‘This is your aperture fever speaking’ – an observing session with a surreal twist...

[tom33pr]

I was pretty surprised to see the clear skies having come back from my Easter holidays, considering the weather had been absolutely terrible for a few weeks.

A quick look at our Northern Irish Amateur Astro Community website... and yes, we are going observing tonight! Everything seems perfect – the temperature, humidity, general ‘seeing’ and so on. Cracking!

This is the fourth time I was about to go out to the country (some 30 miles out of Belfast) with the lads from NIAAS and I must say - I loved every minute of it.

We arrived at the usual spot at 10.30 and started setting up. It was getting dark; the only concern was the wind which eventually settled to our delight.

I quickly assembled my SW 130p then a quick 2-star alignment, couple of bits and bobs, and the scope was sitting there nicely cooling down, soon ready to be used.

A quick cup of coffee then went to say hi and chat a bit with other guys. They were all setting up - some pretty interesting scopes around: Meade LX200 Schmidt 8”, LightBridge 10” dob, SW FlexTube 10” dob, a nice 4.5” Meade refractor and others.

Started off with M65 and 66 – I think the background sky was still too bright to fully appreciate those two, because they looked way too faint. I’ll get you later on – I thought, and move on to Algieba – a pretty binary in Leo, very easy to split even with a fairly small telescope. With little hope I slewed onto M95 only to confirm – too faint (will have to come back later). Had a few sneaky looks at M67 and 44 – never disappointed with those two

There seemed to be a serious collimating problem with the mentioned Lightbridge. Apparently one of the primary mirror’s tuning screws got damaged and went totally lose. What a nightmare – I thought; however, the guys seemed to be on it, and with an aid of some tools the problem was fixed and the scope collimated. I was kindly invited to share it and we slewed over to M13. I must say the view was breathtaking. The amount of detail of that fairly close (some 25kly) globular was astonishing through the 10”!!! After a few quiet ‘ohs’ and ‘ahs’ I finally managed to take my eyes off it... I felt great!

I went back to my SW and slewed over to... erm... M13 of course... Put on my 17mm Hyperion and again – it was gooood!!! Not as good as the 10” but still good – fairly big with a lot of detail. The joy I felt was suddenly ceased by a strange, very deep and remote voice in my head: You need to get a bigger scope so we can appreciate the objects more...

...What??? Who are you? What do you mean by WE??? – I replied quickly.

This is your aperture fever speaking – said the voice with an even deeper tone to it (have you seen Monty Python’s Holy Grail? It was something like one of those whacky, cartoon characters from heaven who occasionally appear throughout the movie).

My aperture fever? You must be kidding, I don’t have any aperture fever and I love my wee 130p.

No, you do not.

Yes, I do!!! And by the way, can you leave me alone please, you are interrupting.

The voice seemed to have gone and I went back again to my beloved Leo triplet (duplet in my case ). It was way better this time round – the M65 and 66 looked nice indeed in my hyp 17mm (I like this EP a lot).

Spent some time looking at those two before going to another duplet that I was really looking forward to that night - M81 and 82. They looked stunning. I combined my hyp with TeleVue x2 to get them slightly bigger, but ended up having both sitting right on the edge of the eyepiece. Having lost some sharpness because of it I decided to remove the barlow and stared at them for a good few minutes with content. ...Lovely!

The list went on and I had a look at some usual suspects and others: M53, 3, 92, 13 again , 94, 63, a few doubles and a few more. Some of them bright and detailed some of them ‘not to be bothered with’ – to put it bluntly.

Feeling slightly ‘tired’ I decided to take a short break – a cuppa and a chat with other members (mostly about gear – a few valuable suggestions noted). I also decided to have a closer look at the 10” FlexTube that was setup nearby. Quick overall look and off we went: M57. I love this nebula – big and bright, kind of quirky looking compared to other objects around. It was even bigger and brighter through the 10”. What a view! Again, I found it hard to finally ‘unglue’ my eye form he EP. Class! Back to my scope...

See? That’s what I told you – you need a bigger scope; Oh, no!!! That damn voice again!!!

Shut up, I replied with anger – Let me enjoy my observing. I slewed my 130 to the Ring Nebula and stared at it for a few seconds before the voice interrupted me again:

...Don’t bother with anything smaller than 10” mate!

You’ve really started annoying me now. If you don’t stop I swear I will go online first thing tomorrow and order a Tasco or Bushnell with plastic eyepieces. That will teach you!

