John

Scope: cheap 90mm f/11 refractor optical tube, branded Celestron, that I'd forgotten I had in a cupboard

What did it show me during a short session last night ?:

Double stars:

Theta Aurigae, Izar, Algieba, Gamma Virginis, Epsilon Lyrae, Iota Cassiopeia - all split quite nicely at 150x.

Eta Draconis - the 8th magnitude companion star was not seen with this scope.

Globular Clusters:

Messiers 13 and 92 in Hercules. Nice bright fuzzies at 50x. Hints of granulation in the outer regions of M13 at 100x

Nova:

V1405 Cassiopeia - easy to see at 50x within a nice star field and the faint sprinkling of stars from open cluster Messier 52 nearby.

Galaxies:

Messiers 84 and 86 from the Virgo part of Markarian's Chain of galaxies.

The "Leo Triplet" of Messiers 65 and 66 and, very faintly indeed, the "hamburger" of NGC 3628.

And that was that as the clouds got thicker and the gaps between them became few and far between.

The scope cost around 30 quid used I seem to recall. I was using the stock RDF finder and low cost mirror diagonal last night. Most viewing with a 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom eyepiece sometimes with a 2.25x barlow lens.

Optics seemed quite good. Very little CA. Decent, though not perfect, star test.

The long tube needs a tall and quite steady mount and an RACI finder would be preferable over the stock straight through RDF but we managed anyway.

Nice slice of astronomy targets available for the low cost I think. Plenty enough to get someone hooked on the hobby. The moon and planets would also be good targets for this type of scope.

A lot of enjoyment per £

Those charts are useful but we also need something similar for NGC objects. Many NGC's don't have Messier classifications but are brighter and better objects for small scopes / novice observers than some of the Messiers

The Caldwell Catalogue is helpful in this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldwell_catalogue

4 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Did a time lapse of R4 ATLAS the other night but haven't got around to processing it yet.

Dave

I'd love to see it when you get time Dave

Despite some streamers of cloud starting to interfere, I managed to find NGC 3147 in Draco and, with a little difficulty and using 257x magnification, managed to tease out supernova SN 2021 hpr which is currently gleaming dimly at magnitude 13.8 or thereabouts.

Ended the session with a quick look at Nova V1405 Cas which I thought looked a little brighter than my last viewing - maybe magnitude 7.5 tonight ?

Overall a pleasing session with some challenging targets amongst more regular gems.

Any session with 2 comets on view is a good one

Pretty poor skies earlier have now improved somewhat so getting the 12 inch dob out to see one comet has delivered somewhat more !

Here is my report on spotting comet C/2020 R4 Atlas, followed by another post when I found comet C/2020 T2 Palomar - both within 2 degrees of each other just now:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/375031-c2020-r4-atlas/?do=findComment&comment=4081253

Add to the comets improving views of the globular clusters M3, M13 and M92, the Cat's eye nebula and the fine double stars Izar and Eta Draconis and my initial misgivings about the conditions have been replaced by a grin and an enjoyable session.

Might even see if the supernova is still glowing in Draco

Yay !!!

I've just managed to get C/2020 T2 Palomar as well !!!

It's a smaller patch of fuzz. The skies are a bit better than earlier so I've been able to pick it up thanks to Cartes du Ciel. Both these are moving quite fast against the starry backdrop though. Fast enough to require "re-finding" after a break from observing for 15 minutes or so.

My first comets since Neowise as well. Very pleased to get the pair tonight when little seemed to be "on"

They are within 2 degrees of each other right now - might make a decent imaging target ?

I've just managed to find C/2020 R4 Atlas in Canes Venatici. It's currently listed at magnitude 9.5 but Neil's description of a hazy patch (perhaps elongated ?) without a clear nucleus is spot on for me as well tonight under poor skies. I'm using my 12 inch dobsonian.

Glad to have caught it - not a good observing night at all but the prospect of the comet got me out there

There is another comet not far away from R4 Atlas - C/2020 T2 Palomar but it's listed at around mag 12 just now and given the inconspicuous appearance of R4 Atlas I strongly suspect T2 Palomar will be "no go" tonight.

Even the normally glorious Messier 3 is looking a little dowdy tonight

Chart below from Cartes du Ciel:

I have not split this one but I'll certainly give it a go !

My 12 inch dobsonian and my 130mm refractor will be the best tools I think.

Very close separation and quite an uneven brightness pair - very challenging I would think !

Might have to settle for just getting some elongation with the refractor but we will see. At least it's easy to find and nice a high in the sky.

Thanks for the suggestion

49 minutes ago, scotty38 said:

Would it be a fair assumption to say these would not be possible with a Stellamira 80 ED?  I'm new to this so I'm still unsure of whether it's eyes or scope that limits me.

I've found a fair few doubles but I've not recorded which ones to then check if they're "easy" or not....

Under a very dark, transparent sky and with an experienced observer Eta Draconis may well be possible with an 80mm scope. The split and the B star magnitude are within the grasp of the aperture.

I think having doubts over observations is very much part and parcel of observing towards the edge of what the conditions / scope / observer can deliver. Thats what sends us back out again !

Interesting how often the "2nd time around" is so much easier though

Great report - I really enjoyed reading that

Despite having "back yard" skies and a max aperture of 12 inches to use I love to press deep into the sky as far as my conditions / scope will allow.

I have managed to see the 4 members of the Leo Quartet and one or two of the brightest members of some of the other groups you mention. It is a thrill when you pick up one of these very faint and distant smudges of light

42 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

I went out tonight at 10.45pm specifically to try eta draconis..as John said it's well placed at this time and the two end stars of Ursa Minor (one of them is Kochab) point nicely to eta nearby, if like me you've not looked for it before.

