[Leica] IMG: 6 inch reflector

[Howard Ritter]

Douglas,

Don’t be deterred by light from your neighbor’s house! If you have a clear shot at the planets’ location as of twilight, go for it! Or rather, don’t go…to a better location. In terms of light pollution and planetary viewing, no location is better than another – Jupiter and Saturn are bright enough to be seen under any conditions of light pollution. In fact, the best time to view them (to reduce contrast) is as soon as you can make them out in fading twilight. If you know exactly where to point your scope, they can even be seen shortly before sunset. 

I had the opportunity to use a pair of those Fujinon binoculars mounted on a reclining and swiveling chair at the Oz Sky Safari in rural Australia a couple of years ago. Talk about splendid excess! Mine are mere 100mm binoculars from the German firm APM. I’ve attached a photo of my small and medium astronomical optics in the hope that it will make it to your personal email in the BCC list. 

Also, I’ve added a couple of more versions of the Orion image to the album <http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/hlritter/Nikon+Astro/>, these from stacked-and-combined frames to reduce noise.

—howard

> On Dec20, 2020, at 1941, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:
> 
> Thanks Howard, I'm very much the neophyte in this area, but unfortunately in the ASS (Avoidance of Spousal Screams) factor, I have an awkward counter tendency towards excessive GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome), currently downsizing from a peak of 60 cameras, and this new rabbit hole looks like it just might need expensive ladders. When I saw 25" Dobsonian and then 100mm binoculars, my interest was immediately piqued. Eyeing my downcast looking 12x50 binoculars, I just had to look up binoculars of a size commensurate with my astral ambitions. As a man who has Fuji, my eye was caught by a 25x150mm Fujinon weighing in at a lightweight 18.5kg and I thought it would grace one of the windows until I saw the €38,450 price tag!!
> 
> Yikes! I could buy a nice secondhand Porsche for that. It cured my GAS anyway - for a while... Seriously, on the conjunction, I took the 6" out this evening onto my patio, but knew that I wouldn't get the maximum darkness as my neighbour's house intrudes on final 5 degrees. So going out slightly earlier I found the two planets are very low, too close to the setting sun and resolution was pretty poor compared to when they were higher in the sky. I think I may have to give it a miss tomorrow as travelling to a better location in this pandemic isn't too wise. Better to fight another day.
> 
> Your pictures are excellent and certainly whetted my appetite. I'll head out to see the Orion Nebula over the next week or so.
> 
> Douglas