John

Hmmmm - this might not last much longer !

Hazy cloud on it's way in I think.

Did manage to add Theta Aurigae and Castor to the double star tally before putting the scope under cover while I have supper.

We will see what gives later as to whether any more is possible

Never mind if not, after a bit of an observing drought, even 30 minutes at the eyepiece seems to lift the spirits

After over a week of heavily clouded nighttime skies, I've been surprised by a clear start to this evening !

In the interests of getting out there fast I've put the Tak FC100-DL out.

The seeing is actually quite decent.

Mars, though just a 9 arc second disk now, is showing the long northwards projecting snout of the Syrtis Major and the adjacent Mare Tyrrhenum extending to the south west. No sign of the south polar cap. The northern polar limb seems pale and hazy. The phase is 89% illuminated - noticeably gibbous. 

Uranus, grey / greenish disk quite crisp at 300x. Not in the least like a star at that magnification

Alpha Piscium, "Alrisha", the 1.8 arc second double, nicely split.

Gamma Cephi, a 2 arc second but more uneven brightness pair also well shown. This one seems to rejoice under the name of "Kaffaljidhma"  

So all going quite nicely at the moment and I seem to be able to remember, more or less, how to do it after the cloud-enforced break from observing

Have fun, if you are out

No problems that I can see. A few specks of dust but that is normal.

As above, Stellarium will show you "whats up" from your location at a particular time and date.

Also keep an eye on the observing sections on this forum and see what others with similar equipment are looking at

https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/7-observing/

Hi and welcome to the forum.

The 2 eyepieces supplied with the scope are OK in a fairly long focal length scope like the one you have purchased. I think it has a focal length of 900mm and a focal ratio of F/11 ?. Even the stock Kellner eyepieces will do OK in the scope so I would hold on and get some experience with the scope before plunging into the world of eyepiece upgrades.

I think the scope comes with a 2x barlow lens as well ?. That will be a low cost unit but again might be OK to give you the equivalent of a 12.5mm eyepiece and a 5mm eyepiece so you will have 4 magnifications to play with: 36x 72x, 90x and 180x. Not perfect but enough to get a feel for things.

It's worth pausing for breath and getting that 1st hand experience otherwise, before you know it, you can easly spend as much as the scope has cost or even more on a new eyepiece set !

Observing from a balcony or rooftop in a light polluted area will mean concentrating on the brighter targets such as the moon, planets, double stars and brighter star clusters rather than galaxies and nebulae. The scope you have chosen is good for that balance of targets.

The eyepieces that I use with my Tak FC100-DL are a mix of Tele Vue Delos and Pentax XW's. I'm very happy with their performance.

These scopes can handle surprisingly high magnifications really well so don't forget shorter focal length eyepieces !

Nice report Doug !

Where are you getting this clear sky from ?

I've had pretty much 100% cloud cover here for the past week or more. I'm starting to get astro-withdrawal symptoms

Still, it's nice to be reminded that there are still some stars up there if the pesky grey blanket shifts one day !

10 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Try shining a bright flashlight (torch) onto a piece of white paper and stare at it to force your rods into the active state then quickly look in the eyepiece at the Orion nebula.  I've managed to catch a brief glimpse of green coloration using this technique with an 8" Dob.

I believe some planetary observers use a similar technique to help discern subtle planetary detail and tones.

36 minutes ago, Fedele said:

Oh.....  I was told that the new ones are of a different color and that the old ones are no longer found. thanks for the tip. I buy them

As astro_al says, it is worth checking to see which colour will be supplied. Otherwise you could try a wanted advert on the UK Astro Buy & Sell website.

2 minutes ago, Fedele said:

is the lens ok in your opinion? pity it doesn't have its original finder and holder and the original fittings

The objective lens looks immaculate like the rest of the scope.

You can buy the finder brackets, finders and other stuff separately:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/takahashi-other-accessories/tak_tka00562.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/takahashi-other-accessories/tak_tka00551.html

That looks superb in every way

The thought of those lucky enough to be able to observe with a 20 inch scope under really dark skies makes me go a tinge of green as well 

Great landings too !

