What did the postman bring?

[russ]

I got some of these in the post today. Stretchy Food Lids. Spiders kept crawling up the back of my 200P while stored in the shed. By the next day full of webs. Not anymore....

[Star101]

1 minute ago, russ said:

I got some of these in the post today. Stretchy Food Lids. Spiders kept crawling up the back of my 200P while stored in the shed. By the next day full of webs. Not anymore....

Thats a great idea. 👍

[garryblueboy]

Saddle and puck upgrade for the AZEQ6 

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, garryblueboy said:

Saddle and puck upgrade for the AZEQ6

Colour goes nicely with that rather lovely red Tak TOA band on the scope dew cap, Garry 🙂

[garryblueboy]

29 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Colour goes nicely with that rather lovely red Tak TOA band on the scope dew cap, Garry 🙂

That’s my thinking Jeremy I may add the rings but they are a big luxury spend 

[Adam J]

Just in the post from Ian King Imaging (IKI / FLO).

1) 11 inch losmandy bar for my Esprit 100.

2) ASTRODON 5nm SII 1.25 filter.

Not sure how I feel about the filter, you see I have had the 5nm OIII and 5nm Ha for a quite a while now. I have been slowly adding to my colection when opertunity has arisen.

I got the 5nm OIII second hand for £180 maybe 2-3 years back old style astrodon from Don himself with the cheap looking white sticker and all.

I got the 5nm Ha for £250 on a trip to the USA in 2018 just after AD got sold to OSI new branded version with the laser etching on the holder.

Finally I got the 5nm SII today to complete my set and at mind boggling price of £384 from IKI. 

So ill be frank about this, if I was starting out down the path of choosing filters right now there would be now way on earth that I could justify a simply unbelievible £1152 for three 5nm narrow band filters. Dont get me wrong, I could easily afford to...just could not justify it to myself. They are great just relitively speaking not that great. As things stand I justified this to myself on the basis that if I ever sold them I can probaby ask 70% of new (new now £1152 being) and having paid £814 for them 70% of  £1152 is £806.40. They will never be removed from the filter wheel so will likely maintain their condition.

As for £1713 for the 3nm set...well thats the same cost as my Esprit 100. Like I say the mind boggles. But admittedly it does not boggle so much as when I noticed that Chroma 5nm filters are £459 the weirdest thing about that being (well beyond the fact that they have managed to be more expensive than Astrodon) is that you only have to pay £20 more to get their 3nm filters, work that one out because I cant.

If i was starting out from scratch today then I would most likely go with ZWO Ha and SII and only buy the OIII from astrodon as it does do better on those reflections.

At any rate I now have the set and will be giving the SII a run at the next opertunity. Mainly to make sure that it really is an SII filter as a few people have recently reported getting Ha filters marked as SII filters.

Adam

 

 

 

[Adam J]

On 28/05/2020 at 16:45, iapa said:

and........

 

drum roll please maestro

 

 

and there was dust on the corrector in the 30s between removing cover and taking picture.

I think a vacuum cleaner may be next on my must have kit list

 

Lol well at least your ok about it. I have seen so many people on Cloudy nights posting threads about sending their refractor back because of a few specs of dust that you would not believe!

I sometimes think i should have gotten one of these instead of my Esprit 100.

Adam

[Chris]

2 hours ago, garryblueboy said:

Saddle and puck upgrade for the AZEQ6 

Core blimey Gary, you've got some lovely top notch astro stuff. That TOA setup looks ridiculously good!

[iapa]

13 minutes ago, Adam J said:

Lol well at least your ok about it. I have seen so many people on Cloudy nights posting threads about sending their refractor back because of a few specs of dust that you would not believe!

I sometimes think i should have gotten one of these instead of my Esprit 100.

Adam

I'm taking the covers off the 8" SCT tomorrow, now that's messy, but, flats sort most it just now while prepping for Autumn, no not overly bothered right now - just want to get OAG on this year and redo spacing for the camera and filter wheel.

