What a few clear nights can achieve

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Greenman Great Britain
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What a few clear nights can achieve

#1

Post by Greenman »


So, I will begin at the beginning on Wednesday night I had the first clear night for ages, but it was a work night. Well work is work, but clear nights are precious in the UK.. :D

I started of by aligning to Polaris by eye and finder scope (more on this later) , pointing the AVX north using polar scope align pro on the AVX saddle and then manual moving the mount in RA and latitude (not handset). When I then went for two star align vega sat nicely in my finder scope, but just outside the main scopes view, centred, aligned. Second star in main scope view. I added 4 calibration stars and didn’t bother with all star alignment. This gave me the best alignment I have had. Not in the, manual, but pragmatically it worked.

Now for a quick tour, I’m gong for galaxies, M31 spot on; a hazy large blob, why not Bode’s - once again seen with normal and even stronger with averted vision. OK, the first galaxy sightings off the list. Now to image Mars! Found Mars, centred moved from 25mm to 12mm centred, added 2x Barlow centred. Now for the ASI 224, hunt the thimble time, eventually located. Clear that the image was affected by heat turbulence but ran off a 640 by 480 video anyway. Waited a while, refound the planet and bumped off another capture. Mars still pretty small so ran a couple of 320 x 240 videos, then the clouds rolled in.

Packed away wondering about a RACI that was illuminated as centring the finder accurately is a bit hit and miss against a star... And that would really help the don't the thimble process. Anyway, tomorrow I process the Mars stuff.

Process & process, detail lacks and Mars seems an odd shape. I know the images should be better... Read up, think. One word - Collimation I have never checked this, but the small planet, higher magnification, and yes the slight fuzziness I saw on Saturn was worse than on Jupiter. Have a look at examples, ran across a post with an 8SE and the improvement he got in planetary.

OK, this scope has not been collimated, ever as far as I know. I believe that this was used in a project for my company sometime before I joined in 2014. My ex-boss gave this to me just before he left the company as they were going to scrap it.

Night arrived an here I am armed with a screwdriver and an impending sense of doom as I approached the business end of my scope. Trial turn of the screw that needed adjustment, and nothing, just a bit stuck thinks I. Nope, this was not inclined to move, tried the second and third... Ah, this was not going to be straightforward. So, I get my garage keys, now my eyes are dark-adapted, so I feel alone the bench and find the tip of a suitably sharp chisel, damn! A bit further along I find the can of WD 40.

As I wander back to the scope I wonder about spraying WD 40 at the front of my scope. Nah, I can do this... And I could, a couple of seconds later the screws we're lubricated, and each one was moveable. So I return to the eyepiece to gaze at the Airey disk, I now notice the stars are all attractive little arrows in the sky. Ah, now I’m sure it is not collimated, perhaps the screws we're a bit more sensitive than I expected?

A bit worried I tried to correct my heavy-handedness. After 45 minutes things looked good.

Swing the scope to Mars, with - perfect disk focussed well with discernable features. Now to buy myself some Bob’s knobs!

In the meantime, a good offer on an Orion RACI illuminated has appeared online. Snaffled, and added to the scope. Now that is one nice 9 x 50 and it fits straight into my Baader mount sweet. Tried it out and it is a star. Imaging Mars tonight and hope to have something worth posting. :telescopewink:
Cheers,

Tony.

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Smart Scope: Dwarf II - Club and outreach work.

AP Refractor: Altair 72EDF Deluxe F6;1x & 0.8 Flatteners; Antares Versascope 60mm finder. ASIAir Pro.Li battery pack for grab & go.

Celestron AVX Mount; X-cel LX eyepieces & Barlows 2x 3x, ZWO 2” Filter holder,

Cameras: main DSO ASI533MC; DSO guide ASI120MM; Planetary ASI224MC; DSLR Canon EOS100 stock.

Filters: Astronomik IR cut; Optolong L-Pro; Optolong L-Enhance.

Binoculars: Celestron 15 x 70.

Latitude: 52.219853
Longitude: -1.034471
Accuracy: 5 m
Bortle 4 site. https://maps.google.com/?q=52.21985,-1.03447

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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#2

Post by Shabadoo »


I hope you have a fantastic adventure with your new collimating.
Scared me when you said wd40 and telescope are same time.
Jeff
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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#3

Post by Greenman »


Shabadoo wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2020 5:40 pm I hope you have a fantastic adventure with your new collimating.
Scared me when you said wd40 and telescope are same time.
Yeah, not the best option, but all I had to hand... That’s the reason for Bob's knobs a repetition is pushing things with WD 40 to the max.
Cheers,

Tony.

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Smart Scope: Dwarf II - Club and outreach work.

AP Refractor: Altair 72EDF Deluxe F6;1x & 0.8 Flatteners; Antares Versascope 60mm finder. ASIAir Pro.Li battery pack for grab & go.

Celestron AVX Mount; X-cel LX eyepieces & Barlows 2x 3x, ZWO 2” Filter holder,

Cameras: main DSO ASI533MC; DSO guide ASI120MM; Planetary ASI224MC; DSLR Canon EOS100 stock.

Filters: Astronomik IR cut; Optolong L-Pro; Optolong L-Enhance.

Binoculars: Celestron 15 x 70.

