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Hello from Bristol, UK

pandoraefretum

By pandoraefretum
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pandoraefretum

pandoraefretum

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Greetings & Hello! Is there anyone here from Bristol, UK?

I would like to meet any local Amateurs, and setup my new NexStar 6se out of town so I can actually see something worthwhile in the DSO department!
I can find my way around the Night Sky, as I have been into Astronomy since I was a kid.

Cheers, Roland
 

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John

John

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Hi Roland and welcome to the forum :smiley:

I'm a member of Bristol Astronomical Society. We meet weekly from October through to July and have regular observing / outreach sessions at our observatory just outside Bristol. Here is the website:

http://www.bristolastrosoc.org.uk/www/

Personally I'm based at Portishead so not too far away. At least a couple of members of BAS have the same scope that you do.

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DeepSkyBagger

DeepSkyBagger

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10 hours ago, John said:

Hi Roland and welcome to the forum :smiley:

I'm a member of Bristol Astronomical Society. We meet weekly from October through to July and have regular observing / outreach sessions at our observatory just outside Bristol. Here is the website:

http://www.bristolastrosoc.org.uk/www/

Personally I'm based at Portishead so not too far away. At least a couple of members of BAS have the same scope that you do.

Hi John,

I  just had a look at the BAS website. Whoever looks after it needs to have a look at the sky map shown as 'the whole sky from Bristol at 9pm on 7 April'.

See http://www.bristolastrosoc.org.uk/www/pages/home/the-sky-this-month.php

I get that it's the wrong date because it's a pain to keep these things current, but unless Bristol has somehow located to the southern hemisphere, there's no way the sky can ever look like that!

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pandoraefretum

pandoraefretum

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Thanks for all the friendly Hellos

I forgot to mention my new NexStar 6se is the 6th telescope I have owned... I'm not a newbie! Though I have taken a year or 2 off backyard observing.
I've been to the Failand observatory (a 16" if I recall) years ago to look at Mars ; then can back home to find my 10" Newtonian outperformed it.
Seriously, if anyone wants to get out of Town to look at deep sky objects, I'm ready with my new 6se (as soon as the power source arrives from Amazon)

I'm clueless about a good location, but anywhere South of the City should be good, surely?

I also upgraded the Red Dot Finder to the pro version... the one that came with the scope was not able to centre the dot on the star

Cheerio, and happy observing everyone !

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John

John

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Failand had a 1950's 12" newtonian and a JMI NGT 18" newtonian. The 18" is still there but the 12" is in the process of being replaced with an up to date 14" or 16" SCT.

I'll mention the star chart on the website to the person that keeps it up dated.

Where I observe mostly (Portishead) the skies are quite good as long as you avoid the NE and SE horizons where the Bristol and Newport/Cardiff "glows" show. I have managed to see the Horsehead Nebula from my back yard with my 12" dob so it can get quite dark and transparent.

Hope you find some dark skies with your 6" SCT.

 

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pandoraefretum

pandoraefretum

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The latest on my 6se is I have discovered 3-4 nasty aggressive-looking blemishes on my Secondary...
Very odd, but Celestron has seen them, and suggest I get a replacement OTA

Very hard to tell if they degrade the image... but a little too much on a new scope for me to let it go

I replaced the finderscope with the pro version... and am prepared to let that go, but not a blemished secondary 

Blemish on secondary

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pandoraefretum

pandoraefretum

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Yes, I was surprised to see 3 marks on the secondary, but luckily, I finally contacted the importers (there are 2 distributors in the UK)
And yes, they have agreed to swap out the OTA.... I may as well start pristine as John puts it
Anyway, I gave it a whirl tonight and goodness me, GOTO M57, M13, M92 (hadn't seen that one in ages) M71, M56... I had to slow down !! Is this cheating or what??

Some lovely resolved brighter stars in M13, and my Radians 14mm working a treat here.
I compared 2 scopes on M57 ; comparable views but the Nxt 6se SCT has the edge over my OMC 140 5.5" Maksutov when viewing M13
I am also a fan of the shorter focal ratio of the SCT over the Mak... with a 45 deg diagonal I can focus on objects in my garden... the OMC cannot focus closeup at all
For portability, no contest, the 6se weighs half the OMC Mak, which is on a GEM +Couterweight... in fact the 6se can be moved tripod and all... the OMC has to be dismantled 

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pandoraefretum

pandoraefretum

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Indeed John, a lovely night

I went back outside (it's 2 am) and spotted Uranus in my 10x50 binos... 
Algol bright and blue
Capella bright white-yellow-white
Spotted M33 in binos (hard)
Three clusters in Auriga very easy in binos (brings back childhood memories looking at these 3)

Without my glasses (slightly short sighted)  I can only see down to Magnitude 4.. with my 10x50s binos I can focus perfectly and do Mag 9

 

 

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pandoraefretum

pandoraefretum

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Celestron Global Ltd kindly swapped out my NXS 6se ; delivered 1 hour ago ; it checks out fine.
New scope has much cleaner optics. Though not quite perfect, certainly acceptable.

I looked at Mars, a few days ago, & did some drawings (it's was only 17" apparent diameter and 11 deg above horizon) but comfortably placed between a garage and a tree!
I have written about my new Celestron 6se in a little more detail on Cloudy Nights
https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/632777-just-got-a-new-nexstar-6se/ 

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robbymain

robbymain

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Hi Roland from another new SGLer in Bristol! I'm also interested in meeting like minded gazers and finding good dark sky sites nearby - have got a few likely spots East of the city in mind but not visited them yet.

Keeping things simple with a Heritage 130P on a Porta 2 at the moment but have owned a few RA drive Newts in the past.

Have you been to any BAS Friday night meetings yet?

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