John

I did an outreach event at a nearby school with Bristol AS last night, which went quite well despite a brief (and un-forecast) rain shower just as we were setting up !.

Stuck to a variety of easy to find / easy to view targets as you do at such events. Visitors seemed to appreciate it though.

When I got back home I stuck the 8 inch scope out again to catch a hour or so of clear sky before it clouded over. Seeing was not the best but I did get some nice views of Comet C/2019 L3 Atlas in Lynx and the very, very distant globular cluster NGC 2419 / Caldwell 25 still within a couple of degrees of the comet.

M42 was starting to look quite spectacular as the clouds rolled in (naturally )

Also got M1, M27, M15, M31, M32, M110 plus a few others during the outreach session earlier.

5 hours ago, bingevader said:

We're hoping to be out with school tonight. 🤞

If you have the space and can guarantee the safety of the 'scopes, then a bit of free time to run around in the dark is actually very worthwhile.

It's not often that children get to explore the dark in a safe environment.

I've a collection of the cheap LED rear bike lights that are also a complete bonus.

And a set of Christmas lights around the entrance and along the initial path for a bit of health and safety.

We can't do parents in school at the mo, so I have limited the numbers, but we do have 4 'scopes.

Above all, have fun and enjoy it!

I'm doing an outreach session with Bristol AS tonight at a nearby school. It's taken quite a while for a decent clear evening to come along but tonight looks good.

I think we will have 4/5 scopes as well.

Hope you have a good one !

13 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Further to the above, and for interest, here's a link that tells a bit more about the story of Axiom LX..

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/707836-how-did-celestron-axioms-differ-from-the-luminos/

I have decloaked both my 23mm and 31mm (fully reversible process) and rate both highly👍

Top 2 photos fully cloaked. Bottom photo uncloaked, next to Nagler T2 12mm for comparison. The decloaking saves about 35% of the original weight.

Dave😉

And before those Axioms, there were these Axioms

I just caught that line up from our bedroom window - very nice indeed

1 hour ago, Paz said:

That's useful to know. I find nudging a bit of a challenge over 200x and use an equatorial platform above that, but I've never really tried to optimise the balance and friction on my dob, I will take a look at this.

My dob mount was made for me by a skilled member here. It is simple but has worked flawlessly since the day it arrived and I fitted the optical tube into it. He certainly knew what he was about

Just now, Paz said:

Nice report, at the very high magnifications do you use an equatorial platform or track by hand? 

I track by hand. I used to have an equatorial platform which worked well but the additional eyepiece height was inconvenient with my F/5.3 12 inch dob. My dob mount is very smooth in both axis so tracking targets at high power is not too challenging. I use the "nudge - let drift - nudge - let drift" approach

2 hours ago, Deadlake said:

If you own multiple frac's which one do you use the most?

 

I use my 100mm and 120mm refractors the most (probably equally as much) and then my 130mm and 102mm about half as much.

The 100mm has practically no cool down time before giving great images so that one is the "grab and go" default.

I've owned Nirvanas (28, 16 and 4mm, not the 7mm though) and the 4.7mm ES 82. All pretty good. Perhaps the 16mm Nirvana was slightly weaker in my F/5 newtonian than the rest. Eye relief can be quite tight in 82 degree eyepieces so not that great for the glasses wearer.

I ended up with a Tele Vue Nagler set about a decade back before I got the (expensive !) taste for even wider 100 degree eyepieces

42 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

A quick question: d’you reckon you’d be able for the Horsehead in an 8” under perfect conditions?

 

From here, unlikely I would say. On the very, very best nights here I have only just been able to glimpse the HH nebula with my 12 inch dobsonain, using an H-Beta filter.

Under a truly dark sky though, maybe. It has been seen with a 4 inch scope I've read.

This does not mean to say that I won't try now and again though !

It looks a very interesting and unusual mount. Universal Astronomics mounts are quite scarce here in the UK which is unfortunate because, from what I've read about them, they are very capable. There was one dealer over here who distributed them but they closed down a few years ago.

I had their smallest alt-az mount for a while - known as the Dwarfstar. That had quite a lot of capacity for it's tiny size and weighed practically nothing.

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the UA Doublestar Tandem

33 minutes ago, Ian McCallum said:

It looks like for a few extra quid, the kit with the enhanced controller would be the much better option!😉

Both work fine. I think the enhanced one had a couple of advantages but, for me, it largely did the same job.