Don’t be pathetic – said the voice with disdain.

I swear – I replied. If you don’t shut up I’ll take that Bushnell with the plastic eyepiece and additionally sew 2 inches off one of the tripod’s legs so it will never be levelled!!!

The threat seemed to have worked and the voice disappeared. It was coming 1.30am and a few guys had already left. I decided to view a few more objects before taking a longer look at the sky with my naked eyes. It was stunning – you could see some Milky Way light and it seemed like there were millions of stars visible around.

We decided to call it a night at 2am. Another memorable session!!!

If you managed to get to this point: No – I do not hear any voices but yes – I consider a telescope upgrade

Thanks for reading.

Clear skies!

[twotter]

I think I've heard your voice once or twice myself

Sounds like a great session

[Patrick1948]

A most entertaining read Tom....more please.

[tom33pr]

Thanks guys

hahahaha Patrick... I've just had a look at your signature, I hope I didn't offend you with my remarks on Tasco and Bushnell ...You know I didn't mean it 'this' way!

[Porl]

great report tom and I hear that voice regularly and for some reason it has control over my hands and keeps opening up online telescope shops for me! haha

its really made me want to get out with the scope. heres hoping for some more clear nights! and i've got to hunt out a location where I can see the milkyway a little bit naked eye like you have. very jealous!

[hayju01]

Thanks Tom great read.

I heard that voice only 5 days ago but mine was far more persistent and wouldnt listen to reason.........hence I await the delivery of a C9.25 tomorrow!!!

Sounds like an awesome night too, may you (we all) have many more of those.

Justin

[Astro Imp]

Hi Tom,

That is a great report, really enjoyed reading it.

You might as well give in to the voice now, it will only keep disturbing your observing, once it starts it just keeps nagging away

Enjoy your observing and don't forget we are all looking forward to another great report.

Clear skies.

[Ggeo]

I succumbed to the voices in my head and bought a 10 inch Revelation dob, even though I've got a Celestron N6 GT. Now I have to figure a way of mounting it to the Celestron mount. Got Skywatcher rings and dovetail but rings too small. Can FLO help?

All the best,

George

[tom33pr]

Thank you all very much

Apart from plenty obvious and invaluable advantages of observing with your local astro club there's a serious danger there - it makes you huuuungry for stuff

Regards,

Tom.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report.

When (not if) you give in to the voice, you will find it DOES NOT GO AWAY!!! Not even if you get sole access to the Keck or ESO VLT!

It is here to stay

[tom33pr]

Thanks for the suggestions folks!

I'm trying hard to resist my upgrade temptation as long as possible. The reason being I've only got into this all craze and I really should be using smaller scope for at least a year so I will appreciate a bigger one when I get it...

The same with eypieces. I've just bought a s/h Nagler 11mm (still haven't had a chance to use it due to the poor weather) and have this feeling that maybe it is too soon, maybe I should leave it for a while...

Anyway, the scope that I'm trying 'not to buy' is a 10" SW dob

Regards,

Tom.

[Ggeo]

You will succumb, its inevitable.

Looks like I'll be using my dob as a dob for now, until I figure a way to mount it to my celestron mount. Flo very prompt with the refund on my incompatible skywatcher stuff, thanks Martin.

[Astro Imp]

Thanks for the suggestions folks!

Anyway, the scope that I'm trying 'not to buy' is a 10" SW dob

Tom.

Go on give in, then you can try not to buy the 12 inch then the 14 inch followed by the 16 inch.

You see you will still have something to look forward to

[Domis]

With everyone hearing that same persistant voice, it surprises me that no one has figured out a way to " hack " into the Hubble or the Voyager probe.Maybe that would silence the " voices " for a little while.

[Albireo380]

It wouldn't work Domis, we need to see through the eyepiece. "Remote astronmoy" just doesn't cure aperture fevour.

I started with a 6" Newt, moved to an 8" SCT, then a 12" Dob and now a 14" Flextube Goto. I just wish I had the cash and skies for a 24" Obsession Dob on a tracking platform.

I guess aperture fevour gets us all in the end, unless the "dark arts" (imaging) gets us first. : ))

Tom

[Domis]

Albireo; I know what you mean. I visited a star party recently and had a look through a 20" trussed dob F 3.5 and OMG I want one.Googled up some mirrors and oh well,that will have to wait till the kids are out of college,mortgage is paid off and no more car and truck payments.