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Showing results for tags 'first light'.
Found 19 results
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It finally happened – after waiting two weeks and a day, the clouds parted, and I was greeted with a clear, still and cloudless sky!! Whoop Whoop!! 15 days is a long time to wait! The scope (SW Explorer 150-PL) had been sitting in my dining room since Christmas, and despite a very short outing last week, that lasted about 10 minutes, last night was the first time I used her properly. I popped the tube outside a good hour before I intended to go out to observe, giving it plenty of time to cool down. I then put the mount together – I did this inside, so I could see what I was doing! Once it
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- first light
- explorer 150pl
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Since getting my first scope (130p on a az pronto mount) last Tuesday I haven’t had much luck with clear skies as it seems to be a curse when you get new astro equipment. I kept checking the weather forecast and today they said that it was going to be cloudy for tonight ( again ) . But when I looked out my window at around 7pm I could see Orion in all its glory. So as quickly as I could I grabbed my scope and mount in one hand and the eyepieces in another. Wasn’t that cold out for once so didn’t need my bobble hat or gloves! As this was an unplanned session I didn’t read up on what target
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I started observing through my Celestron Nexstar 8 SE on August 18th 2017 at about 9pm I couldn't get the skyalign to work and just a little teeny bit frustrated with the cloudy skies and view limited by my own four story building, I looked up, saw Saturn bright and yellow in the sky and manually slewed towards it. And sure enough, when I looked into the eyepiece, I saw Saturn in my FOV. So, while I thought of myself as an armchair astronomer, I may have been a naked eye astronomer all along. A short Observing Report from 1973: I was introduced to Yes, Pink Floyd, and and Led Z -
Burgess Optical 91mm Triplet - first light
Stu posted a topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
I say first light, it's actually second light but I had a better go this time although still fairly brief. The fine focusing was not working when I first got the scope, so I had a play around with that and successfully sorted it, plus made the overall movement better. Having bought a Moonlite for it, I actually think I'll stick with the original focuser, it does the job and is a fair bit lighter and less bulky, so more suitable for travel. When my numbers come up on the lottery I'll fit a FeatherTouch to it, but for now I'm happy. The Burgess is an f6.6, 600mm focal length scope with a ce- 5 replies
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Having recently acquired some nice Opticron 20x80 binoculars, I of course could not resist the temptation of a larger pair when the opportunity arose. I did buy some 25x100's from AstroBoot but they arrived out of collimation so were returned. Perhaps someone picked them up cheaply to re-align? Anyhow, the Helios Apollos seem to get excellent reviews, so I nabbed these 22x85s when they came up on ABS. They are big, but more manageable than the 25x100s and sit quite nicely on my Trigger grip ball head thingy. Once I had tightened the tension adjustment a little it holds firm even pointing
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Hi All, Finally my new toy has arrived, namely the 14" GOTO Skywatcher Dob. It's a massive unit. Before taking it to a dark site I though I'd spend a bit of time getting to know it in the backyard and compare the views in it to the 8" SCT. I tried to get my eye night adapted.. yes EYE singular, since I do have 3 street lights around my back yard shining in, I used a patch to keep my observing eye covered at all times when not at the eye piece. Initially I was disappointed, I positioned both of the scopes on to the 47Tuc globular. Looking first into the 8" SCT I saw what wa
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- marsg76
- skywatcher 14 goto dobsonian
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I've had this scope for some months now but last night was the first time I managed a look through it. Only about 45mins unfortunately, and earlier in the evening so that although it was dark, Orion hadn't come into view. I'll save that pleasure for another night. I didn't bother to collimate it, being short of time, but a quick star test showed it to be pretty close despite picking it up from Exeter, and then a fruitless trip to Lucksall and back. This is the third lovely scope I've bought from Mike73 . Even with my 80mm finder and Telrad on, the balance was pretty good, no need for
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- orion optics
- vx12l
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Finally I got my hands on one of these eypieces pretty much by accident but a happy one ? Build Quality The quality of the eyepiece is top draw as I'm sure you would expect it's very solid and doesn't feel like you would drop it because of the grip round the middle. The lense is huge which you would expect because of the FOV this eyepiece provides. The bottom of the EP has both fitting for 1.25 and 2 diagonal sizes if needed. Session So the session began for me as it always does I setup my Celestron Nexstar 6se then align the scope using my ES 68. My first ta
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First light: 20” f3.6 Lukehurst Dobsonian Date: 2 April 2017. Time: 2130-0200. Focal length: Native 1814mm, +Paracorr2 (x1.15) 2120mm, +MarkV (x1.7 Newtonian GPC) 3083mm Finally, got a real first light last night. The conditions were not ideal with a 40% moon and some high level cloud but they were good enough to get everything setup... I had already tested the Nexus the previous day and after changing a plus(+) to a minus(–) in the Sky Safari encoder settings had got the push-to system tested out using some false alignments. First job was to set the
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I am aware a number of members were following my posts and waiting for reports. I have posted the report here :- I have a few spare hours each day between 0500 and 0600. The other 22 hours are full,so I am looking for a part time job to fill this time and to fund this hobby. The job must allow me to sleep while I am working !
