Show us your set up in action at night.

[Stu]

Just giving my club’s Zhummel 12” dob a run out after having cleaned the mirror yesterday. Quick view of the Moon at low power so far, but looks good. Will have a try for the nova again if the high cloud clears, otherwise will try some higher power lunar views.
 

Pretty good for £150 👍, hope we can get a chance to finally use it soon.

[F15Rules]

On 17/03/2021 at 22:17, JeremyS said:

Well, technically it’s not my equipment. We gave this SW 150 dob to our younger daughter for her 8th birthday. She’s now a hospital Dr and we’ve not seen her since Christmas, so thought it would be nice to get it out to reminisce.  I never cease to be amazed at how good this instrument is.

Is that the handle at the top of the DOB mount, Jeremy?

Dave

[Saganite]

Glorious lunar views, very steady seeing !

This could be a long night.

[F15Rules]

15 minutes ago, Stu said:

Just giving my club’s Zhummel 12” dob a run out after having cleaned the mirror yesterday. Quick view of the Moon at low power so far, but looks good. Will have a try for the nova again if the high cloud clears, otherwise will try some higher power lunar views.
 

Pretty good for £150 👍, hope we can get a chance to finally use it soon.

What a difference in the before and after shots Stu!👍

That reflects really well on your cleaning skills😁

Dave

[F15Rules]

1 minute ago, Saganite said:

Glorious lunar views, very steady seeing !

This could be a long night.

A thing of utter beauty Steve..

All hail, Andromeda!!

[Saganite]

 

Thanks Dave,

It is easy to drone on about how good the AZ100 is, but on my pier it carries Andromeda so steadily at high powers, far far better than the NEQ6 ever did !

This set up[ is an absolute joy....👍

Edited March 22, 2021 by Saganite

[Barry-W-Fenner]

44 minutes ago, Stu said:

Just giving my club’s Zhummel 12” dob a run out after having cleaned the mirror yesterday. Quick view of the Moon at low power so far, but looks good. Will have a try for the nova again if the high cloud clears, otherwise will try some higher power lunar views.
 

Pretty good for £150 👍, hope we can get a chance to finally use it soon.

Great job on the mirror there Stu. Nice and clean, that scope looks a bargain for the price you paid! Hope you all get to enjoy the views it is capable of.

[F15Rules]

No joy here tonight...very hazy and hardly any stars visible ☹️.

I hope you lucky ones with clear skies have good sessions!👍😉

Dave

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Tonights viewing has been the best in ages. I can't believe how steady the moon is. Everything I point the frac at is beautifully sharp.

Very odd that the actual sky is really milky here and there's not a huge amount to see with the naked eye.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Barry-W-Fenner

[Barry-W-Fenner]

33 minutes ago, Saganite said:

Glorious lunar views, very steady seeing !

This could be a long night.

Thats exactly what I was thinking. Its so steady this evening!

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Sheesh. I'm on my 5th night of grey cloud. Before that, a week of storms. These smashing pics are driving me nuts! Have fun all. 🧐👍😄

[Sunshine]

1 hour ago, Saganite said:

Glorious lunar views, very steady seeing !

This could be a long night.

WHOA! do you need to notify nearby airports when slewing that thing around? must be a planet destroyer!

[Saganite]

15 minutes ago, Sunshine said:

WHOA! do you need to notify nearby airports when slewing that thing around? must be a planet destroyer!

It is indeed.  The views of Mars around opposition were superb, and the best I have ever seen Jupiter was through this telescope with binoviewers....

[John]

As has been said, the seeing is exceptionally steady tonight. There is quite a bit of thin hazy stuff up there as well so deep sky is no go and I'm having to star hop using the brighter constellation stars but binaries and the moon are looking superb. Sirius is about as steady as I've ever seen it.

 

[Thingo]

1 hour ago, Saganite said:

Glorious lunar views, very steady seeing !

This could be a long night.

Holy macaroni! 😍 How big is that thing?! How far can you push the magnification on planets? 

[Saganite]

10 minutes ago, Thingo said:

Holy macaroni! 😍 How big is that thing?! How far can you push the magnification on planets? 

About 2 metres long, focal length 1905mm, and the objective is so finely made it will easily take 100X per inch of aperture, but of course it is rare that the skies over my house allow such powers to be used.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Saganite

[Deadlake]

 

The moon is amazing, even a little high altitude cloud did little to obscure the view. Last time the moon looked so clear was last August 2020. Running with a 1.6 HR, gives x 497. Smooth silky views, with no shakes due to floating over the moon using the star book joystick. Once slewed (which is quite), the mount sounds like a quiet wrist watch, belt drives rule.

 

Edited March 23, 2021 by Deadlake

[Highburymark]

53 minutes ago, John said:

As has been said, the seeing is exceptionally steady tonight. There is quite a bit of thin hazy stuff up there as well so deep sky is no go and I'm having to star hop using the brighter constellation stars but binaries and the moon are looking superb. Sirius is about as steady as I've ever seen it.

 

Same excellent seeing here in London too John. Binoviewing the Moon at around 170x was very steady. 11mm Delites with 2.6x GPC. Old pic I’m afraid - didn’t take one outside this evening.

[John]

Here is another of my setup tonight. I have to hand it to my old Skytee II on the Oberwerk-type wooden tripod - I've been using up to 450x at times for lunar observing tonight in the excellent seeing conditions and my F/9 100mm refractor has been held really steadily by this mount / tripod combo. A sharp rap on the end of the scope tube results in a quick shimmy of the image which settles back to completely steady in less than a second. For a rig that is light enough for me to carry easily in one piece all around the garden, this is pretty good performance I reckon

Edited March 22, 2021 by John

[F15Rules]

I really like that wooden tripod John..is it branded or a vintage?😊

Dave

[Paz]

Here's an action shot of my human-cannonball-launcher observing the moon yesterday.

[John]

3 hours ago, F15Rules said:

I really like that wooden tripod John..is it branded or a vintage?😊

Dave

It's the same or similar to the ones marketed under the Oberwerk branding to carry big binoculars Dave. I got it from the Astroboot. It's not quite as sturdy as a Berlebach Uni but pretty close and a few kg lighter.

 

 

[Highburymark]

23 hours ago, John said:

Here is another of my setup tonight. I have to hand it to my old Skytee II on the Oberwerk-type wooden tripod - I've been using up to 450x at times for lunar observing tonight in the excellent seeing conditions and my F/9 100mm refractor has been held really steadily by this mount / tripod combo. A sharp rap on the end of the scope tube results in a quick shimmy of the image which settles back to completely steady in less than a second. For a rig that is light enough for me to carry easily in one piece all around the garden, this is pretty good performance I reckon

I agree about the Skytee - very solid piece of kit for £250-ish. Nice slo-mo controls, and the clamps are also pretty good now - I know they were poor with early models. Happily takes two scopes - 7kg on the side and 4kg on top, as long as the tripod’s robust enough. 

[John]

Went for the 130mm triplet tonight. Got a good couple of hours in before the clouds stopped play:

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Waiting for a clear patch I can tantalisingly see headed in from the Irish Sea...

The 102ED fully loaded with both an rdf and 9x50 raci finder... plus the Altair 24mm UFF which jinxed the weather the day it arrived a couple of weeks ago!

 

Edited March 24, 2021 by ScouseSpaceCadet
Jinxed