New Scope
I have been perusing the auction sites and the online classifieds over the past few months to keep an eye out if my bike showed up there. Recently I came across an LX75-N6-AT for sale there for a low price, with a problematic battery connection. I called up, called over and I examined this scope and mount, checked it out and I bought it. I had verified that the motors and the Autostar were functional with the use of a wallwart to provide the required DC power
I took it home and I knew that there was some backlash in both axes of the polar mount and that there was some collimation required as well, so out came the tools and off came the motor housings andaway went the backlash. Collimation was easy with the short length of the tube and the use of the combination cheshire tool that I got last year. Aligning the polar scope took a bit of time, and it is pretty much dead on now.
First light was Thursday night last week, chasing sucker holes in the cloud trying to polar-align, and to get guidestars to 3-star align the Autostar. Managed to get it aligned and operational, and then it was off to Jupiter. It’s interesting to note how much easier it is to observe fine details on Jupiter when it isn’t dancing around as it was in the ETX70 I also have. There were details in the belts that I wasn’t expecting to see, and I could differentiate that the moons of Jupiter were discs and not point sources as the nearby stars were. It was pretty amazing to be honest. The overall optical quality is better than I had anticipated and the inside/outside of focus tar test shows a little undercorrection, but the effect of this on a 6″ is minimal. In-focus, there are clear Airy disks with a first-order diffraction ring about as bright as expected from a scope with this level of central obstruction, and hints of the second order ring were seen as well.
Contrast is good, but I think that there may be a need for baffling and flocking to get the best performance from this scope, and I think that I will try to remove the mirror clips as these do affect the view. I’ll be on the lookout for a decent 6″ spider to replace the cast aluminium slabs that currently support the secondary. I found that I cannot reach focus with the webcam when using the 1.25″ adapter, so I’ll have to locate a 2″ to 1.25″ and then I’ll have no problems, and then I’ll start to get some decent Jupiter images ;)
Holiday and aftermath
The holiday was excellent. Great hotel, fantastic staff, and an absolutely fantastic location. One of the best weeks I’ve spent on holiday in recent years. It’s a real pity that the tour operator (can’t name them yet – I’ll explain later) were either uncaring or possibly downright malicious in aparrent efforts to scupper what was supposed to be a great gift.
The tour company pretty much lied about the terms that were applicable to the gift, saying originally that the gift applied to all of the destinations in the brochure, and would be applied against the brochure price as printed in the catalogue.
However, as we were doing our research on the locations and the timings, we were told that no, the gift didn’t apply to destinations that flew from Belfast as those were advertised in Sterling in the brochure and therefore the gift wouldn’t be allowed to be used there.
After raising the isuse with the people on the phone, we were told “Sure aren’t you getting a free holiday, what more do you want?” Well what one would expect from such a tour operator would be politeness on the phone, after all we would be spending a significant amount of money with them, and it could have been such a possible public relations coup. But, no, they chose to be bad-minded about it. After re-chosing our shortlist of destinations to only ones that flew from the Republic, we phoned back to get the relative costs of each destination possibility. Armed with this information we made our choice, and phoned back to book. Yes, would you believe it, the so-called “brochure price” had gone up by close to €1000 euro in less than an hour. “Oh, yes, it’s a booking on our live system, the prices can do that” we were told. Of our 8 destination/hotel combinations on the shortlist, 7 had raised in price by over €500. A quick comparison between our quoted final “brochure price” and the actual cost of booking online through their website that day, showed that the difference between the prices was not far from the value of the gift…. It’s a bit of a coincidence I think.
However, destination 8 had only risen by something like €300, and was still within the budget that we had set ourselves. So we booked, and paid the amount over that this holiday would cost over the gift value.
The further coincidences that we were the victim of, were interesting. We were not sitting together on the plane out, nor were we sitting together on the plane back, and the airline had no capability of changing the seating as the travel company did the allocation themselves (I saw the ticket screen and the block that had no change capability). Arriving at the hotel, we were told that our room was on the pool level and had no balcony as a result. The hotel staff knew that this was a less-than-ideal room for a couple on holiday but they had no capacity left to enable a change in room. However, there was a capability to upgrade us to the sister hotel nearby, for no charge. So we naturally took them up on the gracious upgrade offer and we had a brilliant holiday as a result.
Problems and solutions?
