Jump to content

John

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    53,833

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    456

 Content Type 

Posts posted by John

    Forked AZ Mounts.

    in Discussions - Mounts

    Posted

    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.

     

     

    Change of horse midstream

    in Observing - Reports

    Posted · Edited by John

    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.

     

     

    • Like 2

    Change of horse midstream

    in Observing - Reports

    Posted · Edited by John

    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:

    eat drink astronomy –

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

     

    • Like 6

    Tonight is the night - Transparent skies over the uk tonight and no moon

    in The Astro Lounge

    Posted

    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 !

     

    • Like 2

    One Step Beyond Sirius ....... Procyon

    in Observing - Discussion

    Posted · Edited by John

    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 :smiley:

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

    Crack open a beer mate :thumbright:

     

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1

    Fuzzy hunting

    in Observing - Reports

    Posted · Edited by John

    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".

     

     

     

    • Like 1

    Fuzzy hunting

    in Observing - Reports

    Posted

    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.

     

    • Like 1

    Fuzzy hunting

    in Observing - Reports

    Posted

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

    Seems to work OK though, which is the main thing :smiley:

    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 :rolleyes2:

     

     

     

     

    • Like 1

    Takahashi FC-100 and FC-76 advice

    in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups

    Posted

    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 :smiley:

    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 :smiley:

     

     

    • Like 6

    I've had triplets

    in Getting Started With Observing

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Capt Slog said:

    ....  It wasn't a case of "find the right patch and there they are", it was down to the exact location, I counted off lengths from the the nearest two stars in the correct direction....

     

    That is a very good description of the process of finding these fainter targets :thumbright:

     

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.