John

The Orion Optics dobs are made a bit more manageable through their lighter weight. My 12 inch F/5.3 weighs about the same as the Bresser 10 inch dob.

Another clear night forecast here tonight Interesting to think that Mars, though gradually dwindling in size, is still a couple of arc seconds larger now than it will be at it's maximum at it's next opposition 2 years from now. 10 days from now it will be around the size it will reach in December 2022 and after that it continues to shrink. It won't appear this large again until 2033. The time to observe Mars is NOW

12 inch dobs are usually a surprising step up again in terms of size and weight. Your scope is nearly as large as you are !.

My 12 inch dob is as quick, if not quicker to set up than any of my refractors. Imagine what sort size / cost of mount a 10 or 12 inch optical tube would need to enable steady observing at 300x or more ?. The dobsonian mount, though simple, does just that. Great design.

Personally I think the best advice is to use your scope as often as possible on a wide range of targets. Seeing more detail is more often a case of developing observing skills and experience and being out when the seeing conditions are good. These factors have the most influence over what you can see in my experience.

Excellent stuff ! 10 inches of aperture gives masses of observing potential for years of pleasure. I love my refractors but it's my big dob that has provided the vast majority of my "firsts" and "wows" over the years

Thats another improvement then. The older design used rather prominent nuts on the inside of the tube which intruded into the operating aperture additionally to the foil spacers. I reversed the screws on mine so the nuts were on the outside but it looks as if that issue has been addressed. Perhaps the spacers have been replaced with a large "O" ring as well - I don't see the spacers on your photos ?

Does the new version have the 3 nuts and bolts holding the objective cell onto the tube with the nuts on the inside ?

I've owned a Bresser 127L and a Meade AR5 - they were identical. The Bresser had better optics than the Meade did but I think that was sample variation as the scopes clearly came from the same manufacturer. The 127L was a nice 5 inch achromat refractor. False colour well controlled at F/9.4 and a collimatable objective cell. They have changed the colour scheme now but I think it's the same scope. The focuser on the current version is better than the one that I had I believe. The 127L is the middle one of these:

Many, many congratulations - fabulous scope !

Excellent Mark - very well done

I don't think it means anything. Marketing speak, that's all.

Takahashi FC100-DL + Skytee II in action on the outer planets earlier this evening:

Mars is looking pretty good again as Kerry says I also had a look at Neptune then Uranus. What I found interesting about the views of these distant worlds at high power (300x) is that Neptune resembles a tiny, pale blue ball, a little like a tiny marble which seems to have a distinct 3 dimensional look despite it's tiny apparent diameter, whereas Uranus is slightly larger but looks rather flat and disk-like. Uranus colour tonight I would say was a pale greenish-grey. Why Neptune seems to have more "depth" to it I'm not sure but I have noticed this before. Probably something to do with the apparent diameters of these planets although both are very small targets - Neptune = 2.33 arc seconds, Uranus = 3.75 arc seconds and also maybe that Uranus is somewhat brighter. I won't go on about Mars in this thread - it's getting plenty of attention in other threads

I'm observing with a Tak 100 this evening. Had a good look at the Hellas Basin region. It is a paler patch than the surrounding features but it's fringes seem less well defined than some of the simulations show. I do recall seeing it as a more distinct and defined bright patch in previous oppositions and images from past oppositions often show it as a clearly defined bright circular feature, sometimes even frost filled. Not this year though. I wonder what has caused this huge basin to become less well defined ?

I felt that I had neglected Jupiter and Saturn lately with Mars being so showy so I popped out my Takahashi 100mm refractor at around 4:30 this afternoon to have a look at them while there was plenty of light still in the sky. It was nice to find the observing conditions quite steady. Jupiter's four Galilean moons were attractively arranged and while the Great Red Spot was not on show, nice belt and zone details were. There seem to be two substantial grey/blue festoons on the south edge of the North Equatorial Belt. The South Equatorial Belt and the North and South Temperate Belts were seen together with the darker "hoods" of the South and North Polar Regions. 130-150x seemed to be the optimum magnification for Jupiter this evening. Then onto Saturn. More magnification could be employed on this planet and I found around 200-220x working very nicely. The ring system was very sharply defined with the Cassini Division separating the A and B rings. The shadow of the C ring could be seen arching around the planets disk south of the equatorial zone. The darker North Equatorial Belt was clear and there were suggestions of the North Temperate Belt as well. As with Jupiter, Saturn's north polar region was notably darker than the rest of the planets disk. The shadow of the northern hemisphere of the planet was sharply defined sooty blackness where it fell onto the ring system. As the sky gradually darkened, Saturn's brightest moon Titan glimmered into view nearby. It was great to observe these two gas giants again and good to see them in relatively steady conditions. A good prelude to Neptune, Mars and Uranus later this evening, as long as it stays clear

I think you are right and this does get "analyzed to death" on forums. I would pay much more attention to feedback from owners on how specific scopes actually perform in the real world (which is far from perfect of course) in making your selection. Forums like this are very valuable for getting that feedback

It certainly is something that happens in all types of observing but it can be both positive and negative of course. Once you have seen something once, it does get easier to see the next time you go looking for it or for something similar. Experience of what various types of target actually look like though the eyepiece is a great help. On the negative side (well slightly anyway) there is a risk that you will "see" what you want and expect to be there, even if in reality it's not quite visible on that occasion. Just something to be aware of when observing and I guess it pays to be a little self critical at times. Tonight I was looking for Phobos and Deimos with my 12 inch newtonian. I was observing at very high magnifications and trying really hard using all the techniques that I know to try and pull these faint specks of light out of the Martian light halo. A few times I thought that I had a candidate but when I looked again I could not see it and saw something somewhere else. After a while I concluded that I was simply trying too hard ! When I checked with Stellarium, the positions of these moons at the time I was observing put them really close to the planet so there was no way that I was going to see them this evening Fun trying though

Update: might have just caught a couple of glimpses of the SN but then again, might not ! One way or another I've no doubt that SN 2020uxz is now fainter than the mag 13.5 that I estimated last time I observed it (26/10).

I was going to suggest just that eyepiece as well but I decided to stick with commenting on the two that @chrispancho had mentioned. My personal choice would be the 20mm / 100 degree eyepiece because I love hyper-wide views. Not everybody does though.

Had a go tonight in a clear patch with the 12 inch dob. Transparency was average. I got the magnitude 13.3 star nearby and glimpses of the galaxy NGC 514 but the supernova itself has eluded me so far tonight. Looking at the latest reports on the Rochester Astronomy website seem to indicate that it's brightness is dropping now - figures of mag 14.6 and even 15.2 estimated for the 3-11-2020. If it's in the mid mag 14's then that's probably a wee bit faint for me to pick up tonight.

Cleared for a while but Mars not as "giving" as it was for the past couple of nights. The features are visible but much of the time the image lacks really good definition. Occasional glimpses of something better but overall a bit "so so"

If you have to pick one then the 22mm Type 4 I think.

A yo-yo evening so far. Scope out - clear skies - clouded over - no breaks in sight - scope in - had supper - clear skies now - scope back out again and cooling, again Glad the 12 inch dob is so easy to pop out and pop back in again. Hopefully I'll get some observing in due course.

Not quite total cover here but not looking good at all. Scope is out but I suspect will be coming in soon The forecast for this week was good a couple of days back but there is a lot of pink showing on "Clear Outside" now.