John

Hello, Your English seems good to me and welcome to the forum 😀 Messier 31 / The Andromeda Galaxy is a large object so you want to use your lowest power eyepiece. That is the 25mm. Don't use the barlow lens. This is how to find the Andromeda Galaxy: The constellation marked 1 is Cassiopeia and the one marked 2 is Pegasus. You can "star hop" to the galaxy from either of those.

If any of the light falls onto the windows of your bedrooms, especially childrens bedrooms, you have a stronger case to get some action I've found. We had a similar issue here where the light shone directly onto my daughters bedroom window. After I took it up with the owner, copied to my local councilor and my local authority, the light was shielded so that none of it fell onto our property.

Any more visual sightings ? No chance here due to

Martin Mobberley imaged it 3 days ago, which was when I observed it, and he reckoned magnitude 13.8. Currently it's the joint brightest on the Rochester list: http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html#2020uxz

"I'd probably never need to buy another 4" frac ever again" That leaves plenty of wriggle room - while the 4 inch niche would be filled, there is then the 3 inch, 5 inch and 6 inch lifetime scope niches to plan for (Tak have great options in all those niches ) I was going to buy one really great refractor in 2016 and I ended up buying two !

Excellent report and sketches Victor. I observe the Veil under bortle 5 skies and it is amazing how much a 102mm aperture can pick out once it is armed with a good O-III filter. There is another section of the nebula called Pickering's Triangle which though a little fainter, should also be visible with this sort of setup. It lies between the east and west segments:

This post from First Light Optics might explain: This situation is facing all suppliers of astro equipment.

I believe the Revelation plossls are made by GSO. They are well priced and decent eyepieces. The couple of Celestron Omni plossl eyepieces that I've owned also seemed very much like the Revelation / GSO ones, apart from the anodised grey/silver body colour. The Baader 32mm plossl is very different in look and feel. Not a GSO product I think. The field of view of the Baader is noticeably smaller than the other two plossls that you have listed. I would add another to your list if you can get one within budget and that is the Vixen NPL 30mm. Not quite a 32mm but a nice low power eyepiece.

You should be able to see Triton at Neptune with your 180. I've managed that with my 130mm refractor.

The Revelation dobsonians are made by GSO in the far east. This is the closest to a manual that they have: https://nimax-img.de/Produktdownloads/23750_1_Anleitung_EN.pdf It's not a lot of use but often that is the case I'm afraid. Feel free to ask any questions you have on the scope here - the forum is a mine of information

With deep sky filters I've found that it pays to buy good quality. To me today that says Astronomik or Tele Vue Bandmate II. In a 6 inch scope the UHC is more versatile but the O-III has more impact on the targets that it's strong on. Lumicon filters can also be excellent but there has been variation in recent production runs. The Omega DGM NBP is a really effective UHC type but no UK vendors as far as I know. You will probably want both types in due course. I have owned a few less expensive ones but they just didn't seem as effective I'm afraid

I have owned the 22mm T4 Nagler and found that comfortable and easy to use but I have heard that the 12mm and 17mm T4's are not quite as nice in that regard.

Yes, I noticed that. In practice though I found it very difficult to get more than hints of it with the 12 inch last night. It is a face on spiral and many references to it on the web refer to it as dim or of low luminosity so that might explain why seeing the galaxy is hard. I came across this image on the Barry Astronomical website. It was taken by Stephen Lubbock of Bridgend on October 8th when the SN was at around 14.5 magnitude. This image shows quite closely the stars that I could see visually last night down to magnitude 15. The galaxy is a very faint smudge, barely visible at all in this image as it was for me last night. Stephen used a 10 inch SCT and 27 seconds exposure with a Canon DSLR to capture this - the view is N at the top. I hope he does not mind me posting his image if he sees this Here is a link to the original posting: https://barryastronomical.wordpress.com/

Yep - looks like you got it ! Also useful to me because it shows that the core of NGC 514 is fainter than mag 15. I wondered why I could not see the galactic core and now I know why ! I could only barely see any indications of the galaxy visually in fact. 82 million years ago the SN must have been quite a bang - it's far, far brighter than anything else in that galaxy.

I did have the 12mm as well for a while but the eye positioning with that one was even harder to get used to and I never really enjoyed using it. It went to a new home in Greece as I recall The 17mm though I've persevered with and now it's paying off It fits well in between my 21mm Ethos and 13mm Ethos but cost a lot less than a 17mm Ethos !

