More details on velcro straps for Telrad bases: Cut the smartphone dash pad to match the foam tape dimensions of the Telrad base and place the pad and base on the OTA in correct location. Get some Velcro brand hook and loop velcro. Cut 2 pieces of the hook part to fit and adhere on the Telrad base across the top of the base on both ends of the base between the connection points for the Telrad. Get the $7 roll of velcro from Harbor Freight that has hook and loop on both sides. Connect the Harbor velcro loop (soft side)to the hook strip on the Telrad base and wrap it around the OTA taught and then press the velcro to the top of the Telrad base hook strip. The soft side or loop side of the velcro is facing and touching the OTA surface so it won’t harm it. You get a stable and secure Telrad base which is also easily removable if ever needed. Hope this helps.

Greg: Thanks. What do you do with your astrophotos? Is there a platform where I can see them? I would love to see your photo of the Mice. I could only find one other than NASA's photos and it was not very good. The Mice are 290 million light years away. So, I would be curious to see what you can do with it. You would need to use your biggest telescope I would imagine.

@@tsulasbigadventures Hi Tsula! As I was watching your video I took a look at Stellarium for the Mice and saw that I can only image them for about 1.5 hrs each night right now so it will take a couple of nights. Yes, I'll most likely use my EdgeHD 8 (2032 fL) at f/10, so I'm not sure how many nights I'll need for a good SNR. I'm going to give it a try, though!

@@tsulasbigadventures Hi again Tula. Forgot to mention…I put most of my astrophotos on Astrobin (CingStars). That will most likely be where I’ll post the Mice image if I can get enough time.

@@tsulasbigadventures Not sure if my previous got posted. I keep most of my photos on Astro bin (one word) and my handle is CingStars.

@@tsulasbigadventures Well, try number 3. I post my photos on bin of the astro (I couldn't put the actual name or the post was deleted) under the users folder and my handle is cing stars (one word). Fingers crossed this post survives!

I could have been mistaken. It seemed like I could just see a lump of gray wiggles as you described. I tried again in a Bortle 1, SQM 21.8, with a 10" SCT and it looked about the same-- gray something definitely nothing appearing like a mouse.

@@tsulasbigadventures What I mean is that with REALLY faint fuzzies, they're sometimes only slightly brighter than the intervening atmosphere. You have to bump the scope to see if a fuzzy spot 'wiggles' in the FoV.

@@RideAcrossTheRiver Oh!. Thanks for clarifying. I thought you meant that you didn't think I saw it. Yes, that is a good suggestion. I have read about it before about jiggling the telescope. I will have to mention that technique in my next video. Thank you.

@@tsulasbigadventures Hyperventilating will oxygenate your bloodstream and improve retinal sensitivity ... so they say!

@@RideAcrossTheRiver OK. I have never heard of that one. I think lifting the 30 pound telescope onto the mount and nearly dropping it definitely causing intense hyperventilating. I'll see if the observing is better at the beginning of observing as a result.

Meditation sounds good except I am constantly on the lookout for animals. I put the patch over my viewing eye and look at the constellations with my other eye and try to figure out what they are. It's very difficult because that other eye is not very good.

Thanks. OK I will. But I'm going to select something a little bit easier to see next time.

I know they are out of the realm of possibility from your back yard with that terrible street light and other lights but have you ever seen the Mice from a dark sky site?

That's great. Thank you for watching and supporting my little channel.

Drag it into the woods? I practically ripped my shoulder out of the socket getting it onto the mount. That thing is a monster.

agreed. Tsula's videos are excellent. I have so much to learn, and she is a great mentor/teacher.

Aw. Thank you so much!

Thank you!

It's a Bortle 3. I took an SQM and it was 21.4 or something. I can't remember. But Xasteria says Bortle 3.

Thank you. I'm glad you liked it.

That's right. Those smudges are galaxies. It took me years of scanning the skies with my 8" Dobsonian and never finding anything to finally realize I was looking right at it all along. It helps to know what to look for, right.

@@tsulasbigadventures the sky was really nice and like many these days I have charts on my phone and I thought at the time should I get paper charts? Either way I need light to see either. I used velco to stick my phone to my scope so I can use Astrohopper, I alien to Vaga then to Polaris and we're off to the races. My scope is 100% manual but once I find a smudge oh baby I'm going to see what I can! For a free program I have to say NICE! It has night mode

Thanks. I love that two volume set. Wonderful purchase. It takes very little to prompt the need for a new scope, right.

