IB20

Why would you say that!!! 😭 You’re gonna end up costing me a lot of money. Maybe a Starfield will suffice?

So following on from @MalcolmM’s kit bias thread, most of us probably think our kit is the bees knees or it’s serving a purpose right now. It got me thinking though, if we were in a position where we lost or had kit damaged and were given a pile of cash to replace, what would most of us do? Would you try to like for like replace kit, upgrade/modernise or would you walk away from the hobby entirely? I would almost certainly look at getting a 10” dob with some kind of push-to, maybe a Starsense or one of the StellaLyras to replace an 8” manual 200P. The refractor is a more difficult one, I love the Tak 76Q, it really is a joy to use and for GnG it’s pretty much perfection, however I do often wonder what a 4” APO would be like. Eyepiece wise, I’d definitely re-purchase the XWs from 10mm-3.5mm, they really suit me and I cannot find any fault with them. I would especially re-buy the 4mm TOE as it’s my favourite eyepiece I have looked through. The 17.5mm Morpheus whilst a good EP, would probably get forgotten, as I don’t really use low power for scope viewing. I would always be on the look out for Ultimas/similar and the 10mm BCO would more than likely get re-purchased. I’d probably look to swap the 8x & 15x binos I currently have for a pair of 12x. I’ve started using binos a lot more this Winter and think I could have a more optimal pair. I only own one tripod and mount so wouldn’t know what to do. 😄

I don’t use any kind of push or goto currently. The new Celestron Starsense packages look really interesting though. I have been thinking about either upgrading to a 10” dob or scavenging the cradles from one of the cheaper refractor packages to fit to my setup.

A Mewlon 300 and a 152mm Lunt Ha scope with largest blocking filter. Nice and cheap!

Missed the conjunction yesterday due to clouds and rain but still looking beautiful despite a configuration change.

I think my inexperience in astronomy is kit rather than observing. I haven’t found observing or navigating the sky a particularly difficult “skill” to pick up but that’s thanks to help from marvellous resources such as SGL, AN/S@N, online lunar maps and software like SkySafari and Stellarium. Perhaps having a background in science has helped too. I’d like to think I have ok eyesight still too, although have recently noticed a bit of astigmatism creeping for brighter objects with naked eye. Whereas kit is such a vast and variable minefield. I have looked through about 5 different telescopes and 3 pairs on binoculars in total. I have enjoyed observing with them all, even what I’d probably now consider a bit of a lemon in the Celestron 76mm firstscope. I guess that’s where the “my kit” bias stems from though, we can only comment on what we have experience of and when you haven’t tried a great deal you will be limited in your experience and recommendations. I remember when I started (have always had an interest but just not the gear!), I looked at SGL and CN for recommendations for my first serious scope and settled on the 8” dob. It’s a great scope but I’m still into the hobby and if I was starting afresh I’d probably go for a 10” dob instead. But I also have a wish list of a 4” APO, 5” APO, 6-8” CC, Mak, 180 Mewlon, NV, EEVA and Ha scopes. So much kit wanted with such little cash 🤣

Jupiter and Venus looking magnificent. The conjunction should be a belter. 🤞🏼

What a fantastic looking scope. Congratulations, enjoy it!

If it’s the same as the 10mm I got with Skywatcher then it’s a real dog. The 10mm BCO would be a real upgrade. How do you find Jupiter through the 8mm BST? That should get you a really nice magnification of 112x for Jupiter.

Not quite sure what it weighs these days, I’ve added so much to it. Probably around 6-7kg all in.

What eyepieces are you using where you don’t think you are seeing any colour? It might be a brightness issue or collimation? My reflector is a light bucket FL1200mm, so using a mag of 120x with a variable polarising filter reduces the brightness and lets me see colour on Jupiter

I really, really like and rate the 5mm BST, it’s a great EP. 180x might just a tad too high on Jupiter in “normal” UK seeing conditions though. My personal preference is sharpness over magnification when it comes to Jupiter. It would be a cracking lunar EP though. The 6mm BCO is good too, eye relief is a lot tighter than the BST though. The 10mm BCO is fantastic, that and a 2x barlow would get you a 10mm & a 5mm.

I haven’t really been able to get on with BVs so far. Incredible amount of faff to get focused with existing kit and once I have got focused I’m seeing double images or my brain isn’t wanting to merge the images. Just bear in mind BVs might not be a straight forward path.

I don’t actually think the cost in upgrade between the 1.25” 10nm and 7.5nm standalone filter is actually that bad; around £25-30. Although the 10nm was £56 when I bought it, it now retails about £75. Prices have gone berserk frankly! When it comes to wedges and 2” accessories it all gets a bit silly in terms of price.

If its red and blue glare either side of the planet’s edges then it will be atmospheric dispersion. Lower altitudes and bright planets will normally lead to such.

So pretty unscientific but two images attached were taken with the Tak FC-76Q and 10nm and 7.5nm continuum filters. These were different days though but seeing and conditions were relatively similar as it was the prolonged sunny cold spell we had recently. Processing has been kept the same with false colour added. The large sunspot towards the solar limb is the 7.5nm filter. As ever with most kit upgrades, we are talking marginal improvements.

I’m fairly sure the 7.5nm filter increased contrast particularly on the faculae, they seemed to “pop” more both visually but perhaps even more so when imaged and processing. Unfortunately since purchase I just haven’t had chance for any more solar time so I haven’t been able to give it a thorough testing.

I’m glad someone said it! I had both scopes out and everything looked rubbish. Thought I needed to collimate my dob after Mars looked blank and out of focus. Tried to find the comet but had zero luck either but nipping out with bins just now revealed why, it’s dropped a fair few magnitudes.

This is wonderful. Can I ask what your kit is?

Looks great, processing is definitely subjective but I like it and it doesn’t come across as “too processed”.

Definitely think this is a thing. My 8” dob makes it look like a dog’s dinner at low altitude through normal UK seeing.

I will chalk it in the possible/probable detection category - very much like my observations of Antares. I like a split to stay stable and split rather than a repeated microevent😅. I’ve never seen Sirius appear so perfectly white and disc like apart from through the 76Q though. Through an 8” dob it looks like an underwater mirrorball and is horrendous. Interestingly I couldn’t detect it when I cranked up the mag as much, and it was undetectable when it started to descend in altitude. I see a lot of Rigel comparisons where observers say if Rigel is easy to view on the night then Sirius should be splittable, but I have split Rigel with every scope I have ever pointed at it. To me it’s a very easy split even in bad seeing. With March approaching we’re approaching twilight Sirius in its transit so hopefully I get a lot more opportunity to have a crack at it. By all accounts twilight can remove some of the glare issues from such uneven magnitudes between the pair.

Should be fine at f11.3, certainly the right side of any chromatic aberration as per the attached chart. You’ll probably see some colour fringing the brightest objects but it shouldn’t be too intrusive.

Last night’s moon was punching through some amazing cloud formation.

Not a dumb question at all! My garden is probably a bit smaller than 15m2 but my southerly horizon is around the attached. If you have a smart phone you could try one of the apps (SkySafari is really good; can’t remember if stellarium has such?) that has the AR mode or compass feature and work out what altitude you can access by finding a bright object or an easy constellation first and working towards the horizon.