josefk

32 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

Stamford to Kettering.
Local for you but a bit too far to walk if you buy anything big, or are wandering around the stands all day🤣
 

Pretty close - definitely too close to miss out. Last years PAS triggered a precipitously expensive return to the hobby "full blast" - i'm hoping this years PAS will be a little bit more moderate 🙂

that's a great post @Moon-Monkey - i'm in the same boat regarding a lot of the sentiment!

15 hours ago, markse68 said:

Please do- they are really good- remind me of early moon maps by eg Cassini

Mark

only £50k https://www.crouchrarebooks.com/maps/cassinis-seminal-lunar-map

I'll keep practising LOL🤣

23 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Thanks for all the replies so far🙂.

I hadn't considered astigmatism in my own eye (s)..

I am sure it's not the binoviewers as I've noticed the effect before I acquired these, both with cyclops viewing and with my previous binoviewers. I've also noticed this with ordinary binoculars, of which I have 3 pairs, all of known good optical quality.

I don't think it's the diagonal. My main one is a Baader Zeiss BBHS prism and I have also an excellent Astro Tech 2" mirror diagonal.

Don mentioned possible "sag" due to weight..I will look at this as I do use a couple of heavy eyepieces (Axiom LX 23 & 31mm), but both are currently decloaked so much less heavy now.

My binoviewers have some heft, too, but not excessive at all.

My FS128 has a very solid focuser: although I can occasionally see a small amount of image shift at high powers, I don't think the focuser is to blame for the above phenomenon, and again, I still see the "north/south" vs "east/west" difference even with binoculars and a range of eyepieces.

All this makes me think the fault has to be with my own eye(s)..

I do know that my right eye (my natural bias is to my right side) has deteriorated noticeably in the past 5 years or so, to the point that I had to train myself to use my better, left eye to be my main observing eye. I don't recall testing this perceived discrepancy one eye at a time, so I shall check that out. I am due an eye test soon, so I will discuss this with the optician also.

Finally, one thing that I am very sure of is that with my new binoviewers my good left eye helps to lift the perceived performance of my poorer right eye. I am certain of this. Viewing Mars the other night, the view through both eyes was much clearer, more comfortable and more satisfying than the cyclops view through either eye - no doubt about it.

The new Maxbright IIs are excellent..but that's another story..😊

Dave

 

I'm not dismissing differences and characteristics inherent in kit - not at all - but this also reminds me of commentary sometimes on HIFI forums were such and such a sonic characteristic of a hifi component comes under scrutiny - i would posit that for all our senses our own equipment - eyes in this case (and ears in the HIFI world) - are the biggest variable. i think we have very untrustworthy sensors and senses.

I agree with you binoviewers and binoculars definitely seem to help cancel out individual eye characteristics in a very positive way.

i wonder if anyone saw it the first time round and scratched it into a rock face somewhere? haha.

Excellent stuff Siegfried. A nice way to capture and commit your first comet to memory!

A grab 'n' go sat in the grounds of a ~10th century priory last night - my normal local haunt has been closed these last two nights.

There was some tree dodging involved in this spot so a few lazy doubles in the gaps - sp. having another look at Struve 752 to satisfy myself i had seen C properly a few nights ago (i had) and Struve 762 because i like to check if can see C here as the faintest component. New doubles for me were Epsilon Monocerotis (Struve 900) and Gamma Leporis. in a right way up right way round view STF 900 puts me in mind of the gable end of a house (this double is more or less the ridge tile) and i've used this shape to navigate through this area before.

Then the moon was up so time for another sketch  - i only started having a go at sketching the moon on Sunday and now i realise i had made an easy start while it was full. Trying to capture detail on the terminator is super fun but challenging too. Absorbing stuff.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/406188-first-time-lunar/#comment-4347799

Third night running. I can see very well how this gets addictive now. Nothing better than sketching to deepen the looking and TBH i'd never even looked at the moon properly before.

Right way up right way round spotting scope. White pastel, white ink brush, white highlighter and black fine liner on black card at the EP. The sketch isn't quite finished but the moon started to go behind a tree so that was that.

A nicely observed feature for me was on the prominent crater at 2-oclock ish with the mountain in the crater floor i could see terracing on the crater wall behind. I couldn't capture that to the sketch though.

Me too. Looking forward to it already!

Thanks @Highburymark - i was hoping you may see the post because i've read your NV experiences. Your feedback is appreciated even if it's not really what i wanted to hear. I know I couldn't fully leverage the f3.3 capability visually - i would see the secondary below about 25x but even 25x would still give me 2.8 ish degrees of sky at 5mm ish exit pupil.

The f3.3 appeals more because it makes for a super compact packaging of 130mm of aperture and that had got me thinking...

Never mind and thanks.

...on a second attempt i felt able to concentrate on more detail - surprisingly enjoyable way to pass the time even if i am blind in one eye by the time i've finished. It would be nice to attempt a lunar sketch per day throughout the lunar cycle maybe. Don't worry i won't post them all. 😆

...sorry for another moon so soon but there's not much else on at the moment . Icy cold tonight and its definitely quite difficult moderating pastel and ink pen in the cold and slightly damp air...🥶

I was using the same right way up right way round spotting scope as yesterday (95mm APO) at 70x; Faber-Castel 101 white pastel, Derwent white charcoal, Faber-Castel 101 white brush pen, and Sakura Gelly Roll white highlighter. Quite enjoyable paying attention to the western limb and the crater rims lit up against the blackness.

