What did the postman bring?

[johninderby]

New outdoor phone. After replacing my regular phone a few months ago after being dropped onto the patio decided I needed something a bit tougher for outdoor use so bought a fairly inexpensive OUKITEL WP5 4G Pro Armored Phone off Amazon.

Just a regular smartphone with Android 10 and outdoor oriented features.but with rubber armor and shockproof and is supposed to withstand being dropped onto concrete from 1.5 metres. Also water and dust proof and can be used as an underwater camera down to 4 metres.  Has an 8000 mah battery so will keep going for ages withput a recharge. Twice as thick as a regular smartphone due to the battery but not that heavy and the rubber armor makes it easy to hold.

Works fine with the Starsense app and Synscan Pro which are the main uses for it so looks like just the job for astro use. 👍🏻

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by johninderby

[Guest]

This turned up today. A much needed piece of alignment gear... 

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Guest

[Victor Boesen]

This little thing arrived the day after it was ordered from Astroshop.eu. Hopefully the weather will cooperate the next week since I om holidays!!

First impressions are very good. Solid focuser, well made sliding dew-shield, compact and not too heavy. Only problem is I think I may not be able to reach focus with my 2" ES 24mm 82 degree eyepiece. I don't have a 2" diagonal though, but I doubt that would help much!

Very excited to try this out under the stars!!

Edited October 8, 2020 by Victor Boesen
spelling once again:)

[Highburymark]

22 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

This little thing arrived the day after it was ordered from Astroshop.eu. Hopefully the weather will cooperate the next week since I om holidays!!

First impressions are very good. Solid focuser, well made sliding dew-shield, compact and not too heavy. Only problem is I think I may not be able to reach focus with my 2" ES 24mm 82 degree eyepiece. I don't have a 2" diagonal though, but I doubt that would help much!

Very excited to try this out under the stars!!

Excellent Victor - looks beautiful!

[Victor Boesen]

6 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Excellent Victor - looks beautiful!

Thank you! I think I'll like this one a lot!

[JeremyS]

54 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

First impressions are very good. Solid focuser, well made sliding dew-shield, compact and not too heavy. Only problem is I think I may not be able to reach focus with my 2" ES 24mm 82 degree eyepiece. I don't have a 2" diagonal though, but I doubt that would help much!

Very excited to try this out under the stars!!

Nice job, Victor. And just before your holidays too! Enjoy!

[Victor Boesen]

7 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Nice job, Victor. And just before your holidays too! Enjoy!

Thanks Jeremy! I was very impressed with the delivery time. Unfortunately the weather doesn't look good for the holidays, but I definitely think I'll have a couple of opportunities to try it out;)

[JeremyS]

2 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

Thanks Jeremy! I was very impressed with the delivery time. Unfortunately the weather doesn't look good for the holidays, but I definitely think I'll have a couple of opportunities to try it out;)

I can assure you, Victor, that everyone on SGL that has read your deliberations over the last few weeks about your new scope will be WILLING YOU CLEAR SKIES for your holidays!!!

Good luck!

🙂

 

[RobertI]

Nadira observing chair, delivered next day by Rother Valley Optics. 👍

[JeremyS]

Uh oh! It's another triple packed one....

[Telescope40]

5 hours ago, RobertI said:

Nadira observing chair, delivered next day by Rother Valley Optics. 👍

Hello Rob. Nice purchase - I have the same one. Really helps to be comfy while observing. As useful as a new eyepiece. 
John 

[DaveL59]

A nosepiece barrel (thanks Johninderby) and an acetal sheet - they didn't have black in stock at this thickness but that's ok, some more nylon thumbscrews and the birthday gift from my daughter, the eyepiece bum bag. Somewhat early for the birthday but will be handy now its here 😉 

Sadly the nosepiece is a hair too large for the TAL diagonal but that's ok, will see if there's an engineering place that might re-cut the thread to match if things settle down in the near future.

[Matt61]

Canon  t ring . And a Cheshire courtesy of FLO. ( discovered my eyes are far better than a poorly aligned laser) that came w the telescope. 

[F15Rules]

On 08/10/2020 at 21:21, JeremyS said:

Nice job, Victor. And just before your holidays too! Enjoy!

