John

Amazing setup Simon 

1 hour ago, Sunshine said:

I have a 3.5 XW which I am sure will get much use!

Clear skies!

Excellent - I have one of those and that performed very well on the Moon last night

Excellent stuff !

I agree with Jeremy, you will get good value from shorter focal length eyepieces. I find a 2mm-4mm zoom often in use with my FC100-DL. 300x was wonderful last night on Iota Leonis

11 minutes ago, RobertI said:

I had a brief go myself last night with the 102EDR. Cranked the magnification up to around x300 but nothing was apparent  - I didn't look for long to be honest as the view was quite unpleasant. Might try with the 150PL tonight.

So far this year I've not seen it with my Tak 100mm or ED120mm. I've needed my 130mm refractor or 12 inch dob to do the job.

I'm sure the smaller apertures can do it but the challenge is just made that much more difficult because the airy disk and surrounding glare from Sirius A is a little larger and the glimmer from Sirus B a little fainter.

I'll try the ED120 tonight I think - working my way down the apertures !

At the current time, the Pup star follows behind Sirius A as it drifts across an undriven field of view. 

It does appear as a faint glimmering point of light which comes and goes with as the seeing varies.

The seeing and reducing light scatter around Sirius A are very important to spotting the Pup star.

1 hour ago, Deadlake said:

Is the Stellarvue a clone of the XWA design, just a baffle and a steel tube on the bottom? Shame not available outside of US.

Do you mean the Stellarvue Optimus 100 ?

https://www.stellarvue.com/100-110-degree-optimus-eyepieces/

If so, they are the same basically as the APM XWA's I believe.

I can vividly recall the Viking missions, reading the reports and being amazed at the images as they were published in the papers. I was 16 years old so it was an influential time for me.

A couple of years ago I had a chance to acquire the original painting below by David C Early F.R.A.S. It was painted in 1977 and is based on the Viking 1 and 2 images. It is quite a large work (100cm x 75cm) and occupies a wall in the "astronomy end" of our dining room 😀

Actually I've been tempted out with the Tak 100 by a dodgy man from Oakworth

Thanks for the "heads up" (again !) on the Mare Orientale Paul 😀

I was not going to observe tonight but your post prompted me to get the Tak 100 out and onto the moon. I'm not sure if I have observed the Mare Orientale before but I have now !

The scale of the thing is quite apparent from the concentric mountain ranges Cordillera and Outer and Inner Rooks. Lacus Autumni is showing nicely and other darker patches - part of the Lacus Veris perhaps ?

I've found this guide on the CN forum useful:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/674322-mare-orientale-a-glimpse-of-the-far-western-limb-of-the-moon/

Also the SW Limb charts L5 and L6 in the "21st Century Atlas of the Moon".

Thanks again Paul !

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Beautiful John, a "proper scope"!👌😊.

If I may join the "gratuitousness".. I was painting the floor of my recently refurbished outside brick barn today, where my scopes live, so I had to move lots of stuff out, or up off the floor, while the floor paint dries: so I took a few pics of the FS128 while it had to stand outside, and a couple as dusk fell and the almost full moon rose..

Also, John, did you check out The Trap last night? I had an hour out and despite the brightness of the moon I was easily able to see the E&F stars with direct vision..the transparency here was very good and the seeing was good too, got a lovely clear split of Alnitak as well😊.

Dave

Yours looks lovely as well Dave 😀

I did check out E & F Trap and Alnitak last night and quite a few others too plus some lovely lunar views. The seeing was pretty good.

Having a night in tonight. More clear skies forecast over the next few days though.

There have been quite a few over the past few years that have been visible in amateur scopes. I've observed about 10 I think. Here is the current list of the brightest:

http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/snimages/

Nothing above magnitude 14 just now. I think the one in M82 in early 2014 was the brightest that I've seen - magnitude 10.5 at it's peak.

The last one in our galaxy was over 400 years ago. Perhaps we are due another ?

I don't filter or stop the scope down to observe the moon, even with my 12 inch dobsonian. I do tend to use high magnifications though.

I carry a moon filter with me for outreach sessions though, in case anyone feels uncomfortable observing the moon without one.

If you reduce the aperture of the scope by using the small opening in the end cap, your "new" aperture is that of the hole so around 52mm if I recall correctly. So then you will have the resolution and light grasp of a 52mm scope, ie: significantly less than that of a 200mm scope.