I've installed and used the Skywatcher dual axis motor sets on a couple of mounts. They are fairly straightforward to fit and work fine for visual observing. Like this:

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-eq5-enhanced-dual-axis-motor-drives.html

or the older version:

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-dual-axis-motor-drive-eq5.html

1 hour ago, mcrowle said:

It's looking like my brief Comet Leonard session last week may have been my last.

Perhaps I should have stayed up longer, but at least until 4am Sunday morning was poorer than previously forecast, with barely a clear patch, frequent showers and 40mph gusts. The next week only looks worse.

Regards, Mike.

I think I'm likely to miss Comet Leonard altogether. I'm no good at early rising these days plus that side of the sky is not the best

12 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

I've owned a wonderful Vixen 102mm  F13 Pulsar achromat, which i adored. Also, much later, an Antares 105mm F14 achromat. Sadly I've lost any pics I may have had of either.

Here's an unusual one - a Takahashi FC100DZQ F12.8. (That is a FC100DZ F8 with a 1.6X extender-Q attached).

 

Very nice Mike !

If I put a Baader 2.25x barlow on the back of my FC100-DL does it count as an F/20.25 100mm ?

35 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

This is a challenge I want to set myself.... never tried for Neptune (or Uranus) yet, so something to go for very soon... think this might be something to try with either the 10" Dob or perhaps the Mewlon ?

Sounds awesome to see a moon on a planet that far away... you can get a bit blasé about seeing Jupiters moons, but that's a whole different ballgame... nice one 😀

Either the dob or the Mewlon would be good. When I first spotted Triton it was with my 12 inch dob. With practice I've found that I can now see it with some of my smaller aperture scopes. Not yet the 100 Tak or 102 Vixen though. Similarly with the brighter moons of Uranus.

The thrill of seeing Triton for me, however faint and elusive it is at the eyepiece, is that it is the most distant lump of rock and ice that I've been able to see. The idea of a world that is about the same size as the USA being visible across 4.3 billion km of space is rather awesome

11 minutes ago, Ags said:

@John your report gives me some hope of catching Triton with my C6. But just finding Neptune would be an achievement for me!

I'm using the star hop route (below) through stars in Aquarius to find it currently. The dim "zig zag" of stars in the green oval are visible in a 30mm finder as is Neptune itself, although it is faint in the finder.

Venus (naked eye - it's badly placed to get in a scope at present here).

With my ED120 refractor:

Saturn

Jupiter

Neptune and, after some time to get dark adapted, TRITON !. First time with the 120mm refractor I think . Pentax XW 3.5mm (257x) plus averted vision / 1000 yard stare needed but as time went by and I got my eye in, it popped into view, albeit faintly, more often. Listed as magnitude 13.55 so probably at the limit of this aperture.

So far, so good but the forecast for the rest of the night isn't great

15 minutes ago, Epick Crom said:

Thanks John.  Which part of Australia did you go? The east coast is notoriously rainy and humid. Here in Western Australia it's perfect for stargazing, in summer virtually every night is clear!

We toured the eastern side from Melbourne up as far as Cairns then across to the centre, down to Adelaide (on the Ghan !) and spent the final week in and around Syndey with my wife's relatives. I have a cousin who lives in Perth but we felt it would be too much to try and visit the west as well so that is for a future trip.

Had a great time - it's a wonderful country

Excellent report !

Messier 42: "Words don't do it justice. One of the most splendid objects in the sky." Very much agree and it's one we can share too !

LMC:  I found this fascinating when in Australia back in 2018 and I only had 8x56 binoculars with me then. I'd love to explore it with a scope !

I did manage to see 47 Toucanae as well - clear days but annoyingly cloudy night skies during the 20+ days we were down under - just a couple of clear nights 

Must come again, when it's possible to do so

1 hour ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Excellent report John. The 8" is a perfect size for quick grab and go. Your Orion scope looks very good on the SkyTee .

Thanks Mark

I've added a Rigel Quikfinder beside the 50mm RACI optical since that photo was taken so I replicate the finder arrangement that I have on my 12 inch dob. It works very well for me.

Even though the 8 inch is a decade old, I think it was hardly used at all since new by the previous owner so the mirror coatings are immaculate and seem very bright. It's one of OO's decent mirrors as well

On targets, the ones you have mentioned plus:

- the Perseus double cluster

- Mizar and alcor

- Albireo

- Gamma andromeda

- Messier 15 Pegasus (globular cluster)

- the open clusters in Auriga

I've done a few outreach sessions with scouts, cubs, guides etc though Bristol AS.

