Stu

I got myself a 102ED for similar reasons this Winter and am awaiting a 12' Dob. Having been used to views through a 9.25 SCT, I was curious to see the differences between the apertures and types of scopes under my suburban skies.

Having a fairly large city to the North [Dundee] pretty much wipes out that side of the sky but South is out to farmland, so despite local light from houses and street lamps, it's not too bad. The MW is visible naked eye on good nights.

I'm trying to get a feel for which will be the most effective but have had so few clear nights this Winter that I'm no further forward.

My guess is that I'll end up keeping them all for differing uses.

I lived most of my life near Richmond, so know exactly what the LP is like around you :-)

Best

Duncan

Thanks for the comment Duncan. I would love to be able to see the MW from here, but I've only once had hints of it on a very clear dark night :-(.

In general, I reckon aperture always helps so the 12" should be very nice. Where aperture doesn't help very much at all is with low surface brightness objects. If the object is fainter than the sky background then it doesn't matter how much aperture you have, the object won't be visible.

I generally concentrate on planets, doubles, open and globular clusters from home, with the occasional look at something like M81/2. The other objects I tend to leave for holidays or rare star parties.

I do love refractors for the pin point star shapes and wide field views.

Cheers,

Stu

Nice realistic & informative report Stu.

Have you viewed Abireo in your TV's ? I f so how does they look ?

I am quite looking forward to viewing this blue and orange double star in the Pronto, that's if I can find it without the GoTo :-)

Shaun

Certainly have Shaun, at least I have in the 76. It's a really wonderful sight, the star colours are lovely. That's one thing I love about these scopes, looking at clusters and really seeing all the different colours peppering the view.

Easy enough to find, don't need Goto for that :-).

The Double Double splits very nicely in it too so it well worth a look.

Have you tried Almach? Another of my favourites, and if you fancy a challenge you could try Izar. That's really quite tight but I can split it with the 76.

Cheers,

Stu

It is supposed to be clear from 6pm here tonight Stu, If this turns out to be the case I will give your suggestions a try later. :-) 

I have viewed the Double Double and Almach :-) 

In my experience, observing with small scopes in urban skies can be pleasing as long as you adjust your expectations. For example, my 66mm ED refractor is never going to show me M31 in it's full glory from my heavily light polluted skies, but it does show me M31. Small refractors are perfect for widefield - the occasional cluster (probably shown almost as a smudge) and brighter nebula. Looking southwards towards the horizon however is off with the 66mm for me - it's the direction of the city centre. The main advantage with these small refractors is that they are light and easy to set-up which is especially good if you're tired from work ;).

My NELM is probably around 4.1, maybe 3.7 ish when looking southwards (where I do most of my observing!)

I agree Stu,  if I want to look at M31 I will use the T31 Nagler and my 9.25 as it fills the whole eyepiece.

The Pronto is brilliant on stars, I am sure I split Sirius with last week, it was shimmering like crazy and I am not sure if it was the twinkling effect that fooled me.

I can be observing within 5 minutes with both setups if I am honest,  being able to grab and go with the Pronto is very handy to say the least.

Agreed, but think about this. With the C9.25 and the nag you get a 1.1 degree field of view. That's only enough to fit the central core in really.

With the 76 and Pronto you get 5.3 degrees (maybe a little less due to field stop, not sure). Under a light polluted sky it will be fairly useless, but get somewhere really dark, with inky black skies and good dark adaptation and you can really begin to see the full extent of the galaxy. It is huge!

Yes I understand from previous threads it is big galaxy, We have a local dark site (20 mins drive) which is milky way dark and Antarctic cold. Saturday is forecast good and if it turns out to be so I will take the Proto over with me and check it out.

I am going to have to invest in a midrange eyepiece between 17.3 and 31mm, I was hoping to get the Antares 2" x 1,7 barlow but after 7 weeks of waiting I cancelled the order.

Shaun.