Jason B

I'm in the same boat. There are so many companies to choose from. I'm looking at a company called optimal print to get a shot of the moon I have put on a canvas.  Can all be done online using my smartphone,  so really easy .  They have a 9.2 trust pilot rating so I think I'll go with them. 

2 hours ago, Pixies said:

Can you take a close-up around the end indicated, looking at any text/stamping present. Do they say 'made in Japan'? They look like a very common pattern of Japanese bins from 60s-70s

Are they 10x50 "triple tested"?

These have korea stamped on them.  Not sure about triple tested? Still a good find for the price. 

Got these old 10x50 Hanimex bins (never heard of that make either!)  for 8 English pounds from ebay last week! Thought  to myself that you can't go wrong for that price and  I can give them to my son if they're not much cop, but I think I hit lucky.  They are actually great and in decent condition .  Crisp views and I've also found them great to use as a finder for my 200p Dob.  Located Andromeda easily with them,  then lined the Dob up... Really easy!  Always, struggled to find it using the straight through finderscope attached to the scope. Wish I'd got a pair of bins ages ago. Great views of the moon,  Orion nebula,  pleiades and a few others.  Even took them to the beach at the weekend and they were great there too.  Might even look further into binoviewing now. 

1 hour ago, Deadlake said:

Note: This is a list of what has got stuck, anyways to resolve it. We can all opine about why, if the threads gets too political I'm sure the thread will get shutdown.

Noted. Apologies. 

On 05/02/2021 at 21:04, Deadlake said:

I'm sure we have all experienced delays due to pandemic. Now I'm getting an another lot of delays with orders *stuck* between EU and UK.  

To complete a new telescope scope being built for me requires some tube rings to come in from the EU. These are the only rings which will fit the telescope tube, handle and Losmandy bar, so no other source. 

At this point this is business to business, no VAT or custom fees are chargeable between EU and UK, but still the items are stuck with no ETA available.

I wondered who else is in a similar situation? I've resigned myself to waiting it out, but maybe people with more times on their hands have not?

Note: We are where we are, with no change expected. 

I've been waiting for a baader T-thread adapter To come from the EU so I can attach my DSLR to my hyperion eyepiece. Ordered it on the 12th Jan.  I've had 2 items I ordered from China on the same day arrived already (over a week ago) ,  so this EU hold up can be resolved with the required amount of cooperation and will.  I can only come to the conclusion that it suits the pro-EU agenda to have these hold-ups (so they can say, 'I told you so'). I'm an apparently rare breed,  who was indifferent whether we stayed or left the EU as I believed business would make it work (I still believe it will be business that gets it sorted, probably EU based businesses who export to the UK) .  Luckily poor weather conditions have meant I've had very little opportunity to use the adaptor  even if it had arrived,  so it's not the end of the world;  but when it comes to waiting for my astro-gear,  I'm like a child waiting for Christmas,  even for a simple little item like this adaptor😀

8 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

Maybe I'm missing something but why not use the "pointer stars" of the big dipper? Polaris should be really easy to find, provided it's actually in your line of sight. No apps required, no compass required.

I agree.  I struggle to find things in the sky,  but using  the big dipper pointer stars makes it one of the easiest. 

On 07/04/2017 at 10:49, Tonynexevo925 said:

The parcel was very securely packed and wrapped ? ???

Must've been the fella on the right who done the packaging🤣🤣🤣

I'm going to stop looking at this section of the astro lounge because I'm starting to get really jealous of other members' gear 🤣

2 hours ago, Alan White said:

Thanks Jason, my one concern is that I enjoy it and I have to follow what you said, The Bold Text...... but my pit is limited or involves begging.

🤣🤣🤣🤣 My funds are very limited too,  but my powers of persuasion (begging the the wife)  have surprised even myself lately! 

16 hours ago, Alan White said:

Postie arrived late and not our regular Postie Pete

My recent NexYZ from @Dean Hale in the classifieds

It indeed arrived with clouds and rain

I have one of those. Not the Celestron one;  just a one from a Chinese website. A bit of a faff,  attaching it and lining it up in the dark (don't want to ruin my night vision using a torch). However,  your celestron one looks much better in design than mine,  but I've still  managed some rather good results!  The results persuaded me to buy a cheap old DSLR and the attachments to hook it up to my scope.  Unfortunately the camera is so old (over 15 years) , my more modern smartphone with the adapter is getting better images, so I'm still using that.  Going to have to dig into my bottomless astro money pit again and buy a newer,  higher spec camera 🤣!

1 hour ago, DaveL59 said:

Having said I've used and been happy with Ali so far, I've been trying to get replacement zoom grips for a lens and this far I've had 2 suppliers indicate goods shipped and a week later order cancelled, latest one just now in fact. Not sure if this is because there's a shipping issue in the current global crisis, tho I have received other goods from China. The upside is that on initiating a cancellation as requested by the seller, Ali are very quick to resolve it and refund your payment so I've no hesitation in continuing to buy from them. 

Yes, the Chinese sites such as Ali are actually good at doing refunds;  quite promptly too. Over the last year,  I had one item never turned up and another item went to a wrong address (tracked it by royal mail and it had gone to the same address, different city!)  I got no quibble refunds for both.  Everything else has been great,  apart from the long delivery times,  which I'm usually prepared for. Currently waiting for a few items, one is a canon shutter remote for a quid! 

