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Old 19-10-2018, 06:52 PM
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silv (Annette)
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Germany 54°N
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doing visual from a window sill on 2nd floor in the city

Sat in my chair at the window at midnight, looking through 7x50 straight into the milky way band in the west/north west. Located within a big city, but looking out over a parking lot and further away, over a less densely populated/illuminated area directly west of me. I so much enjoyed "drinking in the ocean of stars" that I felt giddy inside. Like back in New Zealand, when the bug first bit me in 2012.

That part of the milky way, topped by the North American Nebula, will be observable from my chair until mid December, followed by Andromeda in January and less and less "action" until March/April - when the observation season is over on 54th latitude.

Today, I'll be collecting my new used 102/500 off ebay and, hopefully, my new Arcturus binoviewer, as well, shipped from UK.

I was thinking of an Alt-Az Goto mount, the iOptron CubePro which got improved upon and ships as new version since last December. TS has it on sale for 140€ less at 341€ , ATM, if anyone's interested. Got confirmation it's the new version, they just didn't update their shop description.

But I think I'll forego that for the moment.
I can make do with a cushion on the window sill as "mount" for the tube, just scanning up and down the milky way from here. A long dew shield out of a yoga mat to fight off the street lights. And a piece of black cloth in the window frame down to the sill as curtain to preserve pupil size - so I don't have to throw it over myself and the focuser which I assume is less comfortable than the curtain.

The session yesterday only lasted 10 minutes but it was awesome. Feeling the emotion of "being connected" again with what's out there was a "gift from heaven", like a German idiom goes. I hope I can get drunk on the stars again, tonight, in an even more comfortable position AND with even better light gathering toys! Forecast Clouds says there's a time window early tonight - and tomorrow night it'll be perfectly clear again around midnight
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