Testing out the Dob - mostly inclined towards clusters

[Jasonb]

Excellent report! I was having a look at a few cluster last night too, including Rosette and Christmas Tree, and also couldn't see any Nebulosity, but I also have not great skies, and only a 150 Newtonian!

[Ratlet]

3 hours ago, apaulo said:

I understand now. The varnished plywood base would look smart. good luck with the project, it would be good to see the finished mount.

Cheers chief.  Hopefully it will look smart.  For some reason the varnished plywood when done right always looks like a sort of high quality 90's aesthetic.

 

I like sounding out my ideas on here as there is a lot of more experienced people who can spot the obvious problems I miss 😂

Edited March 14, 2023 by Ratlet

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

You might find this of interest https://www.blocklayer.com/protractor-printeng

and possibly this, if you have the time

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/63081-degree-circles/page-2

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by Mr H in Yorkshire

[Ratlet]

1 hour ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

You might find this of interest https://www.blocklayer.com/protractor-printeng

and possibly this, if you have the time

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/63081-degree-circles/page-2

 

Perfect.  I used the block layer to do the azimuth setting circle.  I at least confirmed that it doesn't move, unfortunately the A4 sized circle is too small. 

That's a lot of forum posts on setting circles on cloudy nights!  I missed that one somehow.  I'll have a look through that for inspiration.  I like the look of some of the edge fastened ones.  They'll be a lot easier to print at least.  On the plus side I managed to find Bode's Nebula and a nice cluster near polaris that looked like a miniature Cassiopeia with more stars.   It's quite nice panning about with the Dob.

[Mr H in Yorkshire]

19 hours ago, Ratlet said:

It's quite nice panning about with the Dob

That's one reason, taken to a another level, that I generally go binocular roaming, 25 x 100 field of view is great, things like the Plieades and the bigger globular clusters are just wonderful.

[Ratlet]

3 hours ago, Mr H in Yorkshire said:

That's one reason, taken to a another level, that I generally go binocular roaming, 25 x 100 field of view is great, things like the Plieades and the bigger globular clusters are just wonderful.

It's brilliant isn't it?  I love the fact you can look at one object at different magnifications and get completely different experience of it.  Plieades is one of my favourites with the 130pds at x20.  With my constellation binos it turns into a mini big dipper at X2, but once you use them and look again without them your brain seems to hang on to the detail and it always feels you can see a bit more.

Next clear night I might break it out again and have a look at it with the 30mm that came with the dob for x22 but a 3.2° FOV.

They finally got the Nadira back in stock so all going well when I finish my hitch in 2 weeks I'll be observing in some real comfort.