John

21 minutes ago, Jiggy 67 said:

Can I refer you to my earlier post re the app PS Align Pro

Is there a PS Align Am (Amateur) version ?

When I used to go to club meets, I often had to confirm the name of a few brightish stars (not Polaris) to folks who were setting up their GOTO's

I spent a very happy evening a few years back picking off the galaxies that the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas shows within the "bowl" of the Big Dipper. I seem to recall there were about 10 that my 12 inch dob would show. Some were quite challenging though.

Funny how satisfying seeing a faint smudge of light can be

For what it's worth this is the set that I use with my FC100-DL (which is F/9):

Panoptic 24

Delos 17.3

Delos 14

Pentax XW 10mm, 7mm, 5mm and 3.5mm

Nagler Zoom 4mm-2mm

I could probably do without the 17.3mm and 3.5mm as I don't seem to use those as much as the others. 

I've not used a Morpheus but they seem to get universally good feedback so those would be on my shortlist if I was starting a set off now. They are less expensive than the Delos and XW's as well. The Explore Scientific 24mm 68 is pretty much as good in performance terms as the 24mm Panoptic in an F/7.4 scope so you could save some pennies there. The Tele Vue DeLites don't have quite the field of view (62 degrees) but are very high performers as well.

Plenty of options available !

26 minutes ago, Bobbyc said:

Do I need some sort of adapter to make it work?

As far as I know the Astromaster 130 comes with tube rings and a Vixen-type dovetail bar so that should fit into the dovetail clamp on the HEQ5 Pro mount.

33 minutes ago, Bobbyc said:

What about a celestron astromaster 130?  Will it work with a skywatcher heq5 pro??

Yes. The HEQ5 pro will carry that scope really easily.

1 minute ago, Surfer Chris said:

Thanks John. From the reading I have done - it does seem that the 24mm Panoptic is quite a popular choice. 

I was very keen on the look of the Baader prisms and their click-lock mechanism. And there does seem to be an opinion that they may perhaps work better with dreaded undercuts? If money was no object then I would pick the Baader...but seeing as I have just spent the larger amount on a scope, it would be nice if I could get on with the cheaper Tak prism. 

Why not give it a go and see how you get on with the Tak prism ?. You can always sell it on and move to a Baader easily enough. Tak stuff sells pretty well on the used market.

I use a Panoptic 24mm with my FC100-DL it it works very well indeed. It provides the widest views in the 1.25 inch format. I don't use 2 inch eyepieces with the Tak. I use the Baader T2 Zeiss prism with the scope and again that was a sound choice. I think the Tak prism is good as well, just not as well made as the Baader. I'm not that keen on the Tak compression collar approach so I prefer the Baader click-lock for holding eyepieces.

Others will have their preferences though, those are just mine

These scopes thrive on high magnifications. You will certainly find that you get a lot of use from a 4mm eyepiece as well as the 6mm. I have a 2-4mm Nagler zoom that gets used in my FC100 very often - far more than I thought it would !

Just to add another vote for the 100mm aperture here.

I've owned a few refractors of 70mm, 80mm and 90mm over the years but just didn't feel satisfied with the views even though they were nice a light weight scopes.

My smallest aperture refractor is now the Takahashi FC100-DL but the DC is both lighter and shorter with little or no compromise in optical performance so I'm sure it would serve you very well.

The views of deep sky objects are of course limited in any 100mm scope but I'm sure you are aware of that.

45 minutes ago, Kon said:

No, I do not have any filters and I have been contemplating getting since I am in rather dark skies (bortle 4). So far, I have managed to find and see most nebulas on my list but if they can make them pop more then worth the investment. What would be a good overall filter, something that can be used with various ones?

The UHC and O-III filters are effective on a wide range of nebula types. These are an often quoted articles on the impact of various filter types:

https://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/useful-filters-for-viewing-deep-sky-objects/

https://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/filter-performance-comparisons-for-some-common-nebulae/

My skies are generally around bortle 5 and I find these filters (and occasionally the H-Beta filter) are pretty effective. They work even better under a darker sky.

Nice report !

Glad you had a good spell of clear sky.

It was clear for a while here earlier but not long enough to get stuck in to observing.

I don't know if you have an O-III filter but that really makes the Owl Nebula pop out. It is worth observing without a filter as well though because then you can see M108 as well as the nebula. While the O-III filter increases the contrast of the nebula, the galaxy takes a real hit.

1 hour ago, A McEwan said:

Not at all surprising! A lot of us have multiple Orthoscopics specifically for lunar and planetary views. Why? Because they're so good at it!

Really really dedicated planetary perfectionists use monocentrics, but I've never tried one and 30 degree afov... nah, I'm quite happy with my more-versatile Ortho's!  

Ant

I did own a TMB Supermonocentric 5mm for a while. Probably the best eyepiece in terms of pure optical quality that I have ever used. But very hard work with my undriven alt-azimuth mounts !

I'm not really that dedicated or that much of a perfectionist

Today I could probably get about 3x what I sold it for back then !.

6 minutes ago, Orange Smartie said:

That's amazing....aperture fever is starting to grip me!  If I'm not careful, my house will be like Jodrell Bank by the end of the year.

Just wait until you see what is in the Virgo / Coma Berenices area !

Markarian's Chain for example

I've seen these reasonably often with my 4 inch refractors. The brighter pair can be spotted with my 11x70 binoculars but I think would be quite a challenge with 8x42's.

My skies are around bortle 5.

While you are in the Leo area, at the "head" end of the lion NGC 2903 is a good one to try for with a small scope:

As you can see from the above, Leo is a rich hunting ground for galaxies with something like an 8 or 10 inch scope

Interesting report from the BBC on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 14 mission:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/55927727

7 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

I think at this level, they are all very decent eyepieces 👍

I think that is very true.

