Just joined

[Neil Phillips]

Was asked to introduce myself. Some may have heard of me

Been doing astronomy since about age 11. Getting a 60mm Tasco as a christmas present. Many years later used a succession of scopes mostly dobs 6" 

8"  16" A couple of refractors. Meade 7"  F15 Mak.  8" 10 11 " SCTs came and went. Started doing imaging with toucam pro. and phillips spc900 webcams. Got a 245mm F6.3 Orion optics Newtonian. Around 2006 Which was really a great Telescope. That i still use today. Other scopes have come and gone. My current scopes are the Orion, now with Antares 1/30th pv secondary. 

Bresser 127l refractor F9.5   SW 70mm F12.8 refractor. Stella Lyra 8" Classical cassegrain. Celestron 4.5 F8 Newtonian. Current cameras QHY462C. And ZWO 178M.

Retired and shacked up with my missus in Lowestoft. Due to the pandemic and health issues. Dont really go out much now. With plenty of time for astronomy

https://ibb.co/rFBLWLM

https://ibb.co/SPFx7Qq

https://ibb.co/P5CrCLG

Edited December 5, 2021 by Neil Phillips

[+RonC]

Welcome Neil, quite an assortment of scopes there! I hope to retire at the end of January, so I too will have more time (just need more clear sky's!)

Are you more planetary or DSS or both?

You're not far from Graham, one of our more prolific contributors and a great guy!!

Take care

 

Ron 

[Bottletopburly]

Welcome Neil 👍

[Neil Phillips]

3 hours ago, RonC said:

Welcome Neil, quite an assortment of scopes there! I hope to retire at the end of January, so I too will have more time (just need more clear sky's!)

Are you more planetary or DSS or both?

You're not far from Graham, one of our more prolific contributors and a great guy!!

Take care

 

Ron 

Thanks for the warm welcome Ron. Really just lunar and planetary. Live in a very light polluted area. So no inspiration to broaden my interest mostly because of that

Will leave a couple of my old sites. The planetary site. Was me learning as i went along. Some awful early experiments in processing on there. Mostly colour. But i have lots of memories attached. So prefer to leave alone

https://meademan175.tripod.com/index.html

 

https://pbase.com/neilphillips/neil_phillips_high_resolution_mono_and_colour_images_in_the_uk&page=1

Edited December 5, 2021 by Neil Phillips

[Neil Phillips]

2 hours ago, Bottletopburly said:

Welcome Neil 👍

Hey Thanks David much appreciated. 

[+Bino-viewer]

Welcome once again Neil, it's good to have you with us.

I think your list of telescopes past and present probably mirrors quite a few of us who have been in this hobby since our early teens.

 

I am currently the owner of 3 telescopes (105 & 140mm refractors and a recent second hand purchase of an OO 250/1200 F4.8 Newtonian) and owned another 9 before it.

 

Honourably discharged includes :

'Astral 60'   50mm Tasco type refractor  (Christmas present from parents, early 1980s to get me further into astronomy)

 

10" OO F4.8 Newtonian on a wobbly  EQ mount

10" OO F6.3 Dob  (Second hand buy)

12" OO F4 Dob

 

 

8" Edge Celestron SCT

9.25 Celestron SCT

6" Meade ACF SCT (Second hand buy)

 

70mm 'Technosky' imaging refractor

132mm William Optics FLT refractor

 

 

I've never owned a Maksutov scope, but have looked through a few over the years, and confess i've never really got on too well with catadioptric scopes 

as i find their tight field of view a bit restricting. I think i've always been a refractor guy at heart !! My current 140 TEC is my all time favourite telescope,

and was an early retirement present. I've not retired just yet, but will be about there in the next 3 or 4 years, maybe less.

Hopefully then, i can concentrate on astronomy a lot more and have a proper go at imaging.

I don't have a dedicated astro cam as such, at the moment i'm using a Canon FF EOS R mirrorless that can be used for astro imaging.

 

I also enjoy binocular astronomy, and have 3 pairs of binocs : 10x30 and 15x50 Canons and a very nice pair of 7x50 Fujinons.

 

Enjoy the forum 😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bottletopburly]

17 minutes ago, Bino-viewer said:

70mm 'Technosky' imaging refracto

Now in a loving home 😆

[Neil Phillips]

8 minutes ago, Bino-viewer said:

Welcome once again Neil, it's good to have you with us.

I think your list of telescopes past and present probably mirrors quite a few of us who have been in this hobby since our early teens.

 

I am currently the owner of 3 telescopes (105 & 140mm refractors and a recent second hand purchase of an OO 250/1200 F4.8 Newtonian) and owned another 9 before it.

