John

I had some of my best views of Saturn ever with an 8mm TV plossl and my old C8+

I've not used a Starbase ortho so can't comment on those but the older Vixen Orthos (engraved Or.) were often symmetrical plossls as well, having taken a few apart to clean over the years. They used to work pretty well.

I got another "bite" at this about half an hour ago when the sky cleared again. Fortunately the Tak 100 needs practically no cool down time so I could get it straight out and begin viewing without delay. I only got about 15 minutes but by then Callisto's shadow had been overtaken by the Great Red Spot and was lying just "behind" it on the planets disk. The "goldilocks" magnification on Jupiter for me tonight was 180x which the Pentax XW 5mm delivered admirably.

Oh dear ! - clouded out now It was very nice while it lasted though and many thanks to David for the "heads up" on this event

Still looking good here. Lots of cloud but, amazingly, a clear patch of sky where Jupiter is ! The sharply etched moon shadow emphasises the rather diffuse nature of the features on Jupiter's visible surface which look soft and subtle compared with the stark black shadow.

If you can keep your eyepieces a little warmer than the scope is (ie: in a bag / foam lined case) they won't dew or mist up. Dew heaters are available for both finders and eyepieces although they are a fiddle to use with eyepieces as the heater has to be changed each time the eyepiece is. Better to keep the eyepieces slightly above outside temperature I think. A DIY card / thin camping mat dew shield might work for the finder - something about 60mm long ?

I've got some thin clouds here but Jupiter is showing quite well through them. Callisto's shadow is properly on the disk now and, as the prediction said, pretty much right on the Great Red Spot. Looks like the pupil in a giant eye ! GRS colour is a bit subdued due to the thin clouds. Nice sight all the same

My most often cleaned eyepiece is my Nagler 2mm-4mm zoom. It has 10mm of eye relief but the eye lens is almost flush with the eyepiece top so it tends to pick up eyelash grease and dust easier than my other eyepieces that have 15mm - 20mm of eye relief.

Shadow of Callisto just showing right on Jupiter's limb now - like a tiny black "bite" out of the limb.

Some clouds here but currently Jupiter, the Moon and Saturn showing well. Contrast is really excellent. Actual seeing is a little "swimmy". Hope enough clear patches are around later to show the Callisto shadow / GRS conjunction

Great report Dave

I thought that's what the emoticon meant - "what's the problem ?" If there was a smiling one doing the same gesture I would have used that

I've bought and sold with the person concerned and met him a couple of times. He saw an opportunity a few years ago and took it. I don't blame him for that. When I've sold to him he has always paid the price that I'm asking promptly and the items I've bought from him have been exactly as described. Where the price is not what I want to pay, from any seller, I simply don't shop there

I'm quite happy with the standard focuser on my Tak FC100-DL

Thanks David Forecast is a bit dodgy here but I'll put a scope out anyway, just in case

Nice to see a decently long dew shield on a refractor. Many are rather too short to do the job

I saw her though quite a lot of cloud cover. More mundanely than a maiden, the area resembles a large number 3 to my eye, with a rather extended top loop Probably less risky to explain to my other half than gazing a maiden with my telescope

The GRS was nicely on show last night. It is smaller than I recall from previous years though. Interesting to think that the GRS has an apparent diameter at it's widest point of around 7-8 arc seconds.

Had a look with my 100mm refractor tonight. Brightness still seems around mag 7. I looked carefully at the colour tint of the nova tonight and thought it looked a sort of pale terracotta hue. Subtle but it became slightly more apparent with added magnification.

I'm observing Jupiter with my 100mm refractor tonight through cloud that is just thin enough to make it worth observing, but I can't make out Ganymede's disk .......... it's still in Jupiter's shadow at the moment ! The 3 Galilean's that are showing do show slight variation in the apparent disk sizes at 225x though. I'll wait for Ganymede to pop into view before packing in I think.

Me too

I'm glad you are pleased with your H-A scope views 😀 I've owned a PST (40mm) and a Lunt 50mm and been a little undewhelmed with the views to be honest. Maybe my expectations were too high or I had mediocre examples of those scopes ? I tried a Lunt 100mm at the Lowell Observatory a couple of years back and that was pretty impressive

I only clean them when I see something that needs cleaning. Perhaps 3-4 times per year ? I use the Baader Wonder Fluid applied with the Baader micro fibre cloth to clean mine, when they need it. Eyepieces with short eye relief tend to need cleaning a little more often than those with longer eye relief I find. Most of mine have long eye relief.

The Stelledoppie database has an entry for it: https://www.stelledoppie.it/index2.php?iddoppia=55381

Glad you had a good session ! I found the Pentax XW 5mm superb on Jupiter tonight with the ED120 Nice barges coming around the disk on the N edge of the NEB towards the end of the session plus a couple of festoons of the S edge of the same belt as well. No sign of any lasting marking from this impact though: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/383156-jupiter-impact-flash-discovery-20210913-223930ut/?tab=comments#comment-4139636