By coincidence, NGC 514 was discovered by William Herschel on this day (16th October) in 236 years ago

I reckon I got this one tonight NGC 514 is barely seen at all with my 12 inch scope. At high magnifications (318x) I am getting down to mag 14.7 stars and even glimpsed a mag 15 (dimmest I've managed with this scope). The supernova appears to be at mag 14.0 or maybe a touch brighter even. It's certainly a bit brighter than the 2 stars to the upper right of it (one is targeted) in this Stellarium generated image which are mag 14.7 and 14.3 respectively. The red arrow marks the position of my suspect and I've also added an image taken on the 10th October by F. Dubois when the SN was mag 16. Quite a tough one because the host galaxy is very tricky to see (barely there in fact), the SN is way out from the galaxy core and Mars is bright and not too far away. Pleased with this result Both images are the newtonian view so S at the top and W to the left:

I've got the 12 inch dob out tonight and the Explore Scientific 17mm 92 degree eyepiece in the focuser. To start with, when I first used it a few months ago, I was not sure that I liked the ES 17 / 92 hyperwide eyepiece but it has gradually grown on me. The optical performance is really excellent and can't be faulted. Really sharp right across the massive field of view. Stars pinpoints right at the edge in my F/5.3 dobsonian. What has taken a little getting used to is the eye positioning which is not quite the same as my Ethos eyepieces. The eye relief is longer and this is one hyperwide eyepiece that those who wear glasses have some chance of seeing the full field of view with. As a non-glasses wearer I've had to get used to an eye position that is a little further out than I'm used to but I've gradually found a method that works and it's starting to feel more natural. The views are stunning with this scope / eyepiece combination. The true field of view is just a touch less than 1 degree at 93.5x magnification. The views this evening of the double cluster and the Andromeda galaxy group (M31, M32 and M110) have been really impressive and very immersive. Really like looking out of the porthole of a spaceship It's a large and heavy beast but the Moonlite focuser handles it fine and I've found the right amount of counter weighting to put at the bottom of the scope tube now. One of those eyepieces that you can have in the focuser for a couple of hours as you move among galaxies and star clusters. I think it's fair to say that the ES 17mm 92 has grown on me Definitely the best Explore Scientific eyepiece that I've used to date and right up into Tele Vue build and performance territory. Pity there are just two in this range - the 17mm and the 12mm. More focal lengths were promised by Scott Roberts, the President of Explore Scientific but have yet to surface. Maybe that will change soon ? Anyway, this very large chunk of glass and alloy is earning it's keep tonight

This was my Vixen SP102M. It was branded Bresser and the model was called the "Uranus". I bought it used around 35 years ago. It had one of the first GOTO systems fitted to the mount - the Vixen Skysensor. Not at all easy to use so I just used it as a motor controller. I used the Vixen .965" eyepieces to start with, then got some Unitron plossl eyepieces in the same fitting, which were better and eventually got the 1.25" adapter and moved on to what then seemed "large" 1.25" eyepieces ! I used this scope for about 4 years until our children came along and I could not find much time to observe so I sold it and was "scopeless" for nearly a decade It was great to own one of these nice achromat refractors for a while though. I had drooled over them for ages in the "Telescope House" shop in Farringdon Road during my visits to London. My Vixen ED102SS looks pretty much like a shortened version of the SP102M but with a 2.4 inch focuser and an ED doublet objective lens. I still have a Vixen GP mount as well. I do like Vixen equipment

Ade used to live quite near me before he did his stint in New Zealand. We used to meet occasionally and chat about scopes including the latest ones that he was reviewing. He cleaned the objective of my Vixen ED102 for me before I had the confidence to do such a thing myself. Very knowledgeable and friendly chap

With Jupiter and Saturn where they are, viewed from the UK (ie: low down) smaller aperture scopes seem to be able to cut through the atmosphere better than larger ones. When they are higher in the sky though, the additional aperture shows what it can do. 300x is going to be too much for Jupiter much of the time. Might be OK for Mars and Saturn if your scope is in good collimation and is cooled down. I was using 300x last night with my 100mm refractor on Mars and the views were pretty good. Excellent optics in that scope though.

Looks like a possibility of some more clear skies here tonight and the blustery wind of last night has gone so the 12 inch dob will be the instrument of choice I think Thanks for the link Jeremy - good to see that Ade is still producing good stuff

I've eventually reached that conclusion through a process of elimination ! I do think that observing conditions and the location of the targets are part of this story though. Under good steady conditions with the target planet well placed (eg: with Saturn and Jupiter somewhat higher than they are now) I've had really amazing views of the planets with a wide range of telescope designs, even ones that are not supposed to be planetary specialists

Sometimes the FoV that the scope and eyepiece are giving is not exactly what the specs might suggest so I suppose the simulators do their best but it's only approximate.

Thanks for the comments / feedback folks I've packed in for the night as it was getting cold and the clouds were building. I rounded off with the Tak 100 on Mars again, Neptune, Uranus, and then splitting Theta Aurigae and finally Castor as it was rising in the East. All in all a very enjoyable and varied session with these two refractors Next clear night I'll get the dob out to have another go at Phobos and Deimos and also maybe that supernova.