The sky is totally beautiful right now.. but DANG!, it's cold. -30 Celcius with the wind during the night, I think Ill do a simple naked eye observation instead of getting the gear out.

What do you guys think ?

 

Well, it's a comparatively warm 4° here, but cloudy.

 

Wow 4 Celcius, this is almost summer time We have a real -16 right now with enough wind it's deadly cold. I went out with my binoculars like 4 minutes, looked at the plaiades and Orion, Taurus too, Binoviewing with larger aperture must be incredible.

 

OMG! I'm a spoiled kid from the South (of the U.S., that is). I was complaining about a balmy 2.8 celsius (37 F) last night chasing Geminids! You guys know what REAL cold feels like

 

M42 looks good in bino's.

 

1°C here at the moment. It's probably that warm because of the clouds. On the plus side, a lot of the snow has melted.

 

Have you blokes seen anything like this mount combo?



It's being marketed as the Sky-Watcher SkyMax-102 with AZ-EQ Avant Dual-Mode Alt-Azimuth/Equatorial, no doubt you can buy the mount separately somewhere.



It's an interesting idea, but doesn't look as fast to set up as my 102mm SkyMax and an AZ5 mount.

 

Nope. To many knobs - not enough choice of where you must be to operate.

I'll pass.

Yuck!

R & D

 

Yeah, definitely too many knobs. I can set my AZ5 up in less than a minute, and I'm disabled. I then slide the OTA into the Vixen style dovetail, tighten it up and I'm virtually ready to go. After that it's a matter of just slotting in the Rigel, sliding the RACI in and adding the diagonal. Choose an eyepiece and I'm good to go.

With the Dual-Mode, not only would you have to add the counterweight and then balance the OTA, I'd have to thread the OTA onto the mount probably while sitting on the ground, then place it and the OTA into the tripod together, and then add the counterweight! After all that I could add the finder, diagonal and eyepiece. Of course, it would also have to be polar aligned to work as an EQ.

 

Hey all!

POP! The corks on the Champagne Bottles! I've been thrown out of the Dark Lords' Manor! Although only for 30-days - and the letter was nauseatingly sweetly worded and filled with apologies in syrupy tones (written by the Admins) - at least it's a start! And it's not even over anything I'd have considered 'controversial'........

FLO is hawking (selling to you, Mak) 'Bobs' Knobs' - those 3 screws with broad-plastic knobs on top for collimating telescopes. And one guy wrote in that a trip to the hardware-store would get you the same thing, for pennies, that cost around £15 when sold as 'Bobs' Knobs.' So I simply told the story of the guy who marketed the legendary 'Pet Rock' back in 1976. Many people enjoyed that story and heaped 'Likes' & 'Laughs' on the post. I was attempting to break the tension the other person had caused in effectively saying "If you buy Bobs' Knobs, you're being really ripped-off." And you are,of course. But I also stated I had a set of 'em and like 'em very much!

FLO took a nutty at me. But not at the other person who started it!

Apparently, shopkeepers' and corporations in the UK are firmly ensconced in the "Pleasures of Fascism" that was ushered into the UK with the tyrannical reign of Margie Thatcher during our "Reagan Era." <error>






Ding-Dong!

evaD


p.s. - Bad Joke Dept. (my apologies to Mak)

"Q. Why doesn't the Sun Ever Set on the British Empire?"

"A. Because God doesn't Trust the Brits' in the Dark!"

 

Hey, Dave, curiosity got the better of me and I visited Dark Lord's Manor to check out the thread and ! You were ousted for that??? Maybe they truly didn't get the "rock" reference or didn't appreciate your wittiness. Of course, you were in collusion to challenge a representative of the king (FLO) and you know how that usually goes. But what about the guy who originally called FLO out??? Oh well, at least it was a suspension instead of a full-out expulsion, but still!

 

Jeez Louise ... I don't sign in here for a few hours and all hell breaks loose. Well, congratulations for getting a 30 day suspension at StarWhinger's Lounge Dave.

Obviously you get the Mak the Night medal for bravery under fire. I couldn't be more proud.


I'd probably be banned for just logging in.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot, what do you guys think of H-beta filters used on an ST80. I'm looking at the Orion and 1000 Oaks 1.25" and the Explore Scientific 2". I've heard the ES isn't so narrow as the others but it might work better for an 80mm refractor. I've heard they're good for NGC 1499.

 

I don't know what an Hb would do for an ST80 - but I've been wondering the same thing. I have an Astronomik Hb - which is pretty much an Hb - nothing else:







My guess is that very little will come through in an ST80. If so, I'd suggest a dark-sky site. And before pulling the trigger on either an Orion or SW or anything - try to get your hands on a spectra-graph, and send me one, too, please? I just found the only other graph I have for an Hb-filter is for a Baader - which has ZERO% transmission in the Ha bands. Black as the almighty void!

<POIT!>

 

I'll see what I can find. I doubt a Hb will be of any use on an 80mm refractor, I was thinking that the ES wasn't so narrow and with a 6~7mm exit pupil might just work on large targets like NGC 1499.



http://thousandoaksoptical.com/shop/nebula/lp4-h-beta/

 

The LP4 looks like it has a chance at least - for letting enough light through to allow limited use in the ST80. But don't tattoo that on your nose. Worth a try!

I have an Astronomik UHC-E landing here later today from OPT. Cost me a rat's hair under $66, and OPT swallowed the shipping for once. Sounds like they're trying playing 'catch-up' with Agena - which always includes shipping on their prices.

It's my Christmas present to myself this year!

Oh yes - Thanks for the 'Medal!' I intend to hang it in my profile in the Dark Lords' Manor in a month! I'll see if it can be turned into an 'avatar' while I'm at it. We could all use one and pull a raid on them and REALLY go beat the daylights out of FLO!! One of us here knows of a proxy-service we could use to stage raids through under many assumed names!!

Raul & Ché Guevara


p.s. - Hey Reggie? My home-town was Lexington, Massachusetts. Allow me to refresh yours memory:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Lexington_and_Concord

 

The LP4 was one of the only filter curves I could find. Most Hb filters tend to be for at least 200mm apertures. I thought the Explore Scientific might be OK for limited use with the ST80.

https://explorescientificusa.com/co...roducts/copy-of-nebula-filter-h-beta-2-0-inch

'Explore Scientific Nebula Filter H-Beta Range from 478nm to 496nm with peak at 489nm. Transmission 94.5%'

I was thinking of using it with a 36mm Baader Aspheric for about 11x and a 7mm exit pupil.

 

Mouahahaha a Bravery medal for Dave, that's far out

I am laughing a bit now The pet rock hahahahaha incredible.

 

Well Mak -

As you are Filter-Curve poor, I'll leave you a good collection for your files as reference:

ASTRONOMICAL FILTERS SPECTRAL TRANSMISSION.pdf

I have a million others as well - just never the one I'm looking for!

But it never hurts to ask me if you're needing something specific, or close.

<POIT!>

 

Quick Addendum Dept. -

I'm opening the plastic-case my new Astronomik 1.25" UHC-E Filter comes in. Filter is in perfect condition.

Up to light, first impression is that it looks quite similar to the Orion Skyglow. Greens & Magenta hues predominant - Blue present off-angle, touched by Yellow at edge w/angling. Summation: Looks very promising! Must be good - it's now snowing outside!

Threads fine. Engagement smooth and sure. No fear of slippage.

Off to catch a few weather-reports.

<POIT!>

​

p.s. I'd post a photo of the trusty lightbulb, but it's over the 2MB cut-off at 2.08MB.

​