John

Being able to retire reasonably early certainly helped my enjoyment of the hobby of astronomy. I really do not miss constantly having to balance the potential of a clear night with an early start the following morning.

Most galaxies are faint and vague objects even with larger aperture scopes.

A handful are brighter patches of light.

The fascination is their distance and scale, not really in their actual appearance in the eyepiece.

Under my Bortle 5 skies, I've observed hundreds of galaxies with my 12 inch scope and many even with my 4 inch scopes but most of them you would hardly even notice were there in all honesty.

So, in a sense "struggling" with galaxies is what it is about. They are, mostly, a struggle to see

Under a really dark sky, they do get noticeably easier to see though.

From my experiences doing public outreach sessions with my local astro society, you can impress people with the views through most scopes, if you pick the right targets to showcase.

8 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

I have a 20 mm XWA and a 30 mm UFF, this does not work with a Vixen SD103S as it does not have enough infocus.  
Another variable too bring into what EP works with which scope. 

The focuser on my Vixen ED102SS F/6.5 is the same as the stock SD103S one I think. My Ethos 21 / Nagler 31 each focus with about 12mm inwards travel to spare.

Edit: apologies - we seem to be moving off the topic of the Morpheus a bit.

1 hour ago, Deadlake said:

Very true but I could imagine that between f4-f8 would be general coverage for most observers. At the same time when EP's are compared I don't really see much reference made to focal length. Good point to make because it's not mentioned, it's not some thing I considered when reading reports.

That's a good point.

When I used to do eyepiece reports for the forum I used to make a point of being specific about the scope specs used in the comparisons and wherever possible use scopes of varying specs. Also using a wide range of target objects (easy and challenging) over a number  of sessions was really required to start to get to understand the eyepieces characteristics.

It's quite a long process !.

Not having to fork out for the eyepieces (thanks to loans from FLO) was a great help too !

2 hours ago, Deadlake said:

17 mm size seems great for bino’s. @jetstream tells me the Nikon 17mm HW is one of his best EP’s, better then Tele Vue or APM.

 

I'm sure the NW 17 is superb. I used to have the Ethos 17 but as a focal length that I don't personally use I thought it excessive to have an expensive "place filler" in the eyepiece case so moved that one one to a home where it would be used more often. The ES 92 / 17mm fills the space in the foam less expensively and is a pretty good experience when I do use that focal length.

Can't see the point of of investing close to £1K on another 17mm eyepiece, even if it is the best 17mm in the world,  given the use that I make of that focal length

Personally, I've given up chasing ultimates in each focal length now. Mind you that pursuit does keep the eyepiece forums ticking over

I've an excellent couple of eyepiece sets now and I'm, content. Many folks would give their right arms to own the 17.3 Delos or the ES 17 / 92 and I still have both. Got to draw a line somewhere and carry on with improving the viewing skills I think

Nice report - wish it was clear here !

That is what is so impressive with these 4 inch F/7 (ish) ED doublet refractors. You can go from an expansive near 4 degree true field to 200x plus. Really versatile instruments 

On 01/08/2021 at 23:38, Sirius Bizness said:

This little beauty turned up last week. Got it off a chap in France. Condition looks as new so was very happy. Only down side was the import duty. Still less than they were new but you can’t buy them anymore so was irrelevant. Looking forward to having a play down to 2-2.5mm in my frac when seeing allows. 
 

Great little eyepiece - I use the 2-4mm Nagler zoom so much with my refractors and even occasionally with my 12 inch dobsonian.

I thought it would be just an "occasional use" tool but it's really a "frequent flyer" I've found

I've owned a couple of the 3-6mm Nagler zooms over the years as well. I've others that cover those focal lengths now but I might be tempted by another 3-6NZ to "compete the pair" at some point.

I'm not a filter user for planetary observing myself (I've tried quite a few but they didn't do anything for me) but some folks like them. The Baader Neodymium is one that gets mentioned quite a lot.

Oddly, for planetary observing, dark adapted eyes don't really help. Observing in twilight often gives the most contrasty views. Jupiter can be really spectacular when there is still some light left in the sky. The contrast and colours seem to be at their best.

I have a Giro Ercole mount. I've only used it with an M10 bolt, the same as the EQ5 / HEQ5 mounts use. I believe from the details published by vendors of the mount that the thread in the base is dual M10 / 3/8ths compatible though. I have not tried it with a 3/8th bolt myself as yet.

Nebulae come in a wide range of shapes and sizes so there is no specific eyepiece that is suitable - you will need a range that spans high to low magnifications.

The most effective filters on a wide range of nebulae types are the UHC and O-III types I've found.

These are often quoted articles on which filters work best and on which nebulae. UHC filters fall into the "narrowband" type and O-III filters the "line filter" type:

https://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/useful-filters-for-viewing-deep-sky-objects/

https://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/filter-performance-comparisons-for-some-common-nebulae/

These filters are not "magic bullets" though. Dark skies are also a great help for getting better nebula views.

Interesting to hear that forest fires can cause this sort of issue.

It's not something I've come across here in the UK so my mind went to other possible causes.

Sounds like it may well be behind your light scatter problem though.

The lowest levels of light scatter that I have experienced with eyepieces have come from HD orthos such as Baader Genuine Orthos, University Optics HD orthos and Fujiyama orthos and also the TMB Supermonocentric.

