PeterW

Auto translate produces.... I had a 12x70, I didn't like him shaking much. With a tripod the neck starts to look. Came to 10х 50 if you have very steady hands or better a monopod/tripod then the higher power can be used. If you want to carry these about a lot and avoid tripods then the smaller ones are more recommended. peter

Most of the societies I have been a member of do have observing sessions, when the weather cooperates, but I agree many are there for the talks only. Each to their own. Peter

Don’t know about the witchhead, but I have a wide deep hydrogen alpha image of the wider central Cygnus area that I use to help confirm which wisps I have seen. Catalogs are littlenuse as the objwctsbare never simple circles/ellipses!! Peter

I don’t doubt the observation, I’m just slightly surprised as a pure reflection nebulae is broadband in emission (I’ve tried to find a spectrum for one). There may well be light at the hydrogen emission line, but it won’t be bright. The chroma are definitely very good, I was pleasantly surprised by a logarithmic transmission plot that @GavStar showed me, very little out of hand transmission. Also other people have reported failed observations (for which there may be many reasons). Please have a go with other pure reflection nebulae (eg Pleiades, some are emission/reflection combined) and tell us how you get on. The past months have seen people try out new things with many happy discoveries! Let’s keep up the experimentation! Peter

transparency is key as mentioned. That harder-chroma must be working well if you set the “loop” as a quality test... need to work harder to reduce the impact of my local light pollution? Peter

I never got any caps at all with my 12x. Good to see you’ve found some spares. peter

Really FAST scope, dark skies, chroma filter and harder NV..... currently the best option we’re aware of. Peter

BTW when’s the next Mob outing, this is the Deep Sky forum.... lets focus on what we can see and how. Peter

I apologise for starting this whole issue off all those months/years ago..... should have seen it coming. Peter

I feel the opposite, being able to “pull back the veil” show people starkly what is up there that they have lost and what would be visible if we could reduce the wasted light that misses its intended target! Bring the stars to the people, rather than the people to the stars. Much easier to demonstrate than the equally appalling loss of biodiversity and invertebrate life we are also suffering from. The current level of discussion is as we are discovering what works, exploring the new, I am sure people have been doing this sort of thing when larger, faster scopes have appeared and new eyepieces and filters. I prefer to think of NV as just another kind of eyepiece, but with special powers. You would be most welcome at one of our observing events. Averted vision and jiggling the scope both help to make most use of the human visual system to detect faint and subtle detail. Peter

Be interesting to try some only reflection nebs, eg Pleiades or witch head. You take much better notes than I do Alan! Might be worth adding a B-filter to remove the red, and any “light pollution” in the more sensitive band. Peter

But it’s been absent from WHSmiths for a while, which worried me. Peter

Eeeekkkk. Their subscription renewal failed as their payment and address options were so US focussed. Got a short one from a U.K. retailer. Go a PM from one of the editors saying they are working on improving this. Have to see how this pans out. Peter

Like 3D printing in the DIY forum, there’s lots of posts as people explore what it’s capable of. Modern NV is virtually indistinguishable from regular observing, minus and star colours. There are many different tools with different trade offs, NV is just another to add to the mix. I’ve watched the video crowd largely replaced by the rapid CCD stacking team with NV sprinkled in. Sure NV is EEA, but unlike the others is not teathered to a tracking mount and provides instant real-time results. There are precious few amateur astronomers out here, let’s all play nice together. I enjoy reading observing posts through whatever kit people have. Peter

Yes, the scintillation would probably be lower with the brighter image, can get very strange when you kill all the input light with max gain. Peter