Latitude: 52.219853
Longitude: -1.034471
Accuracy: 5 m
Bortle 4 site. https://maps.google.com/?q=52.21985,-1.03447

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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

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Post by John Baars »


What a relief that you succeeded!
Refractors in frequency of use : *SW Evostar 120ED F/7.5 (all round ), * Vixen 102ED F/9 (vintage), both on Vixen GPDX.
GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets).
Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5.
Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS, *Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40
Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt.
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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#5

Post by helicon »


Congratulations Tony on winning the VROD for today (9-14-2021). A bit of persistence definitely paid off for you.
-Michael
Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
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Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl
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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#6

Post by Juno16 »


Nice report Tony!

Congratulations on the award!

Man, you can see Bodes naked eye! Wow!
Jim

Scopes: Explore Scientific ED102 APO, Sharpstar 61 EDPH II APO, Samyang 135 F2 (still on the Nikon).
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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

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Post by John Baars »


Congratulations on the VROD!
Refractors in frequency of use : *SW Evostar 120ED F/7.5 (all round ), * Vixen 102ED F/9 (vintage), both on Vixen GPDX.
GrabnGo on Alt/AZ : *SW Startravel 102 F/5 refractor( widefield, Sun, push-to), *OMC140 Maksutov F/14.3 ( planets).
Most used Eyepieces: *Panoptic 24, *Morpheus 14, *Leica ASPH zoom, *Zeiss barlow, *Pentax XO5.
Commonly used bino's : *Jena 10X50 , * Canon 10X30 IS, *Swarovski Habicht 7X42, * Celestron 15X70, *Kasai 2.3X40
Rijswijk Public Observatory: * Astro-Physics Starfire 130 f/8, * 6 inch Newton, * C9.25, * Meade 14 inch LX600 ACF, *Lunt.
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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#8

Post by KingNothing13 »


Whew - twists and turns abound!

Glad everything seems to be coming together.

Congrats on the VROD!
-- Brett

Scope: Apertura AD10 with Nexus II with 8192/716000 Step Encoders
EPs: ES 82* 18mm, 11mm, 6.7mm; GSO 30mm
Celestron SkyMaster 15x70 Binoculars
List Counts: Messier: 75; Herschel 400: 30; Caldwell: 12; AL Carbon Star List: 16
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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

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Post by Butterfly Maiden »


Congratulations Tony on the VROD.
Vanessa

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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#10

Post by turboscrew »


Good that everything worked fine after all.
Congrats on the VROD!
- Juha

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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#11

Post by Makuser »


Hi Tony. A very nice observing report from you. And despite the need for the WD40, you still came away with a nice session. Thanks for your fun read report Tony, and congratulations on receiving the TSS VROD Award today.
Marshall
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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#12

Post by Bigzmey »


I was a bit confused, why Tony is trying to image Mars now? But then realized that this is a trip back in time complements of Michael. :) Congrats on the VROD!
Scopes: Stellarvue: SV102ED; Celestron: 9.25" EdgeHD, 8" SCT, 150ST, Onyx 80ED; iOptron: Hankmeister 6" Mak; SW: 7" Mak; Meade: 80ST.
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Observing: DSOs: 3106 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2180, S110: 77). Doubles: 2382, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 255
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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#13

Post by kt4hx »


A blast from the past, and congrats Tony on the VROD.
Alan

Scopes: Astro Sky 17.5 f/4.5 Dob || Apertura AD12 f/5 Dob || Zhumell Z10 f/4.9 Dob ||
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Mounts: ES Twilight-II and Twilight-I
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ES 82° 18mm || Pentax XW 70° 10mm, 7mm and 5mm || barlows
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"Astronomers, we look into the past to see our future." (me)
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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#14

Post by Greenman »


:observer: Wow, great to get a VROD, unanticipated and a reminder of my my misspent adventures in astronomy. :Astronomer1:
Cheers,

Tony.

Image

Smart Scope: Dwarf II - Club and outreach work.

AP Refractor: Altair 72EDF Deluxe F6;1x & 0.8 Flatteners; Antares Versascope 60mm finder. ASIAir Pro.Li battery pack for grab & go.

Celestron AVX Mount; X-cel LX eyepieces & Barlows 2x 3x, ZWO 2” Filter holder,

Cameras: main DSO ASI533MC; DSO guide ASI120MM; Planetary ASI224MC; DSLR Canon EOS100 stock.

Filters: Astronomik IR cut; Optolong L-Pro; Optolong L-Enhance.

Binoculars: Celestron 15 x 70.

Latitude: 52.219853
Longitude: -1.034471
Accuracy: 5 m
Bortle 4 site. https://maps.google.com/?q=52.21985,-1.03447

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Re: What a few clear nights can achieve

#15

Post by Greenman »


helicon wrote: Tue Sep 14, 2021 6:31 pm Congratulations Tony on winning the VROD for today (9-14-2021). A bit of persistence definitely paid off for you.
Thanks Michael, much appreciated.
Cheers,

Tony.

Image

Smart Scope: Dwarf II - Club and outreach work.

AP Refractor: Altair 72EDF Deluxe F6;1x & 0.8 Flatteners; Antares Versascope 60mm finder. ASIAir Pro.Li battery pack for grab & go.

Celestron AVX Mount; X-cel LX eyepieces & Barlows 2x 3x, ZWO 2” Filter holder,

Cameras: main DSO ASI533MC; DSO guide ASI120MM; Planetary ASI224MC; DSLR Canon EOS100 stock.

Filters: Astronomik IR cut; Optolong L-Pro; Optolong L-Enhance.

Binoculars: Celestron 15 x 70.

Latitude: 52.219853
Longitude: -1.034471
Accuracy: 5 m
Bortle 4 site. https://maps.google.com/?q=52.21985,-1.03447

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