James4

Thanks Isabelle, I was looking at The Sun again today and it was even more quiet with just one small group of spots (smalls ones too). On the equipment side, I think maybe (just maybe) I've finally tried enough different scopes to have a clue of what I like and what their strong points are. I usually sell off the old gear to part pay for the new gear - slowly edging towards the ultimate scope setup -I wonder what that will be :-) James

Isabelle, WOW! That is a stunning image of The Moon! Well done! No exaggeration - superb! crisp fine detail and you can see right into Copernicus. I'd hang that on the wall. A great blog - you always have such great personal observations and not just technical ramblings as we guys often tend to do. The Auroras must be superb where you are. I have only seen very weak versions where we all go "oh is that some auroro I'm seeing? - Oh No it just car headlights!" Not joking we've done that. I bet that will keep your Astro fires burning for ages ... Hope you see them again soon! James

The Crab Nebula is quite small, so when you are scanning for it at low power it is easy to miss. Once you've seen it through the scope you will always be able to find it again. I remember never being able to find The Ring Nebula - I had a 4" Refractor and was expecting something much bigger - I was passing it by for probably a year.

Hey Jonathan, I've been troubled with the eyepieces fogging up too. I was thinking what about all this 'anti-fogging' - 'nitrogen-purged' - 'blah de blah' they always write on the ads for eyepieces. But the solution is - stick them in your pockets. Put all your keys, change etc out of the way and put your best three E.P.s in your pocket - no more fogging!

yes you can see the Supernova light explosion coming from the right in the last scope image. Bring back the WW2 lighting wardens!

Pleiades, Taurus, Orion, Sirius! Nice pic!

Mr Saddo, just allow for your 5 degrees when your trying to find something. It's really common for the scales to be out - even on some goto's. I used my Orion Astroview 100 mm Refractor 's setting circles to find my first deep sky objects: M3 and M5. I was over the moon (excuse the term) when I saw them - small fuzzies on the edge of my field of view. I could not see the Rosette with my 9.25 SCT last night. I could see the star cluster it lives in but the sky was too bright to see any of the cloud. Need to be in a dark sky for that one. Good luck!

Isabelle, I feel your pain - its been a long cloudy spell here in BC too! I always find that just when I think I need to find another more sane hobby like hard drinking or knitting, I get one good session that picks me up again and recharges the batteries to carry me over the next dark spell. Thanks for another great blog!

glad to be of some help!

I had the mount for ages before trying the software alignment. Now its the only way to go!

Mahoney, not sure what arrows you mean? The handset is pre-assembled - you can't mean the 4 arrows on the handset? Can you attach a pic? Here's a link to Celestron's image of the C6-SGT with the Handset shown: C6-SGT Computerized Telescope (item #11079-XLT) / Advanced Series GT Computerized Telescopes / Telescopes / Products / Celestron.com

Another great report - very enjoyable reading - and excellent photos ... keep blogging!

Isabelle, I can't believe I read that correctly! Not your neighbours cat (my brain is saying, yes that's what she meant to write), but your neighbours back? I'd be looking at the house ads ....

The light pollution - I've reconciled myself to realising that at least on the front driveway I know the street lights are on and where they are - I can take up best position to reduce their annoyance. But in the backyard, as soon as anyone hear's a noise they are out on the back porch (almost just a handshake away) with their lights on ....

Our local club are so lucky, we have recently been given the keys to the local airport for dark sky viewing at the weekends. Its so relaxing when there are no lights shining on you!

Thanks for the report Isabelle - I'm still thinking it had to be your neighbour's cat!

Hey Isabelle, I much prefer the human side in your blog - and nothing beats having the youngsters wowed by the real sky - not an iphone version of it. I need to read your other blogs I've missed for the last while .... Clear Skies!

Hey Isabelle, I was trying to compare your image with Stellarium and the order in your photo (just because of our line of site) is Calysto above Europa on the left - then Io closest on the right (which swung in quite quickly), then Ganymede. I need to fix my blog - the image size has thrown it into super wide mode - Yikes!

Great blog Isabelle! Love the picture of your dinner as well as the ones of The Moon and Jupiter - very inspiring to get out and see stuff! I was looking at Jupiter too Friday night and into Saturday 4.00 am - I'm thinking the moon on the inside right is Io because I watched it cross in front of Jupiter around 2.00 am Saturday - I'm just about to blog it. Not been to the lounge for ages ... Thanks for the inspiring report. James

Brilliant Blog Isabelle. I dream of one day being loaded (in the financial sense) enough to visit all of the world's great observatories. Flagstaff and Kit-Peak will be the first two! Hope your eyes get back to normal soon - I'm sure we are all due some clear skies soon.

Hey Matt, no worries. I didn't realize the LX10 was not GoTo. I agree on trying new scopes, I change to something new on average about every 2 years. I usually sell the used gear for more than 50% of its cost, so it doesn't cost me a fortune to move on. Good Luck

Hey Matt, I'm puzzled as to why you sold the LX10 SCT and would still consider the Nexstar 8SE. Outside of that I would note that for photograhy, you really don't need aperture, instead you need speed - a fast focal ratio - e.g. F4 is very fast, F6 is average. Also if you keep your focal length below 1,000 mm your tracking will be much easier. However on the visual side, big aperture is required to see DSO. In the long run most people have one rig for Astrophotography and one for visual.

I note that your 10 years with the LX 10 gives you considerably more astro experience than me - but I don't mind giving you my objective opinion. Good luck and have fun.

your a man after my own heart i love doubles and am on a bit of a mission my self just got the cambridge double star atlas and a hope to tick them of asap good hunting great blog

Hey Tod, how are you finding the double star atlas? I'm thinking I should pick one up soon too. Just be using magazine articles from Sky&Telescope so far. James

-19C Isabelle, and I thought it was chilly at -1C. We are sure spoiled here in BC. Enjoyed your blog - will need to read the others now too!

James' date=' this is an outstanding post. I found it extremely informative and visually spectacular! I espcially loved the images with the night sky in the background while the telescope was in the foreground.

Clear skies and thank you!

Isabelle :)[/quote']

Thanks Isabelle,

Your comment made my day!

James