John

That's my understanding as well. Amazing the power that a sticker has !

Rather patchy seeing here as well.

Clear skies here again. Bright moon though and some thin hazy cloud about which is making the SN hard work even with the 12 inch dob tonight. I've glimpsed it a few times but can't seem to hold it in direct vision. Can't see the mag 14 stars near it either though. I guess it's probably still magnitude 13.5 or so. Not a great night for faint DSO observing one way and another - NGC 514 is not playing at all, unsurprisingly.

I use the Nagler zoom a lot. It is not quite as good as a top notch ortho but pretty good the zoom function is very valuable for finding the "goldilocks" magnification for a target under the conditions that pertain. Tele Vue do a 3mm-6mm version which is still available but of course has the Tele Vue type price tag https://www.firstlightoptics.com/tele-vue-eyepieces/tele-vue-3-6mm-nagler-50-degree-zoom-eyepiece.html It's less expensive than buying 3 premium fixed focal length high power eyepieces though !

I think the very best planetary eyepieces that are around these days and obtainable are probably the Takahashi TOE's and the Vixen HR's. The latter are just coming to the end of their production unfortunately but the former are available at around £290 apiece: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/takahashi-eyepieces/takahashi-toe-eyepieces.html The Tele Vue DeLites are not far of the performance of these though, from what I've read. The best planetary eyepiece that I have ever owned and used was the TMB Supermonocentric 5mm. I compared this over a number of weeks with a University Optics HD ortho 5mm (very similar to the Fujiyama / Baader Genuine / Ohi orthos that I've already mentioned) and I found that I could find slight improvements in the presentation of subtle features on Jupiter with the TMB Supermonocentric on the couple of nights when I had the very best seeing conditions. On the more ordinary nights I could not see any differences. The TMB Supermonocentric is considered one of the top tier planetary eyepieces. In the end though I decided that it's very small field of view (30 degrees), tiny eye lens and short eye relief made observing rather hard work. These days I'm happy with Pentax XW's and a Nagler 2-4mm zoom as my best planetary eyepieces

I would say that they seeing here is rather variable Baz. While Neptune took high magnifications as it often does, Mars did not respond so well and my best views so far have been at 227x with the Pentax XW 7mm eyepiece. There is quite a lot of Martian surface detail showing but the contrast of the darker features "comes and goes" all the time so you have to work quite hard at it. The Moon was nice here but I could not get good views much above 200x with the 12 inch dob, on this occasion. It's so easy to question the equipment under UK skies but most often I'm sure it's the seeing.

Are you OK with short eye relief ? If so abbe orthoscopics such as the Fujuyama HD orthos provide pretty fine planetary views. A 6mm and a 5mm would be good focal lenghts. The Ohi abbe orthos are almost certainly the same as the Fujiyama: https://okularum.eu/Genuine-Abbe-Orthoscopic-Eyepiece-6mm If you want longer eye relief then I found the Vixen SLV 6mm provided almost identical performance to the Baader Genuine Ortho / Fujiyama HD ortho: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/217971-vixen-slv-eyepiece-report-6mm-12mm-and-20mm/ Or you can push the boat out further and think about the Tele Vue DeLite's which are gaining an excellent reputation as high power yet comfortable to use eyepieces. Lots of choice around !

Neptune is close to the moon tonight and the lunar glare is affecting that part of the sky quite markedly. Despite this I tracked down the distant gas giant relatively easily with my 12 inch dob and have had an enjoyable 30 minutes gradually racking up the magnification until it's brightest moon, Triton, was winking shyly in and out of visibility. Neptune's tiny (2.34 arc seconds) disk seemed to hold up very well under high magnifications, eg: 400x or so. I also noticed that it looked a more intense blue tone than I've seen before. I have noticed that the moons glow can intensify the colour tints of a planet that is close to it (in line of sight terms). A few years ago Uranus was very close to the lunar limb and I had a similar effect at that time. I wonder what causes this effect ? If it stays clear (which looks a little doubtful to be honest) I'll have a look at Mars plus the supernova in NGC 514 a little later and possibly Uranus as well. Having had a quick look at Jupiter and Saturn and their moons earlier I might be able to have a 6 planet / 13 moon night (including the Earth and our moon of course) If I spot Deimos (unlikely with this moon) then 14 moons ! Voyager 2 image of Neptune and Triton from 1989:

Hi and welcome to the forum. The ring effect is caused by the illumination of the mountains that surround the Sinus Iridium or the Bay of Rainbows. Under this light it resembles a curved "handle" sticking out of the side of the illuminated part of the moon. Sometimes called the "golden handle" or "Jeweled Scimitar" effect.

