Ags

On the island of La Palma.

I guess the question we are all asking is... how much does a giraffe weigh in Naglers?

Got these at the beginning of the month.

Takky McTakface ,of course.

Definitely space for two more SLVs.

Call me shallow, but I have been unable to board the Morpheus bandwagon due to aesthetic objections.

Went out at lunch to look at the Sun in green light. I was hoping to take a quick photograph but the detail wasn't there today, just a few tiny pinprick sunspots and no bright splots (plages???). Tonight I decided to set up the ZS66 with an eyepiece I haven't used recently, so it went out with my Speers WALER 10 mm (my oldest eyepiece). The Moon had amazing clarity, despite the low 39x magnification there was plenty of fine detail to see. As ever, I made a resolution to learn Lunar geography, I'm ashamed to say I can't even name the seas. I spent a long time on the Moon, then moved onto a few bright doubles. Mizar and Alcor were perfectly framed in the 10 mm, although I could detect a little astigmatism... On a less moony night the surrounding star field would be richer and less milky. I had another go at Polaris, but I don't think the ZS 66 can bring out the little companion. I am going to darker skies next week, I will try again then. Cor Caroli was the last, looking uncommonly faint in the glare of the nearby Moon. Doubles don't come easier than these three.

My dad used it, but I haven't heard the phrase in... donkey's years.

I am certainly happy with my 6mm SLV. Great eyepieces, especially in smaller scopes.

I discovered technetium stars this week. These are old stars with far too much radioactive heavy metals in their atmosphere for their own good. They have a dead core, surrounded by a helium-fusing shell, surrounded by a hydrogen-fusing shell, and the heavy metals are formed in the boundary between these two shells by the s-process (slow neutron capture). The presence of technetium (a shortlived radioactive isotope) in the atmospheres of these old stars proves that stars form heavy elements as the technetium must have been formed recently.

Would that be in Brontosaurs or Velociraptors?

I am very interested. But will it have DEC Runaway, the "killer feature" of the AZ-GTi?

I have been quite good about secondhanding my eyepieces, only the plossls and an ES 20/68 were bought new.

I do the same with a bit of elastic. But as soon as I open my eyepiece case, I think about the 20 mm and its ridiculous eyeguard. I don't know how a company can have the arrogance to make a product that simply cannot work.

If your eyepiece case is anything like mine, there's a few that I like less than I thought I would. For me it is a toss up between the Vixen NPL 20 mm and the Speers-WALER 4.9 mm. There is nothing wrong with the NPL, but the fact that the one-position click-up eyeguard is too high for the actual eye-relief of a 20 mm plossl is deeply annoying to me. Vixen obviously saved a bit of money by giving the 20 mm the same eyeguard as the 30 mm plossl! Planned replacement: 20 mm SLV. The Speers-WALER 4.9 is quite nice some nights and dreadful other nights. That's because it has a wandering lens group that turns stars into little spectrums when it is so minded. I think I have fixed that problem, but no doubt it will rear its head again when I am trying to view some once-in-a-century celestial phenomon. The other problem with the Speers-WALER is it is not an Explore Scientific 4.7 mm, which I have always wanted.... What's on your hit list?

I forgot to mention, my go-to animal for measuring surface area is the flatfish.

Being more spherical, elephants are a better unit of volume. Giraffes on the other hand are clearly a unit of length.

The weight of the triplet also goes up by 70%, so these are obviously sold by weight.

Pity they don't do the 85 mm as an ED...

Funny that, I had a long look at the sun in white light today, and I am sure it was apple green!

On balance, I think I will rather get a second (larger but still grab-and-go) refractor, and get a quark later on.

I have the TS wedge, very pleased with it.

I love my Zenithstar 66 so much I want to replace it 🤣 Well, i would keep the ZS66, but it surely needs a big friend, just for visual and solar, not DSO photography. I reckon if I can keep the weight under 3 kgs, the focal length at 600 mm or less, and of course aperture as big as possible, I would be happy. The 80 mm f7 ED scopes are of course the obvious choice, but what about this 96mm, f6 one from TS: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p13519_TS-Optics-ED-Apo-96-mm-f-6-mit-2-5-Zoll-RAP-Okularauszug---ED-Objektiv-aus-Japan.html Sadly there are no reviews online. I expected to at least hear from disgruntled buyers complaining of outrageous chromatic aberration, but... nothing. Either it is very good, or no-one is buying it?

...still working from home. Always time for a quick peek at lunchtime 😀

Solar by day, Lunar by night, This is astronnermy Done just right! Good view of a chain of sunspots at lunch today, with a fine view of many craters on the moon after dinner!