Ags

If dogs weren’t meant to chew endcaps, why are they so tasty?

Had some guests, the first since Covid. We did some Ha solar observing. I showed one guest how to focus, and they tried for a bit, then turned to me. "However I focus it, it stays red?" The kids were all like, whatever. But at least some walked away impressed.

Did a reprocess.

You are giving me a lot to think about. My Skymax 102 would stop showing more at around 150x, but you could go past 212x.

Eeeeeek! It's a ghost!

Yes I have. It's gorgeous. I would buy it for looks alone. With less aperture and f6.4 it is a safer bet optically. My heart is set on 90 mm aperture though. But the Evolux 82 is the other scope in the running.

That's a scope I have been wanting for a while, but it is a bit heavy for the AZ-GTI. The OO UK OMC140 would fit my weight budget, but it is only 20 mm more than the Skymax 127 for twice the price.

My previous refractors have a focal length of 400 mm or less, so a 500 mm frac is practically a flatfield scope for me. Maybe it is just my eyes or the way I look at things, but I don't feel I benefit greatly from the extra aperture of the C6, although my current ZS66 is just a bit small compared to a 100 mm Mak. I am trying to put together the wide field of the ZS66 with similar aperture to Skymax 102 to split more doubles and reveal fainter companion stars, while still being airline friendly.

It seems this same scope was also sold as the WO Megrez 88. Based on the user reports I have seen, I think the false color is negligible for visual use, but less so photographically... I think I am going to go for it. If it works out especially photographically, I can swap the ZS66 for a Skymax 127, which would more than cover planetary duties.

I'm not a big fan of the views offered by the C6, I think I prefer Maks. I can always pick up a Skymax 127 at some point.

I am fully self-influencing.

The USA has big tariffs on Chinese imports.

I am now thinking about this one - it has been on the market for a while and I imagine the image is not perfect if you go looking for problems, but the build quality appears to be excellent, and the images taken with it indicate it must at least be workable. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p11436_Long-Perng-90-mm-f-5-5-Apo---Dublet-Objektiv-mit-2-Sonderglaesern-und-2--RAP-Auszug.html https://www.astrobin.com/cd2oev/?q=Long Perng 90 mm https://www.astrobin.com/4290/?q=Long Perng 90 mm stargugger12 on astronomie.de The stars are not great in the corners of big sensors (not that I am likely to own one) based on some postings on other forums. I am toying with selling my C6 to fund this thing. My reasoning is it will make a great 90 mm solar scope (also trade my Solar Scout up for a Combo Quark), and it provides enough aperture for solar and lunar photography. While 90mm is a great aperture for solar imaging and observing, 150 mm isn't really enough for planetary imaging (although I have had some nice results). For visual, a 90 mm scope should do nicely on planets and double stars and and at 500 mm focal length it would be great for low power DSO hunting and rich fielding. at 39cm transport length it's travel sized. So - sell the C6 and buy the Long Perng? Or am I mad and risking buying a kaleidoscope?

Certainly sounds like a good start! How do you find its portability? I am looking for the biggest affordable frac I can pack. Seriously thinking of selling my C6 to fund this. Also was thinking about buying the 4mm Nirvana this morning while walking the dog.

The Moon was the test I was waiting for 😀

My kingdom for an uninhabited M-class planet, a functioning replicator, and an Emergency Medical Hologram.

I am in favor of people living on Mars. Not necessarily some kind of low-g wild west boomtown, but at least starting with scientific research bases would be pretty cool.

I don't think the issue was NASA wasn't given enough money to build a big rocket. The problem was they had to spend the money building SLS in order to keep legacy contractors in business and senators happy. There's no engineering sense to the thing at all, it is just a project to disburse money. It doesn't even have to fly. Go Starship!

Looks fixed now. All those NAKED eye doubles must have triggered a bot.

Horrifying. And hard to fix.

Whaaaaat?

If the Evolux was any good, it could cut through a little haze like that!

Do you have clear skies tonight? All the rain seems to have come over here to Holland...

After a few weeks of incorporating edits and suggestions for improvements, I have uploaded a new version of the PDF and have also made the spiral-bound book available for purchase from Lulu. In addition, the info page on the book with the PDF download and links to Lulu is served from my new domain discovering-astronomy.eu. https://discovering-astronomy.eu/discovering_dsos.html When buying the domain, I noticed that the vendor was offering discovering-astrology.eu - at a higher price!

A great meteor storm is my pick. Actually, I would be happy to walk out my back door and miraculously see Bortle 1 skies.