PeterStudz

13 hours ago, Mark2022 said:

Peter, is it still possible to find that veneer?

Hi Mark,

I’m not 100% sure but the veneer I used is almost certainly something called “obeche veneer”. Looking on the internet it seems to have gone out of fashion. In the good old days you could pop down to your local model shop and select a nice piece without splits and with a nice grain. It was cheap too and was also used for furniture and picture frames. It might still be possible to buy some somewhere.

Other thin veneers will probably work too. You need something around 0.5mm thick. From memory the veneer I used was 0.45mm.  Looking around The Balsa Cabin have poplar veneer which they say can be used for model aircraft wings, so it must be similar. Although I have no experience of using it, but it doesn’t cost much.

https://www.balsacabin.co.uk/product/poplar-veneer/

There are other thin veneers around including fleece backed, which is very flexible and should also work. But seems to be more expensive. You could try a small sample size of veneer first and make a finder size one. If it works on that it’ll be fine on something larger.

I first cut out the foam mat to size. Then bonded the veneer to the foam FLAT. This made it easy to form the cylinder of the dew shield. Although for the much smaller finder dew shield I soaked the veneer with water after It was glued to the foam using a brush before forming the cylinder. This did make the whole process easier.

I’ve been using these dew shields regularly for almost a year now and there’s been no splitting of the veneer, or any other issues. Hope that helps. If i see or find anything else I’ll let you know.

2 hours ago, Ratlet said:

This is the great thing about the hobby, there's loads of ways to fry an egg.  Some even have them poached.

I did consider getting goto myself but Flo were doing a stellalyra at a phenomenal price.  I really only wanted it for tracking and I think an EQ platform might be the best option for me.  Heck I might just find I get away with nudging.

I made an EQ platform for my Dob. They are great bits of kit and I now couldn’t do without it. 

I missed the previous day on the 1st March due to clouds and I’ve been very busy recently so it was nice to get something. Venues and Jupiter still looking wonderful in the evening sky. I didn't have much time as the planets were rapidly approaching a neighbours house just as it was getting dark. Took a little smartphone snap in my small 4.5 inch reflector.  Tricky to include the Galilean Moons in the shoot without blowing everything out when it wasn’t quite dark.

SkyWatcher Skyhawk 1145p, BST StarGuider 12mm, iPhone 14 Pro on no-brand phone adapter, single shot using stock camera app. Edited in Lightroom on the phone and in the stock camera app. 

I use an app for my iPhone. It’s the PushTo feature within PSAlign Pro. Just line up on a known star or two (can usually get away with one if the target isn’t far away) Sync to it so that it can calculate any offset and off you go. Gets the target within a low powered eyepiece every time. I’ve even used it to find planets during the daytime eg Venus Jupiter and even Mars. 

That’s a very good image of Venus! I did wonder if you were going to give Venus a go during daylight. And I have heard from somewhere that in the daytime UV filters don’t give worthwhile results. 

For sure it’ll depend on your favourite eyepiece(s). And I do have to remove the eyecup on the StarGuiders (which for these is easy). But once on it requires some force to pull off! 

When/if you buy one it’s worth making sure you purchase from somewhere that can return without issue if it doesn’t work out for you. 

I really enjoy white light solar. And initially it was an afterthought. Gives a whole new dimension to the hobby. 

The one I use cost £9.50 and I can put it on and off the eyepiece in the dark. Fits my StarGuiders like a glove. No screws as it twists onto the eyepiece bang on centre every time. No need for fine adjustment controls - it just works as is.

I know that some love it but I tried a Celestron NeXYZ but found that it wasn’t for me - far too heavy, over engineered and would sag. 
 

For the moon and solar I often don’t use an adapter and just point the camera down the eyepiece. Takes a little practice but the results for me have been good.

It depends on what you are trying to do. I use my phone to help record my observations. I rarely start out to take an image, but will sometimes take a snap(s) towards the end, just before I pack up. However, I’m certainly not always taking images and I don’t spend long doing it. Fiddling around with a smartphone with its bright screen will spoil your dark adaptation. Eg I can spend several hours observing. But if I do decide to take some images it’ll only take around 15 minutes, often less. 

I also find it interesting to see what the device sitting in my pocket can do. And afterwards, on those far too many cloudy nights or on the train etc. I’ll have a go at processing some of the pictures I’ve taken. 

Here are a couple of examples (iPad snapshots). One recent & one not so resent. This is for an iPhone but I’m sure other phones can do similar. You can add a Caption of text that has no character limit. So I can add a whole observation report. The image isn’t always of a target(s) as in the second example. Tapping on the “i” icon reveals the text/description/report. This all syncs with my other devices like my iPad. I’ve also got these in a shared folder so that I can share them with my daughter. The text in the Caption is fully searchable. Eg I can search for “Jupiter” and all my Jupiter sessions that I’ve recorded come up. I find it really useful on a number of levels and it helps, doesn’t hinder, my observations.

