What did the postman bring?

[Frank the Troll]

Another Camera, just a little D3000 Was so use to having 2 or more cameras from my 35mm days, it just didnt feel right just having the one, they will be set up with different lenses & ISO, feel much better now  

[Ags]

It's mega giant huge big!

Finally my own giant SCT!

Edited March 6, 2020 by Ags

[Ags]

...and the sky gods blessed me with half an hour of clear skies so I got to try out the C6 tonight. Given a very gloomy weather forecast, there was no forward planning, so the scope went out and immediately into action uncooled. I pointed it at Luna and tried out my 24mm (60x), 10mm (150x) and 6.7mm (225x). The AZ-GTi copes OK with the weight and bulk of the C6, with vibrations damping in 1 mississipi. Not as solid as with my Mak 102, but what did I expect? It is a bit disappointing the RDF would not align with the scope - not sure how I'll fix that. Focusing was good - no image shift.

The Moon was stunning at 60x, but too bright, so I switched up to a dimmer view at 150x. The view at 150x was noticeably sharper and more detailed than the Skymax 102 - it felt quite thrilling actually. Changing up to 225x was never going to be good with an uncooled scope and broken cloud blowing through, but I gave it a try. The tube was held steady enough by the mount, and in the moments of good seeing detail was sharp - in the Skymax 102 this level of magnification shows softness (like the image has been passed through a mathematical smoothing function).

Cloud was getting thicker so I slewed to a star to check star shapes. With an unalignable finder and fast-moving gaps in the cloud I couldn't get a bright star in view, but the stars I did find seemed nicely resolved and point-like - nothing like the hairy Newtonian snowflakes produced by my now re-homed 150PDS.

Edited March 6, 2020 by Ags

[Gina]

Sounds good

[LordLoki]

On 05/03/2020 at 10:43, gorann said:

Looks very exciting! What ZWO camera did you buy - probably one that they had in stock in Europe. I ordered an ASI2600 from Pierro Astro in France a month ago but have no idea when it may arrive.... Has anyone any information about to what extent ZWO is up and running?

I ordered the 1600mm and had a quick request to flo about shipment time. I was lucky they just had sent a shipment with the 1600. Hope yours arrives soon. for me it's raining since I got mine

[DaveS]

A second 28" 4k monitor for the control room, plus refurbished Lenovo laptop, 12V 50W PSU for the obsy and some shelf brackets. Running two independent rigs is getting expensive, lol

[TerryMcK]

I've just ordered a replacement 25/30 amp power supply for the astro rig. I noticed the voltmeter on the original one had a bit of a hunting wobble where it appeared to go from 12 volts to 14 volts then stabilised back to 13.8. I put a voltmeter on the output and sure enough it was varying in voltage over a few seconds. Not very good for a "stabilised" power supply. I've had it for years and it was originally used to power my amateur radio equipment until I replaced it with a switched mode PSU in 2015. I couldn't be bothered opening it up to find whatever dodgy component is on its way out.

So I've bought another switched mode jobby for the imaging rig from Nevada Radio https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007CHAQ44 

It's got a couple of terminals on the back with integral sockets that will also take 4mm banana plugs that my flats generator has.

Edited March 7, 2020 by TerryMcK

[Ships and Stars]

SQM-L meter arrived this morning from FLO, excellent service as always.

Besides aperture fever, I also have SQM fever, so this is long overdue and I can see how dark my 'dark' sites really are on various nights and check it against the LP Map.

My bathroom is 21.84 with the door closed, but unfortunately the view of the sky is somewhat restricted. 

Hoping to try it out at four different sites soon before summer arrives and enter my data on the Globe at Night website.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

A replacement tent. The Hi-Gear Enigma Elite 5. 4000mm HH, roomy for two, easy to pitch and cheap! 

https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/15908694/hi-gear-enigma-elite-5-tent-15908694

To be tested in the Peaks next weekend...

 

 

[wookie1965]

31 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

A replacement tent. The Hi-Gear Enigma Elite 5. 4000mm HH, roomy for two, easy to pitch and cheap! 

https://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/15908694/hi-gear-enigma-elite-5-tent-15908694

To be tested in the Peaks next weekend...

 

 

Very nice I've got a Berghaus air 6 really easy to put up 6000 HH

[Sunshine]

A TeleVue Powermate, which can be quite a stack when using long eyepieces, yikes! I’ll need a ladder to use my refractor.

Edited March 11, 2020 by Sunshine

[Barry-W-Fenner]

On 10/03/2020 at 12:39, Ships and Stars said:

SQM-L meter arrived this morning from FLO, excellent service as always.

Besides aperture fever, I also have SQM fever, so this is long overdue and I can see how dark my 'dark' sites really are on various nights and check it against the LP Map.