All it needs now is a nice handle😁👍

Dave

Edited October 9, 2020 by F15Rules

[F15Rules]

12 hours ago, RobertI said:

Nadira observing chair, delivered next day by Rother Valley Optics. 👍

Nice Robert. I have one, it's great for using with my fixed height wooden tripod😊👍

Dave

[F15Rules]

On 30/09/2020 at 17:12, johninderby said:

Yes it’s my white light solar setup. 👍🏻

The StellaMira is not going anywhere. 😁

What's the scope count now John?😁

And do they all have handles??😂🤣

Dave

[johninderby]

8 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

What's the scope count now John?😁

And do they all have handles??😂🤣

Dave

Umm.........let me see 🤔

• 127mm f9.4 frac - handle
• 80mm f/10 frac - handle
• 100mm f/13 frac - handle
• 80mm f/15 frac - no handle
• 100mm f/15 Mak - handle
• 200mm f/12 Classical Cassegrain - handle
• 10” f/5 dob - no handle

 

 

[F15Rules]

12 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Umm.........let me see 🤔

• 127mm f9.4 frac - handle
• 80mm f/10 frac - handle
• 100mm f/13 frac - handle
• 80mm f/15 frac - no handle
• 100mm f/15 Mak - handle
• 200mm f/12 Classical Cassegrain - handle
• 10” f/5 dob - no handle

 

 

Well, I have to hand it to you John, you certainly have a handle on what scopes you have, and most of them have handles on too!  And you must be quite handy with handles to have made them all much easier to handle..😊

Dave

[johninderby]

Get a grip Dave 😁😁😁

 

[AlexK]

On 08/10/2020 at 04:15, johninderby said:

New outdoor phone. After replacing my regular phone a few months ago after being dropped onto the patio decided I needed something a bit tougher for outdoor use so bought a fairly inexpensive OUKITEL WP5 4G Pro Armored Phone off Amazon.

Just a regular smartphone with Android 10 and outdoor oriented features.but with rubber armor and shockproof and is supposed to withstand being dropped onto concrete from 1.5 metres. Also water and dust proof and can be used as an underwater camera down to 4 metres.  Has an 8000 mah battery so will keep going for ages withput a recharge. Twice as thick as a regular smartphone due to the battery but not that heavy and the rubber armor makes it easy to hold.

Works fine with the Starsense app and Synscan Pro which are the main uses for it so looks like just the job for astro use. 👍🏻

 

Great find indeed! The only issue the screen is not AMOLED, which is a must have for serious astronomy applications (to preserve your darkness adaptation).

In fact, you can protect your high-end smartphone with the OtterBox Defender case practically to the same good extent. I'm doing just that for 11+ years and had my smartphones falling and kicked badly numerous times. All 5 are still alive and in perfect condition. The additional benefit of some Otterbox Defender models is the integrated screen protector. That makes adding a red film (to preserve your darkness adaptation even more) as simple as scissor cutting a piece and dropping it between the protective screen cover and the phone screen. You can even add two films if desired - no problem.

To stay on topic: 
I've finally pulled the trigger on Ethos 3.7mm for planetary use. The 110 deg AFOV provides a large FOV at high magnification, which allows to watch a planet drifting through the field without moving the telescope. On my 12" Dob it allows to observe the drifting planet at 400x for one minute! Unpacked it yesterday, and as usual the weather has changed

 

[JeremyS]

51 minutes ago, johninderby said:

80mm f/15 frac - no handle

No handle, John? Must be very unsteady....

🙂

 

[JeremyS]

[Fozzie]

On 05/10/2020 at 12:52, Fozzie said:

A bit of new reading material...

I've had a good read of this now..  initial thoughts are really good.

for someone interested in a "how too" for a workflow on PiPP, RS6, AS3 and some basic PS then this book covers it well, sections on equipment configuration, DSLR and High frame dedicated cameras, also covered.  and to finish a section on ICE..  All bases covered.  What i think attracted me is the colour imagery, as opposed to mono.  the subtle shades of the images are really engrossing... close ups are taken with a Skymax180 and ASI 224..  

The remining sections in the book, are a lunar features guide, based on the scopes he used, 80mm triple and skymax 180..  with a colour code to the best observing instrument..  must say, don't quite agree with some, as my 4" frac has shown me some features down as needing more aperture.. 

decent read, talented imager..

ta

Fozzie  

[IB20]

A thing of beauty courtesy of @PeterCPC! Hopefully not the start of a slippery slope either 😅. Can’t wait for my next Mars session! 

[andrew s]

Somethings for a miserable day

Regards Andrew