Astro Noodles

Hi There is a Youtuber called Trevor Jones who offers some good advice on beginning astrophotography.

We had some of that this afternoon, along with some hailstones. Followed by a couple of hours of sunshine and the thunder and hail again.

If you have a larger budget, then I have heard that the Samyung/Rokinon 135mm F2.8 is a quality lens for beginner widefield astrophotography.

Very nice image Gerr. Ca I ask whether you are using a barlow lens in your 200P, or does the coma corrector give you sufficient inwards focus ?

Welcome I'm intrigued to know what the 'one information' you are specifically searching for is.

Welcome from the other side of the pond.🙂

Don't know how it works but the advert says it's for visual astrophotography guiding. I think that the eyepiece goes into the eyepiece holder. It appears to have an on/off. I assume this is for the reticule illumination. As far as I can tell, you look down the barlow to keep alignment. As it is .965", it is probably not compatible with much.

Is it one of these? Vixen GA2 Off Axis Illuminated Guider .965" - CN Classifieds - Cloudy Nights

Hi Dave You should try it and let us know the results. Sounds like an interesting idea.

Isn't there a forum rule about not posting upsetting or disturbing images? Very sad to see precision scientific instruments in such I sorry state. As a clumsy idiot myself (I recently dropped my camera). I fully commiserate.

Hi Kaili Whereabouts in the sky did you observe this?

Raining of course.

I agree that it is going to take a long time to sort itself out. I wonder whether US trade policy has had an effect on supplies over there. I don't know whether there are higher tariffs on scientific equipment from China but I wouldn't be surprised. I also wonder why other manufacturers haven't increased their prices in the same way. Most of it comes from China anyway. It seems like an odd thing for Sky-Watcher to do without being forced to. When I started out with this hobby in January, The Starquest 130p was a no-brainer for me a £170, but now it is £230 and that puts it into range of other starter 130mm reflector setups - more expensive than some. When I was looking for a star tracker camera mount a few weeks ago, I decided to go with the Ioptron Skyguider Pro rather than the Sky-watcher Star Adventurer Pro as the Ioptron mount had a couple of features which I preferred. The two mounts are about the same price. If the Sky-watcher was £100 cheaper I would have bought it without a second thought.

It has over 20,000 containers on board so there is a good chance that someone's new toys are in one of them. The Egyptians have impounded the ship and are refusing to let it go unless the operator pays $900,000 in damages! But I get your point - the issue is about more than a single ship stuck in a canal.

Yeah, that sounds like a fairly normal night's astronomy.

Hi Steve. I still just use the 10mm and 26mm eyepieces which came with the scope and a 2x Barlow lens. I'm sure if you drop a post that there are many on here who would offer recommendations.

And now you are loosing astro darkness as well. Maybe next time you move you should consider somewhere like Arizona.🙂 I think it is the same in Northern Britain. Maybe 2/3 good nights a month on average. When the weather is settled you might get several nights in a row. At least you have got some nice lightweight gear so you can get out to dark skies.

Still cloudy here. When I started (not long ago), I got a really good book called 'Turn Left at Orion'. I find it rally useful for target selection. I also use a free app called Stellarium so that I can find the damned stuff.

Hi Adam Do you have clear sky in West Yorkshire tonight?

Hi Steve and welcome to SGL The Celestron 130EQ you have is similar to my Sky-Watcher 130P. I have been delighted with mine as an instrument for celestial observation. The views are clear, and you can easily observe double stars, globular cluster etc. Although I would expect that mount to be a bit wobbly. Unfortunately, I don't think it is a very good setup for beginning astrophotography. Apart from the wobbly mount, I don't think that you will be able to achieve enough inward focus with the focuser and a DSLR which will mean that you will need to use a Barlow lens. That will put the focal length to 1300mm F/10. You would require a large and expensive mount in order for it to track accurately enough. So, you should get a DSLR but use it separately. That way you will have an observing rig and an imaging rig.

That's exactly what it is. I think that they are very versatile and are being developed by SpaceX for the first missions to Mars.

They have a robotic dog called Zeus whose job it is to go in first to make sure the area is safe. It even has its own kennel.

Nailed the landing-will it explode?

LIVE: Starship SN15 Flight Test - YouTube

I rather like it. The effect that DSS has produced seems impressionist.