Moon-Monkey

Just wish they came up with a 40 and a 5 lol 

Neal there well worth trying to find just last night I was using this set to observe Jupiter and the lunar craters on the limb and they were tack sharp I was just as impressed with them now as I was when I first got them lol 

Still looking for the 40 and the 5mm a year later lol 

31 minutes ago, josefk said:

I loved the extra motivation to sketch in order to post in this challenge with others and I too really enjoyed the sense of community from doing so and exchanging comments between posts. Definitely looking forward to the next one!

i would add a wish for dry pastels to @Moon monkey sharp pencils and clear skies.

You got it buddy 🙂🙂

sharp pencils, dry pastels  it’s is 🙂👍

Well done to all those who participated and congratulations to those who won it was well deserved there was a plethora of amazing work on that thread 

clear skies and sharp pencils everyone until the next time lol 

Yes it’s absolutely possible it does take a certain amount of investigation to assertion what your looking for bloke Halpha where it’s far more visible and noticeable the ALPO will soon be doing a program again about this if it interests you then let me know it’s good fun 

1 hour ago, Littleguy80 said:

Fantastic sketch! Can I ask what WLF stands for? 

Hey bud sorry it means white light flare 🙂 something I didn’t belive to be possible to do in white light before deep investigation and historical literature 🙂

On 03/05/2023 at 06:11, MartinB said:

What a fantastic response to this challenge.  It is now closed.  I am a little indisposed at the moment so the results may be a little delayed. 

That’s ok can I request another comp for sketching soon please this was so much fun and great to see others sketches and stories 👍

Thanks Roy it’s such a good grab and go it’s swiftly becoming my most used scope lol 

Ok so this is months later and I saved and ordered the Lacerta wedge … only thing I’m going to say is this holy smoke !!!! The difference is outstanding .

not only do I see far more details the granulation the faculae and the fibrils in the penumbra but because it has this Brewster angle and has infinite light level adjustability I can concentrate on a specific target more and hone in on the details as @Stu said above I can also run more power and get blown up views compared to before all in all an amzing purchase that I cannot sing the praises of enough anyone reading this in any doubt the difference is night and day (excuse the pun) and for those who have doubts I tried them back to back same Continuum filter same apeture same eyepiece and there really is no comparison I was using proper BAADER ND5.0 visual film and until I got this wedge I really worried that I was making a mistake and the “slight detail gain” wouldn’t be worth it  oh how I was wrong going back and forth with film and wedge back to back it’s apparent that I made the right decision lol and that’s an understatement 🤣🤣🤣 Thabkyou for your help everyone imma happy bunny !!!!!!! 

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

I use a solar wedge and even with the x2 an x3 GPC lenses which came with the binoviewer I could not achieve focus. There is a way around this too provided the default nosepiece of your binoviewer is threaded for filters (which I guess they all are nowdays). Screw in a x2 or a x3 barlow lens insead of a filter to the nosepiece. In my case this works. You can even put the barlow  further away from the nosepiece to accommodate longer and longer light paths. The distadvantage of this being

1. No idea what magnification results. You can esitmate the size of the sun compared to a known field of view of an eyepiece to get a reasonable estimate.

2. No place for a filter after the wedge. I have found that in small apertures (up to 80mm) you can put your colour  filter in front of the wedge without any adverse effects, the focal plane is so far away and the aperture is small, so the heat of the sun is not strong enough to damage the filter.

 

That’s a good point bud never thought of Barlow oh after the binoviewer !! Not sure if I would risk my continuum direct in the path although as you say if the focus point is far off it should be ok this is what criterion did many years ago isn’t it with their solar filters 🙂🙂

1 hour ago, Stu said:

I could certainly try this but only have a 2” wedge which I suspect may have too long a light path. I can give it a go and let you know how much back focus is available.

Hey buddy that would be great thanks !! It was some of your posts that led me down the Lacerta wedge path and I’m so glad I did !!!! Holy cow this thing is awesome just wondering if binoviewers will give even more resolution to this setup 🙂 

1 hour ago, MalcolmM said:

I was using a 1.25" diagonal. Your 2" will have a longer lightpath than that. Don't give up hope yet! @Stu is a bit of an expert on binoviewing and I think he uses a wedge. You also have the option of Baader solar film for example?

Malcolm 

Very true thabks bud It kind of erks me to go back to film now I have this wedge and can see the increase in contrasts and detail I’m getting now though 🙂

11 hours ago, MalcolmM said:

I've used Williams Optics binoviewers on a SW Star Travel 102.

I used a Baader prism diagonal with the WO 1.6 GPC attached to the telescope end of the diagonal. I have been told this is not the best place for the GPC (it should be attached to the binoviewer), but it allowed me to reach focus easily and gave me great immersive views of the moon and very relaxed viewing of star clusters.