Personally, my attendance of the wedding triggered some unfortunate actions and statements from a few small-minded people that have such personal prejudices and terrible small-mindedness that they were willing to invent situations that didn’t exist, and self-persuade that their world-view was so right, even to the point that their stupidity and downright idiocy that could have caused so much hurt and division. However, the people that could have been hurt again, were all adults about the situation, and the hurtful behaviour was put down to it being the result of small-minded and emotionally stunted people, that could have known better yet chose to act the ways that they did.
It’s absolutely fantastic though to be no longer having someone attempt to control me in such a hurtful and damaging manner. It’s a pity that the resolution to that issue had to take the course that it did, as the others involved have neither the emotional maturity nor the capability to understand what is going on, and the means that they will have to sort out their own problems individually and hopefully gain the mental tools to be able to grow up and play nice with the rest of the adults, before the overall situation resolves itself. They will have to be ready to admit for once that maybe they were at fault, and that there may be a need for an apology to not only myself but to a lot of the other people involved. But that would be the mark of adult behaviour, of people that have matured emotionally, and that can interact with other people without displaying such anger and naked agression as they have in the recent past.
As with a lot of things, it takes an admission that there’s a problem before the problem can be resolved, and they are too misguidedly proud and too arrogant to admit that there is a problem that might lie with them. In an ideal world, they would self-analyse, and see that their behaviour was in fact both insulting and inappropriate, and that there is a need to apologise for that behaviour. That would be a good start. Then I’d like to see them seek help for the unresolved issues that they have, that are getting in the way of their lives. Then after that, they should have the nous to realise what is next needed to make restitution with those that they have deeply hurt and angered unnecessarily. Once that step is taken, then they can start to rebuild the relationships that their previous attitudes and behaviours had shattered.
Catherine’s wonderful wedding.
Catherine’s wedding was fantastic. Even allowing for the absolute stupidity and pure selfishness and complete lack of consideration that some people that were close to me unfairly showed in the days leading up to the wedding, it went off as an event to be memorable for all of the right reasons.
It was never going to be an old-fashioned wedding, but as is the right of those chosing to marry, it was done exactly to their desires. It was fun, light-hearted, and thoroughly enjoyable. Everyone that attended was so happy to have been there to share in the wonderful day/night/weekend that the event turned out to be. Everyone that could, helped out in ways that showed that the real definition of a good family is one that actually helps out without complaint, or judgement.
I’m so glad that I went to the wedding, and I am so happy for the newlyweds. Heartfelt congratulations and best wishes for the life that you have both chosen to embark on
Replacement bike. Proud owner of a 2009 Reign X1
After having my Giant Reign nicked from Casttletroy, I figured that after 6 weeks of looking it’s not that likely to turn up safely at this stage. If it does, yippee, but I can’t cycle a bike that I don’t have.
So I decided that I would get the cash together to be able to replace with a bike of somewhat the same type and spec. On donedeal.ie I had seen that there was a Reign X1 for sale, a little outside of my price range, but the seller was open for negotiation. Last week I called down to the seller and I drove home with the X1 on the roof.
It’s a 2009 X1 with the pierced downtube, 160mm Fox Van R 36 forks, Fox DHX3.0 shock with a 500×2.35 spring giving 170mm of travel on hte rear, Hayes stroker trail brakes (not even fully bedded in), Sram X7 drivetrain with RaceFace rings cranks and BB. It has the grey paint of the standard X1. I’ve obtained replacement grips as horns were installed by the first owner, and I’m getting a new seatpost as the original was cut too low for me. There are Shimano dual flat/SPD pedals. The tyres were the standard WTB prowler tyres, but I’ve exchanged those for my standard favourite Maxxis Advantage 2.1 tyres. It took a bit of effort to get those seated correctly on the rims but they are on now and there’s not a wobble on them.
Getting used to the SPDs is interesting. I’ve only had 2 offs so far that are related to SPD issues but the tension was far too high. That’s fixed :) The shoes I got at a cheap price in Decathlon in France are pretty good, comfortable and not giving me any hotspots so far. They could do with a better grip on the flat side of the pedals though.
This bike is now insured properly (I hope) but I don’t want to be the victim of crime again.
I’ve been around Derroura, the green loop in BallyH and a nice fireroad climbing loop on the side of Sliabhnaman so far, as well as a nice loop to Salthill from the house in Galway.
Hope I stay on it..
Viewing Planets in Daytime.
Yesterday evening I went out with my ETX to take a look with the solar filter at the first set of sunspots in weeks.
After spending a bit of time there I thought I’d get a look at Venus as it would be easier to see anything of interest with the daytime sky behind it. I could see it clearly and I got to try some colour filters, and trying all of my eyepieces and barlows to get a view.
