Ags

Whenever I've said that the opposite seems to happen...

After dinner we had a patchy but viable sky between spells of rain, so I coaxed the family out for some stargazing. Breaks in the clouds revealed the Milky Way, Jupiter, Albireo, the Pleiades and Mars. I didn't have a chance to cool the scope but the views of Jupiter were pretty nice. Hopefully tomorrow I can find an outside chair for more comfortable viewing and find time for proper cooling.

Also, you do suddenly feel old when your grandson drives you from the airport!

Yes the power pack for the AZ-GTI is flight-safe and always goes in hand luggage. We travel up to the farm house this evening, but currently no clear skies are forecast. The main reason for bringing the scope was that if I didn't, there would certainly have been clear skies the entire stay 🤣

Just adding I have packed a 0.5 reducer and ASI485MC on my dark sky trip so if I get clear skies (looking doubtful) I may try a little EEVA.

I've only bought once from Aliexpress and based on that experience, I would rather wait for the eyepiece to appear on Amazon.

What sort of solar filter?

Yes, the idea is that this cancels undercorrection in the scope. It seems to work for my ZS66, but I haven't actually verified it improves the LP90 views vs a mirror diagonal.

Not a big fan of preordering or being an early adopter. I want to hear if the production run fixes the glare issues reported on the preproduction samples.

Got some late birthday presents on arrival in Wales: Astronomy is the new black t-shirt: I'll nevergo to space, but I can send postcards from there...

On pre-order now, shipping at end of November. € 183,21 19%OFF | SVBONY SV215 1.25" 3mm-8mm Planetary Zooms Eyepiece for High Power Lunar and Planetary Observing https://a.aliexpress.com/_mLsd5Yy

I couldn't figure out whether the torch was ok to fly, so I am using red lock screen on my phone this trip.

I am reasonably sure this is a keeper. I think it is going to be my main telescope for a long time.

I am through security, although to my horror they swiped the objective lens with a chemical sniffer wand! Why? WHY??? Aaaaargh!

Thanks for the suggestion, I will think it over for the next trip 😀

Almost forgot to pack Discovering Double Stars II 🤣 Solved the torch problem: red.png is now my phone lock screen.

Always prism. I might pack the mirror diagonal and do a shootout on my dark sky trip.

I think this is my packing list: Hand luggage: Long Perng 90, Laptop, ASI485MC, Talentcell battery, torch (maybe????), NPL 30 mm, ES68 20 mm, ES82 6.7 mm, SLV 6mm, 2x barlow, 0.5 reducer Hold: RACI 50 mm, AZ-GTI, carbon fibre tripod, USB cable for camera (forgotten last trip 🙄) mouse, talentcell charger, laptop charger

My big worry was the scope would not perform on planets, that f5.5 was just too extreme. So I am greatly relieved to be getting good views after all. The extra aperture is really welcome. Instead of feeling held back by the scope's capabilities, I have the feeling there is more to see if I just wait a little longer for a clearing in the seeing.

Not sure what battery is in this... are you ready to play Hold, Hand or Home?

This scope is really great, aside from being a bit bigger than I had hoped it is performing perfectly. I have had my doubts about the Speers WALER 4.9mm eyepiece, so last night I sensibly changed to an SLV 6 mm slightly barlowed to around 4.5 mm. With this combination at least, I didn't see any false color around Jupiter and Mars. Mars is still too small to judge, but as I watched Io drift over the surface of Jupiter I couldn't think of ever having a clearer view of the big planet.

I assume airlines are ok with this, and they won't see my weighty 90mm as a blunt edged security risk?

The AZ-GTI firmware is updated to right-hand mode. Don't forget the focuser rotates, so it should be possible to get it in a good position in left hand mode too. I don't see any holes for mounting the finder on the opposite side.

Sometimes you've just bought too much stuff, I'll make do with the Speers WALER 4.9 mm. It was still clear when Mars rose over the neighboring row of houses so I had a look at a very red target finally. At 160x it was still very small but the phase was clear with a hint of whitening at the north and an L shape of dark features below that.

I'm in the UK next week... Do I or don't I ship an OVL Nirvana 4mm to my holiday address? Decisions!