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wibblefish

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  1. Aye I was dubious about spending the same amount on the mount as the 102ED itself but it was definitely the right decision and should hold any other scopes further down the line if I get anything bigger! (though the wife will likely murder me if any more astro kit arrives)
  2. Just to comment since I see a recent flurry of posts I am pleased with the Skytee. Its totally rock solid on the steel legs and holds perfectly even pointed at zenith. Other than it being a bit rough and ready particularly a slight bit of slow mo play on one axis its a good heavy lump of metal I did the saddle replacement that is suggested everywhere to ADM and glad I did as it feels more substantial than supplied ones.
  3. Thanks @mikeDnight thats really helpful I guess I will have to feel it out in regards what to sketch but I like the ideas with notation and markings!
  4. Thanks both, I might invest in a little reading light. Good tip on finishing off indoors my feet get cold enough! Looking forward to trying it after being inspired by the ones here though I doubt mine will be as good should be fun and get me to sit and observe a target in more detail than just locating it I hope
  5. Yeah I had to remove the filter for the galaxy for definite as it was just a slight shaped different colour to the rest of the skyglow in my 105mm! Will be rechecking both targets next time out for my own sanity!
  6. Interesting, the Owl was amazing literally nothing to see until you pop in a UHC or better with an OIII
  7. Thanks! M108 I read is one of the brighter / easier way ones to find in Ursa Major so I am a little confused if maybe it wasn’t what I saw.
  8. Ah I feel for you folk doing astrophotography must be even more frustrating than visual!
  9. I lugged all my gear out the other night in a clear sky, started observing and struggled to focus then looked up into a huge cloud bank 😕 Fortunately waiting about 10 mins or so and it cleared for the rest of the night but Ive had plenty this season where its been clouded by the time I am ready and then had to pack up! Seems to be a UK astronomy feature!
  10. Hopefully the right place to ask apologies if not! I am going to try (being the operative word with my limited drawing skills!) to do some sketching at the telescope this year I hope. I thought I’d have a go last night but my current red light torch was so strongly reflected off the white paper it partly dazzled me. Does anyone have any recommendations for how to provide a minimum of light to see the page whilst not obliterating ones night vision?
  11. I use s combo if apps, clearoutside / scopenights and meteoblue on the web seems to be good (https://www.meteoblue.com/en/weather/outdoorsports/seeing/london_united-kingdom_2643743). Ultimately sticking the head out the backdoor at around 9 usually does it 😛 I did look out about 1am last night when I got up and it was clear but I don’t really have the enthusiasm to go out at random times of the night!
  12. Good luck to you, I am in quite light polluted bortle 5 fuzzy hunting is good fun!
  13. I did the same to get the jumbo pocket atlas and the double star charts which are ludicrously priced in the UK. Well worth the investment as the jumbo pocket atlas is great for at the telescope! That said I use Stellarium and Skyview on my phone and both are excellent.
  14. A good two nights of astronomy this week which brings me to 3 nights since I bought a new telescope back in Novemeber! The UK weather has been particularly cloudy this season alas. I went on a bit of a Messier list tour ticking off several ones that I haven’t been able to see before mostly as I didn’t have a lot of time to plan and those are easy to look for with a phone app! Starting both nights with some fantastic observing of my favourite winter target M42 (Orion Nebula) south of Orions belt. Using an OIII filter (this isolates certain wavelengths of light) it allows revealing of some fine, almost ethereal, detail of dust lanes and gas that make it up. Moving on to M81 (Bode’s Galaxy) and M82 (Cigar Galaxy) in Ursa Major. Both of these can fit into the same view with M81 the brighter showing as a large gray patch with central core and M81 as a thin grey patch as it the galaxy is edge on to us. The next one, M97 (Owl Nebula) in Ursa Major, was so faint as to be invisible to my eye. As this is a planetary nebula it appeared straight away as a diffuse cloud when I added an OIII filter. I also think I glimpsed M108 (Surfboard Galaxy) which is near M97 but it was so faint as to only be a elongated patch only slightly discernible from the background sky. Will need to revisit another night to see if I can ascertain if I spotted it correctly. On the second night I decided to pursue a more local target and had some good views of Uranus. It appeared as a small disc with a slight blue colouration, it was very bright even with some higher magnification. I had a go at M52 (Open cluster) in Cassiopeia but unfortunately it was lurking behind a tree trunk! My final targets were the open star clusters M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga. These were all great, bright and packed with stars. The telescope mount (Skytee2) held well even with these being extremely high in the zenith so the OTA was almost vertical! The Nirvana 16mm continues to impress me and is quickly becoming my primary sweeping though its not as comfortable as my BST’s in terms of eye relief. All in all some great viewing despite the usual skyglow and neighbourhood street lights in all directions. The main thing that ended my nights was simply cold feet through the layers of socks!
  15. Congratulations! I got to play with the new telescope a week or two ago finally and did alot of Orion spotting. One of the nicest this time of year, I found some new depth with UHC / OIII filters which enhanced it even more. I also love the Pleiades cluster, totally magic
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