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Nebula's Astronomy Den

Discussion in 'Observing Celestial Objects' started by Nebula, Feb 2, 2018.

Nebula's Astronomy Den

Started by Nebula on Feb 2, 2018 at 8:12 PM

567 Replies 74263 Views 5 Likes

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  1. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    @Dave In Vermont

    Doing my 'Happy Dance!'

    Great news, Nebs! Thank you!

    No problems, there will be more things to say about the Magenta Mars filter in the future.

    I don't know what's wrong with Stellarium, my old version seems like it's in working order.. I don't know what to respond about your theory for Mars :confused: really I am clueless, i just hope the storm will stop so I can sketch the albedos. :D

    I can say hello to my cat in Quebec for you if you want :D
     
  2. Dave In Vermont

    Dave In Vermont Well-Known Member

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    Your Stellarium is likely just fine, Nebs. Alex and I were collaberating on some inside 'stuff' from problems some people were having. Don't be concerned. It nice to see he's been hanging around here lately. Considering all the stuff he's got to contend with, it's good he's relaxing (for Alex) here. I'm doing what I can to make him feel quite welcome! :)

    The Cat: Yes, Neb's! Give him a rub whith your faceial-cheek down both sides of his cheeks & whiskers for me - and you. This tells a Cat he's in your pride and you're in his. It's an affectionate gesture he'll fully understand!

    Dave - speaks Cat fluently! (Don't start, Mak!)
     
  3. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    The Cat: Yes, Neb's! Give him a rub whith your faceial-cheek down both sides of his cheeks & whiskers for me - and you. This tells a Cat he's in your pride and you're in his. It's an affectionate gesture he'll fully understand!

    hehehe ok Ill do that.

    Look at this interesting video, you see the dominant and the submitted one to the left. You told me once to look at the cat then close my eyes and look away. I find it similar here, quite a drama.

    https://imgur.com/gallery/Sz6Z0Jt
     
  4. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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  5. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    I was impressed by that little jewel-type box, too, Neb. I noticed a little stray light at times using it in my scope (same with the Orion) but it wasn't too distracting. It does look like cranberry, and it's lighter in color and softer in hue than the Orion filter.
     
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  6. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    No, you are not unexperienced at all, Neb. You are thoughtful about your purchases and practical; two very good attributes!
    ;)
     
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  7. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    I was impressed by that little jewel-type box, too, Neb. I noticed a little stray light at times using it in my scope (same with the Orion) but it wasn't too distracting. It does look like cranberry, and it's lighter in color and softer in hue than the Orion filter.

    With most of my filters I can see stray light, I don't think I have a perfect filter but the eyepiece plays a role too probably. My Svbony has some issues with filters with strange light reflexion while other eyepieces no problems.

    No, you are not unexperienced at all, Neb. You are thoughtful about your purchases and practical; two very good attributes!

    Thank you @orion 25, I try hard to be reasonable, not to waste hard earned money. I am glad you see that from me, that's a great compliment.

    thanks.
     
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  8. Dave In Vermont

    Dave In Vermont Well-Known Member

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    My sentiments as well.
     
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  9. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    The filters which I have the most difficulty with are my nebula filters NPB and OIII looking at a dark sky. I don't think I noticed anything with the Celestron Filter and mars, except only the positive effect, especially the amount of dimming and the comfort for the eye with 1.8mm of exit pupil, with my 9mm eyepiece.

    I bought the 6mm Orthoscopic for the Mars event but the 9mm Celestron is always beating it since the beginning storm it's so comfortable too.. compared to the 6mm.

    The Xcel LX 9mm I would call it a premium eyepiece for planetary even with F5 fast newton
     
  10. Dave In Vermont

    Dave In Vermont Well-Known Member

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    I'm planning on employing my Astromania 9mm and trying the 6mm of these, too, with my ST80 Orion. And a TeleVue® 3X Barlow and the 5X GSO Barlow. William Optics 2" RACI 99% Reflectivity Dielectric 90° Diagonal.These are some of the goodies I'll be playing with. Not tonight though. Heavy thunder-storms here today & tonight. Tomorrow - Sunday - is looking to be clear and calm (finally!!).

    I'll be carrying 2 of my aluminum-cases. Including my entire Filter-Case. Neighbor's are all warned and wishing me well on my ventures, now that they stand apprised that I'll be their Maniac-Peeper -du-Jour, corruptor-of-Youth, and Resident Space-Alien. Of course I invited them to join-in my mirth and come take a look and/or tour if insomnia should knock on their door.This also serves as code to keep their lighting to a minimum, along with my red-lights. They're all very nice and good about doing so!

    My next-door neighbor actually started the conversation as the City - unannounced - paid a visit and removed a sickly tree from out Green-Belt (a swath of grass & trees that lay beyond the sidewalk abutting the property line running all over the City. So I suggested we contact the City-Arborist and inquire about replacing it with a Japanese Lilac, a very hardy tree we got about 20 years ago. I fed them when they were new with my 'special' tree-food, and they took hold and flourished like mad! They're HUGE now!

    The neighbor who brought up the 'missing-tree' community email - whom I call 'Johnny Pissoff' due to his endless stream of complaints - suffered a 'Cardiac-Event' and is house-bound for the time-being, so I'm keeping him smiling & entertained (Don't tell anyone, but I'm actually a nice guy. Shhhhh!).



     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2018
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  11. Gabby76

    Gabby76 Well-Known Member

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    Nebula when you says you see stray light, are you meaning a reflection?
     
  12. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    Hello! well it's hard to describe but Ye,s reflections inside the eyepiece with the greenish metallic finish of the OIII or NPB filters. on certain angle they are visible. With my Svbony eyepiece it's not the same thing, with the orange filter, i can see the inside of the draw tube completely, but that,s a 13CAD eyepiece.

