John

Great pic released by NASA a couple of days ago of the Ingenuity Helicopter having survived it's first night on the surface of Mars. If testing goes well it could fly on Sunday 11th April 

For the past few nights I've been using my 12 inch dobsonian to hunt galaxies in Leo and environs as reported here:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/374989-change-of-horse-midstream/?tab=comments#comment-4067516

Feeling a little guilty towards my 100mm refractor that I had so rudely cast aside in favour of the "light bucket" and also that I rather disparagingly referred to as a "Peashooter" in another thread, I decided to see what just 3.9 inches of aperture could do within Leo.

I did preface the galaxies with a quick look at the nova in Cassiopeia - it still looked to be holding on at around the low magnitude 8's to me.

Using the 14mm Delos eyepiece (64x / 1.12 degree true field) and moving around the main galaxy hotspots in Leo, I found that I was able to spot a few more than I expected with the skinny Japanese wonderscope:

NGC 2903 (quite easy really), NGC's 3190 and 3193 (2 of the Hickson 44 group) which were hard to spot, NGC's 3226 and 3227 just behind the golden double star Algeiba (Gamma Leonis) again, quite challenging.

Then down to M 95 and M96 and the pale pair of eyes of NGC's 3384 and 3379 all of which were fairly obvious.

Then back along and under the lions "belly" to the Leo Triplet of M 65 and 66 (quite easy) and the rather challenging (in this scope) NGC 3628 AKA the "Hamburger Galaxy" tonight re-named the "faint wisp and only really visible when you don't look at it" galaxy

Some rather larger and menacing clouds were now rushing across from the NE so I had a quick look up at M51 / NGC 5195, which actually showed rather well and then it was eyepiece out and scope caps on time.

That's probably it for tonight and maybe the next few days looking at the forecast but it's been a good run of sessions and I feel that the 100mm acquitted itself rather well this evening on the faint and distant stuff. I promise not to call it a "Peashooter" again 

2 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

...I imagine the 2-4 zoom is great too, but never tried and I think they’re tricky to find now 🤔

Yes - out of production, unfortunately.

The most noticeable difference between the 3-6 zoom and the 2-4 (apart from the focal length range) is that the 2-4 has click stops at half mm intervals rather than 1mm. Otherwise they feel and perform the same. I've owned a couple of the 3-6 Nagler zooms in the past.

The Nagler zooms are in the same par-focal group as the 24mm Panoptic and a number of other Tele Vue eyepieces - Tele Vue call it their "B" par-focal group. It is around 8mm further out than things like the Pentax XW.

I use the 2-4mm Nagler zoom very often with my FC100-DL. It is a very effective high power eyepiece IMHO. My diagonal for the Tak is the Baader T2 Zeiss Prism. I went for the latter as a result of reading this review by Bill Paolini:

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/mirror-vs-dielectric-vs-prism-diagonal-comparison-r2877

The Ethos range have a wide range of focal plane positions. This post by Don Pensack on the CN forum gives the details but they can make your head spin a bit !:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/490673-ethos-line-how-much-backin-focus-required/?p=6437723

Great session Mark

3 minutes ago, Cleetus said:

Which Gibraltar are you referring to? Do you mean the HD5 or the older versions?

The older ones. I know the HD5 raises the game but at the price they are, there are other attractive options such as the Rowan AZ100 or the T-Rex which I have now.

32 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

Awesome few nights John. Kind of following on from my report and getting yourself organised, do you put a list together and print off a couple of maps? Intrigued to know how you put all of these targets together. 

Last night I had a few goals in mind in Leo. Having had a few sessions in that part of the sky recently I know where the main hunting grounds are so I don't need charts for those. The rest I sort of decide as I go along. I'm not really into major planning for sessions but like to have a couple of ideas and then "hang" the session around those.

For the new finds I use a combination of Stellarium running on a laptop and the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas. Last night a number of targets were a bit beyond what the Pocket Sky Atlas covers so I found Stellarium very useful, particularly the ability to flip the view and zoom in to simulate the eyepiece view.

I'm lucky that my observing "pad" is just a couple of paces from the dining room where the laptop is and my eyepieces and a warm drink. I don't need to keep a load of stuff out with the scope. I can isolate the dining room from the rest of the house so keep that as a dark room.

Excellent stuff Luke

It was a very good night, last night, to get back into DSO hunting.

Another few hours in Leo with my 12 inch dob tonight. Better transparency so I could get around 1 magnitude fainter on galaxies. Quite a few of the ones already mentioned in this thread re-visited for better views this evening. New faces were:

NGC's: 3162, 3187, 3222, 3177, 3221, 3547, 3507, 3389, 3412, 3655, 3691, 3681, 3684 and 3686.

The last 3 listed form a line about 1 degree in length in the Lions rump with 3691 off to one side. Another Leo galactic quartet:

3rd night of Leo galaxy hunting and yet there are many more in and around that constellation still to find

I've just packed in now but it's still pretty clear outside.

