PeterW

The main visible colour is green, though there are reds which NV would be better suited to see. I’d have a look at the emission lines that predominate in aurorae and whether you've got any filters that sort of help remove other colours and give it a shot. Looks like a 600nm long pass would help? https://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Magnetosphere/tour/tour_earth_magnetosphere_09.html Though you’d want to be away from the worst of city light pollution and you’d want to work a 1x or 3x to have a nice big field of view to see any structure more clearly. Peter

Moderate speed refractor and the 55mm Plossl afocal (now with a 67mm extra adapter). I use an 80mm f4 jumbo finder with a little extra reduction prime focus, handheld, so you can swing it about to find stuff. Play with field of view calculators so you can get an estimate Of what you’ll see. Focal length sets the field of view, speed the brightness. small scopes are good for viewing the big stuff, the opposite of your big dob. peter

125mm f10... more drag and lug than grab and go. See if you can visualise the size and weight, the easier it is to move around the more you’ll use it. peter

100mm really need a parallelogram, though the angled ones can get to zenith with a tripod. I’d look at parallelogram options before buying. I had some 25x100 ages ago and they didn’t get used enough as the tripod I had really wasn’t good enough. Peter

Nice big exit pupils, hard to find big bins with large exit pupils? Are they straight through or angled? Peter

Woah, that’s an old version of Cura!! 13hrs is nothing, I’ve run 3day prints before. 0.2mm and 60mm/s is fine, make the walls thicker that half the desired wall thickness so it’s solid and it doesn’t try making infill. Sometimes you just gotta wait. peter

I’ve printed Optical illusions that mess with the brain when viewed from certain directions. I usually start by asking what the part is for, the environment and the expectations on it.... then I can advise. “Can you make it the normal way” is another usual question to ask. Use 3DP when it makes sense, but not if there are better ways to achieve the same result. Peter

Very grab and go. I have a set of pockets round the ex-camera tripod I use so scope/mount, batteries and eye pieces can be taken in altogether. The azgti does need carefull altitude balancing, as in don’t switch weight of eyepieces. If you unbalance it can have tracking issues. Peter

If there is no risk of it being bent then you should be OK. The machines I have can handle a 20cm cube, So would be fine. Good luck peter

It’s early in the season, hopefully plenty of more attempts possible. Peter

Cold feet - muck Arctic sport will sort you out. When you get to good skies, you don’t want anything to cut the session short (apart from the sunrise)! Peter

Great to see people getting out to dark skies! Such a shame the coffee couldn’t have given you a crack at the Cone... hope you won’t have to wait long for another outing. Peter

....the curse of Bartels “one eyepiece, many scopes” philosophy! Of course if you “open the other eye” your brain can now do clever stuff with the extra information- reduce noise, improve contrast... even Mel is moving this way (albeit in his super sized, super fast way), should enable him to dredge up yet more IFN for the rest of us. Peter

3dprint-U.K. do SLS nylon, you pay for the bounding volume so you could pack extra goodies inside for the same cost. Any bureau using the HP FusionJet would be good too - high throughput machine. If you FDM it I would be tempted to add a few longitudinal ribs inside (if the design allows), just to lower any risk of delamination from flexing. If you use a tough material and print thick layers you won’t need to bother.... I always like to make sure prints aren’t too fragile... stops end users questioning the technology. peter

Good to hear it delivers... easier than setting the Explore. Peter

I’ve printed some dovetailed bits for attaching GPS and lasers to things. Cheap 3D printers tend to stop at around 20cm size prints. The bigger the part the longer it’ll take to print. What sort of size is the part you’re after? Peter

There are epoxy based coati by a you can apply if you want smooth and water proof. The only time I heated a part of up in an over it melted and left a small puddle! How have people got on with leaving prints outdoors, how long does PLA take to get damaged? I print solid PVDF for pretty much everything proof parts, not the cheapest though. With printing non-PLA do watch out for fumes. Peter

Pictures or it didn’t happen!we expect a full report Magnus! Peter

I use an f4 newtonian so the Explore corrector allows me to keep the speed for the field of view. Found I didn’t need it for how I was observing last time. With the corrector I have a long stack of optics looking like a thick broom handle poking out the scope... hazardous! Peter

Slows the focal ratio of your scope too. I have the explore model that keep the focal ratio the same. Not done a huge amount of assessment with it yet though. Peter

ah the Bolton group. peter

you can get angled binoculars, but not in your price range. A medium Mak would be compact and show high power things and could go on an altaz mount. peter

If we weren’t locked down I would be tempted to pop it in an X-ray cabinet for a wee lookie. If you can’t collimate you end up with 2 monocular.... possibly! Peter

Reminds me of these... much more useful! https://www.homewetbar.com/secret-binocular-flasks-p-1076.html PEter

Ruby?? Practically infrared! You pay extra for that! Peter