3 hours ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

Morning all,

Would this finder shoe be a direct replacement for my Bresser AR102s? - Short term I would like to fit my right angle finder.  I dont want to drill or modify the scope if possible.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/finder-mounting-shoe.html

Thank you

Baz

I think the mounting holes are in different places Baz (that one is for Skywatcher type finder bases) so you need something like this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/baader-universal-quick-release-finder-shoe-base.html

The elongated mounting slots give you the flexibility to match the mounting holes in the scope tube.

There are less expensive ones around than the Baader if you search around.

1 hour ago, RobertI said:

Still might have time to try the pup before it goes. My main scopes are a C8 SCT, 150PL newt and a 102mm ED frac (sadly my 130P is out on loan) - I was thinking the 150PL is probably my best bet for spotting the pup - what do people think?  

Any of them could get the Pup but I would think that the 150PL, in good collimation, might be the best bet.

My 130mm refractor showed it quite well tonight at 200x and above.

I had a look at 4 Vesta tonight with my 130mm refractor. At magnitude 5.9 it is easily visible in my 9x50 finder and currently forms a convenient pattern with stars between Chertan and Denobola in Leo:

It showed as a pale golden spot of light in the scope eyepiece. It's apparent diameter is around half an arc second so no point in trying to see it's disk !. 

After observing 4 Vesta, while warming up inside, I was prompted to have a look at 3 small specimens from my meteorite collection. These are samples of meteorites from the H.E.D. group, Howardite-Eucrite-Diogenite, achondrite meteorites formed by igneous processes on a differentiated parent world.

Current research points to a strong possibility that the asteroid 4 Vesta was the parent world for these space rocks which eventually fell to Earth after millions of years in space. Here are my little pieces of this interesting material:

Some wonderful lunar views tonight with my 130mm refractor

Rich detail of the terrain visible along the terminator of the 97.7% illuminated disk.

The Rimae Sirsalis was easy to pick out running for over 400km across and between craters, mountains and plains. A little more challenging was the Rimae Darwin which bisects the crater of that name near the prominent, smooth floored Crüger and eventually appears to join with the Rimae Sirsalis, at right angles to it. The floor and walls of Darwin Crater might be best described as chaotic with a wide mixture of terrain visible besides the Rimae. Crüger on the other hand has a really rather smooth and noticeably darker floor and well preserved ramparts.

I can't recall observing this particular crater and rille before. The conditions allowed 300x - 400x to be used rather effectively.

Apparently the Rimae Sirsalis is not only the longest rille on the Moon but also the site of the strongest magnetic anomaly.

Here is a link to a very nice photo of this area by Brian Donovan:

http://www.donovanimages.co.nz/media/astrophotography/lunar-craters/Darwin-Cruger-de_Vico.html

And a link to a nice piece on the "Cloudynights" forum by Tom Glenn on observing this part of the Moon:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/640281-observing-guide-to-rimae-sirsalis-the-longest-rille-on-the-moon/

A little milky here but otherwise quite good.

Steady for doubles. Sirius B fairly easy to see at 200x +

Hmmm - the Posterior Rille ?

I use eyepieces with apparent fields from 110 degrees to 50 degrees (which is the Nagler 2mm - 4mm zoom in my case) and, yes, the zoom field of view does seem small but it's quite easy to adjust to that even with scopes mounted on undriven alt-azimuth mounts, as all mine are.

My "in between" eyepieces in terms of field of view are Tele Vue Delos and Pentax XW's which give you very good optical quality and a decent field of view and comfortable eye relief.

With my 130mm refractor I don't use the 100/110 degree eyepieces very much to be honest. The Delos / XW's / Nagler zoom get the bulk of the use with that scope, as they have tonight in fact

I've been through Orion doubles from Rigel to 52 Orionis so far - it's looking good out there !

Alnitak is particularly splendid at 400x

Thanks Paul

I've got the 130mm frac out tonight - ideal for lunar exploration !

It's surprising how often that seems to happen !

Well, it's going to be clear, and the scope is out, so why not point a camera at it

19 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

The AZ4 mount arrived today so I have finally set up the Bresser. My new grab and go Refractor! Cant wait to see what the views are like through this.

 

Baz

I used to use my Vixen 102 F/6.5 refractor on an AZ-4 and it worked very well

Nice and portable combination.