My tips would be:

- plenty of parent helpers to supervise small groups (3-4 children per helper)

- each scope has a dedicated operator who knows the instrument

- assign each scope operator 2-3 easy targets that will be seen well with that instrument and that the operator is comfortable with finding quickly and easily.

- have a reserve list of targets in case of patchy cloud cover getting in the way of original targets !

- an event leader to give an initial briefing and intro to the main constellations

- be quite clear about the rules: no running about in the dark, no touching scopes etc etc. Dark and being somewhere different can lead to over-excited children !

- divide the children up and then let each small group go to a scope for about 10-15 minutes

- move the groups around the scopes, on a signal from the leader - a whistle maybe ?

- attention span on a cold night is quite short so let them all see something, then a quick chat, then move on to the next scope.

- do you have a loo nearby ?. Adding a portaloo to our site makes a lot of difference to the comfort of guests and supervisors !

- don't be too ambitious with the targets, length of briefings etc, etc. Keep it simple !

Have fun

24 minutes ago, faulksy said:

what a lovely report john. 8" is were it happens

what dob  are you looking through on your avatar john ?

Thanks Mike

The scope in the avatar is the Bristol AS JMI NGT 18 inch - it's actually on a horseshoe eq mount. When new, it looked like this. The one we have is in decent working order but is getting on a bit now !

15 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Lovely read John. You really made the most of your session, sounds like a good night for DSOs. Those distant globs are indeed fascinating.

Those 8” newts are just so versatile. I use my 150PL on the Skytee and it works really nicely. Did you observe standing or did you get it low enough to sit? 

Thanks Rob

I like to stand while observing and the eyepiece height is fine for that. Probably about the same height as your 150PL is.

A surprise clearing of the skies pursuaded me to pop my 8 inch newtonian out. The DIY ventilation I've performed on the mirror cell worked and the scope cooled down quite quickly.

I'm still getting used to this scope (Orion Optics F/6) which I use on the Skytee II mount so I stuck to the "usual suspects", mostly.

My tour included:

Messier 81 and 82 - quite bright and very nicely framed with the 24mm Panoptic eyepiece.

Messier 97 (Owl nebula) - I could just about detect this without a filter but a UHC made it pop out and the O-III made it pop out even more !.

Orion cleared the roof tops so Messier 42 and 43 were obligatory. Stunning views of these and I had fun playing with UHC, O-III and H-Beta filters seeing how different parts of the nebula were enhanced with each filter vs no filter. As well as the sprawling mass of M42, M43 next door was sporting it's dark rift cutting the nebulosity into two unequal portions. Also picked out the E & F Trapezium stars by applying a little more magnification.

The Flame Nebula was very indistinct plus the neighbours security light was popping on occasionally so I didn't bother trying to see the Horsehead. The reflection nebula Messier 78 above Orions Belt was fairly easy to pick out as a misty patch with those 2 dim stars staring out of it. Filters not really much use on that one.

Then up to Taurus to have a look at Messier 1 (Crab nebula). Quite decently bright with the 8 inch aperture and the UHC and O-III's added some contrast and a touch of texture to this famous super nova remnant.

From the birthplace of stars to the scene of a stars violent death with one sweep of the alt-azimuth mount !

Over to Gemini now and the great open cluster of Messier 35 with the much fainter, much older and much more distant cluster NGC 2158 glowing softly through the outer reaches of the extensive M35.

Cloud cover was starting to creep across my clear sky but I remembered that Comet C/2019 L3 Atlas was in the next door constellation Lynx so I checked it's position in Stellarium and had a look for that. It was actually brighter than I expected and quite easy to find as a fuzzy spot with a much brighter core. And finally I moved the scope just a degree and a half to have a look at the faint and very distant globular cluster NGC 2419, AKA, the "Intergalactic Tramp". I'm fascinated by these very distant and ancient star clusters - NGC 2419 is further from our galactic core than the Magellanic Clouds are - around 250,000 light years away !

Clouded over now so the scope is back in. Great little session though and I'm enjoying the balance of aperture and ease of setup and use that the 8 inch F/6 newtonian has brought to my scope "fleet". I'm intending to use it for outreach sessions with the Bristol AS when we can next run one so it's good to get to know the setup better

Oh, and I just used 2 eyepieces this evening - the 24mm Panoptic and the 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom. They seemed to cover all the bases that I needed to tonight.