They must be very chuffed with that

Nice launch so far - thanks for the heads up

Personally I think going down the 2 inch visual back / 2 inch diagonal / 2 inch eyepiece route is the best way to get the wider views from an SCT. The slight snag is that for the price of the diagonal and 2 inch eyepieces (and 2 inch filters) you could probably buy a nice rich field 200mm F/5 newtonian optical tube

I can see faint tints of colour in some nebulae with my 12 inch aperture dobsonian. Some of the planetary nebulae show a distinct tint (eg: the Blue Snowball NGC 7662) and touches of green in the Orion nebula. But these are few and far between. Most nebulosity is in shades of grey to my 60 year old eye.

8 minutes ago, Spier24 said:

 

Would you both recommend something like this then?  

http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_accessories-eyepieces/sky-watcher_7-21mm_zoom_eyepiece__125-317mm_format.html

 

Just a standard skywatcher 7-21mm zoom eyepiece. Zoom eyepieces aren't something I've previously looked into although after a bit of reading online and from your replies they seem like a nice piece of kit to have. Good for trying out different magnifications. No need for a Barlow then either.

 

Those are not that good to be honest with you.

This is somewhat better:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ovl-eyepieces/hyperflex-72mm-215mm-eyepiece.html

I use fixed focal length eyepieces most often with my 12 inch dob. I do have a couple of zooms but those tend to get more use in my refractors. With the big dob I love very wide angle eyepieces and zooms, with the exception of the immensely expensive Leica ASPH zoom, don't give very wide views at lower powers.

39 minutes ago, James1967 said:

If you’re still here, could you use the 0.63 reducer AND 2” EP (eg Baader Hyperion 36mm 72 degree AFOV)?  Per my calculations, this would give a 1.75 degree TFOV for my Evo 9.25” (2350mm focal length, 46mm baffle width), where the theoretical max TFOV for the scope would be 1.78 degrees with the reducer.

(I’m awaiting delivery of the scope so all my workings are theoretical, just using optics maths not practical knowledge)

I think the F/6.3 reducers are designed for use with 1.25 inch format eyepieces. With 2 inch eyepieces and large field stops they vignette the field of view I believe.

1 hour ago, Paul M said:

It's a new one on me. I'm usually good at seeing patterns too! I think I've either been too wide or too narrow.

Well, Orion's belt will never look the same again!

That's the point I was making in my post earlier. Observing with some aperture at really low magnification and with a wide angle of view shows patterns etc that we ordinarily don't notice or can't see because we are looking through them, as it were. It's a bit like seeing aerial views of a place that we think we are familiar with

17 minutes ago, Captain Magenta said:

... looked up White Dwarf on Wiki. Discovered that Sirius B is also a White Dwarf. Makes my mission to observe it for the first time all that much richer...

M

Apparently, Sirius B is a little smaller than the Earth but it's mass is very nearly that of the Sun !

40 minutes ago, Spier24 said:

I do come from the UK. I also read in a review somewhere that the new Skymax scoped are of slightly better build quality than the older ones.

 

 

Optically, the introduction of the Schott glass stickers on the tubes of the black diamond versions caused some confusion. Apparently Synta have always used Schott glass in these and their ED doublet refractors (as the mating element to the Ohara ED element) but entered a revised marketing agreement with the glass maker Schott which resulted in more overt promotion of their glass product. 

I think the mak-cassegrain 127 will show DSO's as well as any other 120mm-ish aperture scope will as long as they will fit into the max true field of view that the design can deliver which is a bit over 1 degree. Lots of DSO's are smaller than that.

Lucky you Michael

Are you going to have a go for the supernova as well ?

Here we have yet another night of thick dark clouds with intermittent fine drizzle

If you can get a really low power and wide field of view with a scope It's amazing what shapes and patterns you start to see that you didn't notice before. 

I like to browse around the double cluster in Perseus with my 102mm refractor at 20x magnification. There are all sorts of star chains, shapes and loose line of sight associations around that part of the sky.

I don't know if the term "rich field scope" is still used but there is certainly a place for instruments that can excel at this IMHO. Interesting article by Mel Bartels here on this topic:

https://www.bbastrodesigns.com/rft.html