John

Thanks very much Next clear dark night and you can guess what I will be trying !

I've recently found that the soft rubber eye cup of my 11x70 binoculars will safely and neatly hold a 1.25" filter just in front of the eye lens and with some eye cup shielding above it. I've been thinking about picking up a 2nd 1.25" UHC filter to match another I already have to use with the binoculars. I do currently have a nice 1.25" O-III filter though and have been wondering what the effect would be of using a UHC on one side and the O-III on the other ? Has anyone tried this ? Thanks

My Vixen SP102M was in Bresser branding. They called the scope the Uranus model. Mine had a very early GOTO system, the Skysensor Mk 1. I owned this back in the late 1980's:

Congratulations on this challenging binary ! I first managed it a few years ago with my ED120 refractor, sketched it and then repeated the sketch earlier this year. The movement in the position angle is quite marked:

Personally I get on better with a cheshire collimator.

It could go on and on, there are the Nikon Nav HW's and Docter 12.5mm which are reported to be a step up again from the Ethos in performance And the TV Apollo 11. Got to stop somewhere though !

Hi, I think for me the top 3 would be: - A Telrad or Rigel Quickfinder to sit alongside the optical finder - A cheshire collimation eyepiece - A good star atlas such as the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas or for more help in finding things, the good old book "Turn Left at Orion" Hope that helps

The highlights of the 2020 observing year: - Comet Neowise - Mars at opposition

I had a few decent moments with Jupiter. GRS was not difficult to see. Saturn gave me more though. Some really nice periods with even the crepe ring popping into view and that wonderful 3D look that Saturn has with the ring system curving behind the disk and the planets shadow falling onto it. Previous nights had been the other way around or both mediocre. Mars is looking good already. Will look even better a bit later.

That's a good point - the Myriad 100's had those and it was rather too easy to leave a mark on the bottom lens. Contrats on the APM 20 / 100 @Dantouine. I'm sure it will impress greatly

Saturn is here tonight for a change. Jupiter was so so. Seems to be either one or the other but rarely both being decent and yet they are not that far apart in the sky Must be "saturny" seeing this evening !

Ooops ! I was thinking with my "northern hemisphere" slant ! Galling to see where Geoff's dob is pointing to see Jupiter. My scopes are practically horizontal when viewing it from here

That is a terrific image - one of the very best I've seen for a long time

I've split Antares twice. Once with my 12 inch dob and once with my 5.1 inch triplet frac. Harder than Sirius IMHO. Skywatcher ED120 tonight on the Ercole mount / Berlebach Unit 28 tripod:

There is the Sky & Telescope Mars Profiler: https://skyandtelescope.org/wp-content/plugins/observing-tools/mars_profiler/mars.html Also the freeware Virtual Planet Atlas: http://www.ap-i.net/avp/en/start

Personally I would much prefer to own and use an 8 inch dob than the Evostar 90 so I would make the change but the price being asked for the dob seems on the high side for a used one. It does depend on the model / spec / included accessories though. So my advice is to go for the dob but try and get the price of it down. Over here a new Skywatcher 8 inch dob costs £280 / 305 Euros. Used they can be bought for around £200 / 220 Euros.

Interesting report I've tried a couple of times to see Deimos and Phobos when observing Mars with my 12 inch dob. I've spotted a few "suspects" but on checking I discounted them as being a bit to far from the planet, wrong orientation etc. I tend to use Cartes du Ciel to check positions of planetary moons as this has been accurate for me with other planetary moons. While these two tiny moons look as if they should, from their magnitudes, be possible with a decent aperture scope I suspect the reality is that they are a lot harder and their elongations from Mars need to be optimal to give us a chance to glimpse them. I'm going to keep at it though and I'm sure you will I've found these links which are useful: https://www.observing.skyhound.com/shallow_sky/mars_moons.html https://astronomynow.com/2018/07/30/find-martian-moons-phobos-and-deimos-at-the-red-planets-closest-approach/ Looks like Phobos will never be more than one planetary diameter away from the Martian disk, which will make that one very challenging !

I have not noticed this as yet Louis but during this Autumn I will be looking more critically at the views and I'll look out for this.

For the past 3 year or so I have needed to wear glasses for reading and close to clarity. So I guess I'm in that group ?

I've had a similar experience to Mike tonight with Mars. Very nice views with my Tak 100mm F/9

Now is good. It gets about .75 of an arc second larger at opposition in mid October but that won't be noticeable.

I've experienced FC in other Pentax eyepieces (the XF's) and didn't like it so I was not prepared to take the chance that the frequent reports of FC from some very experienced observers in the 20mm and 14mm XW were untrue. But I'd be very happy for you to try them and prove otherwise Alan

Takahashi FC100-DL tonight. Jupiter and Saturn were quite nice compared to other recent sessions. Fingers crossed it stays steady for Mars

Around midnight Jon. I've just been out looking at Jupiter and Saturn with my Tak 100. The seeing is not too bad tonight.

That is the one. Thanks.