wulfrun

You'd need a vast amount of power to replicate a laser. The beam is so intense because it's so narrow. Try looking at 1mW-worth of an LED's output, it's not impressive at all. You can't focus non-laser light in the same way, it's just not possible due to physics. Also, the inverse-square law applies to "normal" light, meaning the beam would be relatively short. Besides, if you could replicate it you'd have the same concerns about pointing it skywards.

Also a major factor that the green lasers are close to the human eye's peak sensitivity wavelength. Red and blue/violet are in a far less sensitive part of the spectrum, as well as the scattering issue. Red lasers are highly visible in mist and fog (rather unsuited to astro then, of course!).

I was thinking more of the pool. You can get waterproof eyepieces but I don't think a scope would do well 🙂

Best take care where you set up in the dark! One false step could be costly...

I didn't try for the double cluster, no. It's in a very unfavourable direction from my garden, a bit low, a bit near a streetlight/trees etc. One to try for in better conditions and at the right moment. Looking at that thread on epsilon, I'd regard my effort at sometimes resolved, sometimes split. Clarity and stability were both against me so I'll count it as a decent result. On Polaris, I'd say I need to do a bit of homework to decide if it was "B" or just something line-of-sight and I got confused. I think it was a "tick" though.

It'd be helpful to know a lot more before you can get sensible recommendations. Where are you, geographically? What do you want to see? Do you want to do astrophotography or just visual. What sky quality do you have? Where will you use the telescope? Where will you store it? What budget do you have in mind? Probably other stuff people will ask too, that I've overlooked. P.S. Meade and Celestron are by no means the only makes, depending on budget and where you are.

I had a few clear nights earlier on last week but the weekend has been very hazy, obscuring a lot of things. With the waxing moon a factor, I decided last night to head out before proper darkness and have a look at it, high up and about half-moon. If it's going to wash everything else out, why not "go with the flow" and target it! Nice and easy set-up, no risk of tripping over things or knocking anything over since it's still light. Got aimed at the moon at wandered along the terminator. As a relative newbie there's still a lot to take in. It's fascinating to imagine shapes in the shadows and see the craters-in-craters, craters with peaks or no peaks and so on. I know some folk can think of the Moon as a nuisance but not yet, for me. By the time I'd finished looking, I noticed it had become fairly dark and the brighter stars were on view. I've given up on seeing galaxies in my skies, for now at least but I've had a tantalising glimpse, naked-eye, of the beehive. However, it's been so faint that I can't get a view in an RDF or Telrad, so I've not got a scope aimed at it. I now have a RACI on the 150PL though, so, after a bit of futzing getting in the right general area with the Telrad, I finally spotted it in the RACI. Yay! I had a 32mm Plossl in the scope, so the FOV was a bit shy of ideal but I spent ages scanning around the jewel-box of a view. It's a kind of spring Plaiedes, no? I moved on to the pointy-end (technical term) of Perseus, wandering through a rich star-field there. Hmm, that needs some homework and a re-visit. After this I revisited Polaris; a few nights ago I convinced myself I could see a faint "B" and wanted another go. Stellarium doesn't show it. I put the Hyperflex in and wound up the mag, yes, it's not imagined. About 1 O'clock in the EP so if my logic is right that puts it roughly pointing to the left-hand end of Cass. Maybe one of you experts can tell me if that's right? There's certainly something there and Stellarium isn't helpful on what. By this time I noticed Vega had gained a reasonable altitude and wasn't twinkling too badly. I've been trying to find epsilon for a while but it's rather lost in the light pollution from my garden so I've not found it before. Well, actually I have, in the binoculars but not realised it. However, a bit of homework beforehand to find where to look, in combination with an estimate for the Telrad and finally the RACI and lo and behold there it is! Right, how high can we go? I tried a 6mm (x200) but things were a bit too fuzzy and dark. Put the Hyperflex back in at 7.2mm (x170 ish) and let the pair drift though the view a few times. Not 100% sure but I do fancy I can see a kind of figure-8, with maybe moments of separation. If I'm right, the uppermost (i.e. lower in reality) looked a N-S orientation and the other being E-W, roughly speaking. Again, Stellarium sheds no light (oops, pun) on whether that's correct. Opinions wanted! After all that I wanted another look at the beehive but by then it was getting lost in the Moon's glare and I failed to find it. I decided to pack up and head in, very happy with what I'd learned and pretty chuffed. I know all the above is pretty humdrum to the experienced but I'm still at the "wow" stage!

A Telrad is a pretty large "brick" of a finder but it should fit - might just look OTT but do you care? A Rigel has a much smaller footprint but it's taller, it might be the better option though. It'll probably be easier to get "behind" to look through, especially at higher elevations. Either of them will knock the proverbial off a standard RDF. For starters, you can turn them down way dimmer than most RDFs, helpful in dark skies. I use Skeye (I believe it's Android only though) on the phone and Stellarium on the laptop. Skysafari is popular too. Try them out beforehand and see what you like best.

