chiltonstar
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Posts posted by chiltonstar
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I go for simplicity...... (sorry about the image quality, my head torch as light source two evenings ago..)
Chris
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I do find mine very useful for visual observing with my 180 Mak although I bought it originally for imaging. As I do most observing at 23:00 to 01:00, the altitude of both J and S are quite low, and my sight line is over a house - presumably radiating heat.
With Saturn, the most obvious effect is that it looks less "muddy" - more its natural peachy-cream colour, and Cassini pops out more clearly. With Jupiter, the belts look more contrasty and detailed - I assume less orange or blue is bleeding into the darker areas.
Chris
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1 hour ago, STF8 said:
Hi all,
I made this picture from Tau Cygni few days ago:
LZOS refractor 152/1200 - ZWO ASI 290MM - barlow TV 3X
38 frames stacked /1000frames : 7 pixels with 0.15 arcsec/p about 1" separation.
Very nice!
Chris
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53 minutes ago, Mariner74 said:
That's the downside of this hobby, our weather, and we just have to accept it as we will never beat it!
...but when it is clear here, it is often superb!
Chris
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...and yet another Neowise! Taken at 23:30 last night (through light cloud) with a 300mm Nikon prime - stack of 5 images. Interesting that you can see on this image and several others a stream of material emitted near the nucleus, seen as a shadow (absorption of light) first of all, then as a bright line further out.
Chris
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Interesting view of Jupiter last night with the GRS nicely visible despite the low altitude, and a field star looking just like another moon! Skysafari screenshot.
Chris
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It was nicely visible here at 23:30 last night with the 15x70s. After ten minutes or so dark adaptation, it was visible without the bins, although nothing like Hale-Bopp of course! A stack of 6 frames with a 90mm macro lens:-
Chris
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4 minutes ago, Geoff Barnes said:
............ these wonderful lunar features ........
Absolutely! Sounds like a good session.
Chris
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A very nice, and honest report. I am often surprised by how well my 80ED will perform on Mars as well. Small fracs are great!
Chris
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Wow, prospect of a naked eye comet! I hope the view isn't obscured by the clouds of flying pigs......
Chris
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15 hours ago, John said:
I might set the 130mm triplet up tonight for this and some other challenges
How did the 130mm perform John?
I had another look last night (180 Mak) while I was waiting for Jupiter and Saturn* to rise enough and it is indeed a nice pair, although it needs the right mag with a Mak - x300 seems to give the best view I would say to sort the secondary out from the diff pattern.
Pi Aquilae is indeed a superb double - I used the pair a couple of years ago to test the collimation of my 102mm frac after I disassembled the air spaced doublet and cleaned off deposits various before reassembly. When correct, the view was stunning, although it is obviously more impressive with the 180 Mak because there is more dark space between the two nearly matching stars, and the Airy disks are smaller. The pair really do look like car headlamps from a distance.
Chris
* First decent evening (24:00) view I've had this year, with some good belt detail on Jupiter with the ADC in place, and Cassini just beginning to show on Saturn, despite the very low altitude.
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Quite a nice one. With the 180 Mak last night, the pair were clearly separated with dark space between them, with the secondary appearing as a bright point in about the right place. The colours looked to me whitish yellow. I struggled to separate them with my 102mm f13 achro though - definitely a double, but with the two disks touching.
Always fun to look at these close, uneven doubles - Sissy H is gathering data on 6 Ser at the moment, which is worth a look.
Chris
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One to try this evening with my 180 Mak and 102mm Vixen achro.
Chris
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Personally, I love Summer and its long, hot days. Plenty to see in the heavens (even if it's not quite as dark as Winter), and moths and bats for company!
Chris
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Maybe also your comfortable field of view. When my eyes were tested for high power laser working a few years back, the optometrist commented that I shouldn't drive a fork lift truck (I never had that ambition anyway) and that I had slight tunnel vision - that maybe explains why I've always found 50 to 60 degree eyepieces a lot more comfortable to use than anything wider. That was a major consideration when I upgraded from a 25mm plossl a month ago, as this FL is one I use a lot with my 180 Mak.
Chris
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44 minutes ago, GazOC said:
Or a "Skymax Pro 190" and chucked an extra 50 quid on the price 😉
I measured mine a few times on an optical bench with a point source placed at the focal point, and the mean value of the projected disc of light was 179 mm in diameter - close to 180mm by my standards. Whatever the effective aperture, it's a lovely scope though when it's insulated and the Seeing Gods are smiling down on us....
