YogSothoth

56 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Very nice. I love my AZ75 and was thinking about thr UNI18 or UNI28. What’s it like to pick up sans OTAs? Does it weigh a tonne?

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. 

47 minutes ago, Hans Joakim said:

Looking great! The AZ75 will be a terrific mount for these scopes! You'll probably want to turn the scopes so you have the clutches facing you when observing 😇

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

4 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

Save me repeating myself see this thread on SGL for the same question.

HTH

Steve

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

Great sketch

Another warm Autumn day. Perfect for getting out and doing a bit of white light solar…apart from a bit of hazy cloud.

Great shot and nice that you’re using 35mm stock. I used to have an AE 1- great camera

3 hours ago, josefk said:

i know the feeling when i run out of room for a series of craters in a given space on a sketch of the moon 🙂 

I can sympathise with that. My biggest problem is always scale and placement, whatever I’m sketching. Having said that, I just find sitting at the eyepiece and sketching very absorbing and you tend to see a lot more as well, I think. 

21 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

A beautiful sketch! Thanks for sharing it. ☺️

18 hours ago, Stu said:

Lovely sketch @YogSothoth 👍👍

Thanks for the positive comments. I think I’m improving. When l look back at sketches I did 6 months ago, the sunspot I drew then were huge and way out of proportion. 

My latest attempt at sketching the sun.

1 minute ago, saac said:

Sounds like you saw a satellite or small meteor then breaking up. I still wouldn't rule out aircraft as the most obvious, senses are readily tricked especially at night and with relative motion. Like you say, pretty inconclusive as these things tend to be,  but good job spotting it. 

Jim

Yes, it was just luck that I was looking at M81and M82 at the time. Usually this time of year I’m the looking the other way towards Cygnus and Hercules. I doubt there will be a definitive answer and will remain a mystery I guess, but great to have seen something so unusual.

2 hours ago, saac said:

My gut feeling smoky military or commercial jet aircraft; aircraft exhaust smoke for whole host of conditions the least of which is fire or throttle position.  You did say it was moving with such a velocity, most likely scenario then.  Don't be dissuade by sound, strange things happen to aircraft sound all pending on what the air mass is doing. In the vicinity of a major commercial aircraft hub, most realistically and aircraft then. Anything else is really finger in the wind speculation. 

Jim

I know what you mean but gut feeling is that it wasn’t a jet. I’m pretty used to seeing aircraft going in and out of Gatwick and if it was a commercial jet, then it looked like one that was about to crash. The flashes I saw certainly looked like random explosions within the smoke trail and my gut feeling would be that it was something breaking up as it hi the atmosphere. It was most definitely odd and I’m glad I was looking in the right place at the right time.

4 hours ago, Barry Fitz-Gerald said:

Thanks for the drawing – that is really useful.

 

Firstly, the angular size of what you saw seems quite large, which probably rules out a lot of things!

 

I checked the FligtRadar for the time of your observations, as I note that you are just south of the eastern approach to Gatwick, and aircraft would be visible passing to the north of you and heading from east to west. I guess you are pretty familiar with these and their noise anyway, and what you drew is nothing like the size a passenger plane would appear in the distance. In any case, all I could see was a stream of short haul aircraft from the continent such as 737's and similar size jets – nothing exotic or military. I did wonder whether an aircraft experiencing engine problems and smoking from one engine might be an answer, but those flashes of those light which might have indicated a fire would have probably resulted in a lot of scary videos from terrified passengers, and something in the news. As to it being a smoky military aircraft, to chuck out that much smoke it would have had its throttles up against the stops and would have been very loud – was there any noise you recall? So I think that option may be unlikely but worth considering.

 

Your description of the flashing lights reminded me of something called the 'random flashbulb effect' described by Prof. Harley D. Rutledge of Missouri State University in his 1981 book Project Identification: The first Scientific Study of UFO Phenomena (don't be put off by the term UFO) to describe sightings of randomly flashing lights that he likened to flashbulbs going off, that he and others observed during a 1973 investigation in to anomalous ariel sightings in Missouri (though not within a smoke trail as yours was). It is an interesting read (again difficult to get hold of but available to browse at https://archive.org/details/rutledge-project-identificationand) he even recruited a local Astronomy club to assist in his research, complete with their new Celesstron C8's.

 

Whatever you saw was quite unusual and I look forwards to reading any other possible explanations. Do you have a gut feeling as to what it was?

 

Lots of interesting stuff there, thanks. Like you say, I’m pretty familiar with aircraft coming and going from Gatwick and you’re right, if it was a commercial jet , it was certainly not looking too healthy. The flashes definitely looked like small explosions to me and my gut feeling would be something breaking up as it hit the atmosphere. It was certainly very strange and I’ve been looking up at the sky for 50 odd years and I’ve never seen anything like it. It’ll remain a bit of a mystery I guess, but I consider myself lucky to have seen it. It was only that I happened to be looking at M81 and M82 in Ursa Major that I saw it at all. I did see both galaxies as well, so not a bad night.

