PeterW

Portable Newtonian Telescopes by Highe is the other notable work. Lightweight Giants by Overholt is considered another, but has never been widely available… put foam between plywood for light and stuff construction. Peter

Why do people go for 2” wedges (apart from availability), they cost more, so don’t need the aperture and they nuke refractor backfocus. If you have a 2” wedge you can pop a 1.25” continuum filter (or otherwise) on your 1.25” kit you plug in the back of it. Peter

My wedge is cheap and fires the sun at a bit if aluminium foil that scatters the light out the side. Less safe for people nearby, but nothing to absorb heat. I’ve only gone upto 80mm, so do t know how it’s do with larger aperture. The ceramic should take significantly more temperature than other parts of the unit, your nose was a good sensor. Peter

Baader have just released a narrower band. Continuum filter. Wedge and continuum does deliver really sharp and detailed views. Can’t comment on the altair. Peter

Which Bible, there appear to be two? Peter

Correct answer! Also just because companies produce eyepieces in lots of closely spaced focal lengths… unlike Pokémon, you probably don’t need to get them all ;-)! Peter

You can get secondhand, but you need to know where to look. @GavStar is the person to talk to about availability and best advice on scopes, adapters and filters. It’s best for hydrogen nebulae and seeing lots of stars under city stars. It’s another observing tool, depends what you want to observe. Being able to make your own stuff is good, but you can get most bits you’ll need from the right places. Peter

Unless you have a binoscope and then it’ll be 6 or 8… 😉 Peter

A dozen or so (maybe still more binoculars than eyepieces), though have a binoscope does mean that the eyepieces multiply rather faster than I’d like! Peter PS probably have more filters than eyepieces too… but again I’m not going to count them, just in case!

Pyle you post a list of the 20, maybe in nominal brightness order, be good to add to sky safari and go after sometime, seeing that Cassiopeia is so well placed at the moment. Peter

Satellite flares are always slowly moving. peter

Likely to be starlink. Many travel on similar orbits. I have watched a slow procession of flaring satellites one after the other, even though nothing was predicted, as the flares come from glinting reflections off of flat shiny bits of the satellites, like the Iridium flares of old. Twilight will likely be full of such stuff Peter

Interesting upgrading the RACI. I don’t get much use from the 9x50, mainly just poke the laser down its eyepiece to stop me having to bend down to get the scope in the right rough location. Then starhop through the main scope… SkySafari providing suitably invert/rotated views so life is good… no mentally flipping the chart view like we used to have to do! Goto is nice, but you lose the connection and the context of what you’re looking for/at. More satisfaction when the object you’re after suddenly appears where you expect it to be. peter

I had a CCD blue filter on me for another reason and OK the views was very blue, by the spot and belt detail just jumped out when we popped it in…. The view was bland when we pulled it off. Not sure how it compares to a written 80a though. peter

Was very steady last night, got my best ever view, made yet better with a blue filter I happened to have with me. Peter

Wanting to use both eyes gets expensive on the eyepiece budget… why I don’t own a truck load of eyepieces like many other people I know… 😉 Peter

M13, can see the propellor! Peter

I moved from 13T6 to Morpheus on the 70mm bins as I expect I will need the extra eye relief soon and I didn’t like their distortion in the daytime). @Captain Scarlet quite liked the daytime views earlier this year. I like giving both eyes the chance to enjoy the views… Peter

Be careful where your breath goes as it will rise up, maybe deliberately blowing sideways will keep the warm moisture from rising into the eyepiece when viewing. Keeping eyepieces in your pocket can help too. Peter

Maybe antifog spray could help. We had a breezy that seemed to keep the dampness at bay. Peter

I rarely extend the shield on my mark II, not that it is too flimsy…. though I’d certainly wouldn’t attach a phone holder to it.. Peter

Bluewalker3 a satellite with a huge reflective surface was launched recently, but I’ve not seen any reports of people seeing it and it would be travelling north/south(?) Peter

No, just “round the corner” from both of us. It seems we live within a short scope-dragging distance each other. So skies around mag19 (probably worse as the LEDs may be skewing things to look darker). Peter

Happy to help. Very nice views when we got it collimated. I’ll have to “make a list” for next time and bring a filter or two. We used pretty much every second we could, complete cloud out at the end, not even the moon escaped. Peter

Moon will need some power, maybe one of the angled eyepiece binoscopes that people like explore scientific, apm or overwork offer, though your budget would probably mean you’d get the achromatic models, so possibly some chromatic aberration at higher powers. You can swap eyepieces (the ultra flat field models do a good job) to change the magnification, exceeding fixed power models and the angled eyepiece makes tripod use easier too. You can pop in 24mm eyepieces and have wider fields for DSO if you wish. I have some 70mm and also find them rather useful as a two-eyed spotting scope for daytime use. Peter