Helical

Ian hope you're able get back to the eyepiece in some capacity soon! You've got some nice toys to play with👍.

Have you thought about a solar filter so you can get out and observe in the warmer daytime air?

Cheers 

(Another) Ian

On 16/08/2021 at 19:49, AstroNebulee said:

6 weeks and counting for a clear night and this is the forecast for the 7th week, just hope it changes for the better 😔😔

Judging by your location you will probably catch the tail end  of the odd Pembrokeshire Dangler.(  https://youtu.be/YqE2RKr03j8

Knowing it's probably clear a few miles down the road is sooooo frustrating.

Still it is quite cool having our own named weather phenomenonmenom.

Hope that's cheered you up!!

1 minute ago, AKB said:

Olympics related??

Not sure but it's been doing it for a few months.

I've a glitch with my Clear Outside app. When I tap "Current" the Android electrons whizz around for a few seconds, then when the music stops, up pops the forecast for some obscure district in Japan. This is mildly baffling 'cos me and my tablet both reside in Pembrokeshire. 

This is only an occasional silliness and is easily fixed by going back to the FLO location. Just wondering if I'm the only one this happens to?

Hi Harry, 

As a wise person said there are no stupid questions just stupid answers. So I hope this one doesn't fit that category.

You say you can target the moon but can't see details, like looking down a torch, so I was wondering if the 8 inch slab of glass at the front of your scope is acting as a dew magnet.

I've had a similar thing with my 4 inch  Mak , thought I'd damaged something in the scope.

Based on my recent order Harrison Telescopes are an efficient, professional and businesslike company. Ordered an Altair Astro refractor, optional finderscope and diagonal. Was a little surprised when the order confirmation came direct from Altair.

The order duly arrived next day without the finderscope. So a quick query email to Harrison, they replied in a couple of minutes saying that they would chase Altair, another brief period of time another email saying problem fixed.

Next day finderscope arrived. No fuss or waffle just quick response. Great!

Ian

11 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

Have fun with that. 👍 Be careful of the diagonal nose piece. Mine went floppy and I thought the focuser compression ring was broken. The nose piece had unscrewed. 🙄

Haha! Thanks for the warning, but it already happened! Caused a minor flutter until I realised what was going on. Anyway got my Mark 1 eyeballs polished and waiting for some clear night's.

Cheers

7 hours ago, Dantooine said:

You are going to enjoy that 

Just waiting for a crack in the clouds!

I got one of these 

and one of these 

Speaking as someone who was more or less chucked out of woodwork class at skool for being utterly useless, I am envious of the kind of skills on display here.👍👍

Just ordered the f7 , really looking forward to my first frac!! 

Well I've been and gone and pulled the trigger on this https://www.altairastro.com/starwave-ascent-102ed-f7-refractor-telescope-geared-focuser-468-p.asp from Harrisons. Hope the dew shield is effective after last night's moisture fest!

3 hours ago, niallk said:

How about save up a bit more, and consider solar Ha?...!!

Not sure I'd be too popular peering up at Solar prominences when the lawn needs mowing! However a solar filter on a frac would be good for sun spots methinks 🤔

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

How about 8" dob?

I agree about 120 ST mentioned above, except it will clash with 150p in what it does. It will offer a bit wider field of view a bit less coma and a bit more field curvature and CA - but in principle it will do similarly on DSOs. Advantage goes to 150p on planets and as such it is better all around scope.

8" Dob will give you all you need visually - aperture, sharpness, less coma as it is F/6 and so on - except wide field of view.

Mak102 is very nice grab'n'go scope for lunar and planetary and some DSO work

What is left is decent wide field scope - you can keep 150p, but that is a bit too much with focal length in my view. In order to be really good wide field instrument - it needs to show M31 nicely in frame . You need less than 700mm of FL in order to do that.

Alternative to 120ST would be Bresser 127 F/5 petzval quadruplet.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bresser-telescopes/bresser-messier-ar-127s-635-refractor-ota.html

This design eliminates field curvature and it also reduces CA in comparison to regular F/5 127mm achromatic doublet.

Hi vlaiv thanks for the suggestions, the bresser 127 looks really interesting, need to research that a bit more. 

Ian

Ok time to 'fess up OP title was deliberate clickbait 🙄 

I'm giving a lot of consideration to to this https://www.altairastro.com/starwave-ascent-102ed-f7-refractor-telescope-geared-focuser-468-p.asp..

One the reasons is that my mount an iOptron AZ Mount Pro is side mounting on the right hand side which places the finder underneath the focuser, not ideal, at least with a frac I can rotate the focuser 

High I know I'm a bit late to the party but I must I have been mightily impressed  by ScouseSpaceCadets review. Seriously thinking of replacing my 150p Newtonian with it.

Would I be loosing out on much if I do? 

Ian

Thanks Barry 

Is there much CA with the Startravel? I've sort of been looking at 102-125  f7  achromatics or maybe some posh ed glass.

The thought has struck that I tend to find excuses not to take the Newt out as I struggle to find a comfortable viewing position. So I might even sell it. I've got a nice iOptron AZ Mount Pro which I actually enjoy setting up and using, its so steady.

I think I'm suffering parallaxerrs "paralysis by analysis" but that's nothing new🙄

Ian

Help!!

I currently own these two scopes :-

SW Skymax 102 Mak 

SW 150 p Newt.

I'm uhming and aahing as to whether to get a 3rd scope to complement the others.

I don't do imaging of any kind nor do I think it wise for me start given my personality!

I don't do much planetary viewing.

so what to get with a budget of about £500?

Cheers

ian

10 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

My question is,

If offered a free ride on this one, would you take it?

What? Sqoozed into a small container with Branson? I'd rather eat my own kidney!🤮

A set up like that really deserves its own obsy! Dome or roll-off it's your call.😁

I am now the proud owner of an iOptron AZ Pro mount on a 1.75 inch tripod. Thanks Auntie @FLO for superb service again.

Probably won't be able to get a proper go with it due to the free clouds in every box. Had a quick setup and play and it aligned perfectly with the (filtered) Sun. So far so good!

I think me and this beast are going to be friends. No more finderscope yoga, no more frustrating faint fuzzy hunting . Just need to put on some muscle, cos it's quite chunky.

Hi John

Gotot it up and running for the first time last night, most of the time was spent getting a feel for the go to and the weird way eq axes work. Also seeing wasn't too good and a 99% moon made it all a bit of a challenge. Did manage look at the Beehive and a few double stars.

I did find the straight through finder to be a pain in the neck so that might be the first to go. Also the polar alignment using a compass worked reasonably well so the polar scope has now dropped off the list for now

Thanks John you asked just the right questions to unmuddy the waters somewhat.

Clear Skies

Welcome from Pembrokeshire, we send you some of our wet so as not to appear too greedy.

 6 inch reflector  ✓

CG 4 mount. ✓

Aluminium tripod ✓

Synscan fitted and working ✓

So now the big question - what to upgrade next? And in what order.?

a) Upgrade eyepieces 

b) Right angle finder scope

c) Polar scope 

d) Steel tripod 

e) Adjustable seat

Bearing in mind I'll probably convince myself that I MUST HAVE THEM ALL just wondering which route you'd take through the astro hypermarket?

Visual only buy the way.

I'm struggling to get my hands on a mount for my shiny new Skywatcher 150 mm f5 Newtonian. 

Would a Celestron cg4 fit the bill as a stopgap til normal service is resumed?

Thanks