My bathroom is 21.84 with the door closed, but unfortunately the view of the sky is somewhat restricted. 

Hoping to try it out at four different sites soon before summer arrives and enter my data on the Globe at Night website.

Hi SAS

Interesting piece of kit. Sorry for the daft question but I assume the higher the reading the better the sky? Or is it the lower the reading?

It will be interesting to know what your low bortle locations read! Assuming the reader works to a higher number for better sky, I doubt my bortle 7 sky will get into double figures 😞

 

Baz

[wookie1965]

Just acquired this second hand looking forward to trying it out.

[Frank the Troll]

A little zoom, Nikon 28-100mm f/3.5-5.6

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

A new head lamp. A step above my usual fiver jobs at £12.99 from Amazon. They feel quite sturdy and more than bright enough. Tested on my teen daughter after school, she was properly blinded and disorientated.

Separate switches for red and white so no upsetting people at astro camps. Unless slightly inebriated and pressing the wrong switch obvs!

 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2020 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Ships and Stars]

On 12/03/2020 at 08:39, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Hi SAS

Interesting piece of kit. Sorry for the daft question but I assume the higher the reading the better the sky? Or is it the lower the reading?

It will be interesting to know what your low bortle locations read! Assuming the reader works to a higher number for better sky, I doubt my bortle 7 sky will get into double figures 😞

 

Baz

Ah yes, the higher the number the darker. It's around 19.5 at home before the moon gets too high, but hoping that breaks 20.00 under a new moon with excellent conditions.

I've read a true 'dark site' is above 21.5 and 22.00 is pretty much close to perfect. I'd expect a really bright urban area to have around 16.5-17.5 SQM, but haven't tried that out yet!

These units have +/- 0.10 SQM margin of error, so a 21.8 could registers as a 21.7 or 21.9, but probably splitting hairs at this point. The same site can also have different readings depending on atmospheric conditions and of course, any cloud cover will skew readings.

Looking forward to find out how dark some of my sites are, I suspect they will be marginally brighter than the LP map suggests, given the relentless march of development and the ubiquity of LED lighting these days, but will post results! 

[DaveS]

Under really dark skies the milky way can (Supposedly) significantly lower the SQI.

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

An Opticron binocular tripod bracket and Neewar tripod ball head.

Combined with a Skywatcher aluminium tripod I had lying around they hold 10 x 50 binos fine.

[Prador]

Nice avatar Scouse Space Cadet!

Do you still log in or have you 'won' the game? 🤣

Apologies for veering off topic above but I did receive a lovely RDF from Steve Clay. Many thanks for a very nice item 👍

Edited March 13, 2020 by Prador
I did get something today honest :)

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

45 minutes ago, Prador said:

Nice avatar Scouse Space Cadet!

Do you still log in or have you 'won' the game? 🤣

Apologies for veering off topic above but I did receive a lovely RDF from Steve Clay. Many thanks for a very nice item 👍

I won the game several years ago before free to play. Gave away 20 billion isk and 5 billion in ships. :)

https://zkillboard.com/character/248885645/

The avatar was my cloaky alt Willy.

https://zkillboard.com/character/573753970/

 

 

[Ags]

I want more things!

[DeepSkyMan]

Starbase makes landfall in Slamannan Scotland

Been after one of these for a while now.  Sometimes you can get taken in by marketing hype, especially in the Astro market place, but this baby lives up to all the hype and then some.  Just need to sort out an adapter plate for the Sphinx now😀

 

PS:  Special thanks to Mark for ending my search.
 

 

[Captain Scarlet]

9 hours ago, DaveS said:

Under really dark skies the milky way can (Supposedly) significantly lower the SQI.

I can attest to this. My place in SW Ireland is nominally 21.8, I measured 22.02 last Easter one night, but with the MW overhead it’s easily a whole magnitude brighter.

[Stu]

I've had a couple of these in the past, but I seem to be having a strong desire to collect and compare different 4" fracs currently, so this little Russian beauty has arrived. It is an original 100r from 1995 (EDIT see comments below, probably 2nd generation from a bit later..  ) with the lovely purple coatings on the optics which are in excellent condition.

I don't have the TAL diagonal currently but have managed to get my Tak prism to fit securely, just need to check that it focuses ok. Need the cloud to shift for that.

I now have the Genesis at f5, Tak at f7.4, FL102S at f8.8 and the TAL at f10, hopefully at some point I will get round to having some fun comparing them all!

[John]

Ah, the TAL 100 R - brings back memories for me - I bought a new one back in 1999

The earliest ones had metal dew shields though. I think yours is a 2nd generation one perhaps Stu ?