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Purchased this hood from R-Sky a few weeks ago because I felt my hoodie wasn't sufficient for the job and at £29 I thought it was money well spent. How right I was, the hood easily blocks out all light and allows me to observe with both eyes open the quality of the material is excellent very well made. It has 3 buttons for different sizes and also keeps you warm as a added bonus. You can also purchase the solar hood which would be also high quality. In conclusion if your tired of neighbours lights or reflections of your scope or just want to observe with both eyes open then you can do a lot worse. Clear skies 🌌✨💫🔭🎨

Ok guys, So I was reading an article in Astronomy magazine about finding and viewing Pluto. According to them, Pluto can be viewed with an 8" scope and great conditions coming up next week to mid July....supposedly. It will be transiting nearly in front of a star (I'll have to find the SAO #, don't have the magazine with me at the moment) making it a little easier to find I'm guessing? I haven't seen any posts about the little fella (didn't look very hard). So who has seen it? I'm imagining a dark shadow about the size of a grain of sand. I have an 8se and I plan driving a little ways to get to high ground and better my chances if future skies cooperate. But not gonna try if it wouldn't be worth it.

Hello! My friend and I are trying to make a DIY refractor based telescope which will be used only for solar projection as our personal monsoon project. We don't have any specific plan yet but roughly this is the idea : suppose an 80mm achromat f/10 (or similar) with a zoom eyepiece attached to a Sun funnel. (Or similar) My major concern is the heat build up in the scope. I use my 90mm f/10 refractor for solar projection and within 15 min I can sense the heat built up inside. Any ideas or suggestions on this? Are there any specific coatings which can work for heat reduction? Any thoughts are welcome! P.S. I am from Mumbai region and summer temperature does rise up to 40+ degree Celsius. Also,I don't want to have a telescope smaller than 70-80mm aperture.

Recently I made my own website based on astronomy, and I have just posted my 2nd post. I would really appreciate if you checked it out, and gave me some feedback and maybe even some tips and tricks for making a website. https://myastronomyjourney.wordpress.com/

As our home thread is getting pretty massive and can be a tad hard to follow at times, this will be the official thread for WADAS events. To make it easier for members and potential members and members of the public to follow and see what we are doing please only post relevant events related posts here, including, but not limited to, meetings, observing meet ups, star parties and other relevant events. Please keep posts to a miminum to make it easier to follow. Thanks Soupy

Aside from Mizar and Alcor are there and good and bright doubles near the Plough? I'm using an ST80 and I have city skies...

Does anyone know where the IAAC (internet amateur astronomers catalog) disappeared to? The thousands of reports were all at least 10 years old, but it was a useful data base. Andrew

After wanting to start a good log book for astronomy of any interesting observations etc that I make, and wanting also to start to sketch some of the things I see through my scopes, I looked for a astronomer's notebook to help me do this. I found this from Amazon by Paul Abel, however as I really didn't know what the contents was actually like, I got a new copy from another seller listed on Amazon for just £3.78 which included the price of postage too. It arrived this morning in good condition, with just a small imprint on the cover where something has pressed into it, but this is a small niggle as you can only see it close up really. If I had paid the full price wanted by Amazon I would have requested a replacement no doubt, but as it is I can live with it. I'v added a few images of the contents and the report pages for anyone who might be interested in one too.

Well, miracles do happen, just spent an evening with the bins under my first half decent local clear skies of 2017. Bagged the following objects in two stints M81, M82, M92, M13, M3, M42, M45, M31, then later on between 23:00 and 00:30, Jupiter, M44, M51, Leo triplet (very faint with averted vision), M53, NGC5053 and a whole host of very faint unidentifiable smudges in the coma and Virgo regions. Most pleased about M51 and the Leo triplet, first time I've managed to see these with the 15x85 binoculars😃

Hello, last night was the second clear night in a row. Quite rare here in Ireland! I took my telescope out side to set it up when I noticed something amazing! I inserted my 25mm eyepiece into my LCM to focus it ( I haven't even moved the tube yet ) when I noticed I placed my telescope bang on in the direction of the Orion Nebula! It was only a couple of arc seconds of the center. I was amazed but since I was looking at the Orion nebula I figured I should start my two star align with a star in Orion, so the two stars I aligned were Rigel and Deneb since they are nearly polar opposites at the moment. Also, when I was trying to center Rigel in my finder scope, a dazzling meteor fell through the atmosphere passing through Orion's belt, followed by another passing near Betelgeuse and another near Gemini. For the hour and a half I was outside I seen about 10 meteorites, very cool! I started my session by continuing to look for Messier objects I can see to add to my list.The objects I observed last night were Messier 35 in Gemini, 36 and 37 in Auriga, 50 in Monoceros and 67 in Cancer. All beautiful open star clusters. I then observed some regular stars such as Sirius, Meissa, Procyon, and Beta Canis Minor. Sadly even though it was clear and I live atop a hill, I was aware of a huge fog devouring my quaint, quiet town. And by 12:35 AM this fog reached me and the only thing I could see was my telescope and my hands. I could barely see the neighbors house it was that thick! But I enjoyed my night and I hope you enjoyed reading. Clear skies Adam