I keep thinking about amalgamating my two sets into a single set that will serve all my scopes. I'll take the plunge one day

10 minutes ago, wibblefish said:

Ok, I tested it in the garage under the light in there and it didn't have issues but I guess against daylight it might be a different story I can happily adjust it at night, lots of bright streetlights round here to aim at  

I do need to adjust the finder scope as I only aligned it using my widest EP so its a bit off when at higher magnifications, probably adjust it to the highest magnification one which is what was suggested either here or some other post I commented on

When aligning finders in day time I use the most distant object that I can find - about a mile away ideally. Even then I re-adjust using a star at night to ensure that the accuracy is as good as possible. For the optical finder I try and get the scope / finder alignment to the point where something bang on the cross hairs of the finder is central in the field of view of a high power eyepiece.

I find having accurately aligned finders is worth a little effort.

I also try and setup my optical RACI finders so that the angle of their eyepieces match the angle that the eyepiece of the scope is at as well. Then I can move my eye from the finder eyepiece to the scope eyepiece with minimum movement.

These are all little tweaks that I've found help the finding process. Everybody will develop their own preferences as they find what works best for them  

1 hour ago, Nik271 said:

I failed with Sirius B last night. The seeing started excellent before 8pm: I could see the E and F stars in the Trapezium with my Skymax 180 at x135. Sadly while I was waiting for Sirius to get higher the seeing gradually got worse, the stars airy discs started to bloat, then it got cloudy and rain arrived at 10pm. I had high hopes but it was just not to be a Pup night.

As a consolation I saw the triple stars of 40 Eridani for the first time (will write a separate post about it), so not feeling too bad about it

 

Nikolay

I'm sure you will get it on another occasion Nikolay.

I can't recall observing 40 Eridani so I will read your report and have a look for it next time I am out.

Last night I found Pi Arietis near Mars and that turned out to be a nice uneven brightness triple star.

13 minutes ago, Dantooine said:

I think you will find it difficult to see the Rigel in daylight, I did mine on the pole star.....

Yep, that's what I've found. The Rigel is fine in the dark though.

2 hours ago, Dantooine said:

Just went through all of them on Orion Nebula as that’s all the time I could get with clouds heading my way. I wanted to see how things changed as I upped the magnification as I’ve not done this on that target before. 
 

I was amazed how good the 4.7 is on this target, it quite surprised me. it goes really close and personal with the 110 degrees although in the frac it’s only just over 150x. It’s really quite bright with that ep. 
 

(without filters)

I'm so glad that I managed to find another 4.7 Ethos. They are spectacular to use

36 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Excellent result John, interesting commentary. Look forward to hearing how you get on with the ED120. Although encouraged by your excellent post, Sirius lies close to the rooftops from my garden and I will have to take a trip to a site with a better horizon if I am to try this. I may run out of time this year ......

It is only visible here for about an hour or so in a patch of open sky between my neighbours house and some large chestnut trees. I can prolong my "window" of viewing a little by gradually moving the scope a few feet but that's about it.

Luckily, when it is clear of the neighbours house, it lies over a school and some open countryside so is not affected by central heating plumes too much.

Tonight it is the turn of my 130mm triplet refractor to try and split Sirius A & B.

I particularly wanted to compare the performance of 2 diagonals at this task - an Astro Physics 2" Maxbright and a Baader T2 Zeiss prism.

The seeing is quite steady although there are bursts of scintillation of Sirius from time to time with more settled periods of a few minutes in between those.

I was able to see Sirius B, the Pup star, for short periods at 300x magnification using both diagonals. On this particular occasion, neither the prism or the dielectric mirror seemed to have any advantage.

The eyepiece used throughout these comparisons tonight was the Nagler 2mm-4mm zoom in the 4mm setting.

Splitting Sirius with the 130mm refractor is a harder business than with my 12 inch dobsonian of course. Sirius itself is generally more tightly defined with the refractor but the Pup star proportionately dimmer too. The Pup seems to lie just outside the halo of glare from Sirius A with the refractor image whereas with the 12 inch dob, the dim companion star shines through the more extensive halo.

So tighter control of light scatter from the refractor (this did not change with the diagonal used tonight) but a dimmer Sirius B to search out.

Another factor that comes into play for me when observing this target is moisture over my eyeball. This seems to be connected with being tense and probably "trying too hard". My eye gets a little more moist for a short while which increases the scintillation of the very bright Sirius A. When I take my eye from the eyepiece, give it a short rest and then observe again in a slightly more relaxed manner, Sirius seems to settle, it's form is more regular and the B star becomes attainable again.

Cloud cover is increasing now so that will soon put an end to this session. Next time it is clear with reasonably steady seeing I will see if I can repeat this exercise with my ED120 refractor.

23 minutes ago, Dantooine said:

Well.... after trying so many eyepieces, I’ve lately been finding new homes for all the ones I’ve let go. Hopefully anyone who’s had one/some from me is enjoying them.

My main aim was to get the set to a usable minimum and spend less time changing them in and out of the focuser.

My set is now just 6 eyepieces that work well in both my 4 inch frac and my 8 inch reflector. I think these are all I should ever need 🤞

Superb set Dale

30 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

Shifted to after midnight for clear skies, well lets hope it shifts back to an earlier time.

It's nice and clear here just now

Mars showing a crisp gibbous disk with some dark features in the S hemisphere at 400x.

Found the nice triple star Pi Arietis near Mars. Component stars are mags 5.3, 8.0 and 10.00 with separations of 3.2 and 24.1 arc seconds. Well worth a look

https://www.webbdeepsky.com/double-stars/object?object=pi%2BArietis

Rather  mixed forecast tonight but I can see Mars so I have put a refractor out: