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Marke998

By Marke998
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Marke998

Marke998

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My name's Mark and I astronomate too much. I've tried to stop but something keeps pulling me back to it.

Actually, joking apart, I probably don't astronomate enough. I am a member of the local astronomical society and I often find myself at the observatory on a Friday evening wishing away the cloudy hours in the vain hope that the skies will clear and I'll get to see some of my favourite planets and DSO's.

This year I bought a Coronado PST which gets as much use as the clouds dictate. The nice thing about the scope is that it sits on a light camera tripod that I can whip out at lightening speed so I don't miss those fleeting moments when the sun winks between the fluffy stuff that usually adorns the great British sky.

I also bought a DMK41 which I'm beginning to get to grips with although I have a way to go before I'll consider myself good with it. The attached is my latest attempt although I've not had the time to get the EQ5, the PST, veideo camera and the laptop all set up and working together for a month or so now. Just too busy unfortunately.

I have been a regular anonymous visitor to SGL to find answers to the many questions that crop up during the long and complicated journey that accompanies this excellent hobby so I thought the least I could do is join and introduce myself.

Astronomy has been a big part of my hobby set for about 5 years now and I'm lucky enough to own a range of mid-range scopes such as a MAK127, and SLT130, an SW 250 and a few mounts. A friend is making a dobby mount for my 250 that looks superb. I find lugging the tube around and setting it up on my EQ6 is a bit of a pain to say the least so the EQ6 will soon be gone and the dobby will replace it hopefully making moving the 250 around a lot easier whilst also forcing me to do more manually hunting for DSO's as I push myself to learn the night sky better.

One of the best aspects for me is that I also give talks to local groups and it turns out to be one of the most rewarding things I've ever done.

Well, I have waffled enough so I shall finish now and start working on a few tricky questions that I would like to pass your way! :-)

Cheers,

Mark.

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Mark and welcome to the forum and thanks for posting a great image. I notice that you made the comment that you, ".....look forward to delving into astronomy's greatest minds here at SGL!"  - now are you sure you want to take that risk, you might never return!  :grin:  :grin:  :grin:

Clear skies and hope you enjoy the forum.

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Marke998

Marke998

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Thanks for all the welcome messages folks, I feel at home already. Having said that, I won't be at home for much longer as I'm off to Spain for a week on Saturday. If I have room I'll squeeze a little travelscope in my luggage although I suspect I'll have to do with a mini-mak instead. It's a Celestron C70 that is a bit too dim but perhaps in the darkness of the Spanish mountains, the lack of light pollution might make it more usable. If not, it will at least be good as the spotter it is supposed to be. As an experiment I have ordered a very cheap 0.5 focal reducer partly to see if it helps improve the C70's performance at night. It cost me a whole £4.50 (the focal reducer, not the C70!) so, whilst I'm not expecting much, I won't be crying if it is the poor quality piece of inferior chinese optical nonsense that I'm certain it will be. To be honest, I haven't got a focal reducer and primarily just wanted to see what effect it will have on my PST before I commit to buying a decent quailty one assuming it will help bring out the detail of the sun.

Cheers,

Mark.

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