Ags

It looks like a collaboration with Van Gogh! Unbelievable depth and detail.

Is that scope double stacked? The image looks very sharp and contrasty. Feeling sorry I sold my ASI178MM now...

Most of the sky is at the edge of the field of view. If you look at the ground, very little of it is directly below you - most of it is off to the side of course.

Haven't heard that phrase for a couple of years! No doubt the tripod was financed by the magic money tree 😀

The AZT6 has its idiosyncrasies, but I overlook them for the price I paid. I judge more expensive mounts more harshly.

45 degrees is quite ok with my SLV 6mm, so 40 should be allright. But 33 - I don't even want to try! Also it will have narrower true field than the 9-27 with an exit pupil that is getting slightly too large for me, so the 10-30 range doesn't have advantages for me.

My most used mount is the AZT6. It was bought as a stopgap travel mount, but it has survived and outcompeted a Twilight 1, Berlebach Castor, and AZ-GTI.

SV170 has 33° FOV at the wide end - not for me 😀

I can see a few uses for it, assuming the wide end is as wide as advertised. Firstly as a cheap travel eyepiece with my f6 Zenithstar 66. Secondly as a solar eyepiece to chase the right magnification (either in white light in the Zenithstar, or in hopefully a Solar Scout in Ha). Bear in mind my eyes don't let me go far below an exit pupil of 1mm. Thirdly as a planetary eyepiece with my C6, moving between mangifications in the range of 9-15 mm. With a barlow, it would be a double star eyepiece in the Zenithstar, or in the larger ED RFT I plan to get. I think the twist up eyecup should be good at solar as it would shield the eye lens effectively. I have most focal lengths covered; ultimately this is about adding a different experience.

Well, it is 2022 now, and I have the same question... Has anybody used a Hyperflex 9-27 zoom? I know the 7.2-21.5 is quite good but not sure the 9-27 is in the same league. Thinking it would be a good match for a Solar Scout SS60-ds (f-ratio = 15.5). 7.2mm would be too much magnification for me, and 21.5 @ 40 degrees isn't wide enough for untracked viewing. With a barlow the 9-27 would give 4.5 -13.5 which is very useful. Or about 6-18 with a screw-on barlow nosepiece.

I saw a nice sunset. Counts, doesn't it?

Morpheus sound more like they have a pain killing action?

Do I recall correctly that there is a theory that photons can interact with strong magnetic fields (I vaguely recall a dark matter experiment is based on this principle).

It is kind of like Astronomy Disneyland 😀 (but with more magic and less lights)

Even on those nights, there's doubles.

Retirees have a very high weekend factor. The factor was defined as "nights without an early morning commitment". A better name for the factor could have been devised 😀 Of course the credit for applying the Drake Equation to real world problems goes to Howard Wollowitz, the noted NASA engineer.

Ahem! I believe I first formulated what I called the Darke Equation in 2017 and even provided a helpful online calculator: http://opticsandalgorithms.blogspot.com/2017/05/whats-your-darke-number.html?m=1

Also looked at M44 last night - so much better under dark skies!

Sounds like an easy theory to test, if we can find an asteroid occulting a distant quasar.

Looking around Cancer tonight. Beehive is a naked eye object tonight, and a fine sight in the 20 mm plossl. It would have been awesome in the 20 mm 68° eyepiece that I left at home? Why? Why??? Moved a few degrees to the left for M67. So sparkly! Oggled M46 and M47 (and NGC 2423) in the 20 mm for a while, such a rich sight all together in one view. While locating this triple cluster I spotted what looks like a fourth in the finderscope, identified in Stellarium as NGC 2422). I switched to the 9 mm, and studied the M46 star pattern carefully using averted vision. Eventually I located NGC 2438, two of the brighter stars of the cluster point to it. This planetary was the stretch goal for the trip - success! Moving on to Leo now. Spent some time trying to spot Leo 1 near Regulus, but it's not happening. More targets I can't spot from a city: M65, M66, and NGC 3628 - the Leo Triplet. M65/66 are easy tonight, but I can see why 3628 was missed from the Messier list, barely detectable with direct vision for me tonight.All three together in the 9 mm - lovely!

Nice result, but it is not clear what happens when all the street lights are switched off. The thieves prefer lighting, but if none is available, they still need to ply their trade, so wouldn't crime return to dark streets if there were no light streets to attract the criminals?

I think I will save a little longer and get a quark. Sorry for hijacking the thread. It's a really good image. If ICE can't stitch a whole disk, is it possible to do it hierarchically - stitch four quarters of the sun separately, then stitch the quarters together?

I don't think the budget stretches that far 😀. A hope a little Solar Scout 60 will do the job for me. But... out of stock.

This picture changed my life. I showed it to my partner. The conversation went like this: A: Look at this. B: Amazing. Why don't our scopes do that? A: You need a specialist Ha telescope. They are quite expensive. Like this one, the Solar Scout, see? B: Just get one. A: If you insist...

I found a new observing spot this lunchtime, possibly shielded from all glaring lights and with a couple of convenient seats. Fingers crossed for clear skies!