John

It's worth a look anytime now if you get a clear sky. The chances of a clear sky at the time they are actually closest has to be slim given the conditions recently. While I'm looking forward to seeing them close together, I've been in this hobby long enough not to pin too much on such events

As it happens my 1st scope cost me £45 as well. I bought it around 40 years ago and I still have it. It did a great job of getting me hooked on astronomy. I even managed to see some galaxies with the thing as well as the planets !

This evening they were 1.26 degrees apart. The 30mm Aero ED should just about fit them both in the FoV with hardly any room to spare. The 17.5mm Morpheus shows a true field of .88 of a degree so it's time is yet to come, as it were.

here. Looks set that way this evening so I won't need to repeat last nights "jack-in-the-box" performance.

A short session is better than no session - nice report Barry

I do have a cover that I can use if it looks like there might be a shower but I use this mostly for outreach observing. My scopes are all used on un-driven alt-az mounts so no alignment is needed. I do most of my observing from our small patio so leaving a large setup in place for some time is not really practical. Interesting to hear what works for you though

It can also come in handy though

The nice thing about the Telrad and the Quikfinder is that they were designed for astronomers by astronomers. Most of the other designs of illuminated reticule / RDF finder I've used were a bit too bright even at their dimmest setting.

The Quikfinder has 2 illuminated reticule rings, marking 2 degrees and .5 of a degree against the sky. The Telrad has 3 rings, the extra one is at 4 degrees. The Quickfinder has a variable reticule pulse option which some like and others don't. This is available for the Telrad as an extra I believe. I don't use that myself. I've owned a few Telrads but with my 12 inch dobsonian I wanted to keep the nose weight down to a minimum so I went for the Quikfinder and find that it works well for rough aiming. Most of my more detailed "finding" is then done with the 9x50 RACI optical finder:

This is one of the more detailed reviews of the Tak FC100-DZ around. It includes some info on dimensions: http://scopeviews.co.uk/TakFC-100DZ.htm

I wish I had room. My other half has a greenhouse which takes up the space that an observatory ought to be sat in. If we move somewhere one day with a longer garden then a proper dome will be an early addition.

I used to have a Skyliner 200P dob. I found it an excellent scope I'm sure you will really enjoy yours !

I don't have this now but it was a nice 70mm frac setup: I do still have this one though. My first telescope - 1960's Tasco 60mm F/13.3:

The Skywatcher EQ5 GOTO kit, mentioned above, should fit the mount. I had a Skywatcher dual axis drive system on my GP and it fitted and worked just fine. You might also need to fit a pole finder scope if your GP does not already have one fitted. If you want to be braver and at (possibly) less cost, you might look out for an old Meade LXD55 motor / controller set, which can also be made to fit the GP.

Yes, a familiar and much discussed concept here Fortunately my 12 inch dobsonian weighs around the same as most 10 inch dobs so is pretty quick and easy to setup for a 12 inch aperture scope. As well as the setup and tear down, I need to be able to move the scope around during a session to avoid light sources, trees, neighbours rooflines etc so that is a factor in the scopes and mounts that I use. Can't escape the impact of clouds though

Evenings like this are rather trying Clear late afternoon so I set the 12 inch dob up. Got the scope cooled and had about 45 minutes observing Mars plus a few of the brighter galaxies. In for supper. Out again around 18:45 to find cloud layer spreading across the sky and thickening. After a further 30 minutes all clouded out and looking to stay that way, so I bought the dob back in. Around 21:30 the sky was clearing fast with Orion starting to show nicely. I put out a refractor this time and had some nice low power views of the Auriga clusters while it cooled. Mars by now was scintillating but not in a good way. Lots of heating plumes around. The bottom right corner of Orion was showing in a better part of the sky so had about 20 minutes on the double stars in that area. Quite nice. But what's this ? - more tendrils of cloud and also a bank of fog rolling slowing in. Soon just the odd glimpses of clear sky were showing, almost as if the sky was taunting the hapless astronomer Gave things another 20 minutes but no joy so the refractor came in from the cold. On the positive side, it is evenings like this that remind me why I have scopes that are simple and quick to setup and to tear down and bring in. If I used more complex scopes with longer setup and alignment routines I probably would not have seen the sky at all tonight. Now what is the betting that it's clear again an hour from now ? According to "Clear Outside" I may get a break in the clouds / fog at 2:00 am for an hour. Not sure I'll wait up though

Here it did cloud over at around 18:00 but it has now cleared again. The seeing is a bit iffy though. I now have the ED120 refractor out instead of the big dob. Sticking to low to medium power on the Auriga open clusters at the moment. Cold night so lots of central heating plumes around - including ours which Mars seems to be "bathing in" currently

On an EQ mount that will be a pretty huge setup. Hope you have fun with it

If it was just one then probably a 6mm Tele Vue Ethos. Ideally I would want a range of high power options though.

Postie delivered one of these nice Geoptik EQ6 - HEQ5 tripod adapters. Both my heavier duty tripods are EQ6 fitting so this gives me the option to use the Giro Ercole or the Skytee II on those. While I do like the wood finish of the Berlebach Uni 28, I must say that the Ercole also looks rather smart on the EQ6 with the adapter. Pretty solid as well

Yes, I was observing Mars with the 12 inch dob until a layer of cloud crept in. Through the dob optics the darker features, including the Syrtis Major, seemed to form a "Y" shape. Like a huge dusky pair of "Y" fronts were draped across the disk

I did that with Zeta Herculis. Enlarged image scale so no other stars in the field but the change in PA over the 4 year period is obvious:

Great stuff Doug - I love fracs for double stars !

Ahh - so you have bought a 14 inch optical tube ? I assumed that you had bought the full dobsonian scope The eyepiece advice is all still valid of course ! Will you be putting the 14 inch on the NEQ6 ?

Nope, it was just a normal state comprehensive school, as they were called back then. It had a good science dept though and a keen local volunteer who got the scope / dome setup and also a planetarium in a small shed. I joined the after school astronomy club when I was 11 along with a couple of friends. Granted, I expect that this was unusual but also lucky for me. I could build on the interest in space that following the Apollo missions had given me