Show us your set up in action at night.

[bosun21]

3 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Sounds like a great 4” you have, i wonder if it is the same scope as the Starfield 102.

It is along with the others already mentioned the Altair 102EDR is also the same scope.

[John]

13 minutes ago, IB20 said:

....Clouds have sadly turned up now, boooooo!

 

Same here. I was just starting to enjoy myself as well !!!

 

[Sunshine]

20 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Sounds like a great 4” you have, i wonder if it is the same scope as the Starfield 102.

Last year I had the pleasure of using the Starfield 102 at a star party, I was impressed with it when looking at Jupiter and some of my favorite doubles, impressed enough that I was looking at their 115mm version with hungry eyes. I’m sure your 102 is a variation of the Starfield, have fun with it, aren’t 4” refractors great!?

did I quote myself? not sure how to undo this.

Edited October 21, 2023 by Sunshine

[Sunshine]

19 minutes ago, IB20 said:

I’m fairly sure it is, and the TS 102ED, possibly even the Astrotech 102edl. One of the more knowledgeable members here will know who makes the various iterations of the scope.

Last year I had the pleasure of using the Starfield 102 at a star party, I was impressed with it when looking at Jupiter and some of my favorite doubles, impressed enough that I was looking at their 115mm version with hungry eyes. I’m sure your 102 is a variation of the Starfield, have fun with it, aren’t 4” refractors great!?

[IB20]

1 minute ago, Sunshine said:

Last year I had the pleasure of using the Starfield 102 at a star party, I was impressed with it when looking at Jupiter and some of my favorite doubles, impressed enough that I was looking at their 115mm version with hungry eyes. I’m sure your 102 is a variation of the Starfield, have fun with it, aren’t 4” refractors great!?

Yep. I have 3”, 4” and 8” scopes, find I’m reaching for the 4” more and more.

[Elp]

38 minutes ago, IB20 said:

I’m fairly sure it is, and the TS 102ED, possibly even the Astrotech 102edl. One of the more knowledgeable members here will know who makes the various iterations of the scope.

Think it's Kunming United Optics

[Vroobel]

46 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Love the Starwave 102edr more each time I use it. Just had some gorgeous views of Saturn and Jupiter with not a drop of false colour. Picked up Tethys, Rhea, Dione and Iapetus nicely. Dione and field star TYC-5809-0927-1 popping in and out of visibility too. Located Uranus nice and easily too with the 17.5mm Morpheus - every eyepiece I own works in this scope flawlessly. 
 

Clouds have sadly turned up now, boooooo!

 

I'd like to see it in pair with my Starwave 102ED F/11 which has the FPL-51 only, but it's F/11! I watched Moon and Jupiter through that with x320 magnification, unfortunately not in this year yet. ☁️🌧️☁️⛈️☁️🌧️☁️🌧️... 🙁

[WolfieGlos]

2 hours ago, John said:

Same here. I was just starting to enjoy myself as well !!!

 

Same happened here. But I decided to leave the scope out whilst watching a film…and now there’s no wind and it’s really clear to the eye, although transparency isn’t the best.

[John]

19 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

Same happened here. But I decided to leave the scope out whilst watching a film…and now there’s no wind and it’s really clear to the eye, although transparency isn’t the best.

It's been cracking here for the past half hour or so. Transit of Io + shadow across Jupiter's disk is spectacular 👍

[WolfieGlos]

14 minutes ago, John said:

It's been cracking here for the past half hour or so. Transit of Io + shadow across Jupiter's disk is spectacular 👍

Nice, and lucky you! I’ve been wanting to hook up some more planetary so gutted I’m missing seeing that tonight.

To be fair, it’s has now got a lot better here, hopefully I can finish off a 6 panel mosaic I started…last month! Currently pulling in some of the best guiding and HFR values I’ve ever seen…and it’s forecast to be clear again Sunday night. Isn’t it nice when it all finally comes together! 

[John]

4 minutes ago, WolfieGlos said:

.... a 6 panel mosaic I started…last month! Currently pulling in some of the best guiding and HFR values I’ve ever seen….

Great stuff !