Seems to have come round again very quickly! The latest edition of the Binocular Sky Newsletter is ready. Despite the short, not-very-dark nights, as well as the usual overview of DSOs, variable and double stars, this month we have: * χ Cyg is brightening nicely * Neptune and Uranus are now becoming observable * We have the grand total of 3 observable lunar occultations To grab your (free!) copy, or to subscribe, log on to http://binocularsky.com and click on the Newsletter tab

The latest edition of the Binocular Sky Newsletter is ready. As well as the usual overview of DSOs, variable and double stars, owing to the very short period of darkness this month we only have a few lunar occultations and not a lot else. Nevertheless, I hope you find it useful. To grab your free copy, or to subscribe, log on to http://binocularsky.com and click on the Newsletter tab.

Hello,i'm gonna buy the skywatcher heritage 100p(dobsonian reflector).Many people say that one of the first things you need to do is to collimate your telescope even though you just received it.Please tell what to do is this necessary and how can i collimate my telescope easiy if needed?

Hi guys, Any tips for observing Mars? I've observed Jupiter and Saturn many times and am able to extract a good amount of detail using my ED 127 Apo and my C9.25. However Mars seems to yield no detail at all. It is less than 20 degrees up in the sky and I'm not using any filters. Are filters the solution? If so, which colour? Cheers Fish

Disappointed ..... haven't used my Baader Astro Solar Film filter (home made) for some time. Today I took it out of storage to use tomorrow (transit of Mercury) only to find numerous brown rust like spots all over it. These rust type spots let sunlight through unfiltered and so the filter is now not useable... I did not realise that rusting was a possibility of this film...has anybody else come across this at all??

The weather last night was blustery until around 10:30pm here, then it died down. The sky was clear when I stepped outside at 10pm, but with some hi altitude thin cloud scudding across, but got out my ST120 refractor to observe Jupiter none the less. Seeing was at level 3 at best until 10:30pm when the wind died down. Jupiter settled down very nicely after this (level 4+ at best), and I could push my scope to x200 and still get a decent view. Sadly, this was mostly always through the hi atlitude thin cloud, but even so I could see Jupiter and it mains belts and polar regions quite well. I'm pretty sure that at this time the Jetstream was not over most of the UK at the time. All in all even though the views were filtered through hi altutitude thin clouds the views were pretty good. At least the steadiest that I've had for a while when observing any planets. During this time, with the thin cloud, Jupiter was the only object that was worth observing. Hope others got some good views of it too, or even better last night as well.

Stupid question time! My 2" Altair dielectric diagonal has a thread on the tube end that inserts into my Skywatcher ST120 telescope, so if I buy a new 2" filter to use I assume that I can screw the 2" inch filter in here OK so I can then use either my 2" EP I have, or with my 1.25" adapter inserted into the diagonal also with all my 1.25" EPs to right? None my other 1.25" diagonals has a thread at that end of it, so can't test any of my 1.25" filters like this with any of my current equipment line-up,

