What did the postman bring?

[Alan White]

Postie has been, sadly dropped the plastic bag wrapped book through door bending cover, it was immaculate before.

Book based in threads here and have to say a super book, old hand or not. Works of Books purchase.

[GordonD]

A birthday present from FLO.

I know that not everyone gets on with bino-viewers so we will have to see how I manage, but thought I would give them a try. Not sure yet what, if any, combinations of barlows/smaller diagonal will allow them to come to focus on the SW120ED, but the dob I have is a flex-tube so can in theory accommodate whatever in focus they need. These are primarily to try on the moon where I find floaters a big nuisance, and also if they work for me on that, then they should similarly help on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn when they come back up.

Went for the OVL version as these have twist eyepiece holders which may (?) centre the eyepieces better. They feel surprisingly well made for the price and come with a dinky little flight case.

To go with them I looked for some less expensive eyepieces as this is a bit of an experiment, and noticed the Baader Orthoscopics are very reasonable at £49 so bought a pair of 18mm ones. Smaller field of view but should have good quality optics.

 

 

[cajen2]

1 hour ago, Alan White said:

Postie has been, sadly dropped the plastic bag wrapped book through door bending cover, it was immaculate before.

Book based in threads here and have to say a super book, old hand or not. Works of Books purchase.

Storm Dunlop is about the only one we haven't had recently!

[Astro_Dad]

These offers from FLO are becoming far too tempting…Syn Scan hand controller and cable…

A luxury rather than necessity but I’ve found that if I’m going to stick with the Virtuoso mounted Heritage 150p as my grab and go (I still consider a Startravel 120 as a tempting rich field visual alternative for a more relaxing night, but thats another post for another day), then I’m going to prefer the tactile button option vs the phone, which I find increasingly frustrating on cold nights … clear skies promised for tomorrow 🙂 

 

Edited February 25, 2022 by Astro_Dad
Typo

[PeterC65]

A second ZWO 5-position manual filter wheel from FLO.

Having recently bought another three Baader colour filters for lunar and planetary observing, I now have way more than a single filter wheel can take. Previously I had the Baader Neodymium filter as a default, but I really want to have a "no filter" position, and have all of my filters to hand in the filter wheel (or else I will forget about them).

Stacking the two filter wheels gives me a "no filter" position plus space for another 8 filters (4 in each wheel) and the possibility of stacking filters, one from each wheel. I used a ZWO T2 male to male adapter to stack the two filter wheels plus some DIY black paper washes to get them aligned (it took ages to get it just right).

Has anyone else stacked filter wheel like this? It seems to be working fine judging by this evenings session.

[Nakedgun]

>Non-astro<

Produced from 1987 to 1991 this F-series lens arrived working flawlessly:

 

 

I'm not a collector, but the SMC Pentax F-series would be a nice set to have.

 

.

[Zermelo]

On 24/02/2022 at 19:26, PeterC65 said:

That's the same as saying you need bigger aperture though!

It's surprising how many different lines of reasoning seem to finish with the same conclusion.

[Zermelo]

Only very indirectly astro-related: a case for my batteries, which up until now have lived anonymously, and a little riskily, in multiple little boxes.

I'm an "a place for everything, and everything in its place" kind of guy.

[nephilim]

Another new part has arrived today for my upcoming, mainly PI centred PC build. This is the water cooler for keeping the temperature of the CPU down, a water cooler is far more effective than the standard air coolers. I do a bit of gaming & tend to overclock which can see temps skyrocket. The unit will be top mounted (horizontally) & the fans on the radiator should do a good job of exhausting heat out of the case.