    Hey @gabby do you still have the thread where you talk about the coatings? I have ES eyepieces the older ones are fully multi-coated while the new ones are EMD coated. There must be a difference between the 2.
     
  13. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    2018-09-28 - Observation Report Mars

    This is my report from a nice little observation on Saturday night, by chance. I thought we were having clouds but no! so I took the Newtonian outside, Mars was right there in front of me. :)

    MARS:

    The bottom sketch is Saturday and the top one is Friday, both were similar and the shades were the probable albedo visible through the dust storm, without a doubt, and has we saw in @orion 25 images lately, they were visible on both days.

    The eyepieces to look at Mars were 7mm and 6mm Orthoscopics, 9mm Xcel LX and even 4.7mm ES (with no good results). For both sketch, the Celestron Mars filter was threaded in. On Saturday the conditions were a bit better, less turbulence (but still humid) so I used 6mm eyepiece 167x more then anything else has my tool of choice.

    There was a visible pole feature to the south, perhaps it was atmospheric clouds but there was something with the Celestron filter, no doubt. (it's the bottom sketch, to the top left)

    A very motivating event, I am glad for this quality time spent on Mars, again.

    [​IMG]

    FIRST AND SECOND LIGHT OF THE SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION 24mm

    [​IMG]

    I tried the ES 24mm too and it's a little gem all the way, it's very sharp and very well corrected from the center to the edge, just like the ES34mm, both are very similar but the 24mm has less of a spheric effect, the field is a bit flatter, which is good.

    I looked at the moon first, the full moon and WOW! I thought my other eyepieces were good! the 24mm is beating them all. It will give a beautiful 42x and fill the FOV at the 3/4 with the +- full moon, I was able to reach a very sharp focus to see faint details.. amazing and had a great deal of fun looking at the moon at low power 42x.

    Then I installed the 38a Dark Blue colored (has well has Violet filter) to get fascinating results again on the moon, I prefer the Dark blue many times over the violet.

    I stayed there at least 20 minutes examining the contrast difference in the mares, especially between Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis around the Appolo 15 landing site.

    In red, that was the interesting spot, that place with the #38a is full of differences in hues.
    [​IMG]


    VEGA REGION AND COLOR OF STARS


    My favorite feature of the 24mm is the coloration of stars it gives.. all my eyepieces are different, my 18mm is fantastic, very warm. But the 25mm is very special and different with the colors.

    The Garnet star, I can see it dark orange with all my eyepieces, but surprise! with the 24mm, it's rich RED. :) and for the hot stars, the blue color is even more pronounced then any other eyepieces I own. To have that kind of contrast makes it a legend in my eyepiece case already.

    There was a fear the 34mm would become useless, but honestly no, the difference in the TFOV is huge. The 24mm is wide but the 34mm is noticeably much wider, both will be used.

    Well! this is it for now! I hope you liked the report/sketch and it was not too heavy and boring :D
     
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  14. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Excellent report, Nebula. Mars will be revealing more and more in the coming months as the dust storm clears. It will actually become more interesting as it moves away from opposition/perigee. Your sketches very accurately show what can be seen now with the Mars filter. Great description of your experience with the EPs! An interesting read, indeed :D
     
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  15. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    Thanks @reggie I can't wait to go on observation again, trying to see something new.. and a good star observation will make me happy with the new 24mm, after the full moon. This week will be about the planets again and perhaps a sketch of the moon would be nice.

    And we are checking Mars's evolution too of course!

    What a great year of astronomy so far.
     
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  16. Gabby76

    Gabby76 Well-Known Member

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    Sorry for the slow response, a busy day!
    When you to view take a towel and put it over your head to see if this eliminates the reflection.
    It could be stray light entering the eyepiece, stray light reflecting off of your eye or a reflection between the filter and field lens of the eyepiece.

    If the towel does not make a difference and you have a empty filter ring use it to increase the spacing between filter and eyepiece. This makes a large difference with a number of filters.

    If you mean the article about different filters I can repost it for you. :)
     
  17. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    Ok I will try the towel technique to see about these reflections.

    I don't remember if the thread was about filters but there was a section in it about different kinds of coating.

    Thanks!
     
  18. Gabby76

    Gabby76 Well-Known Member

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    Coated - A single layer on at least one lens surface.
    Fully Coated - A single layer on all air to glass surfaces.
    Multi-Coated - Multiple layers on at least one lens surface.
    Fully Multi-Coated - Multiple layers on all air to glass surfaces.

    Sorry for the delayed response, very busy at work this last week.
     
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  19. Gabby76

    Gabby76 Well-Known Member

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    No there is no difference other than possible coating thickness which is how the reflectivity/ light throughput is achieved.
    99% of amateur optics have a simple MgF2 (Magnesium Fluorite) coating.
    The marketing staff then need to come up with a way to make it sound really impressive compared to every one elses coatings.
     
  20. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    My new eyepiece with EMD is very different from all my others eyepieces with the color of stars. Garnet star is RED, not dark orange like usually, literally red all my other eyepieces will show it deep orange. I thought perhaps the coating or the 24mm was be responsible for that.

    I was totally amazed to see the Garnet has red has that. It has the same effect with color blue, enhancing it further it's amazing. But it's probably false color in reality.

    When i look at the front lenses of some of my eyepiece, they are not all the same color:

    - My Xcel LX 18mm the coating is rich purple while my previous Xcel LX 24mm the coating was brownish.
    - My 4.7mm Xcel LX the coating is rich green.
    - My Skywatcher finder front lens, Purple again.
    - My Fujiyamas brownish.
    - My new 24mm is brownish too.
     

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