You may be on to a winner there @IB20 - https://www.stelledoppie.it/index2.php?iddoppia=27936

hi all,

Can i tap into the hive mind and deep experience pool of the SGL community and ask if anyone has any thoughts (really experiences) with the Takahashi epsilon 130ED used as a visual instrument that they would be happy to share? i appreciate it’s a bit of a niche product used in a niche way.

I can find a few reviews online where SGL and CN posters use this or the larger e160 for night vision assisted visual for its f3.3 speed but i’m strictly interested in the standard visual experience and i don’t know enough if the EEA experiences “translate”. I guess not.

Are there any gotcha’s or issues with this fast astrograph “misused” in this way?

i’m basically simmering the classic debate - small (but in this case in particular physically short) reflector versus even smaller APO refractor. This could be a potential upgrade on my current grab and go kit. i’m assuming this particular execution of the newt recipe is going to give me a flat field with nice stars to the edge but critically with more reach than a similar weight and length (and therefore much smaller aperture) APO but i can’t find any user validation of those assumptions and actual usage experience visually so i’m wary of any downsides that i may not have appreciated.

i don’t need it to do everything for me - within the limits of it’s aperture - DSO performance (with a few doubles when the moon is up) and pleasure of use/nice ergonomics in the 25x …110x magnifying range is the target (limited mag because it will be on a lightweight mount).

Cheers

10 hours ago, RobertI said:

I think this is fab, you rarely seen full moon sketches. I was about to suggest you enter this into the sketching competition but I am pleased to see you already have. 🙂

Thank you Rob. "you rarely see full moon sketches" - i'm a beginner at the lunar malarkey and don't know any better 🤣 plus this scale hides a multitude of sins...

Oh dear. Well someone has to go next so from the sublime @mikeDnight 🙂 to the ridiculous but it is my first ever crack at lunar and my shoulder's are broad/skin thick so here we go i'll lower the bar a bit:

Done at the eyepiece just now - Swarovski ATX95 spotting scope at 70x. The moon was rising through quite hazy thin cloud but it was clear enough to have growing moments of clarity as it climbed slightly higher. 

Faber-Castell 101 white pastel pencil & Faber-Castell 101 white artists pen brush on black card.

Lunar sketch just now 5th Feb. A first for me sketching the moon for its own sake rather than as part of a conjunction or similar.

Set the TOA-130 up under thin high cloud last with the expectation of it thinning and clearing completely for a few hours... only to pack up an hour later under thicker mid and low cloud and in a thin low lying mist! For goodness sake! 🙄

for workings:

sun "marble" diameter x 106 = distance to the earth

sun "marble" diameter / 109 = diameter of the earth "marble"

Cheers

if a 10mm marble for the sun then it would be 106cm away from a less than 0.1mm "marble" for the earth. You may want to start with a bigger marble 🙂

Unless my maths is super shonky i believe a 13mm marble representing the sun should be 138cm away from a XXmm (not worked it out) sphere representing the earth...

i'm going to cheat with four candidates:

1. William Herschel's 20ft "Herschelian" - impossible to overstate, exaggerate or over romanticise how much discovery came from Herschel's use of this instrument - every night we're out more or less there's pretty much a 20% to 30% chance we  observe at least one thing that was discovered with this scope

2a. The 48" scope used for the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, or 

2b. The 2.5m scope in New Mexico used for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey - utterly relentless discovery and data collection

3. Hubble

22 minutes ago, BGazing said:

As I have ordered the dual saddle version and am waiting for it...is adjustment plate a must? 

Hi @BGazing i think the answer will depend on your use case and expectations (and your scopes).

I asked myself the same question before I acquired a second scope to mount on my AZ100 and decided to "wait and see" after some practical experience. So far the jury is still out but my gut feeling (for me) is that the saddle adjuster won't be needed.

I haven't had enough hours sat behind dual mounted scopes at different levels of magnification to formulate my final opinion but i have found what small difference there is in aiming point between scopes (and there is a small difference for my scopes) feels "not more troublesome" than the amount of drift across the EP there is in any event while i move from sitting behind one scope to sitting behind the other (1.  the other anyway set up at a different mag/FOV, 2. i don't have motor drives). i.e the object being observed in the first scope is pretty much there or thereabouts in the second scope even by the time i've moved across and i would guesstimate (i haven't totally properly checked) it is probably there or thereabouts to within 1/2 degree.

Cheers

Speaking for my own gut reaction i'm not sure that is a picture that will win you loads of friends and goodwill on here 😂- jealousy is such an unpleasant quality 😍😋

i've only dipped my toe in with an 18mm pair and i agree in my limited experience so far within the parameters of what they do (limited FOV) they seem essentially perfect (it doesn't feel like there is any glass in them) even compared to other well regarded EP's. 

Lovely

Short but fabulous session last night - particularly fabulous probably because it wasn't arctic temperatures.

Sketches here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/405941-c2022-e3-ztf-again-m81m82-widefield-ngc-1980-doubles/#comment-4344289

3 observations and all felt like highlights:

1. tracking C/2022 E3 for a good while and noting changed positions vis a vis the field stars every 15 mins or so

2. observing M81 and M82 widefield and contemplating just how vast the distance is between them...

3. Going for broke on "all" the double pairs in NGC 1980 - Struve 745, Struve 747, & Struve 752 relative to each other with Theta1 and Theta2 Orionis just perched on the field stop. Crazy.