John

It certainly is. I'd like to see some more ! I've tried a couple of times to see the globular clusters that are visible to amateurs in M32 M31 without success, so far. There are a few other posibilities within M33 as well when I have my 12 inch dob out again. This Sky & Telescope article highlights some: https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/triple-treasure-in-triangulums-pinwheel110320150311/ And this Sky@Night article, some more plus the M32 globulars: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/skills/how-observe-neighbouring-galaxies-local-group/

Thanks for the reminder. I was going to go to my society observatory to observe this but that has been scrubbed due to the poor forecast. I'll have a scope on standby in case there is a clear patch but more out of hope than expectation

This sort of mount is highly recommended by me Quality plywood is an excellent material plus it weighs quite a bit less than the MDF used in the stock mounts. The mount on my 12 inch dob is baltic plywood and weighs around 10kg:

I've not used that particular scope but my first "proper" scope beyond my old 60mm refractor was a 6 inch F/6 newtonian and the difference in performance was frankly huge on both solar system and deep sky targets. The bright globular clusters, for example, show quite a lot of resolved stars around the core of the cluster whereas with the 60mm refractor they were just fuzzy spots of light.

I think the magnitude limit for a 200mm aperture scope is 14.3. The 14.7 stars are pretty challenging with my 12 inch. I find using high magnifications (or even very high ones !) helps tease out these faint point sources. The central star in Messier 27 (the Dumbbell Nebula) is about mag 12 I think and easier to spot.

Well at least that's quite a bit lighter than the original figures you had My old Meade Lightbridge 12 inch dob weighed about that much. Too heavy for me so I moved it on to a new home and eventually went down the somewhat lighter Orion Optics route. The Explore Scientific 12 inch dob is another option: https://www.365astronomy.com/Explore-Scientific-12-inch-Ultra-Light-Dobsonian-305mm

If I see tints in Messier 42 they are generally greenish and particularly around the "fishes mouth" / Trapezium - Hygenian region. I have occasionally seen pale pink tints in the "sail" and "sword" sections when I use my Astronomik UHC filter on this target. These are faint and subtle though. The view with a 12 inch scope is outstanding !

Nice report I've found seeing the central star of M 57 a tough challenge even with my 12 inch dob. I've only managed it a couple of times. I use this guide to the stars in and around M 57 to see how faint I can get and if I'm going to have a chance of getting the central star. I can get the ones I've arrowed reasonably regularly now if the conditions are good. The central one, just a couple of times now:

Great report Stu ! Spotting anything of the Veil nebula with 10x50's is a great achievement. Even under the very dark Dartmoor skies I needed 11x70's to see it.

Just back in from a nice session with my 100mm refractor. Originally I thought it would be a gas giant planetary session (hence the scope choice) but the seeing was a little unsteady which meant that Jupiter looked OK but not as good as it can with this scope. So I changed tack and had a look around at some other targets. While the seeing was mediocre, the transparency of the sky was quite good and even with just 10cm of aperture the brighter galaxies were showing well. After I managed to pick up NGC 404 (Mirach's Ghost) I hunted down Messier 33 in Triangulum and found it quite easily with a low power eyepiece. I observed the galaxy for some time allowing my eye to dark adapt and gradually saw the characteristic "S" form that the indications of it's spiral arms give. Boosting the magnification a little (38x ---> 64x) to darken the background sky showed more contrast in the galaxy and also allowed me to spot a small irregular patch of misty light next to an 11th magnitude star on the furthest fringes of the galaxy. This faint patch was NGC 604, an immense star forming nebula that is actually situated within the Messier 33 galaxy. I have seen this object before with my 12 inch dobsonian but was pleased to be able to spot it with my smallest aperture scope tonight. NGC 604 is really huge as this image shows with Messier 42 shown for scale : If it was located within our galaxy, what an amazing sight it would be !!! Even though it is only a faint spot of light with my scopes, it is really thrilling to see a deep sky object in another galaxy Clouds and the threat of sudden showers have meant that I've bought my toys in now but I did enjoy this session even though my targets were not what I originally intended

I've managed to see NGC 404 with my 100mm refractor tonight. 129x proved an effective magnification. Not the best of conditions here so quite pleased although the galaxy was far from spectacular.

The Flextube dobsonians are a little heavier than the solid tube versions although the Skywatcher solid tube 12 inch dob went out of production a while back. I think those figures for the Skywatcher are incorrect though. I don't think it weighs more than 40kg in total.

I've just checked myself - new, they are expensive scopes Luckily, mine was bought pre-owned and the mount custom built and cost considerably less.

I've put a 9.5kg scope on my Skytee II but it was not 100% happy with that load. It was a long scope as well, which added to the strain. Nothing broke but I could tell that the mount was more or less at it's limit. The mount seems much happier with my shorter 8kg and lighter scopes on it.

These are basically the same scope as the StellaLyra 12: https://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/telescopes/dobsonians/gso-12-f-5-dobsonian-gsd-980 https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1190_GSO-12-inch-f-5-Dobsonian-Telescope-Deluxe-Version.html

I think both will perform pretty much the same. The Stellalyra has some nice features though such as the RACI finder as standard and a nicer focuser. 11kg is a lot of weight difference - even 50kg seems a lot to me for a 12 inch dob My Orion Optics based 12 inch F/5.3 dob weighs in at 27kg in total - that makes a lot of difference to how easy the scope is to set up and move about once set up. Very important factors to me.

That is an outstanding observation - an excellent result of what was no doubt very careful scrutiny I suspect Jupiter's much lower altitude in the sky will hamper achieving a similar result here, but it's worth a try none the less

No problem - we all see these things a little differently

If it's clear I'll be able to observe this event from the Bristol AS observatory now, which has a nice clear horizon Forecast does not look great for Monday evening though. Better on Tues and Wednesday.

Can't have yet - the photos are still quite sharp !

I'm still using the old Maplin cases with cubed foam inners:

My 12 inch dob has a small fan but I don't use it. The mirror cell has an open design so it seems to cool quite quickly.

Maybe it is the quality of the lens figure that he is after ?

Caps off - focuser and tube cap for my 12 inch dob, diagonal cap off plus scope pointing downwards for my refractors.

Glad you have got all your astro gear down to Somerset Stu. Some great equipment in your line up now By the way, is the Celestron zombies a new model or a mangling of Omni ? Zombie might be a good name for a scope model though - one that just keeps coming back for more !