Next up was to locate Mars – the Autostar made short work of that, and I could easily see Mars against the daytime sky, with well over an hour to sunset. There was not much to see except hints of markings of course, given the 6.2″ diameter of Mars at the moment and the 2″ rayleigh resolution limit of this little scope, combined with the short 350mm focal length. Still, it was nice to actually see the planet at all.
Feeling confident, I went off and selected Saturn. Lo and behold, there was Saturn, just barely brighter than the background sky, but still visible. I could see the rings almost edge on, and the shadow of the rings on the planet cloudtops. Still impressive I think, and points me to the possibility of observing some items during the day at least
Stolen – Giant Reign
My Giant Reign was stolen from Castletroy on Monday the 17th of May.
It’s a metallic green Giant Reign, with RockShox Recon 335 front forks, and a Specialized V-groove saddle. The bike has sentimental value apart from the actual cost to me to replace it.
If anyone sees this bike either in use or for sale please get in contact with the Gardai in Henry Street, or contact me directly by phone or text on zero eight seven, six four three eight seven two five.
There’s a decent cash reward for information leading to the safe return of this bike.
Binoculars
I got my hands on a battered pair of Teleskop-Service 15×70 binoculars that had been dropped a few times and damaged. The previous owner had tried to fix them but the binoculars just didn’t want to stay aligned. So I had a go at fixing them, and now they stay aligned for the moment and the focuser operates correctly after the addition of a bit of neoprene foam around hte barrels to act as a spring.
First light was Friday night, and it was enlightening to see how easy M101 and M51 were to see, M13 looked like a globular cluster and not just a puffball. M104 was seen as a spindle. It really looked like I was looking through two telescopes and seeing more than I had been seeing in the ETX.
Eyepiece first light, 16mm SWA, 7mm TMB Planetary
I got my hands on these two eyepieces yesterday, and I went cloud-dodging to get a first look through them.
With the work-in-progress briefcase dob, I got a look at a 13-day old moon and Saturn. Both were seen through a variable thin layer of cirrusstratus that was clearing up completely every now and then. Seeing wasn’t that good. The moon showed fast moving ripples over the surface.
The 16mm UWA (cost me €65) is a nicely built eyepiece, possibly a bit weighty. The images are clean and crisp in the scope, and it’s nice to get a good look at last in a premium eyepiece! The eye relief is just not enough to be comfortable with wearing the glasses but at an exit pupil of 2.8mm in my scope my astigmatism wasn’t *that* noticable. However the views were slightly improved with wearing the glasses at a cost of the outer 10 degrees of view. Using the meade #128 barlow with this eyepiece vignetted the outer 10 degrees but allowed the use without glasses for an effective FL of 5.3mm. At the native FL Saturn is crisp, easily showing the major moons. Very slight softness at the edge of field, and requiring a little bit of head movement to get the complete FOV.
The 7mm TMB Planetary (€45) is also very good but different. This is sharper to the field stop than the Meade is at the field stop, but it’s a narrower FOV at 58 degrees. The twist up eyecup is not as useful as the Meade’s. It is a little harder to find the sweet spot for the fully illuminated FOV, but this is reachable with wearing my glasses and I can still see the field stop. Just for fun, I put this eyepiece on the 3x barlow, for an FL of 2.3 and magnification around 580x. It focused to almost sharp, and it was odd seing the seeing shimmers over the globe of Saturn, and I was managing to keep Saturn in hte
The moon wasn’t being that interesting last night. I was looking at sunrise over Schiaparelli and I saw some details in the Aristarchus rilles that I never looked at before.
Saturn was not far from edge-on, with the gap between the rings and planet being difficult to see, and Cassini’s division was intermittently visible.The moons were resolving almost to points as it appeared that the high-altitude cirrus was getting in the way a bit.
My overall impression is that these eyepieces do make the telescope “get of the way” when looking through them. I’m looking forwards to adding a TV 2x barlow or powermate to the arsenal. The comfort difference that the wider FOV and longer eye relief gives is really quite a big one. The longer time between nudges is very useful too. MAkes me want to get that equatorial platform up and running.
Stuck in London
That unpronounceable volcano in Icelsnd has prevented me from being at home this weekend.
I can’t argue with the NATS decision to stop air flights, so I’ll have to consider a bus-ferry ticket this weekend as an alternative in case Ryanair decide to not fly again for a few days.
There is some hope about the restrictions being lifted by tomorrow, but the restrictions are looking likely to be back in place by Wednesday. The ash models are showing no real movement except to reach Canada..