 

Honourably discharged includes :

'Astral 60'   50mm Tasco type refractor  (Christmas present from parents, early 1980s to get me further into astronomy)

 

10" OO F4.8 Newtonian on a wobbly  EQ mount

10" OO F6.3 Dob  (Second hand buy)

12" OO F4 Dob

 

 

8" Edge Celestron SCT

9.25 Celestron SCT

6" Meade ACF SCT (Second hand buy)

 

70mm 'Technosky' imaging refractor

132mm William Optics FLT refractor

 

 

I've never owned a Maksutov scope, but have looked through a few over the years, and confess i've never really got on too well with catadioptric scopes 

as i find their tight field of view a bit restricting. I think i've always been a refractor guy at heart !! My current 140 TEC is my all time favourite telescope,

and was an early retirement present. I've not retired just yet, but will be about there in the next 3 or 4 years, maybe less.

Hopefully then, i can concentrate on astronomy a lot more and have a proper go at imaging.

I don't have a dedicated astro cam as such, at the moment i'm using a Canon FF EOS R mirrorless that can be used for astro imaging.

 

I also enjoy binocular astronomy, and have 3 pairs of binocs : 10x30 and 15x50 Canons and a very nice pair of 7x50 Fujinons.

 

Enjoy the forum 😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey thanks Rob much appreciated. Yes there is a theme with a lot of us i feel. Often start out with a Tasco. You can tell a guy who is serious about hes astronomy from the scopes that have gone through hes hands. Nice collection of scopes over the years Rob. Yes i can understand the shut in feel one gets with long focal length scopes. My current Classical Cass is a case in point. Only recently got it. ( from pulsar obs )  Still need to get a good repeatable finder aligned on it. Couldnt get jupiter on the chip the other day a nightmare. But for visual other than planets and craters at high mag some small DSOs pretty limiting. Being a high power guy. I love mine. But get where your coming from with the tight feild of view comments

[Neil Phillips]

6 minutes ago, Bottletopburly said:

Now in a loving home 😆

70mm scopes can be great. Even cheap Achro ones believe it or not. I have a cracker of a 70mm F12.8 SW really razor sharp. Not good for wide feild though. But as you can tell i mostly do hi res

I take it yours does widefield service

[BAZ]

Hi Neil, a warm welcome to the group.

Yup, a 50mm Tasco did it for me with a dancing view of Saturn, I still remember the buzz from seeing it for the first time. 

Make yourself at home and enjoy your stay.

[Bottletopburly]

16 minutes ago, Neil Phillips said:

70mm scopes can be great. Even cheap Achro ones believe it or not. I have a cracker of a 70mm F12.8 SW really razor sharp. Not good for wide feild though. But as you can tell i mostly do hi res

I take it yours does widefield service

I mainly only image having fiddled with my sw200pds currently upgrading focuser to a steel track seldom put an eyepiece near a scope so the 70mm /350fl can get m42 /m31 in though recently upgraded camera to a zwo533mc, smaller fov with that chip but should still get it in fov , I have a 127mm mal too for planetary just haven’t got round to using it which I must do as I upgraded my qhy5l to a qhy5-290mm for the sole reason even got the filter wheel and filters etc .

[Neil Phillips]

1 hour ago, Bottletopburly said:

I mainly only image having fiddled with my sw200pds currently upgrading focuser to a steel track seldom put an eyepiece near a scope so the 70mm /350fl can get m42 /m31 in though recently upgraded camera to a zwo533mc, smaller fov with that chip but should still get it in fov , I have a 127mm mal too for planetary just haven’t got round to using it which I must do as I upgraded my qhy5l to a qhy5-290mm for the sole reason even got the filter wheel and filters etc .

 

1 hour ago, BAZ said:

Hi Neil, a warm welcome to the group.

Yup, a 50mm Tasco did it for me with a dancing view of Saturn, I still remember the buzz from seeing it for the first time. 

Make yourself at home and enjoy your stay.

Thanks Baz. Though of course we are a dying bread. The tasco generation. Todays kids. Many years from now will be talking about the first sky watcher they got no doubt.

 Dave

Yes your Mak will come in handy. in a few months. Mars already slowly rising in front of the sun. Interestingly Venus. will be doable in a few weeks. Though quite low. Hoping to get it at least to 16 degrees elevation. Used Schuler and Astrodon UV filters in the past. This time, because its such a brief showing. Going to try a violet W47 filter ( 9 quid ) with a IR CUT i already have. For the W47 IR leak. Some cloud can and has been filmed with such cheap filters. Not as contrasty as a dedicated UV. But fairly detailed. Your Mak should give you good service when Jupiter is at 39 degrees UK 

Edited December 5, 2021 by Neil Phillips

[Brantuk]

Hi Neil and a warm welcome to EMS from me too 🙂

[tuckstar]

Hi Neil, welcome aboard.

[8472]

Hi Neil, warm welcome from me.

[Neil Phillips]

Much appreciated Guys 

[+Glafnazur]

Hi and welcome Neil. My first scope was made by my dad using two spectacle lenses and some plastic tubes, loads of CA but one look at the moon and I was hooked. My next scope was a Tasco, after that I found other things to take my time although I always retained an interest in astronomy. after getting married and settling down I bought an Orion Optics 200mm F6 Europa that kept me happy for many years until I bought a WO ZS66 second hand and since then I've found that refractors seem to breed 🙂   

[Stephen]

Hi Neil welcome to the EMS