John

1 hour ago, chiltonstar said:

You waited 4 years..........?

 

Nope - just the first clear sky for ages and the big refractor out and cooled

Just come in from a great session here

Milky way showing overhead and a tight doubles session morphed into a mixed nebula session with the Omega, Lagoon, Eagle, Dumbbell, Ring, Blinking and Veil East & West being rather well shown in the 130mm refractor. UHC and O-III filters used as needed to enhance the contrast.

Best sky for about a month I think

I'm about to have a look at Pi Aql now it's risen above the conifers here. I've got a 130mm refractor out tonight though so it should be no problem for that. Sounds like your 80mm got really close to a split though.

Sometimes waiting until the target rises a little higher in the sky can make the difference.

4 years on ........

I got a nice split of Lambda Cygni tonight with my 130mm refractor at 300x. Almost a touching pair but just that sliver of black between them to allow the "split" box to be ticked

This one makes Zeta Herculis seem somewhat easy. Got that one tonight as well.

Well, I don't like to tempt fate like this but I actually have a scope out under skies that are at least partly clear !!!!

This can't last, can it ?

4 minutes ago, Astroscot2 said:

This is my second week in Devon and I have still to see the stars excluding the Sun that shone today. 

I had a week in the Cambrian Mountains in darkest Wales last week. Lovely weather during the daytime but cloudy nights. I was going to take a scope but didn't in the end and that was the right decision - it would not have got any use

Looks like some better weather coming here during the 2nd half of next week though 🤞

Just posting my observing report for tonight - yet another heavily clouded one I'm afraid

The best I've managed was 11 craterlets on a great night a couple of years back with my 12 inch dob. The Pentax XW 5mm is a super lunar eyepiece as I discovered that night. The illumination was very favourable showing the craterlets as tiny but distinct pits with illuminated rims and darkened floors.

Great report !

I've only had one session late enough to view the Veil so far this year. Looking forward to more when the skies clear again and your report has reminded me why this os my favourite Summer DSO

Actually I should say group of DSO's because there are a number there of course !

I have to confess that I usually go straight to the O-III filter on the Veil. UHC's show it but my goodness a good O-III really "unveils" the many parts of the Veil

I'm not a frequent solar observer but when I do it's with a refractor and I use a 1.25 inch Lunt Herschel Wedge fitted with an integral ND 3.0 filter (at the bottom of the eyepiece drawtube of the wedge) and a single polarising filter which goes onto the eyepiece to give fine control of final image brightness.

If I observed the Sun more I would probably invest in a Solar Continuum filter and use that in place of the polarising filter.

I've been very pleased with the white light solar views that the above delivers with refractors from 100mm to 120mm in aperture. I find a 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom eyepiece very effective for this type of observing.

The rig also works very well for outreach sessions. I feel that it is safer than an "over the front end" filter because, if the wedge falls off the back of the scope, the eyepiece goes with it and all the solar energy will just exit the back of the scope tube. I guess a singed crotch is a remote possibility but, so far, so good

Handing you back to the solar experts now

My favourite summary of it all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqtdpuZxvk

Bit of a classic look to it

1995 is quite an early one.

6 minutes ago, Don Pensack said:

The following filters perform almost identically in the scope:

Group 1

Astronomik UHC (post 2015)

TeleVue BandMate II Nebustar (2018+)

Lumicon UHC Gen.3. (2018+)

one that performs a little different, but which is also excellent: DGM NPB

 

Group 2

Astronomik O-III visual (2016+)

TeleVue BandMate II O-III (2018+)

Lumicon O-III Gen.3 (2018+)

 

If you have any of the ones in each group, you don't really need to switch.

 

Thanks Don.

How can you tell which Gen Lumicon filter you own ?

Are there visual distinguishing marks for each generation ?

Welcome to the forum Ian 😀

Excellent images !

I'm just up the M5 from you at Portishead.

You are quite right - it has been pretty cloudy around here of late

10 hours ago, Stuu said:

Seeing that you have the 17.3mm Delos, do they both get a lot of use? Do they each suit a particular type of telescope?