I saw a pretty clear sky on Monday 8th Febuary. I decided to set up the new ( new to me!! ) 300 mm Skywatcher truss tube dobsonian in the back garden and get some practice collimating and give some of my new ep's a workout. I love the fact that I can be set up in just a few minutes with this scope - for me that is a big plus. After purchasing a new SUV ( not entirely unrelated to the purchase of aforementioned new scope ) I will be heading out as soon as I can to the resevoir my astronomy group use which has darker skies than my back garden can ever hope to provide. Despite my record set up time the clouds had rolled in. Never mind - I shall get to collimating. With my old 6" and 8" reflectors it was an easy task as even after a night out in the wild they held collimation brilliantly. The larger aperture of the 12" means a lot more movement of the primary mirror while handling it. For this task I have a cheap laser collimator I purchased from E-bay. It seems to work well enough for visual astronomy and certainly provides crisp and clear views. This was also done very quickly and for my perseverance the cloud gods rewarded me with an hour and a half of relatively clear sky which was a nice surprise, especially in Edinburgh, Scotland. Indeed to see anything but clouds this season is a real win. I've pretty much only got a South-Western view ( besides the zenith ) which is great at this time of year as one of my favourite winter objects is in full view - M42. Zeroed in my Telrad and wee RACI finder and aquired it with my SW 28mm Nirvana ( Thanks Lorne ) and it was great to see pin sharp stars and some nebulosity at 53x magnification. Changed up to my ES 100 degree 20mm and the view was really stunning at 75x. Next in I used both SW Nirvana 16mm and 7mm. The 7mm gave me 214x and although a lot of people ( quite rightly ) think that is too much on a nebula I would have to disagree - the effect was almost like being in that cloud of dust and gas and I could see the trapezium stars like never before. After that I chucked on my new 4.5mm TV Delos at 333x and although this was far too much power for the atmospheric conditions in the seconds of clear seeing the dark gas was really visible against background. It was fair zipping across the fov but a worthwhile observation nevertheless. My girlfriend Jahmila has been getting more interested since popping up to the resevoir at the end of last year and looking through one of the guys telescope at some star clusters and double stars. She had asked if we could have a look at m45 so back out came the 28mm Nirvana. Now, some of these eps weigh a fair bit so after some advice from you guys I purchased magnetic taxi plate holders - 2 of them weigh just over 500 grams and this seems to be enough to balance out the scope even with the 28mm monster which weighs in at a mighty 1000 grams. We had a look through and the massive 82 degree afov ( which provides 1.53 degrees of actual sky ) and really let us see a lot of the open cluster and also gives you that "spacewalk" feeling I keep hearing about. That ep and the Explore Scientific 20mm at 100 degrees afov ( or 1.3 degrees tfov ) really give you the impression of being in space as the fov is so wide you don't notice the edges at all. That was enough cold for Jah though so I began using M45 to look for any coma which is the reason I wanted to upgrade my ep's having purchased a big, fast scope which can be very unforgiving on some eyepieces. Skywatcher Nirvanas have 72 degree afov and are really crisp and clear almost right out to the edge with maybe a little coma in the last 5 percent. To be fair I just do visual and had never noticed coma before as I tend to keep things quite well centred. The same with the ES 100 degree - Fantastic views and great contrast with a little coma present in stars at the very edge of the field. The Televue Delos has a 72 degree apparent field of view ( 0.21 degrees tfov ) with zero coma present. I noticed that it makes the background very dark compared to the others which makes for a nice contrasty view but I would need to use this ep on the moon and planets more to see how it performs on the objects it's meant to be used on. I am delighted to add these 4 gems to my collection as it will really help me bring out more detail in some of the DSO's which I will be looking for over the next month or so. I purchased everything in my collection, including my 80mm travel refractor and 305mm dob, second hand from Astro Buy and Sell, Secondhand Astronomy Equiptment on Facebook and from the classifieds here on SGL. It's always worth having a browse through these sites because you never know what you will find. Astronomy doesn't always need to break the bank if you are patient. For any of you that know me, you realize that I am in no way an expert in anything astronomy related - I am only in my 2nd season ( and what a terrible season it has been so far ) but I wanted to post regarding these ep's on a fast scope as I know it can catch some people out, especially when you are starting to upgrade your kit. I was caught out with some Hyperion ep's which work well on my wee travel frac but were just terrible on my 8" newt and not exactly cheap either. I am selling through some other, now, unused ep's to fund a light shroud and some other accessories ( tables, ground and insulating sheets, dew shields and observing chairs ) which will make observing sessions more comfortable in the future so I will be sure to keep you posted on how useful they turn out to be. Keep looking up All the best Andy

The February 2016 edition of the Binocular Sky Newsletter is ready. As well as the usual overview of DSOs, variable and double stars, this month we have: * Several lunar occultations, including a graze of 64 Cet * Two asteroid occultations * A mini-review of the Helios Stellar II 10x50 binocular I hope you find it useful. To get your (free!) copy, go to http://binocularsky.com and click on the newsletter tab.

The latest edition of the Binocular Sky Newsletter is ready. As well as the usual overview of DSOs, variable and double stars, this month we have: Several lunar occultations, including one of AldebaranComet Catalina now visible in the morning skyAsteroid Vesta in the same part of the sky as Uranus and NeptuneA mini-review of the Helios Stellar-II binocularI hope you find it useful. To get your (free!) copy, go to http://binocularsky.com and click on the newsletter tab.

At last got a clear night after a few weeks. Took advantage to do a 5 hour long observing session. Viewed some galaxies in Leo towards the end. Thought I would share. Details in the images. All images taken live at the scope with no post processing.