Happy birthday David ! I agree with you on the contrast of the features on Mars being rather low last night. I was observing with my Vixen ED102 and Tak FC100 and to start with thought that the Vixen was not doing too well but the contrast was low with the Tak as well. There was detail to be seen but it had to be worked at. Maybe there is some dust in the Martian atmosphere ? I'm sure that the s polar cap has increased a little in extent since opposition. Nice sketch by the way. You have the pale pink colour of the lighter areas spot on as the visual observer sees them It's a tough planet to observe, even with decent altitude and a favourable opposition.

I snapped this pic last year which shows some of the lunar alphabet:

That is the GOTO system that I was thinking of. I can't help on connecting a PC to a mount though. Sorry. The ST4 connection on those non-GOTO drive systems is to connect an autoguider to the mount. I'm not sure that it can be used to connect a PC or Mac

Can't help on the Mac connection but you can get a GOTO system to fit the EQ3-2 mount for around £300 and you can put the mount onto a sturdier 1.75 inch EQ5/HEQ5 steel tripod - the mount is compatible with these. The EQ6 tripod is a different fitting though. The Celestron CG5 steel tripod has 2 inch steel legs and is compatible with the EQ3-2 if you can find one.

How many of us do "serious" astronomy ? I've always thought of myself as a "sky tourist"

Much, much better Nice job !

Nice report - 12 inches is a great aperture to have to explore the night sky Globular clusters are one example of a deep sky object that really benefits from increased aperture. With the 12 inch at around 150x bright globular clusters such as Messier 5 and 13 are resolved deep into their core's and are really starting to look like the images you see of them.

The Baader Classic range do have a fairly basic and non-glossy fit and finish. The optics are pretty good though. The 10mm Classic Ortho is probably the best one in the range. If you are OK with the finsh, the 50 degree field of view and around 7-8 mm of eye relief, it is a really excellent eyepiece in terms of optical performance. I've owned and used a few of these - that one for sale is the genuine article I'm sure.

That's quite correct. Also our classifieds rules require an asking price.

If the scope is outside of the EU, a EU based buyer will have to factor in import taxes and fees as well which are not insignificant. If the potential seller is in the USA or Canada the "Cloudynights" forum might be a more fruitful place to advertise it, as has been suggested.

This recent thread shows how popular RACI optical finders are. Often combined with an illiuminated reticule finder:

Nothing wrong with 30, 40, 50 or more degrees of apparent field. Most plossl eyepieces have an apparent field of 50 or 52 degrees. Most orthoscopics have 40-42 degrees. Wide field designs offer 60-70 degrees, ultra-wides 80 / 82 degrees, hyper-wides 90+ degrees. It all depends on the view you want and how much you want to spend. Preferences have a lot to do with it. Budgets play a part in narrowing down what is available as well. The Hyperion eyepieces are 1.25" eyepieces with a 2 inch barrel section. You would use 1.25" filters with them. Many people find 60-70 degree eyepieces comfortable to observe with both in respect of the eye relief they, offer and the field of view being accessible. Some folks (like myself) also like ultra and hyper wide fields. Some are quite happy with 40-50 degrees but want it very sharp and well corrected. There are some decent quality zoom eyepieces available today as well - more options ! The market for eyepieces is even more complex than scopes these days - there are so many choices ! Sorry for the "scatter gun" answers !

Thanks for the "heads up". A few years ago I visited the house in Bath, UK that Herschel was living in when he discovered Uranus. The house is now an excellent museum and well recommended for anyone visiting the lovely city of Bath https://herschelmuseum.org.uk/ I observed Uranus just last night as it happens. It showed a nice disk at 265x with my 12 inch dobsonian. I have glimpsed a couple of it's moons with that scope:

I was quite impressed with the Vixen SLV's when I reviewed them for the forum. They don't offer a wider view than plossls though.

Ooops !! - I meant XL. That focal length never appeared in the XW range, they went to a 2 inch 30mm instead. Sorry about the confusion !

The scope is very stable on that mount. I often use it on the Skytee II or Giro Ercole alt-azimuth mounts which are also very steady mounts for the F/9 scope. The dovetail bar is bolted to the clamp using M8 bolts so very strong. 95mm tube rings are another alternative but that size is hard to come by. Primaluce make some: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/tube-rings/primaluce-lab-95mm-plus-tube-rings-for-takahashi-fsq85-fs-78-fc-100df-and-fc-100dl.html