The world of 2" EPs is one for further down the road. I'm thinking about joining a club at some point, once things are back to normal (or as close as we can get to it) so hopefully will get a chance to try something like that. 

The ES 17mm / 92 is used in my 12 inch dobsonian. The 17.3mm Delos is usually used in my refractors.

Equatorial mounts can cause the eyepiece and finder to end up in all sorts of awkward positions with a newtonian (and other scope designs as well). If you are observing only the alt-azimuth mounts help keep the eyepiece / finder conveniently positioned. This was a 6 inch maksutov-newtonian on an alt-azimuth mount that I owned a while back. I prefer to observe standing up:

39 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

..... lighter than pretty much anything in its class. 

What else is there in the class of the TSA 120 ?

I find the image fascinating, awesome and challenging but not frightening in any way.

One thing that really is amazing is the amount of sky that the Hubble XDF (eXtreme Deep Field) image covers

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Lovely scope John, just a little shorter than the ED103s which is F7.7..maybe Steve/ @Saganite could post one of his ED103s dual mounted with Andromeda (his superb D&G 5" F15)☺️👍

Dave

Thanks Dave. My shortest refractor and one of the lightest and yet the only one that has a handle fitted. Must try harder ........

Nice to see Andromeda again @Saganite with it's Japanese friend

How can you tell a Lumicon Gen 3 from the other Gens ?

That's a bit heavier than I was expecting  - about the same as my TMB/LZOS 130mm F/9.2 triplet.

2 hours ago, Starwatcher2001 said:

.... Also works very nicely with the Teleview 2x Barlow, which retains the eye relief.

Barlows actually extend eye relief slightly which can be a further advantage to the glasses wearer. Not always so good for the non-glasses wearer though.

If you ever get a chance, you might like to try the Explore Scientific 92 degree 12mm or 17mm eyepieces. They have long eye relief AND a massively wide (and well corrected) field of view

Pretty heavy eyepieces though  - the 17mm weighs nearly 1.3 kg !

2 hours ago, lguise said:

Hi John,

Could you post a photo of your 102SS if you have one to hand ( you probably have already done so in another thread), I’ve not seen one but have read they perform very well.

All the best 

Linton

Sure. I hope Dave /  @F15Rules doesn't mind this "shorty" in his thread 

2 hours ago, lguise said:

Hi Dave,

All good here thank you. I’ve not had the chance to compare my Vixen ED (which is the 102S f9 version) with a fluorite model, hopefully may get the chance at some stage. My ED has a 2” focuser and I added a vixen reduction unit for fine focus which is an improvement. Views through the ED are very good with minimal false colour either side of focus.
 

 I agree with your thoughts on the various Vixen mounts, I have my original SP with a modification by Peter Drew which corrected the poor design of the latitude adjustment. I also have a very smart black version of the GP which Celestron marketed. Both have stainless steel counterweight shafts that Phil made for me.

I was lucky enough to find a heavily reduced Berlebach tripod for sale in a camera shop that was closing down, the Vixens sit very solid on it. Picture of the ED in action early evening in the Spring with Yvette enjoying some Lunar views.

Stu : maybe we will get the two scopes together sometime, your fluorite looks very fine, same tripod I think?

Best wishes all,

Linton

Lovely setup Linton😀

Vixen didn't state what ED glass they used with the ED 102S and ED 102SS but from the colour correction that my F/6.5 SS gives I feel that it's got to be FPL-53. I'm sure your F/9 is even better.

My previous scope to my Vixen was a Skywatcher ED100 F/9 and I was pleasantly surprised when the Vixen F/6.5 matched it for colour correction 😀

I had been prepared for a slight trade off in CA in return for the faster focal ratio.

I've been to the Kennedy Space Centre a few times over the past decade. Saw a launch there in 2017. Greenwich, the Norman Lockyer Observatory (Devon), the National Space Centre in Leicester and Jodrell Bank are all great places to see in the UK.

In 2019 we spent some time in Northern Arizona and visited the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff and somewhere that has been on my wish list for 4 decades - Meteor Crater