wulfrun

Your mistake is thinking the moon is always visible at night (if clear), if you think so it can only be a coincidence of when you looked. The moon makes a complete orbit in (roughly) 30 days, so there are many hours of darkness where the moon has either not yet risen or it has already set. At new moon, the moon is in the same position (roughly) as the sun, so it rises and sets at about the same time as the sun - no moonlight all night. At full moon, the moon is (roughly) opposite the sun and as ones sets, the other rises - full moonlight all night. All the "in betweens" exist too. All of that needs to include "roughly" because it's not quite as exact as that but the result is still correct.

Welcome to astronomy UK-style! Most of us are suffering likewise, just lately. I've had a scope out 2 or 3 times over winter, it's just not been worth it.

Worth pointing out that the human eye is poor at noticing small changes in illumination. The curtains/window represent a small proportion of the area of a room, so regardless of the change between open and closed it would not be much overall change. I think OP is using wrong logic in thinking of finite amounts of light being emitted. Not the explanation at all. The difference between open and closed is purely down to how much light is relected off the closed curtains versus the window glass plus the open curtains.

I use one with the Virtuoso v1, same as @happy-kat. It "just works", pretty much always. I use it with an old-model Android phone that I keep just for astro.

Hugs the barn beautifully, great shot 🙂

Not quite your neck of the woods but does this help? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-67645998 Presumably, same reason.

I got very fed up with updates, my fast laptop is now a slow laptop, in boot-up times anyway. I tried registry hacks & various other tricks. They all seemed to work until the next update (at my choosing) overwrote whatever hack I'd used. The only one I found to work long-term was suggested by someone on here, I can't recall who though. Change your internet settings, lie to it that you are on a metered connection (i.e. it's gonna cost you!). After that it'll just mither you that it can't download the latest updates. Allow it to do them when it suits, pretending you'll accept the data costs.

The beeb's forecast suggests that, from Sunday the 15th, for 8 consecutive days - there won't be a cloud in sight around here! And I believe this?

I wonder how much traction this will gain? Apparently, the US has issued a fine for space junk: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66993647 How's it going to work trying to fine someone not in your jurisdiction?

Probably a few others but the Telrad has concentric circles as does the Celestron star pointer pro: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/celestron-starpointer-pro-finderscope.html https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/telrad-finder-astronomy.html Upside of the CSP is it fits on a standard bracket. Downsides (purely personal opinion): I have one and find it a bit wobbly/flimsy and the circles are too bright (even on the dimmest). The Telrad is a bit of a brick and won't be good on a small OTA.

If you must glue it in, use an epoxy such as standard araldite (don't use the quick-setting versions, they are weaker). It would be wise to use threaded rod and not plain, for much-increased surface area. However, the rawl-bolts suggested above by @doublevodka are a far better solution - less faff and far more secure.

They are LED ones. The ones my council has fitted are awful, too bright and too much "spill". Hopefully you'll have better luck!

Interesting that OP hasn't returned to tell us what puzzles them...

Probably worth mentioning that the "seeing" has been really poor last couple of nights, despite the clear nights. Nothing you can do about that except wait for better conditions and stick to low power meantime.

Same here too, seeing is atrocious. I was out last night and it wasn't good but tonight is worse. I've settled for a mooch at lots of things with the 10x50s and a reclining chair!