dweller25

I have seen the bright limb many times and believe it to be morning haze/mist/dew. Saw it again this morning whilst observing.

The GRS will be central in twilight this evening.....

I was 100% clouded out 😕

The GRS and the shadow of Ganymede just starting a transit will just be visible as it gets dark tonight. I’m going to do a clear skies dance 😁

I put a thin aluminium strip between the tightening screw and the scope dovetail

Absolutely marvellous 👍

Nice drawing Mike 👍

I use an ios app called gas giants

GRS just past central now

Yes 😕

Can make out orange hue to GRS now

GRS visible now but seeing not great

The great red spot will be visible tonight just as its getting dark. Fingers crossed for clear skies 🤞

Looking forward to Mars rising a bit earlier - well done for getting/staying up 👍

Magnification = (focal length x gpc x 1.7)/eyepiece length 1.7 is an approximate factor for the binoviewer effect 2.6 GPC actually gives x2.4 So for a 600mm focal length scope ?? magnification = (600x2.4x1.7)/13 magnification = x188 approx

In addition to the good tips above I would suggest buying a neutral density 96-03 (50% transmission) filter to dim the views a little. A 10” Newt catches a lot of light and can wash detail away on the planets.

Excellent sketch and photo 👍

Great sketch Rob, Have you tried a neutral density filter with your C8 to try and dim the view down a little ? It may help with the colour. I had the same issue when I used a 10” Dob

Best of luck 👍

The Skywatcher Heritage 130 would be my suggestion. Very portable, quick to setup and cooldown, good value for money and optics that are capable of showing a lot of planetary detail and good deep sky performance too.

Sorry to hear of your fathers passing. You have made a very fine choice, like you I bought the DZ very much with the future in mind as I have a bad back so it’s light weight and superb fluorite optics are the perfect combination. I have also changed out the Tak finder for a Skywatcher RACI for comfort. I am sure you will get many hours of pleasure from this excellent instrument, I cannot wait for Mars to start rising a little earlier....... My box did have a cloud forecast sticker 🥴

Are you sure it’s difficult ?? I have manually tracked whilst drawing planets with a dob at x200 - it was not hard, I just used a wide angle eyepiece. If you are looking for the best views a 6-8” Dobsonian will show more detail than a 5” Mak

My first scope : 8.5” Astro Systems Newtonian : 1986 Altaz first.... Then the same scope but changed to an equatorial mount.....

You could buy a relatively cheap but high performing dobsonian now which will allow you to dip your toe in the water and later put it on an equatorial mount with tracking motors, thats what I did.......

I have had great success wrapping my Maksutov with two layers of reflectix from B&Q. The scope stays in thermal equilibrium when you bring it outside and it takes much longer for the corrector to dew over.