I've no idea what it means but I'm sure it's great 🙂

[IB20]

Have just watched the most amazing shadow occultation of Io with the Tak 76Q. Incredible! 😵

[Stu]

5 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Have just watched the most amazing shadow occultation of Io with the Tak 76Q. Incredible! 😵

Sounds fun. How long did it take to blink out? Pretty quick but not instantaneous I guess?

[IB20]

8 minutes ago, Stu said:

Sounds fun. How long did it take to blink out? Pretty quick but not instantaneous I guess?

SkySafari had it as an instantaneous event that happened at 21:53. I watched it constantly and lost sight of the tiniest pinprick of light at 22:29. AN had it starting at 22:27 which seems way more accurate. It seemed to go really fast when it got very noticeable the light source was being smothered out, a matter of seconds.

[Stu]

17 minutes ago, IB20 said:

SkySafari had it as an instantaneous event that happened at 21:53. I watched it constantly and lost sight of the tiniest pinprick of light at 22:29. AN had it starting at 22:27 which seems way more accurate. It seemed to go really fast when it got very noticeable the light source was being smothered out, a matter of seconds.

Not sure why it should be that far out, although the difference seems to be the light travel travel time from Io at 33.27 minutes. I alway assumed SkySafari allowed for this light travel time to show it as we see it on Earth.

If you zoom in, you can see that it’s not instantaneous, starting at about 21.51 (22.24:30 ish) and finishing at 21.55:30 (22.29 ish). Hopefully this video will work.

[IB20]

14 minutes ago, Stu said:

Not sure why it should be that far out, although the difference seems to be the light travel travel time from Io at 33.27 minutes.

If you zoom in, you can see that it’s not instantaneous, starting at about 21.51 (22.24:30 ish) and finishing at 21.55:30 (22.29 ish). Hopefully this video will work.

 

Brill, yeah that makes sense, weird they would do it like that though rather than actual on Earth time. Didn’t realise the zoom in function would show it like that, that’s very neat. Cheers; everyday’s a school day on SkySafari, I probably use it to about 1% of what it can actually do. 😂

[Stu]

On 22/10/2023 at 23:18, IB20 said:

Brill, yeah that makes sense, weird they would do it like that though rather than actual on Earth time. Didn’t realise the zoom in function would show it like that, that’s very neat. Cheers; everyday’s a school day on SkySafari, I probably use it to about 1% of what it can actually do. 😂

Just goes to show we should never doubt SkySafari! Just did a little research, which of course led me back to an SGL thread where @markse68 pointed out the light time selection. With this enabled, the times are now correct 👍

 

You can also adjust the GRS longitude if the calculated position is inaccurate.

 

 

[IB20]

10 minutes ago, Stu said:

Just goes to show we should never doubt SkySafari! Just did a little research, which of course led me back to an SGL thread where @markse68 pointed out the light time selection. With this enabled, the times are now correct 👍

 

 

You can also adjust the GRS longitude if the calculated position is inaccurate.

That has fixed it. To the second accuracy now. 👍🏻

[Vroobel]

Just before the first night of the Question Mark. Unbelievable, four hours of clear sky in total till now (2.20am).  [Edit: 7h, 5:45am 😐] 

 

Edited October 25, 2023 by Vroobel

[uhb1966]

On 26/07/2016 at 13:36, Moonshane said:

Here's mine

 

a truly dark site at last!👍🏻

[Simone_DB]

A couple of pictures taken by my partner, yesterday evening. 

Edited October 30, 2023 by Simone_DB

[bosun21]

Out again tonight with the SW 150 Maksutov to capture Jupiter at a decent elevation. I grabbed 7 x 5000 frames before swapping the camera for a diagonal and eyepiece. There’s just something different and special with observing through an eyepiece. Oh well I’m getting the best of both worlds.

 

And finished for the night.

Edited November 7, 2023 by bosun21

[WolfieGlos]

Clear skies forecast all night through until 6am 

Been a while since conditions have been this good, been imaging since 6pm and long may it continue into the morning.

Still working on a large mosaic I started in September, maybe with the forecast this week I’ll finally finish it 🤞

[Swoop1]

Spent some time this evening grabbing data on M31, 33 and 45.

My big toes have turned to ice.

[JeremyS]

Mmm210 readying for action