oldfruit

This is very sad news indeed. I had the pleasure of meeting him about 3 years ago as he delivered my EQ platform that I had ordered in person. A very pleasant chap. He was truly talented and a great craftsman of quality products. A great loss to the Astronomy community.

If you have a TV 102 with a focal length of 880mm then the 8mm will give 110x. The 7mm will give you 125x, so there will be a small increase in magnification, however not enough to justify the purchase in my opinion.

Hi, Would anyone know if something like this (link below) would be suitable to run a camera (Altair GPCAM2 290C) attached to the telescope in the garden? RSHTECH USB 3.0 Active Extension Cable 32 Feet with 5V 2A Power Adapter, USB 3.0 Extender Male to Female Cord with Built-in Signal Booster Chips for Xbox, PS4, USB Printer, Mouse, Keyboard, etc : Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories Thank you, Mark

Stellarium Astronomy Software

Telrad all the way for me. There are a lot of free useful Telrad finder charts on the internet. Also if you are using Stellarium free software, there is the option to use a Telrad reticule. Works every time for me.

Thank you, It is fitted with Argo Navis as the scope was modelled on Obsession Telescopes. I have had the scope for a couple of years now and have yet to use it!

Thank you, Yes I feel truly lucky to have access to such a scope.

What a lovely Autumn nights observing. I set up the large dob in the garden yesterday evening on the EQ tracking platform. All observations were with the 20 inch dob and APM 13mm 100* eyepiece. Observing using the EQ platform has transformed my observing, allowing me to observe with higher magnification for longer without objects drifting out of the field of view. I first turned the scope to M13, Globular cluster in Hercules. A wonderful sight with endless chains of stars radiating outwards, stars resolved to the core and the propeller easily visible. M15, Globular cluster in Pegasus was next up. Again a lovely sight, a very bright core in this globular with stars again easily resolved. I then swung the scope up to M57, the Ring nebula in Lyra. A bright large doughnut with some seemingly ragged edges visible after observing for some time. No central star visible but a lovely sight. M27, The Dumbbell nebula was very large and bright in the eyepiece, showing the “apple core” shape so commonly mentioned. Over to M76, the Little Dumbbell, almost peanut shaped in appearance. Quite bright with some variation in brightness across the nebula. No tendrils visible with direct vision, however with averted vision I thought that I could detect hints of them. NGC 7662, The Blue Snowball was next, quite bright in appearance with a blueish hue to it. There appeared to be a brighter inner ring during my observations and there was some variation in brightness across the disc of the nebula. NGC 7009, The Saturn nebula, appeared like a bright oval in the eyepiece, again with a green blue hue to it, I could not make out the lobes that extend from either side. NGC 6543, The Cats eye Nebula appeared bright and again showed some colour. There appeared to be hints of some structure visible. I need to revisit this one and push up the magnification. The next observation was a first for me. I directed the scope at NGC 7331 in Pegasus, The galaxy was quite bright and I could make our a couple of members of the “Deer Lick Group”. Guided by Stellarium I then moved the scope over and after a few moments of observing and nudging the scope there was Stephens Quintet, very faint and barely visible. I have wanted to observe this for years unsuccessfully so was pleased I finally got it. I finished off the night with Saturn, lovely sight with subtle banding visible on the disc, and then Jupiter, there was a moon transiting and the inky black dot of a shadow. Some lovely detail was visible as well as the great red spot. It really was lovely to be out under clear skies again.

If you look up on the EEVA discussion Tiago Ferreira, he has posted some excellent tutorials. He also uses Sharpcap which is useful.

Stunning, detail on Jupiter is great but the detail on the moons! Excellent capture.

David Lukehurst has started making EQ platforms. I bought one from him for my large dob. The build quality is excellent.

