YogSothoth

The Sun today was quite active and took a while to sketch. The seeing wasn’t great, but I was able to pick out most of the detail, I think.

My first sketch of the sun this year. Can’t believe how rubbish the weather has been.

Thanks for that. Very reassuring 🙂

That is a good point and I’m sure they’ve only recently appeared, although I may be wrong on that. I may email FLO for their opinion, although the thought of sending it back isn’t that appealing, especially as I no longer have the original packaging.

I love the scope and can’t imagine selling it on in the future, but I take your point about possibly contacting the vendor.

I’m inclined to agree with you there. It’s more that I’ve never come across this before and was concerned about what might be causing it. It’s a great scope and there’s no chance of me selling it on in the future, so I don’t have to worry about it putting potential buyers off.

Yes they remain static and they appear to be almost dead centre as far as I can tell, although that doesn’t show up too well in the pics, especially the second one.

No I can’t see anything and other than the rings it all looks pretty clean.

Those photos were taken in daylight with the sun shining directly onto the objective, but I also noticed it last night under an LED light.

I get a bit nervous of things like that as I can be a bit crack handed and don’t have a very good track record in that department 🤣

No it doesn’t affect the image at all and I get perfect stars through the eyepiece. A star test at high mag also looks very good.

Thanks for the reply. Looking at some of those pics. It’s exactly what I’m seeing. Maybe it’s always been there and I’ve not noticed before, but it is pretty obvious regardless of what lighting I use to look at it.

Hi All. While putting my FC 100 away last night I discovered a small purple/black circle with concentric rings around it. It’s not on the front of the objective and it’s quite noticeable so it must have only recently appeared. I’ve not seen anything like this before on any other scopes. Any ideas as to what it is and what I should do about it? The scope is less than a year old. Many thanks.

I’m quite happy with either amateur astronomer, or stargazer, although I probably don’t give it a lot of thought really. From the OED, an amateur is A person who takes part in a particular activity purely for pleasure or interest rather than as a professional; a person who engages in a pursuit (now esp. a sport) on an unpaid basis I take part in astronomy purely for pleasure, so I think the AS description would fit. I would guess we all think about the science of astronomy to a certain extent, even if we’re not necessarily making new discoveries and as soon as you start making notes about the relative magnitude/colours of a double star, note transient features on Jupiter, sunspots etc, you are actively making an observation, rather than just passively looking. I would also suggest that if you pass on your knowledge of astronomy to others, you are doing your bit to promote science in general, which can only be a good thing.

Clear in West Sussex for the first time in a while and I was out for an hour earlier before I had to sort dinner out. Had a look at a few favourites, then the crescent moon.

Thanks for the reply. My only laptop is a work one, so I’m not really able to download software to it. I’ll probably just buy one if I decide to get an S50. Any ideas on specs, make and cost would be appreciated.

I’ve never really thought about AP much as I prefer the simplicity of looking through an eyepiece and sketching what I see, but I’m quite tempted by one of these. My question is, how good a result can I get just using a iPad for processing, and what app do people recommend?

Welcome to SGL and clear skies

I got it with the 3/8” with the flat plate.

The mount and tripod together weigh around 13kg and the tripod is a thing of beauty. It’s not that bad to lift really and I will be keeping it in the garage, which means I only have to carry it abut 6m anyway. I won’t cart it about with the scopes attached. I’m too clumsy for that and will most likely bash them against door frames. For moving it about the garden with the scopes attached, it might be a struggle as the combined weight is in the region of 20kg and I wouldn’t want to move it very far. I’m lucky in that I wont need to move it about once it’s set up, though.

Good point about the clutches.

Just had my new AZ 75 mount with a Berlebach Uni 28 tripod delivered, although it doesn’t look like there are going to any clear skies this week to try it out.

There was an FS 60 in the for sale section, which might still be there

Thanks for the link. Gives me something to think about.

Hi All. I have an AZ75 mount on order and am wondering about tripods. I’m looking at either a Berlebach Uni 28, or a Stellalyra carbon fibre. The SL is rated at taking 40kg and weighs in at 2.5kg, so is ideal for carrying about, but I’m wondering if anyone has any experience with this tripod? The Berlebach has plenty of good reviews, so I know it’s a great tripod, but it’s a lot heavier to carry about. Any views would be most welcome? Many thanks