The more complex designs (including the premium ones) do seem to introduce a little additional light scatter in return for their wider fields and longer eye relief. The Pentax XW range seem to control this well for a more complex design though. I believe the Tele Vue Delites are very good as well.

Of course keeping your scope optics free of dust / condensation and well cooled and collimated helps minimise scatter as well.

The low altitude of Jupiter and Saturn (at least where I am in the UK) does not help with the visiblity of these finer details either. Instability of the image can vary hugely moment to moment so patience and time at the eyepiece is required more then ever to catch those short golden moments of clarity.

This reviewer has attempted to quantify the effects of light scatter with a number of planetary eyepieces:

http://www.wlcastleman.com/equip/reviews/5mm_EP/5mm_ep.html

I find ~17mm a focal length that I just don't use much. With my 2 inch eyepieces I tend to skip straight from 21mm to 13mm and with my 1.25 inch set I step from 24mm to 14mm. I guess this is related to the focal lengths of my scopes which vary between 663mm and 1590mm.

I do have some fine 17mm options including the 17.3 Delos and the 17mm ES / 92 but the poor things seem to get a little overlooked.

Bristol Astronomical Society have an rurally located observatory to the west of the city which provides reasonably dark skies. When we can meet up again I'm sure open public observing sessions will begin again

https://bristolastrosoc.org.uk/observing/

I think you are mixing up aperture (diameter of the primary mirror or lens) and focal ratio which is usually expressed as F/5, F/12 etc.

That aside your primary issue which will hamper good views of deep sky objects such as galaxies is light pollution. Larger format eyepieces will not make any difference in this. A larger aperture scope will help to some extent but the views will still be hampered by the light pollution levels.

A small scope might actually be a better bet because it can be taken to observing sites much more easily than a larger scope. And that is what will get you better views of these fainter deep sky objects.

6 minutes ago, Swithin StCleeve said:

Wow, I had no idea so many of Saturn's moons were visible John. As I say, I'm sure I must have read 'you can only see Titan' when I was getting into astronomy all those years ago, and I have somehow accepted it as fact and never bothered to look further into it. 
The Wolverhampton Astro Society has a 16" Dob, which I've used, but Saturn was too low to get the dob pointing in that direction, (we'd put it in a little dome, and it really wasn't suitable). I'd love to get that on Saturn one day soon!

I find Stellarium and the Cartes du Ciel software useful for plotting the positions of the planetary moons. I usually check AFTER observing and sketching the positions of what I think I see to avoid wishful thinking influencing my observing !

I've seen Titan, Rhea, Tethys, Dione, Iapetus and Enceladus. I may have spotted Mimas a couple of times with my 12 inch but that one is both faint and stays close to the planet.

Last night with my 100mm refractor I could see Titan, Rhea, Dione and Iapetus. Tethys and Enceladus were too close to the planets disk to tease them out in the conditions last night.

Now Neptune is becoming visible at a reasonable hour again I'm looking forward to seeing Triton which I've seen with my 12 inch and 5.1 inch scopes in the past.

Out late this evening with the 100mm refractor.

Seeing not the best but Saturn and Jupiter still looked quite good at 180x.

4 Galilean moons strung out one one side of Jupiter. Around Saturn, Titan, Iapetus, Rhea and Dione were seen, Tethys and Enceladus a little too close to the saturnian disk to be picked out in these conditions.

A few degrees to the north of Saturn I could pick out the Saturn Nebula (NGC 7009) and the small globular cluster Messier 72. Had a good look for the nearby Messier 73 and found a rather ill defined group of 3-4 stars but nothing more. I think that's probably it !

Moved towards the west back into Aquarius to pick up my first view of Neptune this season. It's just a bit below the circlet of Pisces. While very small in angular diameter compared with the giants Saturn and Jupiter, Neptune is clearly not a star at around 200x magnification and at 300x the tiny pale blue marble-like disk is quite clear. Neptune is just 2.34 arc seconds in apparent diameter but it is 4.3 billion KM away from us.

Another enjoyable session despite the seeing being not the best.

A slightly orange tinged crescent moon is rising towards the north east now. Time to bring the scope in I think

Some decent photos of this new zoom on the APM website now:

https://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/hot-products/new-apm-super-zoom-eyepiece-7.7-mm-15.4-mm-1.25-connector

This was probably my most "grab and go" scope. It's a Tele Vue Ranger on a Slick Master Classic tripod. I could carry the whole thing easily with one hand:

Best wishes Steve - sincerely hope you are feeling better soon

Thanks so much folks - much appreciated as is this forum and all the people behind the scenes who make it happen

I actually made 50K post in my planetary observing thread last night which, as a visual observer, seemed very fitting. Ganymede and Europa performed their little intimate dance to mark the occasion

There is one thing that has contributed more to my enjoyment of astronomy over the past 15 years or so than all my scopes and eyepieces and that is the Stargazers Lounge and lt's membership

I'm very pleased that I found you !!!

My Skytee II carried my 9.4kg 130mm F/9.2 triplet refractor pretty well all in all. I have now invested in a more substantial mount for that scope now though - I was a little nervous about using the Skytee II for an expensive scope that was close to the limit for the mount 

3 hours ago, John said:

Looking at the timing more carefully, I might catch the end of the event. Jupiter is currently hidden behind large trees

 

I did a bit better than that in the end

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/380896-jupiter-ganymede-occulting-europa-right-now/