A 6mm eyepiece in that scope gives 254x magnification, assuming the figures you found are correct. Adding a 2x Barlow doubles it and the 3x (no surprise) triples it. You'd need exceptional conditions for that to be useful, it's likely to be way too much. Even with no Barlow it's pretty high. Mars is tiny (and currently distant) and our atmosphere just prevents high enough magnification to see any detail for some time to come. I looked at it the other night, at 200x and I could easily see it's a small disk but no detail at all. As for Barlows, like anything else you get what you pay for, to a large extent. You won't get the quality of a $90 one for $11. You may find the identical one a bit cheaper under another brand but not with that sort of price difference.

That looks like it belongs on top of a Saturn V! I think the RACI might've covered the VAT 😉

Postie brought me a nice 8x50 RACI, sourced via the classifieds, top marks for speediness to @jadcx I've been after one for weeks but what I was after was not in stock, so the ad came at a very handy moment. Saved me time and money 🙂

Not old hat to me, I'm also new to the hobby but over the years I've spent enough time outdoors to see plenty. The amazement never leaves me. I even happened to see the recent fireball that made the news and another a while before. Satellites will probably become routine, I rarely see none and the novelty of those has worn off a little.

Postie brought me a TMB SW6mm Planetary II eyepiece, via the classifieds and member @Arneb. Hopefully it'll come in handy when the planets are back in view later in the year. I'll settle for the moon, meantime.

USB power isn't "dumb", it can request more power of the supplying device, certainly with PCs. I can't pretend to be familiar with the details but my tablet (for example), which is USB-C, can charge off 9V. As far as I know, there's a default setting and devices have to request additional current (and now, presumably, voltage). You'd be wise to be cautious without full knowledge but it might pay to do research on the USB power specs.

It wasn't just me that noticed the conditions last night then. After the earlier snow and bitter cold, I did not expect it. I had a look out around midnight and was taken aback, it was unusually clear and steady seeing. I took the binoculars out for a half hour or so and whilst out I noticed I could (just) make out all the major stars of the little dipper, naked-eye. Not something I've seen from my back garden before. I also just about spotted the galaxies behind Leo's hind end and made out some fuzziness in the binoculars. When I went in I was kicking myself for not looking earlier and getting a scope out.

Difficult decision, PM is almost certainly the way to go. Worded diplomatically, ask if the scope is new etc. If it were me, I'd rather know than not. Being quite a newbie to practical astronomy, I'm happy to accept that most folk on here know more than I do and I'd always welcome constructive criticism, observations etc. If I were to receive such a PM, it is my choice to engage or ignore, so it's down to me. At least with a PM I wouldn't feel that half the forum was snickering (not that I think that would actually be so).

No experience of using oil on astro gear but I know from photography it's not usually advisable. Oil, being runny by nature, tends to run somewhere it isn't needed or wanted. Sometimes it's the only option but a better idea would be to use a grease of some sort, which would mean removing said screws to apply it. I think that would depend on the practicality of removing the screws, without side-effects of nuts or parts dropping off. I've put coppaslip on the tripod thread, dovetail clamp screws etc but nowhere else (yet).

Postie brought me a pluck-foam flight case for my EPs and bits, room for a couple more yet:

If you really need access and can ascertain the size, would a box-spanner get at it? They are generally quite thin-walled.

I use one, although the glasses on/glasses off gets tedious. Excellent for a quick check of what's where before heading outdoors, at the least.

Assuming the quoted figure of 10% is actually true, which I'm not convinced of, that's not much. Admittedly I have no previous years as a comparison but I can't say I've noticed any improvement - it remains dire around here. The main effect of a pandemic on my astro interest is that I've been prevented from going anywhere that actually is dark at night.

Aha, my fault for not realising it's Android only then, I wasn't aware of that.

No-one's mentioned Skeye yet so I will. I have Stellarium on the laptop and it's excellent but the phone app annoys me by mithering for purchases. Tried a couple of others and wasn't very happy with them but Skeye I do like. You can also use it for "push-to" but I haven't yet delved far enough into it to see how well that works. My only minor criticism is that (on my phone at least) Skeye isn't easy to read in night-mode, the text is a bit small (might be adjustable, I haven't found out if it is yet). I observe without glasses but need them for reading, so it's a constant annoyance not to drop/lose them and keep putting them on & off. However, that's not the app's fault.

Glad you found them, even if you're not 100% sure. I've had two clear nights on the trot and searched for them with no success. To the eye it all looked wonderfully clear but both nights I've found a vague halo around anything bright-ish, in the scope. All looks nice & steady but clarity is obviously not good, there's a haze of some sort. I'm wondering if it's even possible to see them from here. I did get a hint of maybe, perhaps a smudge in the 10x50s, with averted vision/shaking, hand-held view but not enough to say "tick".

Looks like an over-size R2D2. What stops it blowing over? That wouldn't end well.