The transparency was good tonight but I think it could be better still. Not complaining though. 28 Leo galaxies plus 13 down (or up) the Markarian's Chain plus others unidentified in the Virgo / Coma B boundary puts a smile on my face even though it's a little chilly out there

Tonight I observed the nova with 11x70 binoculars. It looked around the same brightness that it has for the past few nights.

With the more transparent skies this evening M52 showed quite nicely with the binoculars.

I'm having a cup of something warm before going out again.

So far I've concentrated on the upper forequarters of Leo and picked up 13 galaxies of which 8 are new spots, or at least I've not seen them for a long time.

I seem to be able to get the ones with a surface brightness of around magnitude 13 or brighter tonight. That's around 1 magnitude better than the last couple of nights I've been out so the transparency is better tonight.

I have managed to see all the Leo Quad / Hickson 44 group but NGC 3187 was right at the limit this evening and I needed to use 200x plus magnification to confirm it.

I'll probably just concentrate on the Leo galaxies in this session and leave Virgo / Coma B for another session. It's a bit parky out there !

Better make a start. The obligatory look at Nova v1405 Cas, to see how it's doing

Clear but cold here.

Some interesting potential target galaxy groups in Leo covered in this Sky & Telescope piece:

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-blogs/explore-night-bob-king/exploring-bright-galaxy-groups-in-leo/

One of my targets tonight will be to see all 4 of the Hickson 44  "Leo Quartet". I got 3 the other night but NGC 3187 eluded me. 

Thanks Mark

Tonight is big aperture night then

I'll leave the "peashooters" indoors

16 minutes ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Intrigue got the better of me this evening so I thought I would have a go at Procyon myself. 

With the SW 12 inch Dob I got the star nicely centred with tracking on and using the Morpheus 6.5mm (230x) I spent a good 20 minutes just gazing at it and systematically going around and around the airy disc trying to spot the elusive B star.  

The seeing wasn't the best with a bit of a breeze blowing and the main star was scintillating quite markedly, but every time my eye reached the region around 11-12 o'clock I was convinced there was something there. I certainly couldn't see a star at all, but within the scintillating fuzz surrounding Procyon I definitely felt there was something in there that wasn't evident at any other point around the disc. 

I hadn't done any homework beforehand so had no idea where the B star was, but after checking SkySafari afterwards it showed Procyon B was exactly where I had seen my "something" loitering in the sparkly fuzz so I'm calling it a success, even if I didn't actually see it. Would be good to have another go under excellent seeing conditions.  

If you got it, this is a brilliant result Geoff

You are quite possibly the only living human who as achieved it !

Crack open a beer mate

21 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

I was doing that a lot last year. Have just set my phone up as Stu mentions, works a treat. Here's a quick link to how for an iPhone: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204390

Click on the red pen and turn up the opacity fully. 

Thanks. I hardly ever use a mobile phone and the one I have is pretty ancient so won't run much.

Plus, I find any light at the scope at all gets in the way of the finding the really faint targets. I dark adapted for about 90 minutes when I was trying for the Horsehead Nebula. I avoided any light whatsoever to really get "into the zone".

41 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

Was going to say that I've been using my pocket atlas all year John. I do love it's simplicity for basic hopping but have often found I need a more expanded view, up close at times. Certainly was that way with the recent Cass Nova, the atlas is too basic there. 

I just print off a chart from the web for that sort of target.

My preference is always to keep things as simple as possible out at the scope.

11 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

That's a point that can be so easily overlooked, especially when were passionate about a particular telescope.........

 I try in keep in mind that the scope is a means to an end and not the end itself

The StellaLyra 12.5mm seems very similar in many ways to the current version of the William Optics 12.5mm SPL. I would not be surprised to find that they are the same under the skin:

The StellaLyra seems to be twenty quid less expensive though

More similarities here as well:

I feel like a bit of a dinosaur just sticking with the Pocket Sky Atlas and my finders

Seems to work OK though, which is the main thing

Once I've found something I can usually get back to it from memory for a few weeks afterwards.

Next season, I need to re-find the more obscure stuff though

My view last night was with my Vixen 102 using the Delos 14mm. Similar findings to @Stu and @PeterW

1 hour ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

I think it might have been my comparison of M42 with the FC76-DCU vs other scopes that originally raised this?
Maybe it was just Tak-bias but it seemed to me that the perfection of the view through the FC76 was so pleasing, I enjoyed it more than the other scopes I have used. Of course the bigger scopes showed more detail, but there was something about the Tak’s quality that I fear I may become addicted to!

I'm glad you are enjoying your Tak Nicola. I've enjoyed my FC100 since I bought it in 2016

When I use my refractors (I have 4 between 100mm and 130mm in aperture) I enjoy the feeling that the views I'm getting are probably as good as any scope of that aperture can give.

When I want to go deeper, fainter, tease out more detail or see something that I've never been able to see before, I go to larger apertures and I can't afford / manage a 8 inch plus refractor so it's a newtonian on a dobsonian mount that I turn to. A good one, as it happens.

For me, seeing things that I have seen before, exquisitely nicely, is one part of the hobby but what keeps me personally in it is being able to occasionally see things that I've never managed to see before.

We all have different motivations, of course