PeterW

https://elsteadvillage.co.uk/elstead-military-land/ Peter

I wonder if Frensham carpark is left open? Puttenham feels a bit close to Guildford. Peter

Seems like 1:0 to the Terminagler. Honey I shrunk my Panoptic??! Peter

For low power views there are always binocular telescopes, no GPC needed, Peter

Card spacer will be replaced as the e c-adapter screws on a tiny bit too far at the moment. Peter

Rapid filter swap capability, now need to make a holder to hold the cartridges not in use.

… a lot is down to the atmospheric seeing and it’s spatial length scale which means that scopes much bigger than 6” (or so) are not necessarily any better than smaller ones. Of course if you are using lucky imaging then you can grab those very occasional moments of stable viewing and stack them together and get more from your bigger scopes. Peter

Depends how you want to spend your time… imagers take ages on each object to collect photons and then spend time to process the result. Observers spend their time finding and looking at objects with their eyes out in the cold…. Personal choice, everyone has their own motivations. Peter @Deadlakeyou can have fun without even a scope… just a small camera lens sometime…. hand carry.

For NV you want speed of optics, using the Televue 67mm reduction to speed up the scope you choose for the focal length and hence field of view. Big scopes simply give you a smaller field of view. Refractor, reflector, anything will do. For the best views you want to give each eye an NV view…. Double the fun, but double the cost. Depends what objects you want to look at… different objects, different tools. collimation is nothing to worry about, though did watch a friend nearly unscrew his SCT secondary by twiddling the screws the wrong way…. Peter

L version is the one to get, has a narrower field of view so you can point it in different gross directions. Peter

All works fine, maybe make accessing the moon info Easier…. Was clicking like a mad thing until I found it… only after seeing your post. Maybe you could add the dust forecast or the copernicus aerosol depth? Your app continues to get more useful and a one-stop-shop. Peter

We’ve all got SQM-L, although there is a phone app that claims to do the same I am not sure how accurate it is, my old phone didn’t give good results, but then it’s camera is almost blind at night. Peter

Thursley area looks good, also maybe arbor chiddongford, woolbeding common, S of Blackdown may also be worth looking for places with the right logistics and views that can then be measured at night. Peter

I randomly tried to split Castor a few nights back with my 70mm binoculars, I was seeing if I could use my 5mm eyepiece in them (80x), nice black gap between the components… pleasantly surprised, maybe should do More of this?? Peter

SE, wadhurst AS have done a survey round them with some good sites, otherwise head out towards dungeness. Peter

Dark and close, easier to get one or the other. I’d suggest SQM data unless the app has been checked to ensure the numbers returned are correct. I’m hopeful we’ll find some sheltered location that is surprisingly good and easy to get to… the holy grail. Peter

Would be good to collate sites between sw London and the South Downs park (which has been fully SQM surveyed), so we can identify closer dark places. SQM data is best to allow for comparisons. Peter

With poor conditions I’d ask it to only use the best 10-15%, if you can run at 200fps, you can afford to Chuck plenty and still have a good number of good frames! Peter

Experience…. Jus get lots of frames taken with good focus and as short an exposure time as you can, don’t take inages for more than a few mins or things might have changed. Leave Autostakkert to do it’s stuff, it’ll even sharpen the result… you just have to sit and drink coffee while it does so, that’s what I do. Peter

… I had a friend with a scope that had a mix of dog hair and snail trails on his mirror…. I am guessing my that the lack of homemade F2 10” dobsonians suggests that it’s maybe best to leave the mirrors in the SCT?! Peter

F2 from and SCT mirror would give horrid aberrations, which this doesn’t seem to show. I reckon they’ve just provided incorrect numbers. It is homebrew and seems reasonable. t one made by/with an astro society, so should work to some degree. Ask the seller for more info. Peter

Bung the video into Autostakkert, there is a post by the creator around at the moment. Basically use the default setting a and you’ll get a great result. The issue with using DSLR is you don’t get the high number of frames to stack and thus beat the series to get the finest details. there is another costly camera I wish someone would gift me…. Canon ME20F https://m.dpreview.com/news/6951279684/recording-video-of-the-perseid-meteor-shower-with-the-canon-me20f-sh Peter

Good spot, I pretty much failed on siralis at 60x in binoculars, very nice views otherwise, but more unsteady seeing than of late. The limb depends on the liberation (moon tilt) which varies through themonth, so we can see 59% of the moon if we wait long enough, hence the edges change a lot. Some maps have generous liberation zones parts that can help, like the sky and telescope maps. Peter

Very very bad indeed... peter

Cool, also helps if you can see the sun sometimes... Peter