Upon opening the box though, I realised they had sent me the RGB version of this cooler, I ordered the non RGB mainly because I'm not keen on a PC that resembles Blackpool illuminations, it was also £30 cheaper than the one they sent (I've only been charged for the non RGB though). After a rethink regarding RGB, I've decided to use it but only have it set to a nice dim, warm orange glow, 2 LED strips came included with the case so they can also have the same orange glow. I think it could look rather nice if it's understated & the geek in me quite likes seeing all the components in there (one side of the case is a tinted tempered glass panel ). My memory sticks arrive on Tuesday, I've gone for 4x16gb of DDR4 RAM (The new DDR 5 is absolutely extortionate atm & won't make any noticeable difference for my use) @ 3600 MHz for a total of 64gb, this should show a good improvement with speeding up PI processes compared to my current PC build which only has 16gb. 

[badhex]

After much deliberation, I finally picked up a TS Optics 50mm finder (which I'm almost 100% certain is the same as the William Optics one, but not in jazzy colours). Annoyingly one of the holes for the adjustment screws on the rings is not tapped, but have at least been able to test by shimming the gap with some soft plastic. 

Also got an SCT finder base for my C5 and a carry handle for my TS102 F7 ED. 

 

[Dave scutt]

Not the postman Mrs S just brought me some socks🤣

[Alan White]

On 25/02/2022 at 16:56, cajen2 said:

Storm Dunlop is about the only one we haven't had recently!

Give it time, It will gain traction 🤣

[cajen2]

...no doubt we'll bounce back....

[Dave scutt]

26 minutes ago, Alan White said:

Give it time, It will gain traction 🤣

Storm Dunlop arrived here

[LaurenceT]

Field flattener arrives tomorrow and Astrokraken bracket next week.

[AstroNebulee]

22 hours ago, Alan White said:

Give it time, It will gain traction 🤣

Storm Dunlop arrived in Cornwall back in early January 😉🤣

[HollyHound]

These actually arrived on Saturday, having only bought them from here on Thursday. Superbly packed and in excellent condition, thanks @SteveNickolls👍

A pair of Pentax 20x60 PCF WP Binoculars, to replace those I sold last year and have missed ever since😄

[Stu]

An exciting looking package from those Rowan boys. What could it be? 😉

[johninderby]

A handle bracket perhaps. 🤔

[Captain Scarlet]

On 27/02/2022 at 00:26, badhex said:

After much deliberation, I finally picked up a TS Optics 50mm finder (which I'm almost 100% certain is the same as the William Optics one, but not in jazzy colours). Annoyingly one of the holes for the adjustment screws on the rings is not tapped, but have at least been able to test by shimming the gap with some soft plastic. 

Also got an SCT finder base for my C5 and a carry handle for my TS102 F7 ED. 

 

Very nice. I have the APM version of the same, very up-market finders!

just an off-chance suggestion … could it be that the untapped hole is for one of those sprung bolts such as Skywatcher use in their brackets? If so it might be floating around in the packaging somewhere?

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Last week an *bay seller had a huge sale of used astro kit. My modest purchase was an immaculate Altair UFF 15mm. Surprisingly I was the sole bidder, so hopefully it's very good and a huge bargain!

Edited March 2, 2022 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Stu]

You guessed it, the new, improved Rowan AZ75, now with a bluey whiteness other powders can’t match, wait, sorry got a bit carried away there 😉.

It’s a little taller and wider plus has a few other tweaks for us to check out. Nearly there hopefully.

[badhex]

30 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Very nice. I have the APM version of the same, very up-market finders!

just an off-chance suggestion … could it be that the untapped hole is for one of those sprung bolts such as Skywatcher use in their brackets? If so it might be floating around in the packaging somewhere?

Thanks - yes it's only had one outing so far but very useful! RE the bolt holes, sadly not, although I do actually like the spring loaded design more than 3 screws. Either way, all is now well - I spoke to the vendor and they've sent me a new ring in the post which is now assembled.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Hard to believe 3 small pieces of coloured glass can cost over £2K.
I could have replaced all of my double glazing panes for that (and they need replacing 😞 )

Looking forward to trying them out but a little disappointed that for over £700 each they come in a paper envelope and not a proper box.

Steve

Edited March 2, 2022 by teoria_del_big_bang

[DaveS]

Yeah, I have a full set of their 2" filters and was shocked by the poor packaging, especially when much cheaper filters come in better packaging.