One negative point about the Bresser 127 I've seen raised (eg CN) relates to the effective obstruction, which comes out at about 40% because of the baffle. If so, it must surely lower the contrast??
Chris
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8 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:
Thannks for the replies. You see I am thinking of strapping my white light and HA scope onto it, should be fun combinaton. Or maybe a night time combination of a frac and mak for hopping between open cluster, globs and doubles.
Like I say, nothing definate yet, just testing the waters as it were.
Steve.
The frac and Mak combination is a good one. I use the main side position for a 180 Mak (about 10kg or so) on a better saddle, and quite often the top position for an 80ED frac. The frac gives me a lower mag view of larger objects and acts as a second finder. Rock solid mount, but a little agricultural as someone has already said!
Chris
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My main scope was a 102mm f13 Vixen objective refractor for 20+ years, and I always dreamed of a bigger one until I visited a professional observatory in the Alps and saw some pretty huge refractors, which were not actually that big in aperture terms.......
At that point, I decided that Maks were probably the way to go (for me) and bought a 127 and then 180. A compromise, but nearly refractor like viewing, but without the back problems!
Chris
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2 hours ago, Demonperformer said:
Very nice.
Must admit to sharing your liking for Plato. Catch it right and you get a wonderful display as the shadows move across the crater floor.
Thanks for posting.
Yes, Plato is always fascinating the way the floor craterlets pop in and out of view as the Sun rises.
Nice images.
Chris
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I once made the mistake of not adding the retaining screw to the counterweight bar, and in due course the weight slid off and landed on my foot (anglo-saxonisms^10) and to add insult to injury, the frac swung round on the mount and hit me somewhere very delicate!
Chris
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7 hours ago, Stu said:
Very good first impressions from me too. Quite a few similarities with the Telementor really, it shows similar views, which are brighter and with more detail as you would expect from the additional resolution available. CA seemed to be better controlled in the Scopetech, it is still there but pretty unobtrusive.
The Double Double was showing strong signs of splitting at x50, and was great at x100. Izar was easy, and I had a bash at Zeta Herc at crazy power, x400 with the nag zoom. There was something there, I need to ask @chiltonstar to do a simulation so I can see what is possible.
A fun scope with lots of character, surprisingly easy to manage given its length. I think I will try it on the Vixen GP for a longer Moon session for the tracking.
A quick phone shot just for the record.
Interesting scope Stu! Funnily enough, I had my 102mm f13 out last night looking at a "Sissy Haas double" - 84 Vir.
Zeta Herculis might look something like this with the 80mm/f15 according to Aberrator:-
Chris
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Thanks very much guys.
It is a nice performer, maybe another one or two for the EP case!
Chris
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Anyone able to identify this eyepiece please? Bought about 1982, it is marked "Or 9mm" and is therefore presumably an ortho. It is a very able performer, great with my 180 Mak, although it is not an EP for spectacle wearers!
The nearly unreadable yellow label on it shows it is of Japanese origin. I took the barrel off to clean the outside optical surfaces up, and it appears to be very well put together.
Chris
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1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:
You've nicely captured the central rille in the Alpine Valley as it appeared visually Chris.
Not my best image of the area Mike - I was looking through a heat plume above my neighbours' house and the image was shimmering a bit.
Chris
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ADC- essential for planetary?
in Observing - Discussion
Posted
Absolutely agreed. I did the same comparison again the night before last with and without an ADC on a Mak 180. The increase in detail was very significant, and the contrast with Jupiter's belts very obviously improved. Looking at Saturn, Cassini really showed well with the ADC, barely without, and I'm sure the moon count was better as well. Adding a Baader Nd filter did make a modest improvement overall as well, but of course at the expense of colour verity. I had another look last night as well, but the seeing was seriously rubbish, so I gave up and admired the comet from a nearby darker site.
Referring to some of the above posts, I've never had an issue with adjusting the ADC; I just make sure that the spirit level is roughly aligned with the horizon, and then set the levers nearly at the max position at about the same angle above and below horizontal. If you have the levers on the wrong side, it is obvious by the orange and blue fringes on Jupiter. For my scope (mirror diagonal), the levers are on the LHS visually, RHS for imaging (without a diagonal).
Chris