On 24/01/2021 at 09:54, starboy71 said:

Hi everyone i hope you are all well !

Now then,i have been umming and arrrhing about this particular eyepiece for a little while now,yes i have read reviews and yes i have watched youtube videos...and its driven my anticipation of getting said eyepiece up to 90% certain of going for it,however, i`d just like to know can my skywatcher 200p Dob handle it?,in terms of the weight and magnification of a 2x barlow?. i have a small but nice selection of eyepieces that i`m ok with but get frustrated at having to change them over so i`d thought i`d look more into the Baader zoom,and what better place than SGL to ask advice! Thoughts and suggestions very much appreciated,thank you all.

Mark

There's one on ebay at the moment,   currently 99 squid.  I suspect the bidding will go up- still 6 days left. You never know,  you might grab a bargain (and I'll be well jeal🤣) 

I've never bought anything from ali… yet.  I do visit the site and there are some apparent bargains.  I have bought stuff from DH Gate,  as well as Wish (both similar set ups as Ali), and items bought all have  been good enough and as described. I usually just buy low cost items that are sold for a lot more in the UK and Europe,  but wiil definitely have been made in the far east. 

12 hours ago, starboy71 said:

thanks for taking the time to type all that out,was an interesting summary. in your opinion how would the Hyperflex zoom fair in my 200p dob?..i`m also now looking at reviews on the Olivon 8-24mm zoom ep...this is becoming a mine field ha ha!

I did all of the 'looking at other options',  but I knew all along I would still get the baader- I think I was just looking for  ways to  confirm the wisdom of my decision.  Lots of people confirmed it was better than the other zooms mentioned in this thread, but not as much as the price difference would suggest. I intend to use mine a lot,  so to me the extra cost is worth it. 

46 minutes ago, andy fearn said:

Not disappointed with my Nikon D7100 on it. 

Regards.

That's on my list of maybes,  along with a few others. I'll use the old 300d for a while,  to learn the best settings and mess around with Deep Sky Stacker and GIMP.  I'll definitely be upgrading,  as I do enjoy getting images of what I see. 

3 minutes ago, andy fearn said:

i don't know if you know , but you can connect a DSLR on it direct with a T adapter if you have one. Good luck.

I got the T mount the other day and am waiting for the baader adapter to come from FLO (shouldn't be much longer).  The DSLR I got a couple of weeks back is an old canon model (300D), but initially I'm not impressed; my smartphone appears to do better,  although it is viewing through the baader, where the canon is attached directly to the scope until the attachment arrives.  I'm hoping I get better results when I can attach it to my zoom,  or I'll be flogging the 300D on and digging deeper into my pockets to buy something more suitable. 

28 minutes ago, starboy71 said:

 

I'm not in Cheshire,  I'm in Newcastle. 

23 minutes ago, starboy71 said:

 

You won't regret it!  The pictures look nice,  but they can't beat seeing through the baader with your own eyes. Enjoy! 

I got the baader zoom for Crimbo and use it with my 200p Skywatcher and it is fantastic!  When I first tried it, I didn't cool the scope before using the baader and was a little dissapointed and thought I was going to regret buying something I'd been really looking forward to owning.   But when I gave it time to cool the views were excellent; I now love it!  Here's a couple  of pics of the moon from last night at different mags (no barlow used).  They were only done with my phone held up to the eyepiece,  so I'm sure much better pics could definitely be achieved. I've included a one I got of Orion nebula as well.  I say just get it; You already know you're going to! 

2 hours ago, HollyHound said:

This so true, mostly... I love also with DPD they give you a profile of your driver... ours is married with 5 kids... makes us feel part of a team 🤣

I know! I now usually find myself saying  to my wife,  'Johnathan's coming today (dpd) ,  with my parcel' or,  'Alex is due today (parcelforce) with my delivery🤣🤣🤣

7 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

They have a fourth... don't bother with a box at all and just chuck the unboxed item in the van... happened a few times, fortunately nothing got damaged 🤔

2 minutes ago, Dantooine said:

Amazon only have 3 box sizes. Large, extra large and super large. 

🤣 I think you're right.  This one example of over-packaging by them was by no means a one-off! 

This came (a while back). It's just a moon filter,  which itself is unremarkable;   but what is worth highlighting, is the amount of packaging used for an item that is only slightly larger than a pound coin. I could almost fit my kettle in the box.  I'm an enthusiastic recycler,  but I can't help feeling that there should be more responsibility placed on companies who are now posting ever-increasing amounts of items. 

1 hour ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I just used the free Photoshop app. Applied the following. A little sharpening, dehaze, adjusted contrast and applied a little denoise colour rendition and saturation. 

You made it sound so simple! I will of course be having a try🙂

1 minute ago, Nigella Bryant said:

 

I hope you don't mind but I played with one of your images, great potential, well done.

That looks amazing!   And you did it so quickly! I'm looking to download some imaging software,  what did you use,  if you don't mind me asking? Thanks, I'll be spending the next few minutes admiring that enhancement👍☺️