TimX524

Food for thought there. Thanks chaps. I'll have a poke about.

I'm interested in getting an 80 mm refractor on a budget of around £500. I want a refractor for observation mainly. I'm not looking for a Borg or a Televue, but a more reasonable scope. There are a bewildering number of alternatives. My plan is to strap it to my CPC 1100, to give wide angle viewing. Any comments?

Brilliant. I love it. You don't think of elephants sneaking!!

One of the perils of stargazing in the New Forest is the New Forest ponies. Most of the time, they are harmless beasts, and watch us setting up our telescopes and twiddling bits from afar, swishing their tails. One evening, however, a bolder horse decided to investigate what these humans were doing with the lights and things. He came among the telescopes and stood there for some time. As large quadrupeds are the natural enemy of telescopes, none of the telescope owners were willing to tackle said horse. It might bumble into one of our precious optical instruments and do a lot of damage. The beast decided to take a closer look at one of the devices: of course, he chose mine. When the horse had come among the group of telescopes, I was rather nervous, and had stopped setting up. I had left my telescope (a Schmitt-Cassegrain) in its parked position. My case of eyepieces (my pride and joy!) was closed by the side of my telescope. I was holding my bag of wires and stuff. The horse had a good look about my set-up, and decided that my case of eyepieces was just the thing. He started licking my case of eyepieces!!!! It must have tasted salty or something. I waited a bit for it to get fed up. It just carried on licking my eyepiece case. Of course, my colleagues at the site were no use at all, and found it absolutely hilarious. After it had been licking my eyepiece case for a minute or so, I get fed up and waved my arms at the animal. It started, and trotted off. Fortunately, it didn't tread on my telescope, or anyone else's. When I got home, I inspected my eyepiece case, which although a bit grungy, was none the worse for its escapade. I did need a good clean though. Has anyone else had any strange occurrences when out stargazing? T

Thanks for the welcome. It worked. I'm no longer a newbie!! But still feel a bit of a fraud. T

Not sure. I would have thought that the mercury vapour discharge in the low energy bulb would peak at the blue and green lines at 436 and 546 nm respectively. Was the light you pointed at very red?? I am asking because the spectrum you show peaks at wavelengths longer than the red of the laser. Visible light is in the range 400 nm to 700 nm. T

Hi chaps. I feel a bit of a fraud. I've been a member of Star Gazers Lounge for some time, but have let my membership lapse, joining the New Forest Star Gazers. (Or SCAG as it was then) Star Gazers lounge keeps telling me that I'm a newbie, so I've put a post in to see if I can shrug off the newbie status. So, ... See you at Turf Hill, when there's enough black out there to warrant it. ... observing and cake again. T