Show us your set up in action at night.

[Stu]

Phyllis is out tonight on the AZ75/Uni 28. A very quick and easy setup to put out, much lighter than the AZ100/Planet, and still very stable.

[bosun21]

Out capturing Jupiter again tonight then a little visual. Too cold for a lengthy session.

 

[John]

5 hours ago, Sunshine said:

Amazing! I see you have the starlight feathertouch focuser, I am eyeing one of those for my 128 but I would like to know if it will will work as well with the 2.7” focuser. 

On that scope I have added the Feathertouch Micro Pinion to replace the stock Takahashi pinion. This gives me a dual speed focuser. The only other Feathertouch focuser that I have used is the 2" FTF2025 fitted to my 130mm triplet refractor which is excellent. It took me a few trials and errors but I have now got the FT micro-pinion to have a very similar feel to that "full" FT unit, which was my objective. 

 

[John]

The forecast is this for the next 2 days:

So my largest refractor, the 130mm triplet, is waiting expectantly 🙂

 

[Naughty Neal]

Last two nights here have been full of snow inducing clouds but thus far nothinghas fallen.

[gorann]

6 hours ago, John said:

The forecast is this for the next 2 days:

So my largest refractor, the 130mm triplet, is waiting expectantly 🙂

 

Great forecast and green grass! I have now more that 50 cm of snow on the ground!

Edited January 17 by gorann

[DirkSteele]

Took the Takahashi FC-100 to the Baker Street Astro star party in Regents Park last night. Fab clear skies but blimey, it was chilly!

BT Nebula in the background.

[Sunshine]

4 hours ago, DirkSteele said:

Took the Takahashi FC-100 to the Baker Street Astro star party in Regents Park last night. Fab clear skies but blimey, it was chilly!

BT Nebula in the background.

Great job of capturing the famous tower nebula!

Edited January 18 by Sunshine

[Sunshine]

Great job of capturing the famous tower nebula! not sure why this copied twice.

Edited January 18 by Sunshine

[powerlord]

All ready for first proper sesh of 2024.🤩

 

[gregbwfc]

Dusted this off tonight after a long period of inactivity. 

(Not because I was going to have my first go at imaging, only to find BOTH batteries dead, oh no 🤣🤣🤣).

[F15Rules]

Not quite in action yet, but my Vixen 80mm F15 refractor is ready to go a bit later - after our Tesco home delivery shop has arrived!🤦..

I'm planning to use some or all of the eyepieces shown below, some of them quite old..

Back L - R:

Pentax 8-24mm Zoom, Takahashi Abbe ortho 12.5mm, Carton Japan 10.5mm SWA 67degree, Circle T Japan 6mm ortho (used with winged eyeguard).

Front L - R:

New to me B&L Criterion ASP 30mm (see below), 10mm no-name Plossl (possibly Tal?), unknown make vintage brass old eyepiece (looks like c 8mm or 10mm FL, c 45 deg fov and short eye relief, pretty sharp though), Baader Zoom 2.25x barlow and W.O. 1.6x barlow.

I hope all of you who can get out tonight keep warm and have great sessions!😊

* ref the 30mm Criterion above.. it cost me just £13 used, and I was just curious  about it..it's about 50 years old and in immaculate condition. Only about 40 degrees fov but late this pm in daylight a local church tower Parapet looked nice and sharp in the Vixen. It'll be nice to use a 50 year old ep in a 40+ year old scope!

Dave

Edited January 18 by F15Rules
Photos added

[powerlord]

Think that's the first time I've seen -10 maintained with no cooling!

Parky oot there

[paul mc c]

Imaging the Crab in the obsy...and we bit of visual at the side of the house.

Edited January 18 by paul mc c

[Froeng]

Telescope and observer

[Sunshine]

26 minutes ago, Froeng said:

Telescope and observer

Wow, I love that mount and tripod, very flashy! which one is it? 
 

NO, I don’t need more temptation, don’t tell me.

[Froeng]

9 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

Wow, I love that mount and tripod, very flashy! which one is it? 
 

NO, I don’t need more temptation, don’t tell me.

Haha, it is an Avalon Linear on an Avalon T-Pod 110. They can be had for very reasonable money second hand (not mine though!). A very quick set up time and quite light weight for its capacity.

