John

Congratulations on the Ethos 8mm. It's one that I use very often with my 12 inch dob. It gives 199x in that and still shows half a degree of sky I've often said that I skip straight from 21mm, over the 17mm focal length, to 13mm, but in all honesty the "skip" is quite often straight to the 8mm.

Should be nicely illuminated tonight as well Forecast is clear here until around 1:00 am I think. Here is an Apollo 11 photo of the pair:

Nice write up Carl I agree that the AZ-4 is a very capable mount for a reasonable price. I didn't use the panning handle on mine either. I found that I used to knock it in the dark as I put my eye to the eyepiece of my refractor. It nearly gave me a black eye on one occasion !

It is not just you - there is some damage to the outer cladding of the LM in that photo. I need to try and find out a bit more about how that came about.

He is certainly not a person to "rest on his laurels" as they say. Just what is needed to keep the company at the top - keep pushing the boundaries

These 5 inch refractors are mouthwatering Here is another in action at night but, alas, it's not mine. This is Sir Patrick Moore's 5 inch Cooke refractor. A scope which I found instantly appealing the moment I saw my first photo of it many years ago: The influence that the above scope had on me has undoubtedly led to the TMB/LZOS 130 that I currently own, below on a GP DX mount. The closest I've come to owning something like Sir Patrick's Cooke. The GP DX was right at it's limit with this F/9.2 refractor:

And there's the joy of it

I've been reading through a CN forum thread on this topic from 2010. This post: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/281631-barkers-quadrangle-location/?p=3600170 includes an extract from Sir Patrick Moore's book "Survey of the Moon" and an image similar to @Stu's which seems to suggest what and where this mysterious feature might be. I'm going to pack in tonight I think but it's been an interesting "quest"

Ahh - I see the "kite" shape and it's tail now. Trouble is, as you start to look hard, the illuminated wrinkle ridges across the mare floor can start to look like all sorts of things

I'll have another look Mike I got distracted by Petavius and Langrenus both of which are spectacular tonight. The shadows of the central peaks in Langrenus and the shadows on it's ramparts remind me of a Chesley Bonestell painting

I'm just observing that very feature now with my Tak FC100 at 257x. Not quite a perfect rectangle, slightly rhomboid on one of the shorter sides but it is pretty clearly defined. Now whether that is because of Paul's "heads up" and / or Stu's image and I'm looking for it, I'm not sure The "lines" between the corners are pretty fine - probably just a small change in illumination will impact them. Nice image Stu and thanks for the tip to watch out for this Paul

I'll probably pop the Tak 100 out at some point. It doesn't need much cooling time though It will be a while until the Moon gets above the conifers here so there is no particular hurry.

This seems to refer to "anyone else": "....to me it is a complete nothing statement when people make claims like that...." By all means think what you like about what others posts but perhaps best to keep it to yourself ?

Altair Astro introduced these in 2015 I think.

I've tried filters of various types but without success. While the glare from Sirius A subsides, Sirius B seems to get dimmed to the point where it just drops below visibility. Plus the filter itself adds a little more scatter to Sirius A. It seems to be a fine balancing act Last night was the first time in a few years of trying that I've split Sirius with my ED120. The next challenge is to try to get it with the Tak FC100.

That's my main guide along with the Virtual Moon Atlas on the laptop and Lunar Map HD on my Android mobile.

I observed that area (your first arrow) as well last night. I had it down in my mind as the Mare Anguis as well. I didn't feel that I could see far enough "around" the limb to get the Mare Marginis. Not sure about the other features

Just because you are not comfortable with it, does not make it a "nothing statement". By all means use the magnification that works well for you and your eyes but don't knock others who find that they enjoy something else when the conditions allow. I think people report what has worked for them honestly and with enthusiasm on here and it would be a shame to dampen that.

Lovely images and report Paul 2 more clear nights forecast here. Can't recall when I last observed 5 nights in a row - probably around the time of the comet last year

Excellent Nik Your "cunning plan" worked a treat Light scatter from Sirius A is the big issue with this challenge. Last night I noticed that this was quite variable. There were times when the Sirius glare would suddenly inflate for a while masking the Pup star entirely. I assume that this is due to an unstable air mass of some sort ?. I have also found that sometimes "looking too hard" can cause the eye to become moist and that creates it's own very local Sirius scatter as well.

Great report again ! "See the Universe for under 100 quid"

This could be quite interesting. Not a particularly wide range (7.7mm - 15.4mm) but a 75 degree constant apparent field of view: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/758189-new-apm-zoom-eyepiece-77mm-154mm-75°-constant-fov/?p=10915903 Combined with a fine quality barlow / telextender maybe ?

I've been observing the moon tonight, like many of us I expect. The craters Messier and Messier A, with the distinctive comet-type rays extending from the latter, are nicely on show in the Mare Fecunditatis and will be for the next couple of days, clouds allowing. Well worth a look though any telescope. While finding out more about this interesting pair of craters I came across this fascinating photo in the Internet Archive. It shows the Apollo 16 Lunar Module "Orion" in lunar orbit while it is being inspected from the Command Service Module "Casper", the photo being taken from the latter craft of course. And in the background, on the lunar surface are the craters Messier A and Messier. Not an image that I've seen before. You can click on the image to see it at a much larger scale and very impressive it is https://archive.org/details/as16-122-19533

Interesting views of the Mare Orientale area tonight compared with last night. It's fully illuminated to the limb tonight. The full length of the darker Lacus Veris can be seen whereas I could only see a small part of it last night. I think I can just make out the crater Kopff very close to the limb just as a highly elongated darker sliver of tone. On the opposite limb, the Mare Crisium is showing well with the "cape" of the Promontorium Agarum extending across the mare on the western side nicely illuminated. My other half is watching old "Star Trek" episodes at the moment so I had to have a look at the crater Picard of course

Excellent - well done DV