Thank you. I will!

Thank you. That's an idea. I've never done it before. So, I will need to research it after my big dark sky camping trip is over. I'm only half way through it today but when I get back I will look into how you do that. Thanks for the suggestion.

This was the hardest object I've ever tried for. Next time I need to be easier on myself.

Thanks, Linda. They were very hard to see even from my Bortle 3 skies on a clear dark night.

Well, I knew there was no way I was going to see these difficult objects with those tiny little telescopes but it gave me an excuse to pull them out and polar align. Thank you about the sunset time lapse.

Can you see the Mice with your 12" telescope from where you are located?

@@tsulasbigadventures Tsula, I have not tried. 😊 Yet.

OK. I made one video a while back about Mu Cephei and it did not get very many views. Maybe the title was baffling to most people. I will make another one and give it an exciting title. Do you have a favorite?

Thank you! I don't think you will be able to see it with an 8" telescope. I could barely see it vague hint of something with the 10" telescope. But you never know. Good luck.

Thank you. That is very nice of you to say. Good luck with the mice.

Very difficult to practically impossible.

Thank you. Well, I will never see Alpha Centauri from 45 degrees. So that's pretty neat you saw that from where you are. It was miraculous to see the aurora from own driveway and I do feel blessed. Sorry to hear about the light pollution there but that is amazing to see Northern Lights in Hawaii! That is so cool. Do they allow public observing from Mauna Kea? Now that is dark. Clear skies to you too.

@@tsulasbigadventures I don't believe they do allow personal tours up to Mauna Kea anymore, Tsula. As you may have heard, we are losing a lot of the telescopes on that mountain, because some Hawaiian cultural practitioners have declared Mauna Kea sacred. They believe that the University of Hawai'i Board of Trustees have been insensitive to traditional Hawaiian culture by allowing ANY telescopes at all to be constructed on ANY mountain in Hawai'i. We've been building them since I was a kid here in the 1960s. So, eventually, all the world famous and scientifically-vital instruments (Keck, etc...) will be removed from Hawai'i. It's my personal opinion that the proposed 30-meter scope (TMT) will not be built there in future, either. We had a big, high-tension, media frenzy over it over a decade ago. People stood there and stopped the bulldozers and whatnot from breaking ground on the new 'scope. Last month, the USAF Pan-STARRS facility was denied permission to add more meteor/comet watching scopes on Haleakala on the island of Maui. I've not yet heard of any agitprop advocating for the removal of these potentially life-saving instruments, but I won't be surprised if such calls for demolition of even these telescopes ring out in due course. My personal feeling growing up here was that Hawaiians were so happy and proud of their ancestors who were...and ARE...superb celestial navigators. I'm given to believe the ancient Hawaiians loved the stars. Who could blame them? That's why I can't understand this opposition to scientific efforts to see and understand the stars through these various instruments. An ancient Hawaiian would go nuts just looking at the stars through some (optically-stabilised?) binoculars, let alone a multi-meter-wide telescope. Alas...I am not culturally equipped to understand it all. Revel in your skies and enjoy the views your instruments provide you. Aloha, Tsula!

I went to Big Bend last January and it was very dark and very clear but it was winter time. The air can get bad down there due to the dust in the air. That was probably the problem. I'm dealing with very bad weather. Very bad. I hope it clears up soon.

@@tsulasbigadventures Perhaps that was the case. I know seeing was not good but transparency was well like I said like bortle 4ish Maybe next time will be better.

@@lornaz1975 That's a shame. There is a sign near one of the visitor centers that explains about how the air quality deteriorates in the summer. You should give it another try. You live a lot closer to it than I do. For me it's much easier to go to some closer places but I do wish I had taken a larger telescope with me when I went in winter to try for the Horsehead Nebula.

@@tsulasbigadventures That kinda makes sense. It was April but it was 95° too so a lot like summer.

@@lornaz1975 Yes, it gets very hot down there. The first time I went it was June and it was well over 100 degrees the whole time and just in the mid 80s at night. But the stars were magnificent.

That's awesome.

I need a helper to even get that monster telescope onto the mount. This is a serious set up. More when I return. Thanks.

There is just nothing quite like it, is there?

I'm going to probably need surgery to my shoulder after this trip. I'm half way through and will give my final prognosis when I get back. Cheers.