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Week Commencing 15th April

Astro_Baby

By Astro_Baby
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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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I am solo this week so I cant lug a scope but if anyone is going out happy to bring some nice glass if anyone wants to see what Pentax XWs, Explore Scientific or BGOs will do for your scope .........

Dont even think about what they do to your wallet :)

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Leebert

Leebert

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Sounds good. Just need to book the clear skies!

On a related note, thanks for your post not too long ago on the Hubble Optics star. I got one recently and it's made collimation nice and easy :)

One other thing... What grease did you use in your super tuned HEQ5 as I'm planning on doing mine over summer at some point.

Many thanks :)

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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Leebert....the grease I use is TF2 which is a Teflon/Lithium mix and is available from any decent bike shop. Opnions on grease are very split. Superlub is also rated as a good grease for mounts. I have only seen it in RS Components but I imagine there are other sources of it. You dnt need much. A smal tub of TF2 will do two rebuilds easily.

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Leebert

Leebert

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A good back garden session last night. No Lyrid meteors spotted but great views of the Moon, ISS and Saturn. Also an image of M101 which isn't looking too bad despite the bright Moon.

Anyone else go out meteor spotting?

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Woking

Woking

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A good back garden session last night. No Lyrid meteors spotted but great views of the Moon, ISS and Saturn. Also an image of M101 which isn't looking too bad despite the bright Moon.

Anyone else go out meteor spotting?

What were the conditions like? I had a quick look up on my way back home last night and although clear the stars were twinkling like mad. It had dropped to 0c after the nice warm day so guess the atmosphere was a little shaky.

The half moon did look big and bright, looked perfect for touring the terminator.

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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Up at RC it was clear bu the moon was washing deep sky stuff out. Atmos was very wobbly though. Jupiter and Saturn looked like they were under running water. Saturn seemed to suffer less to the East than Jupiter to the West.

Moon was excellent. A good target for the night esecially for me to test lateral color issues with two eyepieces. The deep sky targets were too washed out for me to test.

I was testing a Pentax XW30 against and Explore Scientific 30 82'.......round 1 to the Pentax by a nose but the ES is a mighy fine bit lf glass. If Steve is up I can test against his Nagler as well. From memory I think The Nag would beat the ES but. Dont think there would be a lot in it. the Nag from memory may have slightley better contrast. But its not really fair to test an eyepiece against a memory and on a different night.

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Astro_Baby

Astro_Baby

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Well I think 4.5 might thin em out Steve :) Personally I think anyone buying faster than that needs their bumps felt anyway (controversial I know). Seriously with super large dobs you probably HAVE to go fast or the scope would be too long to manage. But the biggest mass of us dont have scopes faster than F5. I find F5 can push some EPs into bad stuff.

Last night conditions just werent favourable for a test. With that said on the Moon the Pentax just showed a slightly better contrast and was more adept at showing the more subtle colors.

In terms of FOV both could get the Pleiades in but the ES scored on having some blank space around them to frame them nicely - same with the double cluster.

I bought the XW when I realised they were going out of production in the 2" format and was just in time to bag the last one on the shelf at FLO and quite probably the last one on the shelf anywhere.

The conrtrast differences last night were VERY slight - I really doubt theres too much in it.

From memory Steve your Nagler may have had a more comfy eye relief and it also seemed to present a slightly more contrasted image. Of course I never checked whether the Nag would show the ring of fire and bad lateral color on bright objects.

If you up for it it would be interesting to test and write the rsults up for folks umming and ahhing over what to buy. I was planning to do a test of budget widefields as well but the skies have been so duff I had to send the EPs back untested as I ran out of time.

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jam1e1

jam1e1

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managed back garden last night, as mel says was like running water on planets! (I thought it was heat from surrounding houses!) saw ISS which was great, moon , Saturn, some doubles, m13, Panstarrs, 1 meteor travelling north, sombrero galaxy although moon washed DSOs out. Loads of satellites passing seemed to see one every couple of mins. Mel wouldn't mind having a look at your new collection at some point :) welcome to try out with Paracorr if required.

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Leebert

Leebert

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What were the conditions like? I had a quick look up on my way back home last night and although clear the stars were twinkling like mad. It had dropped to 0c after the nice warm day so guess the atmosphere was a little shaky.

The half moon did look big and bright, looked perfect for touring the terminator.

As has been said, it was a bit wobbly. Still good to get out though.

It'd be good to do some some ep testing at RC at some time. One of the best nights I had at RC was when we all pointed our scopes at the same object and swapped views. It was great to check out how views look in other types and sizes of scope and the reason why I now own a 10" dob!

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