On 28/08/2023 at 09:39, Barry Fitz-Gerald said:

Whatever you saw sounds extremely odd - it does not fit the usual suspects of Starlink train meteors, space junk and so on, but of course might be some rare atmospheric phenomenon - a possibility that must be explored before more exotic explanations are considered. William R. Corliss catalogued many bizarre things  in his book HANDBOOK OF UNUSUAL NATURAL PHENOMENA including atmospheric ones that appear to make little sense in terms of known phenomena. Copies are hard to come by even second hand, but you can access an archive copy at https://archive.org/details/B-001-001-892

I do not like stuff put out on the net as it is usually unverifiable but the following is a cloud with lights you might like to compare with what you saw https://www.phillyvoice.com/video-sighting-ufo-really-mysterious-cloud-philly/

OK, so you’ll have to excuse my rather bad drawing, but this is basically what I saw. It’s about the right size and shape and was moving at about the velocity of a passenger jet. The flashes looked like small explosions to me and appeared randomly within the smoke trail.

On 25/08/2023 at 21:30, DirkSteele said:

Does the disappearing include the ‘smoke trail’ as well? I would expect that element to be persistent even if the body had burnt up and the flashes stopped. I would certainly expect flashes with the smoke as bits break off and burn up.

Yes, the smoke trail faded fairly quickly. The whole thing only lasted around 10 seconds, maybe a bit less. It’s possible the smoke trail dissipated more slowly but wasn’t visible against the darker sky, I guess.

1 hour ago, DirkSteele said:

Back in early 2022, a powerful geomagnetic storm caused 38 Starlink satellites to de-orbit and burn up in the atmosphere. We have certainly experienced a fair share of storms this year. Perhaps you witnessed a similar occurrence. Anyone aware of any satellites being lost recently?

Image of the starlink Sats burning up.

I’m leaning towards a satellite burning up as the most likely explanation, although it didn’t really look like the above photo. It was a solid ‘smoke trail’ similar to the vapour trail left by a passenger jet, but very short. The bright flashes were coming from within the trail. The whole thing disappeared abruptly after a few seconds.

6 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

Lightning perhaps?

No, not lightning. It was a clear sky apart from this ‘smoke trail’, which was similar to a trail left by a passenger jet, but much shorter. The flashes were within the smoke trail.

5 hours ago, AstroMuni said:

If it wasnt aliens....could it have been a cloud patch and the flashes were stars poking through for brief periods of time?

No, definitely not that. The whole smoke trail was moving and there were bright flashes within it.

Just now, Astronomist said:

aliens, without doubt. 😆

seriously though, that's really weird, I've never seen anything like that before

Me neither. I guess it was something breaking up when it hit the atmosphere. It’s just that the flashes were not just at the front, but appeared throughout the smoke trail. It was quite visible, so hopefully someone else saw it. 

Last night I was out with the scope at around 10.30pm when I saw something I’d never seen before. Just above Ursa Major and travelling from East to West, I saw what appeared to be a black smoke trail. It was maybe 10 moon diameters long (very rough estimate) and moving at about the same speed as an aircraft. The length of the smoke trail didn’t change. Within the smoke trail I saw several bright flashes from various parts of it. It lasted maybe 10 seconds and then abruptly disappeared. Not seen anything like this in all the years I’ve been observing. Any ideas? 

10 hours ago, saac said:

That is not a bad ratio at all  

Jim 

We can see even further back than that, to t = 10^-43 s. Beyond that the laws of physics become too spooky for us to understand (at the moment).

5 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Hi Jeremy , thank you for the swift reply ... the module is something i would be looking at for sure, but i take your point and thats why i asked the question. From what you write i am unsure about the purchase , especially as you quite rightly point out i already have a very decent 70mm .   ... i am also looking at the StellaMira 80 F10, which would compliment my 70mm as a longer focal length option  .

Stu

I have a Stellamira 80mm F10 and can confirm that it is a great scope. Well engineered and nice optics (FPL-53 and Lanthanum), which show no CA as far as I can see. I use mine mainly for solar white light. It’s not a small scope though at a FL of 800mm and is longer and heavier than my Tak FC100 D. It does only take 5 mins to set up in my back garden though.

There are any number of things to look at this time of year. Depends what you like really. There are plenty of double stars, such as the ‘Double double’ in Lyra or Albireo in Cygnus. Star clusters, such as M29 in Cygnus, or the double cluster. Globular clusters such as M92 near Hercules, or M56 in Lyra. This time of year with the Milky Way overhead it’s nice to just sweep around looking at that really. Perhaps get a decent book like the excellent ‘Turn Left at Orion’, which gives you the best objects to look at depending on the time of year and also gives you a good idea of what you will see in the eyepiece.