Free Practical Astronomy Show - now March 2022

[paulastro]

Some nice scopes on show - plenty to keep any refractor enthusiast happy 11😊

[Alan White]

The show was really good and even better all being free, which frankly is amazing these days.

It was great to catch up with Team Rowan and talk mounts as well as seeing the motorised AZ100 and New AZ75 elecricals in action too.

Lots of great kit for sale, some wonderful scopes to lust after and just see lots of kit in the flesh.

I attended the talk by SolarScope about Etalons that was interesting, glad that I did.

 The highlight though was meeting  Steve @Saganite and Dave @F15Rules and having a good chat, pleasure to meet you in the flesh chaps.

I did get introduced to @Peter Drew by Ed @NGC 1502 with whom I drive up and attended the show.

Sad that I missed other SGLers especially @paulastro, next time I hope

Thanks to the show organisers and sponsors, it was worth the wait between the first and this the second one, please keep them going.

No pictures from me, I was to excited looking at kit and chatting, my two favourite things.

[icpn]

I thought the show was interesting as it pretty much totally focused on imaging. There was very little there for the visual astronomer. An indication unfortunately of the way our hobby is going.

[tomato]

Well, there were a lot binos on display and the superbly engineered Rowan mounts are aimed at visual astronomers? The well engineered scope  trolleys on display are also aimed primarily at big Dob owners. Robin in his talk on PA spent some time on Drift Alignment which I know from experience is a very accurate visual method of PA, so all in all I don't think it was exclusively an imager's show.

Peter Shah seemed to be receiving quite a bit of interest in a remote imaging facility, so maybe in 5 years time the imagers will all be glued to a laptop screen in the house. 

Having said that, another 3 nights this week predicted to be clear in my locality, with the moon getting out of the way, awesome...

[F15Rules]

19 hours ago, tomato said:

Well, there were a lot binos on display and the superbly engineered Rowan mounts are aimed at visual astronomers? The well engineered scope  trolleys on display are also aimed primarily at big Dob owners.

Fair comment. There were also some mouthwatering big refractors such as AP Starfire, APM 152 F8, which appeal to both visual and imaging fans. I suspect that a good few observers, like me, just enjoyed looking at scopes we aren't ever likely to look through. (being a proud 128mm Tak owner though, I'm not complaining!

 

19 hours ago, tomato said:

maybe in 5 years time the imagers will all be glued to a laptop screen in the house. 

I find that prospect to be totally depressing!😱🥴

Fortunately, I also don't believe it will be the case..🤭😊👍

Dave

[Alan White]

The imagers will be outside visual observing why the automated kit runs in 5 years if not now 😉

Some of those scopes were very nice indeed,
the two 150mm ones you mentaion @F15Rules are the very same ones I drooled over too.
Sorry about the dribble on the floor 🤣

Edited March 22, 2022 by Alan White
typos, typos, typos

[tomato]

Yes, I won’t be joining the fully remote brigade, I like getting one over the UK weather every now and again, and I like the hands on aspect too much.

[bottletopburly]

It was nice to finally meet @Yoddha and Jst200 (jim ) apt forum member , from APT and  having talked many times on Apt forum such a nice guy and enthusiastic about his product and a glimpse of features to come , met local lad YouTuber Ruzz nice chap and Hogarth in the queue another YouTuber , met up with some east midland stargazers forum members so wasn’t a bad day at all , only bought a cheblinsk meteorite for my lad .

[Yoddha]

I was very happy to meet in person so many friends after so much waiting!  Great thanks to all how made this show possible! 👏

[wookie1965]

Did rainbow astro have a stall very intrigued to see those mounts. 

[garryblueboy]

Couldn’t make it this year was looking forward to it but family commitments made it not possible this year so hopefully next year 

[chaxastro]

I didn't make it to this one either, found this on YouTube though:

 Practical Astronomy Show 2022 

Regards,

Chaxastro

"Humour is reason gone mad" Grouch Marx

[F15Rules]

Here are several short videos I recorded at the show..the sharp eyed among you might spot the great Mr Es Reid as he flashed past us!😂..

Dave

[JeremyS]

11 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Here are several short videos I recorded at the show..the sharp eyed among you might spot the great Mr Es Reid as he flashed past us!😂..

Dave

Did you get any shots of the handle stand, Dave?

[F15Rules]

11 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Did you get any shots of the handle stand, Dave?

No handle stand, Jeremy..and not a Tak in sight anywhere either😓..

[RobertI]

Nice to see these videos and pics as I was sad not to be able to make it at the last minute. It’s really great to see astro retailers thriving and an abundance of mouth watering products. Could have been an expensive trip!!