John

Sounds like you had a very good session

Nice dark night out there here as well

Part 2 of this session was under more transparent skies and was (mostly) in Virgo / Coma Berenices.

I got a bit lost as I usually do in this region - there are so many galaxies to see !

The Markarian's Chain ones are easy to ID so I know that I got Messier 84 and 86 plus NGC's 4388, 4387, 4438, 4435, 4461, 4473, 4477 and 4459.

I spotted at least another dozen besides that in the "bowl" of Virgo and another handful in Coma B itself.

I ended up pointing the scope more or less straight up and had a look at Messier 51 and NGC 5194 in Canes Venatici and Messier 101.

Got a bit cold so packed away with the sky still dark and glistening with stars and deep sky treasures.

Must have seen around 50 galaxies in total tonight, all just using the 21mm eyepiece apart from one short foray with the 8mm to pick out a fainter one when back in Leo earlier.

Very enjoyable indeed

I started out this evening with a 100mm refractor intending to try and split Sirius, observe some other binary stars and to have another look at the nova in Cassiopeia.

After getting engrossed in an old film with my other half after supper, I found that Sirius had got rather low to be worth observing so I had a quick look at Zeta Cancri (Tegmine) and then Nova v1405 Cas (which seems slightly dimmer but still around magnitude 8 ) and then had a look at the galaxies Messier 81 and 82. These seemed quite bright and well defined so I decided to put the 12 inch dob out, have a cuppa, and then to switch my interest to Leo / Virgo galaxy hunting with the bigger aperture, with the moon not due above the horizon until the early hours. So that's what I've been enjoying for the past 90 minutes or so. I hope the refractor is not too offended !

Some thin cloud has drifted across half the sky just now, which I hope will clear away soon. So far I've spotted 20 galaxies within Leo:

Messiers: 95, 96, 105, 65 and 66

NGC's 3193, 3190, 3226, 3227, 3384, 3412, 3377, 3367, 3489, 3596, 3628, 3626, 3608, 3607 and 3605.

The last 4 form a sub-group of the Leo II galaxy group with NGC 3607 and 3608 forming a striking pair in the eyepiece at 75x and the application of more magnification bringing out the fainter NGC 3605 close to 3607. NGC 3626 is a little outside the field but still part of the same subgroup which lies at around 70 million light years from us.

Looks like the cloud has shifted so I'm off out again

I've just had a look at the nova with my 100mm refractor. It has dimmed a little but is still mag 8.5 or so I reckon.

1 hour ago, amaury said:

@John thanks, I am looking for something between 30 and 36mm. 

I came across the one below but haven't got an answer yet.

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=172006

There isn't a 32mm 68 degree Explore Scientific eyepiece as far as I know.

Above 24mm the range becomes 2 inch format and runs 28mm, 34mm and 40mm.

Edit: looking at the photo with the advert, I think that is a 62 degree ES. There is a 32mm in that range.

Wire wool and Dettol - can't beat it

(from a very rude Billy Connolly joke )

This would be worth a punt if it is still available:

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=172878

I used to own one and found it excellent even in quite fast scopes. Very, very close to the performance of the best of them.

I have no connection at all with the seller or advert.

11 minutes ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

I certainly do! I was thinking of M42 and the Pleiades, then trying for M81/82, the double cluster in Perseus, maybe M3 and finally a look at the moon? My views south are the best from that site but north isn’t bad either. I’m particularly keen on the moon to try out the Nagler zoom! 

Good targets !

Moonrise is 2:28 am though so it will be the early hours until it's high enough to be worth a look.

Some nice triple stars would include Beta Monocerotis and Iota Cassiopeia. Sigma Orionis (just below the belt) is a quadruple with a mag 9 faintest member so a nice challenge.

Messier 35 in Gemini is a great low power open cluster.

Have fun !

Another crack at Sirius B with the Tak FC100 tonight I hope. Determined to get the Pup with my smallest aperture scope

Very nice setup !

Do you have any specific 1st light targets in mind ?

7 minutes ago, Carbon Brush said:

.....Second, the cost. I said to myself, stop moaning. A bottle of fluid, and a cloth, last a very long time.
If you have amassed a collection of nice eyepieces and other glassware, it is big money.
The fluid, when compared to the cost of the eyepieces they are cleaning, is peanuts....