[bosun21]

3 hours ago, powerlord said:

Think that's the first time I've seen -10 maintained with no cooling!

Parky oot there

Doesn't the 12v supply also have something to do with the temperature readout? Just a thought 🤔.

[F15Rules]

4 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Not quite in action yet, but my Vixen 80mm F15 refractor is ready to go a bit later - after our Tesco home delivery shop has arrived!🤦..

I'm planning to use some or all of the eyepieces shown below, some of them quite old..

Back L - R:

Pentax 8-24mm Zoom, Takahashi Abbe ortho 12.5mm, Carton Japan 10.5mm SWA 67degree, Circle T Japan 6mm ortho (used with winged eyeguard).

Front L - R:

New to me B&L Criterion ASP 30mm (see below), 10mm no-name Plossl (possibly Tal?), unknown make vintage brass old eyepiece (looks like c 8mm or 10mm FL, c 45 deg fov and short eye relief, pretty sharp though), Baader Zoom 2.25x barlow and W.O. 1.6x barlow.

I hope all of you who can get out tonight keep warm and have great sessions!😊

* ref the 30mm Criterion above.. it cost me just £13 used, and I was just curious  about it..it's about 50 years old and in immaculate condition. Only about 40 degrees fov but late this pm in daylight a local church tower Parapet looked nice and sharp in the Vixen. It'll be nice to use a 50 year old ep in a 40+ year old scope!

Dave

Well and truly frozen to the bone now, and enjoying a nice hot chocolate and water bottle, but had a nice 90 minute session with the old Vixen. 

Seeing was very good for the most part, while transparency wasn't so good. The Moon was wonderful, like an etching at times.

Targets were predictable I suppose.. The Moon, Jupiter, Rigel, Alnitak, M42 and surrounds and Sirius.

Using 80mm of aperture instead of the usual 128mm of the FS128 did highlight the large difference in object brightness, but nevertheless the contrast and sharpness of the Vixens' older achromatic objective still impressed: this size of scope was genuinely aspirational in the 1970s when I was a lad. 

At F15 focal length, the scope has very little false colour, and a nice depth of focus. I used a variety of eps as mentioned in my earlier post, and all performed well. Standouts were the Tak Abbe 12.5mm ortho barlowed to give c154x (nice split of Rigel and excellent control of light scatter on Sirius - but no Pup!), the Pentax 8-24mm zoom for its' good image quality and versatility, and thirdly one of my favourite eyepieces, the Axiom LX 23mm UWA 85 degree 2" "lump"..an 80mm F15 refractor is never going to be a widefield scope, but the Axiom 23 delivered wonderful spacewalk type views of M42 and it's surroundings. No E & F at this aperture,  but lots of wispy filaments, dark clouds and  the 4 main components of the Trap in all their glory.

That's 2 good sessions this week and it's been so good to be outside with 2 very different but both enjoyable refractors😊👍.

Dave

[WolfieGlos]

Aimed up at Auriga tonight, been running since 6.30 with no issues and even went to the pub for a few hours in that time 🍻 That’s my kind of astronomy!!! 

Although I’m not alone tonight. Even now, at 00:30, the farmers are still going in the field across the way. That’s the bright light on the horizon, a single tractor with 6 huge LED lights. Two of them were going earlier so someone had the graveyard shift! 

 

[Sunshine]

A bit hazy out but no wind, the moon and Jupiter look smashing!

[bosun21]

11 hours ago, bosun21 said:

Doesn't the 12v supply also have something to do with the temperature readout? Just a thought 🤔.

 

15 hours ago, powerlord said:

Think that's the first time I've seen -10 maintained with no cooling!

Parky oot there

I'm referring to the temperature control circuitry. As the cooling is controlled by the 12v perhaps the temperature sensing is also supplied by it.

[Vroobel]

45 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

 

I'm referring to the temperature control circuitry. As the cooling is controlled by the 12v perhaps the temperature sensing is also supplied by it.

I assume that by asking the questions you have some thoughts. It would be easier to answer them if you could expand these thoughts.  🙂

[bosun21]

45 minutes ago, Vroobel said:

I assume that by asking the questions you have some thoughts. It would be easier to answer them if you could expand these thoughts.  🙂

I just did in my previous comment.

Edited January 19 by bosun21

[IB20]

Finally got the 125mm back, but I will expand on this elsewhere in the forum.