As far as I am concerned dirt and dust are environment and you deal with it.

[iapa]

Not brand new, but a machine with dual 6 core XEONs and 48GByte RAM.

Knocks spots of the current 2014 iMac

"Suit you sir"

This should help PixInsight get through the processing....

 

 

[garryblueboy]

50 minutes ago, Lockie said:

Core blimey Gary, you've got some lovely top notch astro stuff. That TOA setup looks ridiculously good!

Thanks Chris yes it’s a long way from my early days but the journey has been fun and I’ve been very lucky 🍀 in my purchases and I was shocked that the Primaluce are the same cost as the ADM but look so much more yummmmmmy 

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Postie can't take credit for this one. The lovely wife picked these up for me. Some beautiful pictures in here with a description on the back of each card. I will have a look at these while waiting for darkness to arrive!

[LukeSkywatcher]

6 hours ago, russ said:

I got some of these in the post today. Stretchy Food Lids. Spiders kept crawling up the back of my 200P while stored in the shed. By the next day full of webs. Not anymore....

I'd be more concerned about all the veggies down your scope.

[Guest]

I already had Making Every Photon Count but after the excellent talk last week by Steve I ordered this one from FLO which just arrived. 

[russ]

14 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

I'd be more concerned about all the veggies down your scope.

Darn, i should have taken those out first. 

[RT65CB-SWL]

A budget 2"-1.25" filter reducer/adapter; (via 365astronomy); https://www.365astronomy.com/365Astronomy-2-to-1.25-Filter-Adapter.html so I can use 1.25" filters (and/or Astro-Engineering 1.6x magni-max and 0.5x focal reducer) with my 2" SkyWatcher 28mm Apex e/p.

Edited May 30, 2020 by Philip R

[L8-Nite]

All good things come to those who wait.

Today I received a vintage illuminator for our Nikon Stereo Microscope. Been looking for one made for our model for a couple of years now.

[iapa]

On 28/05/2020 at 20:46, Star101 said:

As I already have Hyperstar, I have decided for my 6th decade birthday in August I will go the opposite direction. I've ordered the GSO 16" RC Truss. Expected 21 June...Well, anytime after the 10th June....But as you say...Best time as it gives time to balance, experiment and get to know the kit.

At f/2 you will no excuse for not enough data...And will be churning out images faster than you can say Llanfairpwll-gwyngyllgogerychwyrndrob-wllllantysiliogogogoch.

Enjoy

Lol

mine was last year and retirement tomorrow 

 

[iapa]

On 29/05/2020 at 17:59, iapa said:

I'm taking the covers off the 8" SCT tomorrow, now that's messy,

[RT65CB-SWL]

On 28/05/2020 at 20:46, Star101 said:

...At f/2 you will no excuse for not enough data...And will be churning out images faster than you can say Llanfairpwll-gwyngyllgogerychwyrndrob-wllllantysiliogogogoch.

Enjoy

...or this place: Taumatawhakatangi­hangakoauauotamatea­turipukakapikimaunga­horonukupokaiwhen­uakitanatahu, North Island, New Zealand 🇳🇿

I'll grab my floral shirts & shorts, ukulele's and yo-yo's on the way out! 

[LukeSkywatcher]

1 hour ago, iapa said:

Is that a scratch?. Looks a bit dirty. Probably needs a clean

[ALZASCOPE]

On 29/05/2020 at 14:48, garryblueboy said:

Saddle and puck upgrade for the AZEQ6 

Nice bit of kit there Gary credit to you

[iapa]

13 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Is that a scratch?. Looks a bit dirty. Probably needs a clean

I did say it was messY 😃

no scratch though 

[Ags]

16 hours ago, iapa said:

Looks battle-scarred from its battles with faint nebulae 🙂

It's not all bad, I would be happy to have that gunk on the corrector plate which you can wipe down with cleaning fluid, rather than on the fragile mirror behind it!

Edited May 31, 2020 by Ags

[iapa]

Edited June 1, 2020 by iapa