Last night was our club monthly meeting. As the forecast looked favourable I let other members know that I would be making my way up to the dark site in the Lincolnshire Wolds to set up in daylight. I arrived about 7.30pm to be greeted by other keen members wishing to take advantage of the clear skies. As dusk approached there was a lovely sliver of a thin Moon, it looked lovely set against the twilight sky. Sirius was twinkling a lot so seeing at this point was not great but acceptable. Once the scope was set up and collimated I did a quick star test to check collimation. All seemed good so just waiting now for the skies to darken. I have recently purchased an EQ platform from David Lukehurst, and it has taken my observing to a whole new level, no more nudging the scope as the platform tracks beautifully and allows for more comfortable high magnification viewing. First up was M3 globular cluster, lovely sight full of resolvable stars even though it was not fully dark. As the darkness increased we moved on to some more objects, they included but were not limited to the following: M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy, to my eyes, clear structure and spiral arms visible. NGC 4656/57, Hockey Stick Galaxy, fainter than expected but faintly showing structure as its name. NGC 4631, The Whale Galaxy, large, diffuse and appearing mottled to my eyes. M64, The Black Eye Galaxy, dark lane visible with direct vision but more prominent with averted vision as was the outer halo. M94, Crocs Eye Galaxy, surprisingly bright, no structure to my eyes, almost like a bright eliptical galaxy. M13 Globular Cluster, despite being low, WOW, really is a showpiece in a large scope! M53 Globular cluster, fainter but stars resolvable, probably would have been more impressed if I had not just observed M13 before. NGC 2392, Eskimo nebula, very nicely resolved structure showing between the inner and outer shells. And of course M42 The Great Orion Nebula, Low but still impressive. Numerous other objects were observed but the above are the hi-lights of the night for me. A very pleasant evening with club members new and old.

Considering the bright Moon, I think it is a lovely detailed image.

Our astronomy club had a few members including myself hold an observing session at our dark site in the Lincolnshire Wolds on Friday 4th March. I took my 20 inch dob. It was one of the other members that notified me about it so we sought it out. Easily found and quite obvious in the large scope. We are always delighted to see these random visitors and this was no exception.

Lovely images Neil, well captured, and the detail is quite stunning.

Hello, I am wondering if anyone could advise where where i could source a focus mask for a 20 inch dobsonian telescope please?

Not tried one myself, but i have been doing a lot of reading/research as I am considering something similar for my dob. Generally all owners of EQ platforms state that it transforms their observing. The beauty of a nudge to dob, becomes a tracking dob, so when viewing at higher powers you have far longer to observe rather than constantly moving the object back into view. FLO are a well renowned retailer of quality Astronomy related products so I would say it was worth it.

I have observed it several times with our other club members, always a delight to see it but more so when shared with others.

So a clear night and a warm one too. What better way to spend it than outside under a starry sky testing out the video imaging rig ready for the season ahead. The images are just some samples of what was obtained with an ED80 and Altair camera. Each capture is approx 100 seconds of 5 secind exposures stacked in live stacking in Sharpxap pro and saved without editing or processing. The shots are of my laptop screen as set up in the garden tonight. Still work to be done with tweaking the settings etc.

Very useful tutorial. Thank you,

Wonderful video.

Having observed Globular clusters through small and large scopes and from different locations, aperture is king but also dark skies work really well. Get to the darkest skies possible, it really makes all the difference. If you have a chance to look through a large scope, take it, it will take your breath away.

What a beautiful picture. The lighthouse illumination adds to the image. Simply stunning.

Unfortunately dew has got the better of me tonight but not before I managed to get a view of M13 Globular cluster in Hercules. Wow, wow and triple wow. I was so immersed in the view, chains of stars radiating from the centre of the cluster, resolvable all the way to the core, and it is only about 40 degrees above the horizon so should be in for a treat with this one once nearer the zenith. What a fabulous object, I have viewed many times in my 12 inch dob before, many times from our dark site, however what I saw tonight was far far better, brighter and more resolved than I have ever observed before, filling the eyepiece with stars. Shame about the dew but lovely evening none the less.

Forecast for tonight was clear so set up the large dob in anticipation. Wandering around the garden giving myself time to get some dark adaptation I noticed a large amount of satelites. An imagers nightmare. Fortunately for me tonight I am not imaging. First up, check collimation, Castor in Gemini was really nicely split at 100x. Good image in and out of focus on bright star Capella. On to the first object of the evening, M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy. Found the area of sky with the Telrad, looked through the eyepiece and was not there, moved a little to the left, there it is, large and well placed in the field of view, both cores very visible with the outer halo also very apparent, after a moment or two to give the view time to settle, gradually detail became more apparent, and faintly the spiral became visible with direct vision, whilst it was not jumping out at me it was there, but I had only been outside for about 15 mins and there are lights on in the house so not fully dark adapted. Will pop back to this later when the family are in bed and the street lights go off. Next up over to Coma Berenices, the Needle Galaxy, NGC 4565. Again found the area with the Telrad, pleasantly this time the galaxy was there in the eyepiece. Bright and obvious. Long and slender in the eyepiece with the central dust lane obvious. Again had not been out for long and conditions were not yet ideal but will go back to this object also later.