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Getting clear skies on the day your Mak 150 arrives is very very rare. That happened to me yesterday. No dew shield it hasn't arrived yet. The 150 sits nicely on the AZ4 with steel legs. I used a combination of the 28mm EP supplied and my 15,12,8,6. EP's. All performed well apart from the 8mm which I had been warned about (thanks Jules). This wil be replaced by a 10mm Vixen SLV. spent a lot of time getting to know the Mak and spent time swopping between the EP's. I am delighted with the scope crisp clear views of the moon,even though the seeing was not good. During dusk with that li
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At last sunshine. It was a little hazy but still managed to burn my arm! Covered my head with home made sun protector and got so enthralled with the views that I forgot my arms - hmmm silly. The views are amazing!!! I have had the Lunt zoom and am impressed then spent some time with the binoviewer - needed to play with the focusser positioning to get focus. Big difference to ease of viewing with binoviewer. A lot of time was just spent appreciating the differences in views when adjusting the pressure tuner. The level of detail left me stunned and I'll be out later to see w
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Friday night I used my Skywatcher Skyliner 200p dobsonian for the first time. The seeing wasn’t great , some high clouds. To give an idea of conditions I could just make out the “head” of Delphinius with naked eye. I had set up the Skyliner ( see photo) on some small paving stones although I didn’t try to level it. Carrying the scope out to the garden in two pieces was simple , I have added a couple of luggage straps to help. Moving the scope as an assembly can be done using the two handles to lift the assembly and I managed, during the session ,to move to another area of the lawn to- 5 replies
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- skywatcher
- skyliner
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I received an ASI1600MM from FLO this week and they somehow managed to sneak some clear skies into the box with it :-) I've been alarmed at how easy it was to get this camera running, the new config on guiding (via the mini hub in the camera) working and guiding and how well EQMOD and stellariumscope are behaving.... hmmmmm, clear skies, equipment working......what could possibly go wrong? I'll tell you tomorrow in the imaging section :-) David
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I've had a zoom EP on my radar for a while now, ease of use and more time actually observing is important to me. So when a second hand Pentax came up on SGL no less and at a very affordable price I couldn't resist. Specifications I will use the first light optics link so you can read up on it a bit more here's the link: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/pentax/pentax-xl-8-24mm-zoom.html First impressions What can I say it's certainly a big eyepiece but not as heavy as I thought it would be. It feels solid and just oozes quality, nothing in the design of the EP has b- 8 replies
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This weekend I managed 3 nights of viewing with my new grab and go/travel set up. This consists of: Explore Scientific ED80 Apo Triplet standard version (not alu essentual or carbon) - used from AstroBuySellUK - £375 + P&P Manfrotto 405 Geared Tripod Head - used from Wex Photographic, £160 inc P&P Redsnapper RSF324 photographic tripod - new from Redsnapper, £110 (before discount - use code RED10 for 10% discount) + P&P Firstly the tripod. This has 4 sections and scrunches down into to a really small thin carry case. No problems getting this into hand luggage. It's light (1.8Kg)- 17 replies
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Hi Gave a first light to my ZWO120mm-c as a guider on my Exos 2 mount. All i'll say id fantastic. Many stars to choose from. Got it guiding and after problem with the dec dropping off the graph i increased the max dec duration to maximum ad solved the issue though it was a bit saw toothy, I know i have some backlash to tune out though. It guided for over an hour till the clouds lost me a star. I used my olympus E-510 with bader LP filter on the shortened astromaster 130EQ. I have a coma corrector but it wont fit the 130 focuser as its a 2 inch (do they do 1.25 CC's ?), Ive go a 2" focuser to p
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A month or so ago I was fortunate enough to acquire a Celestron 5SE from the FLO clearance thread. Have delayed posting the first / second light because I'd hoped to have had more "eyepiece time" - sadly the skies have had other ideas, so here's my thoughts from 1st and second light. Been stargazing for just over a year. I chose this scope to replace a 10” dobsonian that was physically too large to take in the car on holiday with family. I also own a Skywatcher 102 short tube on the AZ GoTo mount Wanted something with similar magnification to the Dob, but more portable, am not (yet) proficient
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First Light For My New Explorer 200p, And UHC Filter
Superdavo posted a topic in Observing - Reports
Hi everyone! I was lucky enough to get a clear night last night, and have the first chance to test out my new Explorer 200p. Some of you may remember me posting a topic about how people lift such heavy things, and I got a huge amount of replies. In the end, I decided to split the scope into four parts: 1. Tube 2. Counterweights - to lighten the load as I move the mount 3, Accessory tray - So I could fold the tripod legs in 4. Mount + Tripod In the end, it took me about 15-20 minutes to set everything up, then I had to wait about 20 minutes for the sky to darken. In that time, I looked for an i- 8 replies
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