I tried various combinations and thought I could see the faint companion intermittently at about 220x, (Carton 10.5mm with Baader 2.25x zoom barlow), but it was only when I added my WO nosepiece (1.6x) to the stack that I could be sure it was there. It was faint but unmistakable and seemed to be just outside the 2nd or 3rd diffraction ring (seeing was pretty good but there was a bit of intermittent oscillation of the rings - I had to wait for short stable periods of several seconds, during which the image settled).

I'm thinking this must have been getting on for 350x, but the higher mag, coupled with short steady periods did seem to make all the difference.

Just for comparison I then turned to Polaris with the same high magnification and as John said, the companion star just stood out like a beacon, despite being fainter than eta drac's companion..Polaris B seemed miles away from Polaris at this magnification!

I also looked at Polaris with my new-to-me Axiom LX 31mm beast. At just 33x in the FS128, Polaris B was plainly visible. I was also struck by the lovely star field in the surrounds of Polaris - at 82 degrees, the field was very immersive.

A short but very satisfying session and thanks to John for sharing his initial impressions of this interesting but far from easy double 👍😉.

Dave

 

Nice report Dave - thanks for adding it to this thread

Glad you got some clear sky - it's been rather poor here for the past couple of nights.

On 28/04/2021 at 09:06, JeremyS said:

News in from Kato-san at vsnet overnight that V1405 Cas might be brightening.  Several observers in Japan reported vis or V=7.4 on Apr. 26. He notes "The nova before this brightening was apparently in "premaximum halt" ".

Time will tell - further observations encouraged!

I managed to have a quick look at the nova just now with my 4 inch refractor, though a convenient cloud gap (there have not been too many tonight ) and it still seems to be around the same brightness, maybe a touch brighter, certainly no dimmer than the last time I observed it.

37 minutes ago, garryblueboy said:

Hi John no it’s a cell with two doublets in Es said it was a really cleaver design and remarked on the quality as being outstanding and totally colourless 

Excellent. Another Thomas M Back masterpiece !

I wonder who actually makes the Skytee II ?

When it was first launched it was thought to be a Skywatcher product but FLO corrected that and said that it had been imported to the UK by OVL but was not a Skywatcher model.

It has a similar look and feel to Synta products though

Lovely scope !

Is the quad 2 at the top and 2 in the middle ?

36 minutes ago, jock1958 said:

When I stripped mine down for re-greasing I noticed some obvious flaws in the casting of Alt Axis Fitting which shouldn't have passed quality control checks but mines still in one piece and I haven't overloaded it!

I've just snapped a pic of the same part of my ST II. Not perfect but not as "holey" as yours:

44 minutes ago, John The Ron said:

... I think I will still go for an alt/az heavy duty mount and have a some in mind:- Sky Tee 2, RVO heavy duty Alt/Az, Giro Ercole being my main options but am open to more of the same ilk if you know of any? .....

The Altair Astro Sabre Mount is similar to the Giro Ercole:

https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/altair-sabre.html

The AYOswiss alt-az mounts are very nice indeed:

http://www.aokswiss.ch/ayo/ayo_ii/main_ayo_ii.html

I have seen some heavy scopes on the ST II. This is an 8 inch F/5.9 weighing over 14kg. Not sure that I would go that far though

My ST II has provided excellent service over the years that I've owned it. I do also have an Ercole but the ST II gets much more use, even doing a decent job with my 130mm F/9.2 refractor (pictured below) until I acquired a T-Rex for that scope. The ST II is still my mainstay for my 100, 102mm and 120mm refractors. I hope you get good service from yours Stu

9 minutes ago, Nik271 said:

I managed to see the secondary on Monday night with my 127mm Mak at 250x but it was very subtle and I could only see it for brief moments. It was breezy and a bit hazy so I will try again in better conditions. Hopefully this weekend we'll get some clear spells again.🤞

Well done

Spotting the secondary star seems to be influenced a lot by the observing conditions. I only glimpsed it a couple of times the night before last when I was using my ED120 refractor but my conditions then were similar to the ones that you describe here.

Lets hope for some nice clear, transparent skies again soon

I've not been able to get a clear split of the nearby star STF 2054 as yet with any of my scopes. I get elongation and it's clearly a pair but no split yet.

43 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

I've tried for this one twice in recent nights - failed both times - though the seeing was average at best.
It will stay on the list.

It is quite difficult to see the dimmer star. Having observed it a few more times now I would modify the illustration I posted earlier to reflect this:

2 hours ago, John said:

Well I'm going to try with the 100mm refractor tonight. Last time with this aperture I didn't get it but the seeing wasn't great then. Fingers crossed for tonight.

 

Eta Draconis can be split with a 100mm refractor. At 225x the faint B star was visible during steady periods. Blustery wind not helping. Getting sharp focus is important with this one.

10 minutes ago, jetstream said:

And give the same views???

Oh come on !!!

They are just scopes like any other Gerry

Very nicely made, which is what you would expect for the price, but just scopes.

Olly had it right I reckon earlier in this thread:

"....should we worship brands? I don't think so...."

Taks used to be the butt of a few jokes on here years back - I'm thinking of opinions on "takahashi alley" at a certain star party.

I guess we will have the same when the next SGL star party can happen ?

I do hope not, frankly.

23 hours ago, John said:

I've been able to split A and B Eta Draconis with my ED120 refractor this evening at both 225x and 257x (slightly easier at the latter).

 

Well I'm going to try with the 100mm refractor tonight. Last time with this aperture I didn't get it but the seeing wasn't great then. Fingers crossed for tonight.