The Official Astronomy Thread

[mercurial]

Ah, that must be it then. I also caught one zipping through my EP FOV a week or so back and it's definitely an amazing sight!

Now I really can't wait to go have a look again
Won't be able to do it tonight though - it's 100% cloudy in Cape Town today

 

[Crusader]

Now I really can't wait to go have a look again
Won't be able to do it tonight though - it's 100% cloudy in Cape Town today

Same here, with rain to boot. It's been cloudy for the past two days. I was planning to try and get a glimpse of Venus and Mercury (if I'm lucky) from my backyard (they are just above the roofs of houses at the back), but have to wait for the clouds to clear.

My new goodies haven't arrived yet, so it can't be the "curse". I guess we'll have thunderstorms when they do

 

[mercurial]

Same here, with rain to boot. It's been cloudy for the past two days. I was planning to try and get a glimpse of Venus and Mercury (if I'm lucky) from my backyard (they are just above the roofs of houses at the back), but have to wait for the clouds to clear.

My new goodies haven't arrived yet, so it can't be the "curse". I guess we'll have thunderstorms when they do

Hehe. You know, when I got my filters, the 1st two times I wanted to use it, it seemed as if karma was kicking my ass. The first time it was just cloudy I think. The next time, the sun was shining all day; I went outside shortly after sunset and suddenly there were clouds everywhere

 

[mercurial]

Ok, so I have a little problem. My one filter does not seem to fit onto my one eyepiece. I think it's slightly smaller. How do I work around this? What can I do? Prestik? Lol.

 

[nimthor]

So, presently (11:45) in Cape Town it is clear with a nice breeze, what is the odds that it will be clear tonight? I need to see if I can autoguide with my Meade LPI!

Clear skies!
Charles

 

[mercurial]

So, presently (11:45) in Cape Town it is clear with a nice breeze, what is the odds that it will be clear tonight? I need to see if I can autoguide with my Meade LPI!

Clear skies!
Charles

It was cloudy this morning but all seems to have cleared now. It should be a clear sky tonight. Are you new to Cape Town?

 

[nimthor]

Mercurial,

Nope, been living in Cape Town the past 37 years!

 

[mercurial]

Mercurial,

Nope, been living in Cape Town the past 37 years!

 

[Crusader]

Ok, I've been a bad bad boy.... Phoned Technopro and added an Orion Oxygen III filter to my order. Also changed the Shorty Plus for a Skywatcher barlow (apparently it's exactly the same) and they didn't have the Orion in stock.

I'll get the barlow and RDF by Tuesday, so brace yourselves for cloudy nights. The Oxygen III filter will only get here sometime in September .

Mercurial, in your filter research did you come across the Orion Ultrablock Narrow-band? People on the forums say it's very close to the quality of the Lumicon UHC. It should be cheaper though, so if Technopro can source it for me I'll get that as well.

 

[mercurial]

Ok, I've been a bad bad boy.... Phoned Technopro and added an Orion Oxygen III filter to my order. Also changed the Shorty Plus for a Skywatcher barlow (apparently it's exactly the same) and they didn't have the Orion in stock.

I'll get the barlow and RDF by Tuesday, so brace yourselves for cloudy nights. The Oxygen III filter will only get here sometime in September .

Mercurial, in your filter research did you come across the Orion Ultrablock Narrow-band? People on the forums say it's very close to the quality of the Lumicon UHC. It should be cheaper though, so if Technopro can source it for me I'll get that as well.

Ooi! Thou has succumb to the delights of the night sky!

Yes, the Orion Ultrablock is very good. The only differences between these filters are the amounts of certain wavelengths that they allow. Some narrowband filters allow for broader spectrums of light, whereas other brands, such as Lumicon for example, are a true definition of narrowband because they are very strict in what they allow through. The cloudynights site is experiencing problems with users logging in. I can't log in right now. I wanted to give you the url to my thread in which various users gave me good advice, but they can mostly be found with the following links:

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=63

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1578

EDIT: I just found my thread

http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/2535765

2nd EDIT: You should probably read David Knisely's posts. He is the filter guru. He has written many articles for tons of websites, with his reviews etc...

