Shooting the Moon!

[Barry W]

This is what it's all about. A great evening of moon gazing (in this instance) with my son. This is one of my first and best Astrophotos. He's a wiz with the telrad.

Cheers, Bary

[The Warthog]

That's what makes it worthwhile!

[Mick.G.]

Catch em while their young!

Wish I was that age again.

Mick.G.

[TheThing]

That's a great photo! Should be photo of the week!

It's brilliant that you've got something to share together. My little one is a bit too little at the moment, but he does enjoy looking thru the scope while I stare in from the other end - see avatar! Cant wait for him to be old enough to join me!

[Tim]

Great pic! I think its sooo important that kids learn while young to see themselves in the context on the universe!

One of my boys takes a bit of interest, and has his own scope, but like his mum, he's a sleepyhead! In fact he is part way through writing me a spreadsheet of the messier objects which lists the best time of year to take their photo.

Thanks for posting that picture.

TJ

[barkis]

Well it's good to see the lad has the correct eye closed Barry :laughing2:

He must be have impressed when seeing the moon in close up. It's great if your kids show an interest.

Ron.

[Tim]

OK, now I'm pretty sure this is gonna make me sound stupid(er).

But I see the lens cover thingy is on the telrad. Is that because the pic is posed, or is it because with just one cap removed there is enough light from the moon to see the detail? I often wondered what the caps are for in the cover? I also know that looking at the moon through the 12" dob without a real dark filter hurts your eyes. So is that cap for bright objects?

Thanks

TJ ( << who doesnt do much visual..........)

[Talitha]

This is what it's all about.

Absolutely!!

Very heartwarming pic, Barry.. thanks for sharing it with us.

[Barry W]

Ryan's first response looking through the scope was WOW - You can even see the bumps! He then had me go through every single filter I had and decided that the moon looked best through the red filter. He's actually looking through the telrad to line up the moon. The cover is on the scope itself, not the telrad (I have an old lens box cut in half that I just plact over the telrad to keep dew off). I was told that the small 3" hole with the cap was there specifically for lunar viewing - it really does cut down on the brightness quite a bit.

I haven't got a solar filter yet. I've seen some filters that work the same way on Dobs, with a large solid disk to cover the main opening while there is a much smaller (and less expensive) filter to fit on a smaller hole in the cover. There's no documentation I could find on the Skywatcher that say's this cover is safe enough to do that. If anyone out there knows, I'd appreciate the feedback.

Cheers

Barry

[The Warthog]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but I have cut a piece of solar filter to fit behind the aperture mask for my Newt. I use this for the rare times I want to look at the sun. As far as I know, the solar filter is the only one that goes in front of the objective. All the others are screwed into the ep.

[Barry W]

that last query got me searching for the proper terms. I guess I'm talking about sub-aperture and off axis set up. Buy or make a smaller filter for the opening in dust cover rather than covering the whole opening. I'm just wondering if the dust cover is safe enough for that (it's pretty solid when snapped into place.

apologies, i guess I'm moving into help and advice now.

Cheers,Barry

[Wobbly Bob]

Brilliant Barry, all my mob have grown up with kids of there own and live in all corners of the Planet.

Its just great to see such enthusiasm from the little'uns