Little monster out of its box

[Tim]

Thought it was time to step into the light side for a while, especially with SGLXI coming up, so have let this prisoner out of his box. He's been holed up since October. If the forecast clear skies materialise tonight, I should be able to set the observatory rig going, then pop outside for a bit of a visual tour. Given the light pollution here, will stick to brighter targets, but interested to hear your suggestions for nice objects to view at this time of year.

Cheers

Tim

[Pankaj]

Thats a monster indeed. 14 inch ?

[Stu]

Very nice Tim. Try some globs, they should be pretty amazing in it. M3, M53. The Auriga clusters M36, 37 and 38 will be lovely too.

[laudropb]

All the best for your return to the light side.

[Tim]

8 hours ago, laudropb said:

All the best for your return to the light side.

Well, there's a thing, I started astronomy with both feet planted firmly in the dark side, but after spending time with a few big dobs at star parties, decided to join the party. It is almost as expensive as imaging though, so only have a couple of EP's to my name so far. Will gradually build a collection.

[Tim]

9 hours ago, Pankaj said:

Thats a monster indeed. 14 inch ?

He's an 18"

[steppenwolf]

Ooooh, big - I would like to have seen this (and looked through it!) at SGL XI but can't make it now, sadly. Lovely telescope, Tim and if you're going to the 'light' side, you may as well go in style ....

[John]

Really good looking dob Tim - I'll miss seeing it at SGL XI as well unfortunately but I'll look forward to some reports on how it does.

 

[Tim]

There is still the astigmatism issue in the primary John, but will be keen to hear how it performs for others as I have astigmatism too, which may be affecting my personal results. It is an Orion mirror, and the test shows no astigmatism to mention, but once big primary mirrors have been in situ for a while they can alter a bit I think.