Thank you for your kind comments Joe. I was happy to see you bring up the point I was trying to convey vis-a-vis the difficulties that William Herschel faced during his own work toward the horizon with such a massive scope. Indeed we are fortunate to have both better optics and exponentially less massive structures.OzEclipse wrote: ↑Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:21 pm
Alan,
This comment in your report struck me. From my latitude, the Andromeda galaxy transits at 12 -14 degrees depending whether you are north or south of Canberra. South of Canberra, you have to look through the Canberra lightdome unless you are far south. With my 18 inch "8.5 foot" telescope, it is a very comfortable view both feet firmly planted on the ground, even sitting sometimes. Certainly more comfortable than the nosebleed inducing altitudes I have to ascend to, to look at Eta Carina, Omega Centauri, or the Magellanic Clouds at transit. In fact I usually wait until they get a bit lower. It's a bit precarious standing so high up a ladder. I found a drawing of Herschel's 20 foot scope.
All I can say is that we've come a long way in telescope design and compactness.
This is a photo of my 8 foot scope. The ladder is 1.8m / 6ft
The back yard has a slope. The scope is located on a small bare patch that is moderately level but the ground immediately behind the scope rises. The ground in front of the scope is relatively flat. I have used that slope to advantage to reduce the amount of ladder time required on observing nights.
Thanks as alway for your report Alan. Always interesting reading and worth keeping - I save some of your and Andrey's observing reports and extract interesting/challenging targets from them.
Joe
Your own experiences with M31 at such a low elevation is a curious thing to me, just as I am sure mine with