John

Mars almost behind our house now so I've moved on to some binary stars. Alpha Piscium is a lovely one - mags 4 and 5 and 1.8 arc seconds separation.

Coldest night of the Autumn so far I think. I don't think there will be a frost but it might get close.

Just waiting for the moon to rise above the conifer

If you can keep your eyepieces a little warmer than they outside temperature (in pockets or a foam lined case ?) they will have less tendency to mist / fog up.

A red dot / illuminated reticule finder can make getting the scope pointed at the right part of the sky easier. It can be combined on the scope with an optical finder for a really effective pairing. Using a low power eyepiece when initially observing through the scope to then confirm acquisition.

The Telrad or the Rigel Quikfinder are popular additions to a dobsonian alongside the optical finder. I have the Rigel on my 12 inch dob:

11 minutes ago, GordonD said:

Super view of Mars this evening. Using a 300mm Dob but very contrasty and sharp right up to 333x. I don't recall ever seeing as much detail before.

Does it always look like this in locations from the jet stream I wonder? 

The past couple of nights have been excellent. Prior to the rainy weather we had last week, the seeing was not so good and the contrast on Mars rather washed out.

300x does seem the optimum here tonight as well.

Yep - 300x is about the optimum here tonight as well

This is the newtonian view from Mars Mapper currently. I guess the Syrtis Major (dark elongated area running from S to N) could be the butterflies body and the dark ares either side the wings ?:
 

I'm not seeing the Hellas region to the S of the Syrtis Major quite as bright / pale as that simulation.

Just caught a quick glimpse of Mars as it emerges from behind a large conifer we have. Wow ! - even better than last night I think. Just waiting for it to fully emerge from behind the foliage but I think it's going to be a cracking session with the big 130 triplet

Initial view was at 240x but I think the conditions and scope are going to cope with quite a bit more tonight.

Syrtis Major is smack in the centre of the disk just now. Looks like India but the other way up !

47 minutes ago, popeye85 said:

Do you use a filter when observing the red planet? I always find it too washed out when using my dob. Even with a neutral density filter I struggle to see any detail 

No. I have tried various filters but I prefer to view planets without.

Looks a decent, clear night tonight as well and the weapon of choice tonight is the 130mm triplet which is currently cooling off:

The Lowell Observatory have installed a Moonraker refractor on their new Giovale Observation Deck. It's an 8 inch and it's certainly going to be used the right way around there !

I've owned a few of the 150mm F/8's and they show enough CA and SA for my tastes. I would not personally opt for the 150mm F/5, even for just deep sky observing. I can't imaging that it would be good for imaging either - the CA bloat around stars would be substantial.

Actually the F/8 is a pretty good deep sky observation instrument.

4 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Early Christmas present for her, John? 🤔

She would fill it with earth and compost and plant something in it

I do option 1 with my 12 inch dob but option 2 seems attractive if you can keep the dust at bay. It would cut down cooling time although it's not excessive with 10 / 12 inch dobs I find. Maybe 30-40 mins or so from the house ?

Eyepieces are probably best kept in the house. They need to be a little warmer than the outside temp to avoid potential misting issues when your eye gets close to them.

Great result !

No wonder I've had so much difficulty spotting them visually

2 hours ago, Pixies said:

They are in stock. FLO A have had them in for a few days.

Early Christmas?

Hmmmm ......

Just got to justify a 7th scope to my other half ...... 

1 hour ago, RobertI said:

Thanks John, I hadn’t come across this, but sounds right. I did try cyclops viewing without the BV as a comparison, and I can’t say the BV image was any sharper, in fact it might have slightly softer, but it’s just easier to keep the eyes  trained on the disc and easier to discern the detail with BVs, cyclops viewing seemed very strained by comparison.  I’m sure most of the reason is that the brain just works better in stereo mode, its more natural.

That’s frustrating - what problems do you get? 

I just prefer using a single eyepiece. I have tried binoviewers a few times in the past with various scopes but I just don't enjoy using them as much as I do the single eyepiece.

It's great that you like them though

For observing the planets the F/8 will be much more effective than the F/5 because of the amount of false colour that the F/5 focal ratio in this aperture generates. 

As has already been said, these are big scopes which require substantial mounts.

Nice report Rob !

I've read a number of reports on binoviewers which reckon that the quality of the eyepieces you use with them is less important than if you are observing in cyclops mode. I guess being able to use two eyes is much more benefit than minor differences in eyepiece performance ?

I just wish that I could get on with the things !

FLO loaned me a pair of the William Optics ones complete with those eyepieces when they loaned me the Skywatcher ED150 to try out and I held onto those for a while and tried them with my 130mm triplet. They worked fine so it must be me

Great report Stu

Each time I read a report on the Heritage 150 or 130 I get very tempted 

I recently (lat year) had a Celestron branded ST102 F/5 achromat for a while. It's the same thing as the Skywatcher Startravel 102 but in black. It's peformance at low to medium magnifications was better than I expected. The star test was very good and the CA no more than I would have expected from an 102mm F/5 achromat. The focuser did what was needed as well ie: held the diagonal and eyepiece steady and moved it in and out smoothly.

I wish I'd kept it but I'm on a 3 scope limit agreement with my other half and I already have 6 ........

I have to also confess to having an excellent Vixen ED102SS F/6.5 which is not a lot heavier or larger than the ST102, gives a true field of 4 degrees and will also perform well at 200x plus so no excuses really.

I just like playing around with different scopes though ......

If I need gloves for astronomy I use neoprene fishing gloves where you can fold the thumb and index finger tips back to temporarily bare the fingers that are most used.

I used Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel which are both excellent I find, and free or course.

I have used Starry Nights V4.5 and V5 (the intermediate level versions) and found that they were OK but did nothing more than the freeware and personally I didn't find the Starry Nights packages as intuitive to use.

I have a Uni 28 with single leg clamps. I've never needed to use it anywhere near fully extended even with quite a long refractor on the mount. This is a 130mm F/9.2 triplet:

Thanks for the kind comments folks !

I've just had to pack the scope up in a hurry - a huge and very threatening cloud is looming overhead

Looks like that might be it for tonight but I've really enjoyed those Martian views this evening.

More clear skies forecast later this week so reasons to be cheerful

Seeing still rather good. 257x delivering very nice views. I've even just done a crude sketch (a rarity for me !) which seems to match some of @Lockie's features. I did say that it was crude

Mars is looking very much like the simulation below tonight with my ED120 refractor at 225x magnification. The dark Syrtis Major very obvious extending northwards with the brighter Hellas area to the south of it. The darker markings create a sort of upside down "Y" shape.

Nice dusky pink hue for the lighter areas. I've not observed it  (or anything else )  for at least a week so it's nice to see it looking quite contrasty and sharp.

Still a near 20 arc second disk so a reasonable size in the eyepiece.