100 if i mount only a single scope on the other side.  I'm  ruminating mounting an RDF or RACI finder on this offside too because i bang my head a lot on scope mounted RDF and/or finder. 

...well just back - its only a short drive for me into Northants from South Lincs. It was very very busy as i left.

There was/is a good amount and selection of books at the Society for the History of Astronomy. I bagged these - The Messier Album has been on my watchlist for a while. The Lunar Mapping books are to cement an interest that has more recently taken hold - The "Map of the Moon" book of hand drawn maps by Hugh Percival Wilkins is just lovely.

… the middle one with broken wall is Cyrillus and the other large one to its upper right is Catharina. The little sharply defined one at 11 o’clock to Theophilus is Madler. 👍

Hi there - the bottom left one with mountains in the middle on the crater floor is Theophilus. IIRC it’s 2.7miles deep. The others I would have to look up because my memory is rubbish. I knew them last weekend 😲

nice post and nice scope!

Well it's a learning curve alright and humbling!!! I will be mildly relieved to get back to anonymous grey smudges at the end of this lunar cycle!

On the upside - the sketch below is made just now and represents sitting in the spring sunshine for an hour so that was a pleasant change.

I like it a lot @Dark Adaptation  not easy keeping up with the mountains and valleys and crater rims on that terminator is it? 😂

I assume that was Friday night because I see features in your sketch I also found eye catching on the same evening: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/406188-first-time-lunar/#comment-4354316

interesting distortion of scale here in the south west - it's quite educational trying to keep knocking these out in close succession...

50/50 i think

Grab 'n' Go >> find it. Part of the simple pleasure of GnG and satisfying.

Bigger kit >> 90% DSC/push-to. It's my own fault but RDF's and straight through finders are practically ornaments after alignment. Plus on these nights i want to maximise time on target as it were.

9 minutes ago, Elp said:

C6. Do I win a prize?

i set myself up for that didn't i 🤣. i DO have a few other criteria that precludes a C6 i'm afraid ...seeing as this is "the holy grail".

Very very nice and nice Kowa too!

Really enjoyed that vicariously here through your descriptions. Thanks. 

you have just posted my holy grail scope @dweller25 and stated it much better than I. I was going to put it - 

...shows me at least 10th mag galaxies (i don't care if they are tiny smudges as long as a i can account for them), doesn't embarrass itself on quick looks at the planets, fits in a one handed carry Peli case and mounts on a video head or otherwise quite minimal mount...

if anybody knows that scope then answers on a postcard please!

Success for me as well tonight. A very dull copper colour -  brightening to a more polished copper at the lowest magnification i could use. Unfortunately low down in the murk in a direction that gets lit up by a nearby town when the atmosphere is as damp as it was tonight so at low magnification the sky was quite a light slate grey. Still happy to observe it though. 

Not very easy this is it? ...and this is nothing like how interesting and contrasted the real view was i'm afraid! I can see a driven mount at some point in my future...

1 hour ago, jetstream said:

And once you do then what?

Get a bigger one (or indeed a smaller one) and do it all again!

12 minutes ago, jetstream said:

As experience grows and skill developed I think many astronomers realize when the glass theyre using becomes a limiting factor.

@mikeDnight I realize you are a good observer and you also have top glass, the issue I have with the quote is the insinuation that anyone cant become a good observer ie the term "man of small capacity".

That phrase doesnt seem to encourage the fact that skill can be developed ( and no reference to women astronomers)- to me it sounds like skill is a "fixed" quantity in the quote eventhough the following addresses skill:

I dont believe that anyone using the same top glass, under great conditions and with equal "seat time" under the stars will see vastly different features on the moon and planets.

Visual acuity is a factor though -IMHO- and increasing aperture can reveal differences in it.

I have 2 telescopes that are at the top of my heap- the 15"/Ostahowki/Astrosystems and the TSA120. These 2 scopes sure provide views that the others do not. Not that the others are bad its just these 2 sit on the top shelf, and no doubt any experienced observer with good visual acuity would see it.

Just illustrating the difference in glass and not the observer.

Gerry

i read the Denning quote more positively TBH - i don't mind admitting "small capacity" at the back end of a scope but i trust in application and experience to grow that capacity. i'm also happy to think that my own skills are the most important aspect in the observing system because they're not finite (or at least need not be finite let's say).

🙂

27 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

 I've often wondered how William Herschel would react if he could use some modern scopes and eyepieces. I've no doubt there would be more than a few colourful expletives, and perhaps that may be followed by the command "Caroline, pass me that hammer", and the sound of shattering speculum metal

Never mind the mirrors - i think it's his eyepieces he'd be chucking in the duck pond first!

Herschel in my mind also "proves" both the sets of quotes on this thread - he constantly tuned and tweaked and refined his practise ("...becomes habituated to his instrument..." ) AND yet he himself was always the most important component in the overall capability of his observing system.

Spectacularly good - brings a sense of perspective that's for sure!

i think that's a nice sketch @AlcorAlly TBH and i'm not sure what you mean by "inaccuracies" - its your sketch of your observation. IMHO (and speaking for myself only) if i wanted to accurately draw a star chart i'd copy one sat inside in the warm and in good lighting 😄.  A sketch at the EP (for me) is about faithfully recording my observation at that time. I copy them the next day onto clean dry card etc but i copy what i drew at the scope and use memory to make it even more like what i felt like i observed and match my experience. i.e a sketch is MY own aide memoire - No point "correcting" anything because then it wouldn't be my observation anymore...

...that said LOL 🙂 - for M42 in particular i am slightly tempted to actually copy the star field to a sketch pad from a star chart while sat in the warm at home then take that to the field to "fill in" the nebulosity so i could fully concentrate on just the nebulosity. I haven't actually followed through on that whim yet.

i'm interested in the replies you get from others here - i can't answer your question re. B7/B8 but i know i failed to see this with 95mm of aperture (no filters) in SQM 20.8 (ish) skies in January this year on a night where i did positively see M1 which is (i think) notionally a similar magnitude and size (so surface brightness). 

6 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Thanks, I'd omitted the SAO catalogue as I know what it is, so in first incarnation of the list I didn't bother including it (I created the list just for my own edification to begin with, then thought it might be useful for others). I've added it. The Herschel (2521), as far as I can tell it's a combination of Clusters and Nebulae? Just so I know where to put them as an edit.

it's a full liquorice allsorts so probably Other/Misc in your categories...

Hi Magnus,

I think you could add (Nexus DSC Pro):

- SAO (258,944 entries)

- Herschel (2521 entries).

Cheers