Nice clear night here in Southampton. Unfortunately I have to go off and be “romantic” 😀

I’m very short sighted and a couple of yrs ago I was recommended varifocals. Nothing to do with astronomy but I just couldn’t get on with them. They gave me unpleasant headaches even after several months. So I went back to my standard glasses and have not had any problems. 

For observing at the telescope, sometimes I wear my glasses, sometimes contact lens, sometimes I’ll take my glasses off when looking in the eyepiece. Doesn’t bother me too much but I have a slight preference to NOT wearing glasses.

However, my daughter prefers to wear her glasses at the eyepiece so often I’ll wear mine so that I can see in the same/similar way that she does.

I also have BST StarGuiders. In order to get closer-in while wearing glasses I sometimes totally remove the eyecups. Very easy to do even in the dark. Then use a hood to keep out any stray light. 

52 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

My very first filter was a variable. I purchased it to counter effects of Venus and other very bright objects. I too can attest to their effectiveness! 

I agree. I also found it very useful on Mars when it was very bright at/near opposition. Not so much use at other times but then it allowed me to see features on Mars that I would have struggled with if I didn’t use it. 

8 minutes ago, Kon said:

That's a great capture. I wonder being higher up has helped with the quality as it usually boils at late afternoon.

Thanks! I was surprised how well it turned out and without much effort - always a good sign.

I’m sure that being higher up helped. Visually it was the most steady view of Venus that I’ve had (not that I’ve looked at it a lot!). A little boiling but I was sure, maybe my imagination, that I could make out some very subtle colour variations on the surface. 

Venus from Southampton, taken during the day. Monday, 13th February 2023 at 13:52 UTC. Skywatcher 200p Dob on EQ platform using iPhone 14 pro. 

After viewing the sun, there are a great selection of sunspots at the moment, and after lunch at about 13:30pm I decided to have a look to see if I could locate Venus. Using the PushTo feature in the iPhone app PSAlign Pro I carefully moved the Dob in the direction of Venus. Solar filter and caps still on. When I’d lined up on Venus I removed the caps on the RACI and immediately I could easily make out the small dot of Venus. Solar filter removed and using a BST StarGuider 5mm I could easily see the phase of the planet, even some very, very subtle surface shading. Of course not much else in the way of features (that’s Venus) but still being relatively high in the sky seeing wasn’t too bad. 

After that I took a short video (stock camera app) using the iPhone 14 Pro. A few seconds of which were stacked using the iPhone app VideoStack. Then finished off using Lightroom. All done in a few minutes on the phone while sitting at the telescope. And I’m pleased with the results - you can clearly see the current phase of Venus.

I had planed to do some more viewing tonight but despite the favourable forecast I’m currently clouded in.

1 hour ago, Mr Spock said:

Just had a good session on Venus with the 12".

Happy to report the variable polariser I just purchased works a treat and Venus has acceptable brightness with it rather than being overwhelmingly bright. Despite some atmospheric CA, the gibbous disc was clean at x217 with a hint of shade across the centre. Very nice!

I got around Venus being bright by looking at it during the day. Some of the best views of Venus that I’ve had. I even got a smartphone snap taken at 13:50pm. Just as well as I’m now clouded out

10 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Low and fuzzy here. Doesn't help looking through the top of a bush...

The whole sky is fuzzy here as I now have total cloud cover. And it was a lovely sunny day with a forecast for a clear night. Just as well I did some solar and gut a look at Venus. 

21 minutes ago, Littleguy80 said:

I feel like I’m going track talking about Jupiter now 😂 but… With the comment above in mind, I got out with the frac to see Jupiter while it was still quite light out. Similar to Craig, enjoyed some of my best views of Jupiter in recent weeks. I’m sure being higher with improved seeing helped too. It made me think of some of my best sessions on Jupiter/Saturn. Nearly all have been early evening or around dawn. 

Same here. I’ve also found that around dawn the air is much stiller than in the early part of the night. Could be that being in an urban environment buildings etc have had a time to cool down. I too think that Jupiter looks at its best with some light in the sky. Maybe because your eyes are better at seeing colours then. 

And at the end of January my daughter had a couple of friends over. However, they were leaving at 5:30pm so not to be outdone I managed to locate Jupiter in the afternoon (at about 3:45pm). The kids thought it was amazing that you could see a planet in the eyepiece but look up at the sky and then there appeared to be nothing. As it got darker we watched the 4 Galilean moons appear like magic and we were also treated to the GRS. Some of the best views of Jupiter that I’ve had and a lot of that was in daylight. 

I love cider! But it has to be good cider. Which in Southampton is impossible to buy. So I make my own

4 hours ago, bosun21 said:

I have made several for 8” dobsonian but the tube on my 12” is 14” in diameter which caused my foam attempts to sag out of shape. I wish I had some of that veneer you had 🤔

Although as is often the case it wasn’t as simple as it sounds. The foam I bought was fine on its for my little 4.5” reflector but would sag (it’s only 4mm after all) when I tried it out on my 8”. Not wanting to buy another bit of foam - what thickness would work? - I thought of doing other things, eg doubling up the foam, stiffing with card… in the end I found the veneer down my shed from my model aircraft days. 