 

Exactly my reasoning

Clear night forecast here tonight so I'll take a peek

The zoom exceptions to me have always been the Nagler zooms which certainly do perform as well as very good fixed focal length eyepieces, have constant AFoV and eye relief across their focal length range and near par-focality across their FL range.

If the APM zoom proves to have similar characteristics, I may well be very interested in one 

"Clangers Re-United"

I've owned both an Evostar 120 and a Besser AR127L although both were quite a few years ago.

Both were decent scopes. The 127L is somewhat longer and a bit heavier but does give the feeling of using a "big refractor" more than the Evostar 120 did.

The level of CA in the F/9.4 127L is a bit lower than in the F/8.3 Evostar 120.

I had the 127L on an EQ5 mount for a while and it was steady enough for visual observing. I was using a strong steel legged tripod with the mount which made a lot of difference to stability.

The EQ3-2 mount would not really be suitable for either scope in my opinion.

32 minutes ago, Stu said:

I had to read that twice to check you weren’t being a little harsh on your dear lady John... 😉😉

That is amazing! Do you have any pictures of the Shuttle itself?

Would love to get across there someday and see it, plus Saturn V of course. There is also the prospect of catching a SpaceX or even SLS launch at some point too I guess if you are lucky.

Here are a few of the Shuttle Atlantis and the Saturn V. You get right up close to the shuttle but that makes it harder to photograph the whole thing !. The Saturn V is just immense. We did see a Space X launch when we were there in 2017 - difficult to photograph though because we were about 3 miles away and the Space X launches are quite sedate compared to the Saturn V and shuttle launches. The one we saw was not a heavy lifter though.

We also did the launch pad bus tour which went right out and around the active pads this time including the one that was being prepped for the manned launch last year.

We were lucky with the timing of the trip last year. We got back on the 6th March just as the Covid thing started to get serious.

I could spend a whole week in and around KSC to be honest with you. Not sure my other half would be too happy about that itinerary though !

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

Same here, last night was totally cloudy again despite CO stating 0% cloud cover. I found that the Met Office map is much more reliable at predicting clouds. I still hope to have another look at the Nova before it fades away, supposedly there will be some clear spells this weekend.🤞

Same here. I've had several nights like that recently. A scope went out for a couple of hours each time "just in case" but never got used 

Hopefully better prospects over the coming few days.

Each time I get a frustrating night or a shortened session I'm reminded of why I've ended up with scope setups that are as quick and easy to deploy and tear down as possible.

If I had complex setups requiring power, alignment etc, etc and extensive carrying to and from an observing site, they simply would not get used 

French windows, a patio and grab-and-go telescopes have kept me in the practical side of Astronomy I reckon !

Great report !

I've observed Theta Aurigae the last few times that I've been out. It's a nice one !

Sirius must be a little more challenging for you further north because of it's lower altitude ?

This website covers the CG-5 so might be of some help:

http://www.astronomyboy.com/cg5/

Good job Chris - I enjoyed watching that

I think you took just the right approach - describe what you see and the experience rather than worrying about detailed specific technical diagnosis 

1 hour ago, niallk said:

And funnily enough, it's the stubby short ones that draw the gasps of admiration for dobs!! 😂

You could use 80mm F/15 refractors as truss poles for something like that !

I've been looking through some snaps we took on our trip to Florida last February, which seems a long time ago now . I came across the one below that I took at the Kennedy Space Centre in front of the Shuttle Atlantis exhibition hall. My other half is stood at the bottom of the right hand SRB. This is a BIG piece of hardware

The exhibition of the Atlantis shuttle inside the huge hall is very impressive as well - it's turned on it's side and is literally hanging right in in front of you. Highly recommended visit for all space nuts

I guess that the objective used in the Altair Starwave Ascent 102ED would be suitable:

https://www.altairastro.com/starwave-ascent-102ed-f11-refractor-telescope-geared-focuser-467-p.asp

I'm not sure that the objectives are available separately though ?

Is the current objective in your Lyra 102 F/11 in good shape ?. Apart from a little less false colour, an ED doublet replacement might not deliver much in the way of improvements. The objectives used in the Lyra F/11 achromats were pretty good I seem to recall.

Thanks Jeremy - I will enjoy reading those over my coffee and Jaffa Cake later today

Fascinating stuff from NASA's APOD:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050401.html