John

I've got my 130mm refractor out tonight. I was going to have a look at some galaxies and other deep sky stuff but the transparency is really not good here tonight. Shame because we have had some great nights for faint fuzzies lately. This is not one of those though To make up for that, the seeing is pretty steady so I've concentrated on double stars. Some great views of favourite pairs and multiples around Cancer, Leo and Virgo. While having a break, I came across a Sky & Telescope piece (link below) on the double stars in Draco so I've been going through some of those, which has been fun Here is the link: https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/double-date-with-a-dragon/ I think my favourite in the Dragon so far tonight has been Eta Draconis. A multiple star with a close, uneven brightness pair as the central feature. The A & B stars are separated by 4.4 arc seconds but it's the brightness difference that creates the challenge and the fascination. The A star is magnitude 2.8 but the B star is just magnitude 8.2. With the washed out transparency it's easy to overlook this faint B star tucked in quite close to the A star. When you do manage to spot it, they make a very delicate and striking pairing Some nice targets for the big refractor in Draco, plus that lovely planetary nebula, "The Cats Eye", NGC 6543, which is bright enough to cut through the hazy conditions and it's central star can just about be made out. Bootes is rising above the trees now so I'll have a look over there and see if I can find some more lovely star pairings The fainter fuzzies will have to wait for another night.

Just had another look at this nova. Still looking around magnitude 8.0 or thereabouts.

I was just thinking that. We gave him a really tough time over those arrangements

You should be able to. I've seen it quite easily with a 100mm refractor. The central star seems to need more aperture than that but the nebula itself is quite bright.

TMB/LZOS at dusk:

NGC 6552 is well placed and not too hard to find: It's quite small but it's clearly not a star at, say, 50x and takes on a sort of eye shape with some magnification. It's close to another star when you come across it in the eyepiece.

No, you are right. It does not cost enough for the Tak mob ! I seem to be able to get by without handles on my refractors Being OCD must be a pain to live with - I'm glad that I'm not bothered by that sort of thing.

Could the non-EEVA observations of this SN be stuck in a thread of their own ?

You can fit one of the Vixen handles onto the Tak clamp: The colour difference might upset some though.

Good stuff - they will be pleased with that one !

Quite a long hold currently

An interesting challenge would be to see the smallest aperture scope that can spot 3C 273. In theory it should be visible with my 120mm refractor but just beyond the ability of my 100 / 102mm. It would be interesting to see if this holds in practice

The TSA 102 seems to need 114mm tube rings: https://www.highpointscientific.com/takahashi-tsa-102s-apo-telescope-ota-tsa0102

One of the things that I like about the Takahashi tube clamps (I use one of the special longer ones with my FC100-DL) is that they are cast items and Takahashi started out as a casting company. They developed their expertise in this field over 30 years before moving into making scopes. I've seen Takahashi's with aftermarket rings, focusers and finders / finder mounts. I suppose the objective is the heart of the scope though so as long as that stays, everything else is interchangeable to suit the owners desires / needs

Interesting piece here from Sky & Telescope giving some more quasars to look for in the springtime: https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/12-quasars-for-spring-evenings/ So far, I've only seen 3C 273 in Virgo plus a blazar that flared up a few years back but I can't recall it's ID

If this has the optical performance qualities of the Morpheus and achieves the other characteristics that APM specify, I think it will fly of the shelves at that price. I am imagining a set comprising the APM XWA 20mm, an APM Super Zoom and a Powermate or similar quality barlow / extender. Could be all an observer needs ? For the SCT / Mak-Cassegrain user, just the 20mm and the zoom.

The most important bit of kit is the Stargazers Lounge mug

It is an interesting object - thanks for flagging it up The faintest point source that I've managed to see with my 12 inch dobsonian is magnitude 14.7 but I'm certainly happy to try and push my eye and the scope further as a challenge and give it a try !

Although close to Messier 51 in terms of "line of sight" I ought to have added that NGC's 5198 and 5173 are a lot further away - around 112 million light years distant compared with M 51's 31 million LY's.

Glad you got it Mark It's a busy area, galaxy-wise !

Nice report Stu I assume the title should have read "12th April...." ? Or is this a retrospective ?

How good it is to see you posting again Andrew and what a great report

Another decent night here so far. 12 inch dob out again. Spending more time on the other side of the sky from Leo this evening although I've just had a quick look at the supernova in IC 3322A in Virgo and it's still there and around the same brightness (mag 13 ish). On the other side of the sky I've had some nice views at 338x of the planetary nebulae NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula) including it's central star, used 122x on M 97 (The Owl Nebula) and teased out indications of it's "eyes" using an O-III filter. With the filter off, I just managed to squeeze the planetary nebula and the galaxy M 108 into the same field of view, which was nice Obligatory looks at the galaxies M81 and M82, M51 and NGC 5195. Explored the knots and rifts in M82 at 338x where the galaxy more of less spanned the whole field of view. Found Messier galaxies 109 in Ursa Major near Phecda (Gamma U. Maj) and 94 (the Croc's Eye) in Canes Venatici. The latter is really bright and showed easily in my 9x50 finder. Went a bit deeper in this area and picked up NGC's 4490 (the Cocoon Galaxy) and 4485, an interacting pair of galaxies in C. Vn. Coming down a little to find NGC's 5198 and 5173 quite close to the much better known "Whirlpool" galaxy M51. Popped down into Hercules to find the globular clusters M 13 and M 92. Both well resolved despite not yet having risen that high. Back up to Canes Venatici to have a look at NGC's 4631 and 4656, the Whale and Hockeystick galaxies, respectively, which I've not observed for a long time. It's still clear but I think I've had enough for tonight. Another enjoyable deep sky session

Another look at this SN tonight with the 12 inch dob. About the same brightness as last night I'd say

As a visual observer, if the contrast looks greater, the target object stands out a little better. As my only "tools" apart from the scope and eyepiece are my eye and brain, if I've optimized their operation through selecting a certain eyepiece and got a better view, or maybe seen something rather than nothing, then that's a win as far as I'm concerned