John

How many times have I observed the wonderful triple star Iota in Cassiopeia over the past, say, 15 years ? Probably almost every time that I observe. The constellation is always above the horizon in the UK - one of 5 such constellations. I first observed Iota when I got my first ED refractor, a Skywatcher ED100, which was just over 15 years ago now. Initially I found splitting the tighter pair of stars quite difficult but, back then, the highest power eyepiece I had was 166x and my experience in observing was limited. Since then I have observed the triple star with many different instruments and split it many times. Sometimes the seeing has been mediocre or downright poor so the definition of the 3 stars has left a lot to be desired. While obstructed scopes ie: newtonians, cassegrains etc split close multiple stars pretty well, to me it is the unobstructed refractor that produces the most satisfying views of these stellar treasures. Last night it was my 130mm triplet refractors turn. This instrument is quite probably the best that I've owned or observed with in terms of pure optical quality. It has a LZOS (Russian) objective which have a superb reputation for both control of false colour and overall optical accuracy. The fine objective lens and excellent construction of the scope enable it, under decent seeing conditions, to use magnifications that I had hitherto not experienced. The scope has a focal length of 1200mm (F/9.2). Last night, for tight double stars, my Nagler 2mm-4mm zoom eyepiece went straight into the diagonal and stayed there with 300x being the starting point for observing. Naturally, very early in my session I turned the scope onto Iota Cassiopeia and the view was truly breathtaking. Moving the zoom eyepiece onto the 3mm setting boosted the image scale. 400x (nearly 80x per inch of aperture) and the 3 star system was really sharply defined. At this magnification the 2.7 arc seconds between the closer pair of stars seems quite a wide gap. It is actually a touch larger than Neptune's apparent diameter currently so the distant gas giant could fit between that pair of stars ! Even the 2mm zoom setting, for a dizzying 600x magnification, did not overpower the definition but 400x did provide the optimum balance of crispness, virtually no light scatter and the impression of a trio of tiny beads on a black velvet background. Just why I love using refractors on such targets. I made a rough sketch (very rough) and this morning played around with some software to produce what I think is a decent representation of that view last night. It's not as good as the real thing of course - being at the eyepiece end of a large, long refractor on a warmish night with one of the finest binary stars in view takes some beating Of course there were many other targets last night including Saturn and Jupiter with the Io shadow transit but it was Iota in Cassiopeia that was in my mind as I drifted off to sleep last night

I caught some more of the Io shadow transit in gaps in the cloud until it was about 75% of the way across the disk, then the gaps closed. When things were clear 200x (Ethos 6mm) was working excellently on both Saturn and Jupiter - very sharp indeed.

I found 200x worked pretty well on both Jupiter and Saturn tonight. Usually Saturn benefits from a little more magnification than Jupiter but not tonight.

Io and it's shadow are crossing the jovian disk now. Lovely views here until a large bank of cloud mucked it up !

Me too but a big chunk of cloud has just spoiled things. Hope it will move on soon. Saturn was lovely earlier as well. Seeing the moon itself in transit, rather than the shadow, is usually somewhat easier when it is close to the planets limb rather than when it's more central. The limb darkening effect helps to show the moon.

Similar milkyness here but it's better towards the zenith. I'm concentrating on double stars currently, which are showing quite well.

Hi and welcome to the forum. Here is a link to a straightforward guide to setting up the Celestron Astromaster 130EQ: https://s3.amazonaws.com/celestron-site-support-files/support_files/1213475482_am76114130eqset.pdf One step that the above misses out comes between 9 and 10 in the instructions and this is to set the latitude angle of the mount to match your latitude using the latitude adjustment screw and then lock it in that position. You only need to do this once. There is also a further important step after the last one shown which is to align the finder red dot with the view in the eyepiece of the scope. You can do this in daylight using a distant (several hundred metres away) object such as a chimney or telegraph pole top. Again, once done, this should hold for some time but it is very important to ensure that what the finder is pointed at, is actually in the view of the scope ! To find things to observe, this book is an excellent starting point: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/turn-left-at-orion-book.html There is freeware planetarium software package called Stellarium which is very useful and popular. This can be downloaded from here: https://stellarium.org/ There is also an Android version for mobile phones for which there is a small charge I think: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noctuasoftware.stellarium_free&hl=en_GB&gl=US Hope that helps !

I've got the 130 triplet refractor out cooling. I rarely use more than one scope during a session though, despite having a few knocking around The night of the opposition of Mars last year was an exception though:

I'll be 72 I wonder which of my current scopes I'll still have then ? No prizes for guessing what you will be using Mike !

It's not really night yet but I'm hoping to have some fun with the 130mm triplet later after being clouded out last night I'll pop the mount out later, if it stays clear.

You might as well go for it !

Obviously you and I are doing things in a similar way !

The 24mm / 68 will show you a larger true field than the 25mm / 50 degree TV plossl of course. The 16mm Nirvana shows you a larger TF than the 25mm plossl as well actually.

I remember observing them when they were that high or higher here Geoff - the views were fabulous

The ones that we can see regularly with small to medium aperture scopes are Titan, Rhea, Dione, Tethys and Iapetus (in order of brightness). Enceladus is the next on the list but it needs to be reasonably elongated from the planet and the rings to get a glimpse of it because it gets drowned out by the glare easily. I have yet to see any other Saturnian moon even with my 12 inch which goes down to magnitude 14.7-15.1 on good nights here but that is for targets towards the zenith. Saturn's low position in the sky (from the UK) scrubs off some of the brightness of the moons through atmospheric extinction. And of course there are sometimes background stars showing amongst the moons, just to confuse the observer !

Well done

M33 can be tough to spot. It's surface brightness is much, much lower than the integrated magnitude of 5.7 that is quoted for it and it is quite an extended object. You are looking in the right place though - it is framed by 4 stars that form a sort of slightly squashed rhomboid shape. It usually looks like an amorphous slightly brighter patch of sky within the area framed by those stars. If you get a really dark sky it has some suggestions of form to it - a kind of vague "S" shape. Under good conditions you might also be able to pick out a much smaller faint patch of light next to the galaxy, near a foreground star, which is NGC 604 - a massive star forming nebula which is actually within Messier 33. Sounds like you are doing all the right things though - keep at it

Still heavy cloud here so I'm not playing. I use the star Kappa Piscium, the lowest of the stars that form the circlet of Pisces as a starting point for the star hop to Neptune at the moment. Heading down there are 2 distinctive star asterisms (circled) with Neptune sitting between 2 stars in the lower one and just about visible in a 50mm finder:

I owned the 4.7mm ES 82 for a while recently and that was pretty sharp across the field of view with my F/5.3 12 inch dobsonian.

Solid cloud now. Thick too Scopes back in. Nothing doing tonight.

I think my other half would be OK with an elegant telescope tucked away in the corner of the dining room. I, on the other hand, could live happily with a small dining table tucked away in the corner of an astro equipment room

Clouds have moved in here as well. No rain forecast so I'll leave the scope out in case it clears.

I've got the 130mm refractor out this evening despite the threat of some clouds. If it stays clear I'll have a go at Neptune / Triton with it and see if it "goes" with that scope this time

Excellent shot ! I was observing Saturn last night with my 12 inch dob and the seeing was a bit "variable" here in North Somerset. The colour tints you have captured are really nice

I remember the last time they were fully "closed". There was a short period when you could barely make out that the planet had any rings ! I think that was during the winter of 2009.