Long time no see :-)

[Thunder Child]

Hi guys,

Long time no see indeed Just popped by and decided to rejoin the TWOTW front. Hope you forgive me for being away all that time ;D

First of all I would like to say that I am really looking forward to stevesudz' project! Those pictures are looking absolutely FAN-TAS-TIC!

Personaly I'm very busy with my new hobby: nightvision scopes. Although still in Dutch only, take a look at my website at: www.erebus-nachtzicht.nl and tell me what you think.

How are things going along here?

[RustiSwordz]

Im looking for nightvision for stargazing. i was told its good for stargazing from towns where there is light pollution, as long as you keep the light source out of the field of view.

Any suggestions?

PS: good to see you back!

[Commandingtripod]

Hey Thunderchild, welcome back!

[Lonesome Crow]

Dec 12, 2009 22:36:50 GMT 1 RustiSwordz said:

Im looking for nightvision for stargazing. i was told its good for stargazing from towns where there is light pollution, as long as you keep the light source out of the field of view.

Any suggestions?

PS: good to see you back!

Which particular Star do you have living in your area? and is she cute? ;D

[richardburton]

Welcome back, TC

[Thunder Child]

Thanks for the welcome backs

Rusti: If you are indeed talking about astronomical stargazing ;)then I think I can give you some advice.

First of all it is important to realize that in the city the nightvision scope does not only amplify light from stars and planets, but also from the town itself. So altough even in the city you will see far more stars with a NV scope then you will with the naked eye, it WILL amplify light pollution too, spoiling the view to some extent... It is true that you always should avoid street lights shining into the objective lens of the scope. Especially mirror lenses are very sensitive from this and even a streetlight tens of feet away will cause a light smear in your view, even when not directly in view.

To really take everything from your scope and the stars at night you should drive out of the city to a place where light pollution is as low as possible. With a good scope you will be amazed

What kind of scope to use?

That depends on the expectations you have, and of course your budget. You got your Russian generation 1 scopes that are pretty good to begin with. I used one of these in our Skywatch team ten years ago and it shows vaque satellites, meteors and airplane lights pretty good. On E-Bay Germany these sell for between 50 and 150 Euro's in used but good state.

On the moment I use a cascade generation 1 tube that are available on E-Bay UK at the moment. You still have to build your own scope around it but the view and light amplification is excellent.

If you want to go further then you could consider a generation 2 scope like the British L6A1 military spotting scope you find on E-Bay once in a while. Light gain, image quality and resolution are very good, but these sell between 500 and 800 Euro's...

Hope this helps...

[Scifishocks]

Welcome back, fella!