Hello, We had our family come and stay with us for the x mas holidays and I introduced them to my new passion. (astronomy) During our sessions, I found it hard to explain the distances to the planets / objects we where viewing. So I created a small table to try to make the distances relevant. I.e how long would it take to drive to them on the motorway. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Planet __________Km to Earth (Closest) _Driving Years (Motorway) _Year to Leave ___ Events Moon ____________384,400 __________0.4___________________ 2013 __________ Last Year Venus __________41888000 __________40 ___________________1974___________ Godfather II Released Mars __________ 74800000 __________ 71 ___________________ 1943___________ Second World War raging Mercury ________ 91256000 __________87 ___________________1927___________ Great Depression starting Sun _________149,600,000 __________ 142 __________________ 1872 ___________ Industrial revolution begining Jupiter _______ 628320000 ___________598___________________1416 ___________30 years before Newton Saturn _______1271600000 _________ 1210___________________ 804 ___________ Beginning of Dark ages Uranus _______2722720000 _________2590__________________ -576 ____________Pre Roman iron age Neptune ______4353360000 _________4141_________________ -2127 ____________Stone henge created Pluto _________5759600000_________ 5479 _________________-3465 ___________Copper Age begins Alpha Centuri ______4.14865E+13 ______39465849 _____________-39 Million ____________Early Primate evolution Pleiades (M45) ________3.6462E+15 ____3468607306 ____________ -3,5 Billion _____________Oldest Fossils of Life Betelgeuse ____6.0873E+15 ____5790810502 ____________-5, 8 Billion ____________Just after Sun ignites Orion (M42) ____1.2768E+16___ 12146118721___________ -12,1 Billion ____________Just after Big Bang Double Cluster__ 7.125E+17___ 677796803653 ___________- 678 Billion ____________50x Universe Andromeda ____2.4111E+19_ 22936643835616 _________-2,294 Billion ____________1760 x Universe _________________________________________________________________________________________________ For the analytical you will notice some errors, but was just for fun to put things into perspective.

Hi all, as I have received some amazing advice and ideas from the very kind and generous people on these forums I have come here to see if any people may be able to solve a problem I have been encountering for some time? I was wondering if anyone knows any good darker skies around the Bristol area than I would have in my local Kingswood area? I have finished as much of the Messier list as I can but I am really struggling with the more challenging Caldwell and Herschel objects, and believe that some darker skies my definitely help. If anyone has any suggestions I would be incredibly grateful. Many thanks for everyone's guidance and support, Chris

The summer equinox has passed and people are looking forward to Star Parties. I have never been to one, don't know what to expect, have never met the participants. As a solitary observer tucked away in my small North West garden I have been happy to gaze the night skies alone (Mrs Polar Bear often pops out for high mag views of the Moon and Planets) but otherwise I enjoy my own company and get along very well with myself. So I have taken the plunge and committed to attend CSP9 oop North in Cumbria. Watching the CSP9 thread develop I noticed comforting words such as friendly, whisky, bacon butties, and with a host called delilahtwinkle what could go wrong? Being a tent snob, and loving Glamping my 'usual' nights out are spent in a Cabanon that is the size of a Jovian Moon and takes 2 people an hour to set up. Not ideal, so ebay to the rescue and luckily a smaller Cabanon (think Europa vs Ganymede comparison) was found just up the road from me. Sleeping will be the usual twin air bed and duvets, a single burner will suffice for snacks, unsure as to whether to take the BBQ and the fold away hanging wardrobes ! So camping equipment sorted, onto the scope. Easy decision as I only own one (this week) so the C8 will be coming. Do you put the scopes away each day? unsure, so I found a new moped cover on the local car boot for £3.00 that will do the trick of protecting it. Red light etiquette is an unknown to me, I always observe at home amongst the fairy lights strewn around the garden. As a smoker I worry about lighters, do they affect dark adapted vision? Can I open my car door or do I need to shield the interior lights if I do? So much to learn regarding Star Party etiquette. I am really looking forward to it, and to meeting up with like minded individuals (whisky drinkers) :wink:

Had a superb night last night / this morning at Seething. From about 00:30 to about 02:30 (just before the clouds and rain hit). Milky Way was superb, could easily see constellations that I struggle to see from home such as Sagitta. Andromeda and Double Cluster visible naked eye too. Haven't had many nights like that for some time. Used the "precise GoTo" function on my 5SE mount to see Uranus and Neptune - at about 02:18 the ISS made a very very bright pass too - awesome. Think that the massive thunderstorms and torrential rain we had during the afternoon must have "cleaned" the air. More nights like this please. Chris