PeterW

You want to be able to adjust the balance so there is minimum weight against the altitude lock. Variable tension would be good too, so you can make small adjustments at higher powers. Peter

DMK41, still works fine, low frame rate, but still make good results.The stack processing with autostakkert is very simple to learn. The recent BAA webinar (on YouTube) showed how to process Venus data similarly. Peter

Wondered which van the pipe had fallen off 😉 Guess it can be left outside in all weathers! Looks like you need a bigger set of bins! You could run these as a kit, but like Peterson does. peter

Batteries for the LED in my illuminated cross hair eyepiece. Peter

You’re the one stopping me buying these on eBay!! I found they for my 50mm bins and a 135mm camera lens... hopefully have the ones I need. peter

Bit windy and with some high altitude cloud... but the sun makes a big change, maybe the lack of planes! Peter

Here goes, dark of course and poor phone flash. Running prime focus avoids the “long pokey” thing hanging off the focusser. (Why does the upload rotate stuff!) Peter

Of the scope or the objects... Gav is the master of taking pics down the eyepiece... Peter

8” big, had a 16” dob once! It’s an imaging newtonian, so comes with free focus in travel that just seems well designed for the reducer I am using... no huge long stack poking out the scope. All the Goto spot on, sort of cheating.... peter

Can’t wait for the nebulae to come back again. Just need a big battery and the setup would be transportable. Peter

Don’t seem to get many reports on here, so here’s one. After getting my old 8”f4 out on the EQ6 recently, replacing the focusser and a few other niggles it was time to give it a go again. SQM about 19, but I have a few dazzly LED lights nearby that are hard to escape, I have a foot long flocked dew shield to reduce their impact. Leaving the lens cap on the StarSense delayed things somewhat! After the last session I was keen to measure the field of view to estimate the focal ratio I was working at. I have a 1.25” 0.5x reducer close to the NV system giving some reduction, looks to be about f2.5 for a 2degree field of view. I was using a 685nm long pass filter to further beat the local pollution. I’d made a list of “bright and reasonable sized” stuff from Interstellarum. Given my crappy location galaxies are objects that I mainly give a miss, so see how we get on with them.... M81/2 made a great paring, M82 with 2 little bright and a dark mark along its length. ngc 4027 whale, with pup visible, the nearby “hockey stick” have me the slip. Markarians chain was interesting, picking up additional fuzzies extending beyond the field, I was using skysafari to note which ones were visible (should have spent longer in this area). M65/6/ngc3628 a nice grouping. Galactic nuclei showing as slightly fuzzy stars with varying degrees of elongation. There are some great edge on galaxies up there, like the sombrero and NGC4244. Globular clusters are dazzling as M13/92/3 showed. Overall total about 50 objects (those that I identified! (happy to provide a list, but make for a long report), in several fields I used sky safari to help me find other objects or to confirm things I thought I could spot. I gave up at 1AM as I couldn’t afford a lie in. Good to test things out and see that they’re working nicely. Peter

Nuff said... peter

Mine are certainly not of the “ruby coatings” type:.. wouldn’t deserve spending money on filters for them.... peter

Ruddy binoculars... Peter

There is another iOS planetarium app that does control an AZ-GTI so there IS a solution it just needs to be found and implemented. Owen, it is great to hear we might be close to a solution, it will make a lot of people very happy. Peter

The least it could have done is go out with a bang like Holmes did.. :-(( peter

I like wide views and have a nice few sets to cover different powers. Some are not quite as wide, have lightly worse edges, have slightly smaller exit pupils, can’t have everything in on set. Peter

Go out as soon as you can... the brightness roll off looks pretty steep. peter

I was pleasantly surprised with my 12x36 on M44/45 recently. Sharp and pleasing result, binoculars enable you to detect fainter stars. You still need to hold them steady so the IS can take out the fine scale vibrations. I have recently started to take offence at the stars going off rubbish near the edge of the field, which could get expensive! I prefer to lie on the ground looking up (like JTEC!), the bins pressing into my head, with a pillow you can then look lower. Much away from zenith adding a monopod to help add some stability. The views reclining a camp chair and a monopod can be quite stable too. Tripods have the fatal flaw that you can’t get under them and parallelograms have long arms that can wobble. I have a cheap trigger ball head on the top of my monopod that I have glued thin foam strips to so my hands don’t freeze on the metal parts! Those opticron L adapters are as solid as a rock and cheap too. I’d recommend the 12x36 IS as a good compromise as a not too heavy or expensive. The 15/18x have some following, but are quite heavy, the 10x is very well regarded and robust but much more costly. I keep my 12x in a peli 1150 (IIRC) case and make sure I take good care of them. The III version has even better stabilisation I understand. (Mine are II and probably >15yrs old). For daytime use I now more regularly use a Nikon 8x30E2, wider field and easy to use. The Leica/zeiss/swaro might technically be optically better, but try hand holding a 12x and the wobbles will reduce what detail you can see. With IS you can get a perfectly steady view holding them with one hand… showing off. Peter

Another very good webinar! Peter

Throw your biggest aperture at it as soon as you can, looks like it’s dropping fast :-(( Peter

Skipping rope or handset extension, so I can control the scope more easily from the eyepiece. Now I just need to find/make a widget to store the handset in. peter

For imaging sometimes you want the option of less dense filtration to keep exposure times short - always check the filters before use. The green disk detail is a bit like the surface detail in hydrogen alpha, your eyes need to tune into it and get used to the colour. Peter

2” wedges need greater back focus and might be an issue with some scopes, I have a 1.25”‘and have no trouble. I’d be very careful about suitable filtration of the image between eyepiece and camera use! Check twice before putting your eye down the eyepiece! A continuum filter is very useful. Some nice small scale subtle surface texture visible at the weekend. Compared to solar foil filters a wedge is way better... night vs day. Peter

It werks! Bought a cheap photo thread adapter off a famous auction site and now I can securely hold 2” filters onto my 50mm bins... just placed a repeat order for the other side. Peter