 

[Crusader]

Ooi! Thou has succumb to the delights of the night sky!

That's been a conclusive fact long before I even got my telescope! Now it just goes hand in hand with some expensive purchases to feed the hobby.

Already done. I've read both your thread and David's posts. He's also giving input on a thread I started. Seems to be that he is the opinion that in general you won't be able to see that much difference between the two, at least not enough difference to warrant a more expensive purchase. It will now depend on whether the Ultrablock is indeed obtainable over here without importing myself and whether or not it's cheaper than a Lumicon UHC.

I tracked down the Dumbell Nebula last night. Was a pretty amazing sight, just wished I had the O-III to try and see more detail.

BTW: How does the filters thread into the eyepieces? My Orion Plossls seem to have grooves inside the barrel, so I'm assuming it goes in there?

 

[mercurial]

BTW: How does the filters thread into the eyepieces? My Orion Plossls seem to have grooves inside the barrel, so I'm assuming it goes in there?

Yip. They slot onto the end of the eyepiece and they are stackable, which is great. My only problem is that the one filter (DGM Optics NPB) does not seem to fit into all eyepieces. I might have to use prestik or something. The Lumicon filters are more solid and bigger and they all fit perfectly.

 

[Crusader]

My SKywatcher Red Dot Finder arrived today. Despite being plastic it seems to be pretty solidly built. Now I only need to figure how to attach it to the telescope in conjunction with my finderscope. Guess double sided sticky tape will have to do...

Can't wait till September when my O-III filter and barlow should get here.

 

[mercurial]

My SKywatcher Red Dot Finder arrived today. Despite being plastic it seems to be pretty solidly built. Now I only need to figure how to attach it to the telescope in conjunction with my finderscope. Guess double sided sticky tape will have to do...

Can't wait till September when my O-III filter and barlow should get here.

Congrats. Which OIII filter would that be? Is that the Meade or Orion?

 

[Crusader]

I opted for the Orion. It and the Orion Ultrablock are apparently a good choice if you can't afford the high-end Lumicon filters.

 

[mercurial]

I opted for the Orion. It and the Orion Ultrablock are apparently a good choice if you can't afford the high-end Lumicon filters.

Most definitely. There isn't really all that much difference. All the top brands perform very well. Let me know how it goes

 

[marine1]

My SKywatcher Red Dot Finder arrived today. Despite being plastic it seems to be pretty solidly built. Now I only need to figure how to attach it to the telescope in conjunction with my finderscope. Guess double sided sticky tape will have to do...

Mine came with one, do you want me to post a pic of how it is mounted?

 

[Crusader]

Mine came with one, do you want me to post a pic of how it is mounted?

If you want to, yes.

In the end I removed the base of the RDF and just sticky taped it on top of my 9x50 finderscope. It seems to do the trick, although you have to bend down quite a bit to see the red dot.

I took it out for a little test drive and it works beautifully. I managed to hit all the bright stars in Crux with just the RDF (and have it visible in the EP) and as a final test I went for 47 Tuscanae (the nice glob cluster near the LMC) and managed to get that in the EP using only the RDF.

My only problem with it is that it dims down the fainter stars quite a bit making them more difficult to see. Works very well on the brighter ones though!

Definitely well worth the money. It's not a Telrad, but it sure makes life a bit easier. As an added bonus you can now show people where that "thingie" they are looking at is actually located.

 

[zophas]

Hi guys, thanks for reviving my interest in astronomy. I bought a 6" Orion Dobsonian years ago and I've hardly ever used it. So after reading some of this thread I decided to get the scope out and take a look around and I got my first view of Jupiter last night. I was hoping to see the Red Spot but it seems that it's not facing us at the moment. Now where did I put that list of objects I wanna track down?

 

[Crusader]

Welcome to the dark side! Be careful since the hobby can become seriously addictive. If you haven't done so join in our astronomy challenge and get yourself a chart from Skymaps.com.

You should also definitely add Omega Centauri as a top priority - it's the most amazing globular cluster viewable!