globular

I have a pair of these and, for me, they are perfect - no faffing with mittens or removable bits and bobs; just wear them and get on with things, including the fiddliest of adjustments to small parts. The exposed finger ends do get cold when you first get them and it can be tempting to think "this is rubbish" and give up on them. But keep them on and keep busy and your body seems to adjust to the new normal of some exposed bits and the rest covered and everywhere soon feels uniformly warm. After each session the "this is cold" feeling lasts less and less and I no longer get that feeling at all any more. I think it's worth the learning curve your body needs to get used to them as they provide hassle free use. Highly recommended. [For balance I would add that my wife had less patience / didn't believe the cold feeling would pass with her pair; so she gave up on them and went for a normal pair of warm gloves and leaves all the equipment adjusting to me.]

..... cymbal tisssh. Fantastic

I don't have a fashionable waist. I'll go with Tripod Pouch from now on.

Fantastic John. Seeing the stuff you were producing back then makes it much more understandable how you're still so active and enthusiastic 37 year later. Long may it continue. Yes please.

They may be generally available in the US / Canada but they are all sold out in UK / EU with lead times of many months being quoted to get hold of one. I could import one from the US.... they cost about $550 there with about $40 for postage and $150 for import duty = $740 ~= £550. UK sites quote prices around £390 (all out of stock of course) .... so its a premium of about £160 to import one from US.... and with quite a large amount of capital at risk if things go wrong en-route. (It's the extra risk rather than extra cost that put's me off). Now it might be that when they do become available again in the UK it will be at prices of around £550.... so maybe the extra £160 is not really a premium to import one but is actually a reflection of recent price increases by ES that have not fed through to the UK/EU yet simply because there aren't any changing hands.... but we just won't know until trading starts up again in these EPs on this side of the pond. Don, if you can get one to me for around £400 please PM me

Take care

"They stand well" as my dad would say.

I am obsessing over an ES92/17. Unfortunately the obsession is trying to get one rather than looking through one. Does that still count?

There are a few in stock telescopes that don't feature on their in-stock page - so it is worth having a good look around too. e.g. their new SharpStar 94EDPH f/5.5 Triplet ED APO Telescope https://www.firstlightoptics.com/latest-telescopes/sharpstar-94edph-f5-5-triplet-ed-apo-telescope.html Still not many though 😟

You have bin busy! edit: oh no, I actually posted this

Is the Vixen a bit of a beast then?

I don’t think I’ve ever said it out loud, but in my head it was Rye Gel .... until JohnInDerby’s link and now I’m embarrassed and wished I hadn’t typed this reply.

Phew, glad you're not angry with me. The events you describe are exactly what I assumed. I even found the original picture you used and said to myself "she's flipped that". The last one I posted has Tiny pointing.... that could be cropped and flipped and squared off.... but I should shush before I do make you angry at me.

Hi Heather, I've seen you posting contributions over the last month or so - I always smile when I see your username and your Clanger pic. It's great to have you with us! I've been fighting my OCD because it's really none of my business and it's such a lovely picture.... but did you know that the clanger in your pic is Major Clanger not Tiny Clanger? I have found the pictures below online of Tiny Clanger looking through / with a telescope if you're interested. Apologies if you think me rude - I do hope not as this is not my intention. I do actually prefer the picture you've chosen - it's just my OCD that can't get past that it doesn't feature Tiny. Or this one: Or this:

All you want from a dew heater is for it to replace the heat naturally radiated from your OTA - it is this lost radiated heat that causes the dew to form. If you can feel the band as hot to touch then that is likely too much heat. If you add extra heat then you start to cause unwanted issues - like turbulence within the telescope. HTH.

[pictures of John are like busses, none for ages then they all arrive together]

Welcome and good tips - might look into getting washing machine feet. I've put a cable tie on my focuser. Run your finger up or down to get vibration free and fine adjustment of focus.

OK, so it's ((100^(1/5))^6.088) / ((100^(1/5))^6.080) - 1 = 0.07395 ~0.74% Thanks @Xilman

Doesn't each 1 mag represent increase in brightness of 2.5119 times? (5th root of 100; so mag 6 is 100 times brighter than mag 1) If so, doesn't that mean that 0.008 of a mag equal to about 2% brightness difference (2.5119 * 0.008 = 0.02)? What am I doing wrong? Either way, I agree you won't notice the difference with just your eyes.

oops... that's visual not imaging.... ignore me

I'd be interested in this too. I have seen a fairly comprehensive impact assessment of different filters on different nebulae by Dave Knisely..... https://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/filter-performance-comparisons-for-some-common-nebulae/

Unfortunately, the jetstream is only one of the very many factors impacting on seeing quality... and not only it, but those other factors too, need to be favourable for good seeing. I'm finding that when the jetstream forecast is bad seeing is bad... and when seeing is good the jetstream is good. But I have no real idea what the other atmospheric things are doing - so jetstream being good can not be relied on (on its own) to predict good seeing. I look at the jetstream forecast because it's there and accessible and seems to provide some useful info. Data on, or better yet forecasts for, other atmospheric disturbances are fewer and father between. So I always set up if there are gaps in the clouds and make the best of it.

Jetstream looks good for a lot of the UK.... if you're cloud and fog free too (which I'm not )....

100% fog and 10 mile visibility.... [googles definition of fog.... ]