John

A recent purchase 🙂

I understand the lure of such specimens 😏 I have some small pieces of the Moon and Mars:

Thank you very much for the heads up Stephan 👍 I was going to take a break from observing tonight but clear sky plus your "heads up " on this conjunction of Venus and Neptune persuaded me to get a scope out. Sure enough, Neptune was around 1/4 of a degree from Venus and just about visible in the twilight sky at 191x with my 100mm refractor. My 4.7mm eyepiece is one of those very wide field ones so I was able to squeeze the two planets into the same field of view. Not far away Jupiter was bright so I had a look at that as well then onto Mars (it's disk is a little smaller than Venus now, around 9 arc seconds). To round off this quick solar system tour I managed to find Uranus in Aries and the comet in Taurus. Worth the pre-supper effort I reckon and motivation to post this little report here after rather a barren spell from me 😀 Thanks again !

Nick, that was one of the best posts that I have read on a forum for a long time. Thanks so much for posting it and for the efforts that you and your colleagues are making to share this wonderful knowledge that we have been privileged enough to pick up in our hobby. I am 100% in agreement with the sentiments that you express. John Dobson had it right I feel: "...the importance of a telescope is not how big it is, it's not how well made it is, it's how many people less fortunate than you got to look through it...."

I am very sorry indeed to learn this news. John was a major and valuable contributor to this forum. He was very experienced and always seemed to have useful, innovative and practical advice to offer, especially on how to make the best of astronomy equipment. I bought items from him a few times and it was always a pleasant experience. R.I.P John your presence will be missed on here, that is for sure.

Just back from a mini-break in West Sussex. I could not resist a drive down to Selsey. A nice seaside town and the home to the late Sir Patrick Moore of course. Good to see that his former house is being well looked after and nice to see a commorative plaque in place now. I knew that his house was called "Farthings" but seeing how it was spelt on the gate made "the penny drop" and brought home to me it's true meaning

I know the seller of that scope personally. He really knows his stuff and the scope will be a superb performer He lives just a few miles from me and I'm very tempted but I've really no room for another scope

Light intrusion into a bedroom is one of the stronger arguments for getting something done about public lighting. Copying your request to your local councillor helps as well, at least it did in our case.

Is there any real competition for the FSQ130 ? From what I've read about the scope, it does things that others don't and to an exceptionally high quality level. Given the above and the low production numbers and availability, I'm not surprised that the price is soaring. While £20K is a massive amount for most, for some it's not and, once an item develops a reputation for being the best available in it's niche, the buyers will be there. If you are an enthusiast and comfortably have the funds, why are you going to opt for something less than the best available ?

To clarify this a bit further, my understanding is that the TV Bandmate Type 2 Nebustar filter is a unique design manufactured by Astronomik exclusively to be marketed under the Tele Vue branding. This is from the Tele Vue website: "The Nebustar filter is a unique narrowband design specifically for Tele Vue. Unlike other UHC designs, Nebustar blocks red wavelengths normally passed by typical UHC filters. The design eliminates star bloat to produce sharper, more natural looking stars along with enhanced nebulosity." The TV Bandmate Type 2 O-III and H-Beta filters are the same as the Astronomik branded ones but go through additional testing by Tele Vue before being distributed for retail.

Yes, unsurprisingly, the 12 inch showed quite a lot more detail of the eskimo's "face" peering out of the "parka hood". Some structure within both which is simply not there with the 120mm scope.

If I didn't already have my Lumicon and Astronomik filters, those are what I would go for now. The newer TV Bandmate Type 2 filters (as per the link) are made for TV by Astronomik to TV's spec. The older TV Bandmate Type 1 filters were not and were not all that effective to be honest. Worth knowing if anyone is considering buying a used TV filter - go for the Type 2's !

Great report Neil Sounds like you have picked the observing skills back up pretty quickly

The last thing that APM will want to do is to put out something with less than impressive performance. Forums such as SGL and CN mean that word gets around really quickly and once something gets a few wavering reports, it is very hard to pull it back from that setback I think. The damage from a delay, even a long one, can be overcome if the product turns out to be a good one in the end.

What magnification were you using ? Saturn is usually pretty sharp unless you use very high magnifications and / or view it very close to the horizon. It should be sharp at around 120x-150x with your scope, assuming the scope is cooled and in reasonable collimation. My old Tasco 60mm showed it and the other planets like this (38 years ago !):

Nice report ! I'm another who finds that I prefer the unfiltered view of the Eskimo nebula. I had a quick look at it last night with my ED120 refractor but it really shone a few nights back when I used my 12 inch dob on it at 300x plus

I find that I use O-III filters a bit more than UHC's but I guess that's down to observing preferences. I had an ES UHC for a while and found that while it did work, the Astronomik UHC was noticably more effective. Being an observer who prefers not to use a filter unless it's going to make a significant difference, I happily paid the extra.

Excellent stuff Mark - thanks for the sketches and notes on this target I will give it a try with my 12 inch when the next opportunity arises. As with @Mark at Beaufort though, I suspect that my skies from home are not quite as good as they were 2-3 years back. My town keeps on growing !

I use both UHC's and O-III's on the Orion Nebula. Sometimes a H-beta as well, just to see the differences that the filters make to various parts of the nebula. I enjoy the filterless views as well. Having these tools adds to the variety of observing I find. In some cases the O-III can show you something that is otherwise practically invisible without the filter in place eg: the Veil and Owl nebulae. Astronomik are a good filter choice. Lower cost brands are available but from my experience, are noticeably less effective. Although they look like simple things, making a good narrowband or line filter is an exacting business.

Quite clear here tonight and we don't seem to have the wind that others further north are having to deal with. Just cruising around with the ED120 refractor looking mostly at the easy stuff. A "notable" was Epsilon Hydra, a nice uneven brightness pair with a 2.7 arc second separation. The brighter one is actually a binary itself with a .3 arc second separation so a bit beyond me tonight ! That "other" open cluster in Cancer, M 67 was looking very fetching too

Great stuff ! I've volunteered to do some outreach with scout groups with my local astro society over the coming weeks - looking forward to it !

Sorry for the slow reply - I missed your question. As Philip R says it is a Tele Vue Ranger. Long out of production now I'm afraid. Very light and compact with good performance although it is more of a well corrected achromat than an apo. My scope went to Roger Vine so that he could review it for his website: http://www.scopeviews.co.uk/TVRanger.htm

Yep, that's the one The "hour" glass form of the central lobes of the nebula were clearly seen with my 12 inch but the fainter outer lobes were not showing last night. I didn't find either a UHC or an O-III filter helped with this one. This drawing by SGL member Qualia shows it well:

Very interesting thoughts Dave. Thanks for posting them

TV eyepieces are made in Japan or Taiwan to TV's designs. They are all quality checked and have final testing in the USA though - by the time we get them, they are well travelled ! On M33, if you can get it, you also have a chance of seeing NGC 604 which is a massive star forming nebula that lies within the galaxy although visually it's a little way from it. I have managed that with a 100mm refractor, on a good, dark night https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/triple-treasure-in-triangulums-pinwheel110320150311/