In other words - I was a bit lucky. Dew shields are great and I couldn’t do without them now. 
 

PS - one thing that can be forgotten is that for a Dob it’s useful if your dew shield is not too heavy. The thin veneer that I used doesn’t weight much but getting a really thick piece of foam so that it doesn’t sag can be surprisingly heavy. 

Although I’m no expert on imagining I like it. I prefer the moon to look as close as possible to the way I see it visually at the eyepiece. Otherwise to me it starts to look a little false. 

I’ve really enjoyed viewing Mars over the last 7 months and it’s exceeded my expectations. Although maybe my expectations weren’t high!

This has been my first Mars opposition having started in this hobby just after the last - 2 years ago. The only other time I’ve seen Mars was in a small refractor that my parents bought me as a boy back in mid 1970-something. Then Mars was no more than a disappointing, small featureless orangey dot. So this time I was determined to give it a really good go using my 200p Dob.

I started looking back in late June & early July, getting up in the early hours. Then it was obviously tiny and far from a complete disc. But back then there was a very distinctive icecap at the South Pole. You just could not miss it - it glowed and very different from the later Polar Hood (clouds) that have a more frosted appearance. Sometime around early August that icecap vanished. I’m sure that observing Mars over and over again has helped. Of course some nights were disappointing, some better than others. But I’ve been able to make out albedo features most of the time. As has been pointed out - some sides/faces of Mars are far more interesting than others.

For me these are some things that have helped. Although you might already know some or all of these…

I have a DIY EQ platform. Having Mars hang in the centre of the FOV without having to constantly nudge really helps with picking out details.

I’ve fully flocked the OTA. The difference it makes is subtle and usually I can’t see any difference, but I’m convinced it helps when trying to see the subtle details in contrast with objects like Mars.

Make sure your telescope is fully cooled. Most of the time I can get away with 30mins. But for Mars I found that I needed my Dob cooling for a good hour. The difference here was really significant.

Use a dew shield to help keep out any stray light. I’m in a urban environment and unfortunately there’s plenty of that. 

When Mars was really bright, eg around opposition I found that a variable polarising filter helped. But not so much before & after. Apart from a blue filter, which would occasionally help bring out anything white, I didn’t find colour filters made much difference. 

And this last one has been very important for me - do NOT get your eyes use to the dark. When your eyes are dark adapted you lose  most of your ability to see any contrast in colours. And you are looking for subtle contrast on something small. I’d look at the screen on my phone, or go back inside the house for a bit, then back at the eyepiece.

Of course Mars is getting small now and is no longer a full disc. But it’s still worth giving a go. I wonder when a polar ice cap will return and if we’ll be able to see it? I last saw Mars on Monday, 6th Feb. and I was surprised how good the seeing was. I was able to get the magnification up to x375 which is a first for me. I even got a smartphone snap too. It does show the phase that Mars is in, Syrtis Major, the North Polar hood (at the top) plus a few other albedo features. It’s a higher contrast image of what I could visually see on the night.

1 hour ago, jetstream said:

You are more than welcome to deal with my frequent visitors

 Can’t be worse than cows. I was once charged  by a heard of cows and literally had to run for my life. It was terrifying!

Sadly I’ve had total cloud cover here in Southampton today 😟

@DocEE this is interesting, please let us know how you get on.

I have made one of these for my 8” Dob mainly for visual but I have played around with using it for taking short 30 second exposures using an iPhone. As is it works fine for this. It’s also possible to polar align. I’ve tired using the method here (scroll to the end)…

http://www.astrosurf.com/aheijkoop/Equipment/EqPlatfor2.htm

Then marking the position of the platform on the ground. Out of interest here’s a short video of Jupiter with just a rough alignment taken on 21st Jan 2023 with my iPhone 14 Pro. These phone cameras are getting good! And it’s quite steady even at high magnification plus zooming in.

I’ve also thought (it’s got no further than that) of using one of these motors in place of the EQ1 motor drive…

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-starquest/sky-watcher-ra-motor-drive-for-starquest-and-az-eq-avant-mounts.html

I already have one on a small reflector…

As it is it’s single speed but does have the advantage of a clutch and an Auto Guide port. Although whether I can be bothered with the extra complication of this (I like to keep things simple) I’m not sure. I know nothing about Auto Guiding and my electronic knowledge is poor!

11 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Dew shield?

Never had dew or frost on the secondary in almost exclusively +90% humidity and between -25 and +15 with a dew shield. Dew everywhere else sure but on the mirror, never. Seems counterintuitive to heat the inside of the tube since tube currents with rising thermals are one of the issues newtonians want to avoid if sharpness is at all important.

This… I’d certainly try a dew shield first. I’m in the UK and since using a dew shield I’ve never had an issue with dew on the secondary despite the telescope being left out all night during some nights of very heavy dew. 

And as @Zermelo suggests it helps keep out stray light which for me, in an urban environment, is important too.