dweller25

I like both EQ and Alt-Az EQ so I can draw at the eyepiece. Alt-Az lets me get out and observe really quickly with no fuss.

The focus knob does not zoom the image larger as you turn it, it just makes the image come to focus when you go the right way. As others have said, If the view of the object gets bigger when you focus just turn the focus knob in the opposite direction 👍 For the planets you need at least a 10mm eyepiece to give x150 magnification.

For visual I set the latitude scale as accurately as possible, then use a compass to point it to true north - which for my location is about 2’ from magnetic north. Then I level it up and I am ready to go - may need to make small adjustments every 10 minutes. £250 sounds about right.

@quasar117 The Vixen GP has a 60mm snout fitting. I use mine on a UNI28 with the 60mm recess fitting.

Jupiter is getting smaller now but the turbulence in the North equatorial belt is very obvious. I had fairly good seeing tonight and could just make out a projection on the south side of the NEB. Europa was in transit but I could not see it. The Great red spot looks more orange to me nowadays. North is up and the preceding side is to the left. Drawn between 18:00 and 18:10, 25/2/24 TSA120, x175, seeing AII PS - Jupiter was not this big in the eyepiece !

Looking good Mike 👍

Last night (24th Feb) around 7:30pm a meteorite passed directly over me. In a brief few seconds it was bright, then disappeared, then became bright and disappered twice more. So I’m guessing it was bouncing off the atmosphere ? It was a nice sight 🙂👍

Just imagine what you could see in a 12” Mike 😈

Jupiter is slipping into the west now but heres a chance to see the Great red spot, a Europa transit and a Europa shadow transit all between 6:15pm and 7:00pm.

You already own a classic frac 👍🙂

@Sunshine Did you buy it ?

Hello Charles I am also a spectacle wearer and observe with them on as I like to draw at the eyepiece. I look for eyepiece with a long eye relief, typically around 20mm eye relief is good for me. Roughly, roughly Longer focal length eyepieces like your 20,35 and 32mm will have lots of eye relief, the 15mm and below is where you may struggle ? One solution is to take your specs off but I prefer to leave them on and then Barlow the longer focal length eyepieces, so with a x2 Barlow your 20mm eyepiece would become a 10mm but still have long eye relief 🙂 You have a good scope, for the planets you need a magnification of around x180 which is a 4mm eyepiece or an 8mm eyepiece with a x2 Barlow. The eyepiece magnification formula is : magnification = focal length of telescope/focal length of eyepiece. Your scope has a focal length of 750mm, so magnification for a 4mm eyepiece = 750/4, which is x187 Apologies if you know all this 👍

@SwiMatt I see you are using your Skymax 127 on a light weight alt-az setup. Is this because you need to travel to an observing site and need a small light setup ?

Hello @SwiMatt One factor that can drastically effect planetary views is thermal equilibrium of the primary mirror. It can take a long time for the thin boundary layer of residual heat to disappear from the surface of the primary. To overcome this you could try putting a couple of layers of reflectix around the OTA. This will effectively lag the scope preventing the temperature gradient between the optics and the cooler OTA walls. This will allow you to use scope immediately when you take it out and will prevent dew formation on the corrector for much longer.

And the Vixen 115mm at 4.4Kg https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/vixen-sd115-.html

And here is a 120mm doublet Fluorite from Agema https://www.agemaoptics.com/telescopes/agema-sd-120/

The Askar 120 triplet OTA is 5.7Kg Including tube rings and dovetail it’s 6.5Kg https://www.firstlightoptics.com/askar-telescopes/askar-120-apo-triplet-refractor.html

Sorry, No, I am visual only

Hello @Hellfire and welcome to SGL. You have a great scope - try to get it on Jupiter ASAP as it’s past closest approach now. What eyepieces do you have ?

I had an OK C6, an excellent C8 and a bad C9.25, in my opinion optical quality does vary with SCT’s. I now have a Mewlon 180 which is superb, it’s very sharp and it’s high contrast continues to amaze me compared to the SCT’s.

Sadly my C9.25 was a lemon, easily beaten by a 4” refractor

@Flame Nebula I know you only asked about the C9.25 but for similar money you can get one of these which will be much more useable on more nights. Cools quicker and does not need collimating too… https://www.firstlightoptics.com/askar-telescopes/askar-140-apo-triplet-refractor.html

The C9.25 can be a very good scope, it will need at least an EQ6 to support it. Thermal stability issues can be avoided by wrapping the OTA with Reflectix.

That fall could will get expensive 😱

Yes, as others have said, you have already reached the maximum useful limit at x170. So your next eyepiece should have a 4” refractor attached to it 🙂👍