John

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.

Got NGC 2419 and Comet C/2019 L3 Atlas tonight. Both quite close in the sky but not in the same low power field of view. The comet was quite a bit brighter than the distant globular cluster and easy to spot with the 8 inch newtonian I was using. NGC 2419 somewhat less distinct but there is a chain of stars that lead to it, which helps pinpoint the spot.

I guess I need a couple - one smaller and wider and one larger and longer. That is not how many I've got though

I was very lucky in that my secondary school (a comprehensive) had a small dome with a nice 8.5 inch newtonian, a small planetarium in a shed and an active school astronomy club. So when I was 11 / 12 I was able to develop further the interest in space that the Apollo 11 mission coverage had kindled a couple of years earlier. I would have had a school blazer back then as well !. Prior to using the school scope, my only optical aid was mum and dads 8x30 binoculars.

Thanks Phil. I managed to see NGC 2419 with my 100mm refractor earlier this year. It would be good to pay it another visit and if there is a comet in the same area, so much the better

That will help a lot with your achromatic refractor itch. Hope you don't develop an ED doublet / Fluorite itch

I've owned the ES 20mm 100 for a while. It was pretty good. From what I've read I think the APM might be a little better though so, for the same price, I would go for a new APM over a used ES. I ended up with the Ethos 21.

Isn't H Beta the filter of choice for the HH neb is is that a mistype ?

Great report and results Chris I've not waited up late enough for Sirius to be on view as yet this winter so I've that pleasure still to come, I hope. To get the Horsehead AND the Pup in the same session is pretty special

Assuming that your 32mm plossl is a 1.25 inch eyepiece, 52 degrees is the largest apparent field of view that a 1.25" eyepiece of 32mm focal length can have. The field stop (which defines the edge of the field of view) can't physically be any bigger within the constraints of the eyepiece barrel internal diameter. So I suspect the issue is with the way that Stellarium is representing the view. I don't use that feature though so I'm not sure what the problem could be

The Astronomik UHC isn't too bad with regarding messing around with star colours. I found the same with their O-III as well. I used the UHC on The Owl Nebula and the Crab Nebula last night as well as M42 and the filter didn't tint either of those green.

Quick look at Jupiter and Saturn with the 100mm refractor, before the cloud comes over. The Great Red Spot is just past the central meridian but its seems really diminished compared to a few years back. I really had to look quite hard to make it out clearly. Seeing is quite good compared with last night and a few other nights recently. 180x working well on Jupiter.

I hope so but the skies do have to be exceptional here to give me a chance. I've glimpsed it a couple of times since then but only a couple. I love Jeremy Perez's description of this target : " Really, it's like trying to see a little bit of nothing with a little bit of less than nothing resting over it "

Especially the "Vanden Plas" model Back on topic, I used to have a Celestron C8+ which gave me some of the best views of Saturn that I've ever had. Many consider the Celestron Ultima 8 the best of that line though:

Nice report ! Apart from the Horsehead, I've not had much success with my Astronomik Hb filter. I must try a bit harder with it. With regards to the Horsehead, I've only just managed to see it a couple of times with my 12 inch dob on the very darkest nights I ever get here. It is probably the hardest and least distinct DSO that I have ever observed. Here is my report when I 1st managed it:

Some really quite expensive focusers have bearings that leave marks on the drawtube, eg: Moonlite focusers. At least the marks that the Skywatcher plastic strips leave on the drawtube usually rub off quite easily. With the Moonlite focusers (and some others) the marks are worn into the anodising and can't be removed.

Last night with the 12 inch dob I managed to see 4 of Uranus's moons - that's a "first" for me. Later my first proper session on M42 this winter season. It looked stunning with the 12 inch. I used the UHC filter to get more extension of the "wings" of nebulosity and that bought out the lime green and pinkish tints in the nebula. Without the filter I used 300x plus to search amongst the billows of nebulosity in the Huygenian region of the nebula for faint stars. E & F Trapezium were very easy, I got a faint star close to the Trapezium which I think is called MT. Trapezium G generally eluded me although I may had had the odd glimpse of that plus H but they are magnitude 15 and the nebulous backdrop makes them even harder I think. Good piece on going deep into Messier 42 from Sky & Telescope here: https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/star-trapping-in-orions-trapezium/

The eyepieces I used for this task tonight were (mostly) the Pentax XW 5mm and 3.5mm.

Sleep tight Rob and Dave - hope you feel better soon Dave ! I think we have probably exhausted the original subject now. I'm grateful for so many contributions and opinions though and it's been a nice friendly chat with a few interesting diversions along the way I'm actually observing tonight under a clear sky and with one of my least expensive scopes - my 12 inch dob

Nice clear night at last. I've got the 12 inch dobsonian out and I've been observing Uranus for the past hour. My specific objective is to see how many Uranian moons I can spot. With this scope in the past I've seen the two brightest - Umbriel and Titania. Tonight, with the help of a freshly washed primary mirror, I'm very pleased to have been able to add two more - Oberon and Ariel. The brighter pair, Umbriel and Titana are visible, and can be held, with direct vision. Oberon and Ariel are more elusive (closer to the planet as well) and are being glimpsed as they pop in and out of view. I am using high magnifications for this task. 318x gets me Umbriel and Titania but I needed to push up to 454x to tease out Oberon and Ariel. Oberon is close to magnitude 15 currently which is quite a challenge ! This is the first time I've been able to see four of Uranus's natural satellites and I'm pleased with the result Miranda would be very nice but that one is currently another magnitude fainter again and even closer to the planet than Oberon and Ariel Four is nice though

My Skytee II cost about £150 used and does a great job with my refractors up to and including 120mm in aperture. Enough to let me appreciate them I'm sure I ended up spending more on a mount for the 130mm F/9.2 to get something that would hold it steady enough due to the long tube.

I'm nowhere near as interested in mounts. Mostly I use low cost ones !

Seems a good list Dave You don't see many over here but I wonder if the Edmunds Astroscan deserves the title of "classic" ?. It was a sort of breakthrough design when it came out in 1976. I'd also consider a Celestron C8 in the original "orange peel" finish a classic design, personally.

It depends what you want. If you want a hyper-wide field of view then the ES 92 is the one. If you want a lighter, smaller eyepiece and are happy with a 70 degree field of view, the Pentax XW is a very nice eyepiece. There is quite a cost difference between the two as well which might be important as well - in the UK the ES 12mm 92 costs £160 more than the Pentax XW 10mm which is quite a significant amount. Optically they will both perform well in an F/5 dobsonian. The ES will need some additional counterbalancing because of it's weight and it is a 2 inch eyepiece of course so it will need 2 inch filters if you use those. Sorry that I can't offer a conclusive answer but they are very different eyepieces in many ways.