John

Good thread this A timely reminder for me to dust off (metaphorically speaking) my Lunt HW and get some WL solar observation in with one of my fracs, now that there is something interesting to observe. I am not a regular solar observer and mostly used the HW for the outreach sessions that Bristol AS used to do and an local annual school visit. Those were really enjoyable but obviously have not been possible for the past 15 months so I've become a somewhat lapsed solar observer lately. Time to correct that I think Reading other threads on WL solar observing I see that O-III filters are being used to enhance the experience. Would that be in addition to the polarising filter that I use on the bottom of the eyepiece barrel or instead of it ? Cheers

I have Lumicon and Astronomik O-III and UHC filters and they do work very well on quite a few planetary nebulae I agree. Last night though I was happy with the unfiltered views

Thanks Mark. I must do some more white light solar observing now that there is some solar activity worth observing

Yes, I think so. I have observed this one with my 12 inch dob some years back and it didn't "blink" with that but I thought the smaller aperture might cause it to. I was observing at high power (150x plus) mostly though. I had forgotten how small NGC 6826 is - quite easily overlooked as a slightly bloated star at low magnifications. NGC 6884 even more so. Apparently the mix up over cataloguing of 6884 / 6766 was caused by Pickering (or one of his team) discovering it in 1883 and then Ralph Copeland discovered it again in 1884 and designated it 6766 !

Thanks ! I have not really followed planetary nebulae all that much during my observing to date but I'm lately becoming aware that there are plenty out there and that they are worth seeking out, even with smaller aperture scopes. Each one seems to have an individual character as well

I've been using my ED120 refractor tonight with a bright full moon rising in the SE sky casting it's glow over much of that side of the sky. The seeing was rather "ho-hum" so I gave up trying to split really close double stars and, recalling success with this scope in picking up the planetary nebulae NGC 6210 and IC 4593 in Hercules a few nights back, I decided to have a look for some more, despite the moonlight. I started with the easy one of Messier 57 - the famous "Ring Nebula". It was easy to find but rather washed out. Still it's a DSO so that's a start. Next I went to NGC 6826, the "Blinking Planetary" in Cygnus. A lot smaller than M57 and dominated by it's mag 10 central star but the small halo of nebulosity surrounding the central star was quite nicely defined at 150x. I was a little surprised that the blinking effect was minimal tonight with the nebulous halo constantly visible but I wasn't complaining - it looked rather nice and it seemed to be surviving the moonlight wash in the sky rather better than the larger M57. Next up was my old favourite in Draco, the "Cats Eye Nebula" NGC 6543. Again well defined nebulosity with the characteristic oval "eye" form. Central star just about visible gleaming through as well. Pale blue tint to this one I thought. Then I decided to go back into Cygnus and try for something that I'd not seen before. NGC 6884. This one is a challenge for the smaller scope. It is magnitude 10.8 but has a diameter of just 7.5 arc seconds so quite difficult to separate from a background star. With the help of Stellarium I was able to pinpoint a suspect at medium magnification then use 200x plus to examine it. A tiny and faint halo of nebulosity around a concentrated central area (but no central star) showed and a nearby triangle of magnitude 11-12 stars helped me to be sure that this was the planetary nebula correlating accurately with the Stellarium high power (and refractor flipped) view. NGC 6884 is thought to be around 6,000 light years away, but maybe more, and quite a young object - thought to be around 1,000 years old maybe ?. It was discovered by Pickering in 1883 but he seems to have catalogued it twice, also noting this object as NGC 6766. Due to a mix up over co-ordinates, NGC 6766 was "lost" for over a century until an astronomer named Dave Riddle (apt name !) worked out that these were one and the same object ! Nice to be able to pick out this very small planetary nebula with the 120mm scope. Clouds intervened so that's that for tonight but the session did demonstrate that planetary nebula are good targets for smaller apertures even with some moonlight in the sky and also that the smaller ones seem to get less affected by the "moonwash". Incidentally, I did not feel the need to use a filter, of either UHC or O-III flavour. These particular little nebulae seemed to "pop" out quite well on their own this evening

Same again tonight I think. 120mm frac at 37.5x used.

Apparently Space X has approval to launch 12,000 satellites. I think there are around 1,600 launched so far. The company are seeking approval to increase the total to 30,000. I bought a Space X T-shirt when I visited Florida in 2017 and saw a Falcon 9 launch. I don't think I'd have the nerve to wear it now, especially amongst other astronomers

I don't know how relevant this is now but Ed Ting reviewed and compared these scopes (or clones of them) back in 2010: https://scopereviews.com/page1y.html

Nice photo ! It is clear here but I'm having a rest from scope observing for an evening. I did pop upstairs to get a nice naked eye view of Mercury in the western sky a short while ago. The moon does not rise above the surrounding houses here tonight but it's glow will infuse the sky so deep sky observing will not be at it's best. I might pop out with some binoculars and see if the nova in Cassiopeia is still a binocular object.

What scope will you use it with ? I have the Lunt 1.25 inch wedge and use it with my 100mm and 120mm refractors. I'm very happy with it.

One where I've noticed a change, in position angle at least, is Zeta Herculis:

Thanks Barry - very interesting

According to the Stella Dopie database the split is currently .25 of an arc second !

Thanks Stu. De Vico AA must be a more recent impact then because it partially overlays the rille or at least interferes with it a bit. According to Wood and Collins (21st Century Atlas of the Moon) under the rille is a dike which transported lavas to the mare and created the magnetic anomoly that is found here.

The Rimae Sirsalis (Sirsalis Rille) is looking very nice tonight. All 400+ km of it ! I like the way that it curves and cuts right across the floor of one crater but I'm not certain of the name of that one - De Vico A or AA maybe or near that one anyway ? This is a Lunar Orbiter 4 image:

Yep - could keep us hanging on all Summer

Nova observed with my 100mm frac at 37.5x. I'd go for magnitude 7.5ish tonight. Just a touch brighter than the star HD220770 which is mag 7.8.

Hi Chris, I've not had the chance to try it out yet. I'll post back on here with the results when I have

Nice stuff ! Schiller is an unusual formation, isn't it ?

Or start to quibble about the spec as they do on another forum that I can think of !

Yes - I was surprised, but pleased, to find this spec in the public domain when I bought my LZOS refractor.

If you can fix up the case, I reckon the other stuff is sortable but the seller should have been much more open when they described the condition of the scope. With the focuser adjusted (I use one and adjustment is quite easy) and the objective cleaned, the condition could be described as excellent I suppose but more openess would have helped a prospective buyer make a better informed choice. I have bought used scopes in somewhat worse order than the one you have bought but I knew alls the issues before deciding to go ahead. The price reflected them as well. Hope you get it sorted soon, one way or another Steve.

Well it was well done I'm a bit south of you and I've found the Antares split very difficult to achieve - once in the past 5 years in fact !

I use a number of RACI finders in both the 50mm and 30mm aperture. I find them indespensable. By the way, the one you link to in your original post is a right angled one but left and right are still reversed (so it is RA but not RACI). Personally I find the RACI ones (which give the same orientation that our eyes give) easier to use.