Note, this was not using a wedge. A wedge will have a longer light path than the prism diagonal and therefore require more inward focus which might be an issue.

Malcolm 

Thanks Malcolm some good points lol here buddy I appreciate that it never occurred to me about the wedge being of a longer light path than my normal 2” diagonal hmmm I may have to reassess the situation I was looking forward to trying this out in the future but I guess it may not work with the little ST 

clear skies my friend 

Good evening lovely people I’ve tried searching on here but haven’t hit a match yet has anyone used binoviewers on a SW ST80 ?? If so what binoviewers and what barlows / spacers etc did you have to use am looking at the possibility of using this with my wedge for white light any thoughts ?? 
clear skies 

Another white light sketch from the other day man I love this wedge it’s transformed my daytime fun and sketching in the daytime is strange as your not under a red light 🤣🤣🤣

On 07/04/2023 at 10:38, mikeDnight said:

Attached are observations of Venus & Mars  from the night of April 6th 2023.

 The seeing conditions were really quite good in general, with intermittent but short bouts of turbulence.

 Venus revealed subtle differences in cloud detail dependant on whether it was viewed with or without a colour filter, and different coloured filters enhanced different detail.  Of late there has been repeated observation of a bright spot on the north preceeding limb of the planet, which may be due to high cloud reflecting the Suns light. Again, some filters aided in highlighting this feature.

 

Mars was a pleasant surprise last night too, as immediately very obvious albedo detail was seen. Despite its diminutive size at present of around 6 seconds of arc, the planet's rotation was noted during the observations, and even the cloud/mist around Olympus Mons was really quite obvious. The Solis Lacus region is visible in the south and its complexity was just hinted at in the eyepiece over time.  In the north there appeared a polar cap along with the darker Mare Acidalium, Tempe, & Nilokeras regions. 

 

Great observations and sketches bud I have to admit to not really observing Venus much this year deffo not seriously for a few years now it’s very inspirational to see those great sketches I may just have a little go soon when the clouds eventually clear since the sketches I done of the comet this year I’ve only had two or three sessions in the evening which have been clear enough to a fully make any even marginal observations hence me getting my solar game on these last few months I’ll never be able to afford an H alpha but I’m really pleased I got the Lacerta wedge it’s a game changer for me and keeps me happy I’ll just have to learn how to sketch solar now instead of deep sky lol 

On 07/04/2023 at 10:58, Roy Challen said:

I never really been much good at drawing, but over the years I have enjoyed sketching the sun, both in white light and now Ha. There aren't many sun sketches on this thread, so here is my effort. The view this morning was fantastic, although there were long moments of poor seeing, during the still moments the clarity was exceptional. My Daystar doesn't pick out filaments all that well, but today they were very easy to see. Lots of nice proms too.

I somehow missed this !!!  great sketch buddy I doubt I will ever get to own an H-alpha but the next best thing is to see that lovely sketch 🙂

great stuff buddy 

Ok so my first Solar sketch done a few hours ago with my new acquisition.. the Lacerta wedge , oh my goodness game changer for contrast !!! 

On 29/03/2023 at 13:04, mikeDnight said:

That's a fabulous sketch of M51 Moon-monkey. Excellent in fact! 🏆

Thanks buddy I hope this weather turns and I can get some more time and a more detailed sketch done I’m also going to do a sketch with the 8” when it clears up and compare the detail I can see in each 😀 I’m going through the he messier list again with the little ST80 for fun 😀😀

Ok so this is a quick and dirty sketch I did the other evening with the ST80.

it was between cloud breaks proper sucker hole astronomy for the little grab and go rig unfortunately didn’t have enough time to put in the field stars as well as a heavy rain cloud then passed over and ended the session and the night oh how I hope this weather turns soon . Some amazing sketchers and work on this thread is so lovely to see everyone’s drawings clear and steady skies gang 🙂

Hey bud that’s very cool indeed I didn’t know you could aftermarket fit a mak with external foxuser Thabkyou 

Oh and just to note I already have circular and linear polarisers and a Badder continuum filters and for me with achromats it was a worthy investment 🙂🙂

I can’t wait buddy hoping for some awesome views soon 🙂🙂

Hey Joe that’s brilliant to hear thanks buddy it’s really interesting to hear that the diffraction spikes clear at somewhere between mag 3-5 I was wondering if they would be visible through the range into the faint stuff really good to know they don’t as that’s what I was concerned about (not being able to rotate the OTA being a fixed dovetail) good to hear from someone who has a used and continues to do so thaanks buddy iM thinking of the smaller one I hope the same things apply 🙂🙂