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Two years in to the project, and I'm now 20% of the way through the Herschel 400. Made it through twelve objects tonight. Of course it isn't about the destination... Adding Starsense explorer to my dob has made cranking through long observing lists a bit easier and a lot more comfortable. No more craning my neck and back to look through a finderscope or Telrad. Combined with my observing chair, it has made long observing sessions a lot easier on my increasingly middle-aged rear end.
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Aug 21, 2023 06:32
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 23:56 |
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Just hold it up to the sun to check for pinholes before you use it. No visible damage and you're fine.
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Aug 27, 2023 14:22
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Last night I hit the 25% milestone on the Herschel 400. Luckily I'm managing to pick up the pace now that I've got a DSC. Onward and upward!
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Sep 6, 2023 20:02
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Nth-ing the recommendations for the StarSense Explorer 8" dobsonian. Best beginner scope ever made. I retrofitted SSE to my existing dobs and it's a game changer. I've been finding things in the sky the old fashioned way for thirty years and having SSE is such a huge convenience. Also I've always recommended beginners start with an 8" dobsonian regardless of what other bells and whistles it may come with. I've often recommended that beginners steer clear of computerized scopes because they can represent a bigger pain in the rear end learning curve than just learning your way around the night sky. SSE is the exception that's gonna set the standard going forward. Not only does it remove all the barriers, it teaches the night sky by osmosis the way traditional computerized scopes CAN'T. It's just loving neat. Edited to add; I'm one of the guys who bought the cheapest Starsense scope they could and yanked the dock off of it. I got the 80mm ordered from Costco online. It's a cheaply built scope and the tripod is JUNK, but the optics are REALLY loving GOOD! I remounted it on an Orion Astroview equatorial, patched the holes in the tube and repainted it, and I plan on putting a GSO Crayford focuser on it soon. Bit by bit I'm turning it into a nice scope. AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 00:34 on Nov 16, 2023 |
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Nov 16, 2023 00:25
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Collimation adjustments should NEVER put deforming pressure on the mirrors. If your mirror cell CHANGES THE SHAPE OF THE MIRROR you should destroy it immediately. That's what's called "pinched optics" and it's a serious defect. Mirror adjustment screws only adjust the tilt of the mirrors to dial in alignment, like tuning a musical instrument. That avoidance of deforming pressure is why mirror clips need a tiny air gap to prevent actually holding down the mirror itself. In fact, surface deformations aren't the MAIN reason for temperature acclimation; the main purpose is to eliminate warm air currents coming off the mirror and ruining the image. All other effects are subtle at best.
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Nov 26, 2023 20:15
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I'm with you. Visual astronomy is my happy place. Has been for thirty years. Astrophotography is just too much like work.
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Jan 13, 2024 00:49
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I didn't care for "Smart Telescopes" before the Seestar came out because the Unistellar and Vaonis are too expensive and too limited, but Seestar is AWESOME! Legit Reasonable price and built around the ZWO ecosystem which is robust as hell to begin with. I think it's a banger bit of kit. I'm also really impressed by the Celestron Origin as a higher-end smart telescope. I think a lot of those are gonna get wedge-mounted in small observatories since it's going to be a fairly serious intermediate imaging setup that's ready to go out of the box with minimal fuckery, and components like the camera can be upgraded down the line. Since there's a filter drawer built in, it'd be interesting to see if they'll release a monochrome camera for it...
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Mar 22, 2024 17:13
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 23:56 |
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Through the whole weekend. There's more CMEs on the way. This is a geomagnetic storm for the record books.
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May 11, 2024 16:27
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