John

If you suffer from light pollution I would go for a scope which can be transported easily to a darker sky.

A 6 inch scope under a dark sky will out perform a 10 inch scope under a light polluted sky.

Glad you are happier now Mark

My 5mm and 3.5mm XW's are older and have the green boxes. My 7mm and 10mm were purchased new from FLO a couple of years back and are in the grey Ricoh era boxes.

They seem to perform universally well.

Interesting that you have become AD sensitised now. I found that I became the same over scope generated CA and eyepiece generated astigmatism but coma I don't seem to notice, or at least it does not bother me. Others would simply have to use a coma corrector I expect

When I was testing eyepieces and the odd refractor for the forum I guess I was really looking out for these issues. Now I've "retired" from that, I'm more relaxed about them.

Yay ! - I'm enjoying cheap eyepieces again !

2 hours ago, AdeKing said:

Nice setup John, I used to have Skywatcher Heritage 90 mak and it gave me my best view of Mars to date.

I don't recall there being any ability to collimate it though, so sounds like yours is a better model.

Ade

Thanks Ade.

This one (branded Celestron Sky Prodigy, minus the GOTO mount) has a tiny set of push-pull collimation screws for the primary. They actually work !

5 hours ago, Geoff Barnes said:

I noticed you had been referring to a Mak-Cass in some of your posts recently @John, and wondered if you had taken the plunge.

Not as big as I thought you were going to go for, but at least you probably won't need to put up a shelf to store it on, does it fit in the scope alcove with all the others?  

It was a bit of an impulse purchase because the price was low and I wanted something ultra-portable. It nearly fits in the glove compartment of the car !

Pi Aquilae is a good challenge for a 100mm - equal mag 6 stars 1.5 arc seconds apart.

Delta Cygni is an uneven brightness pair (mag 3 and mag 6) about 2.7 arc seconds apart.

Mag 13 star next to the Ring Nebula is a good test of 100mm scopes. Central star of M27 (Dumbbell Nebula) is another one.

Bright stars such as Vega, Altair and Deneb to compare CA. Racking through the point of sharp focus a bit either side and watching the airy disk expand is interesting.

Scatter around point sources might be an interesting comparison to make.

Keep the magnification when comparing as close as possible - at least these scopes are of similar focal length.

If the seeing is mediocre that will hamper proper comparison.

I moved from a TAL 100 to an ED100 as it happens, many years back now. Both very good scopes of their type of course

1 hour ago, DaveL59 said:

.... just need to build some funds first tho...

This one did not cost much to be honest with you. It did need a little collimation when it arrived but that was easy enough using an artificial star. The stock diagonal was rubbish though so I've replaced that. The RDF is basic but is actually quite accurate despite the relatively small field of view of the scope.

I thought it would do a decent job on double stars and the planets, which it certainly does for it's aperture, but I've been more surprised at the views of DSO's so far. Really quite bright and contrasty. Max true field I can get is around 1.3 degrees but that's enough for many DSO's.

What is really nice is the ease with which you can wander around the garden with the whole thing to get the best views.

I seem to have acquired a nice little CATadioptric in the form of this Celestron branded 90mm mak-cassegrain.

It's coming to deepest Wales with us in late September hopefully to show me Mars close to opposition but also seems to do pretty well on a range of other targets from initial trials

Sits well enough my my Slik Master Classic tripod and the whole lot is easy to pick up and carry with one hand. Just need to make a dew shield.

Takes up very little packing space so won't annoy my other half !

My first small CAT and so far I'm quite impressed

4 hours ago, SmoothOperator said:

Oh okay my mistake, I’d read it was 50 x the aperture. So when viewing Jupiter I can definitely notice more detail when swapping to 240x just an adjustment of the focused. You’ll have to forgive me as I’m a bit of a novice and I don’t fully understand some of the language you’ve used like corrected field of view, what sort of effect does this have when looking through the eyepiece as opposed to an Uncorrected field of view?

thanks for the info on eyepieces also, much appreciated.

Jupiter does not really respond well to very high magnifications. The detail on it's surface is actually clearer at 130x - 170x than it would be at over 200x. Saturn and Mars are different - the higher magnifications are more useful on those.

It's not the scope so much as the seeing / atmospheric conditions that are the limiting factor. 200x and above needs really steady seeing conditions, a target that will benefit from such magnification and a properly cooled and collimated scope. Those things don't come together all that often !

Jupiter's surface details are subtle which is why lower magnifications do better.

Strongly consider the BST Starguiders as an upgrade path. Proven eyepieces with lots of members here who use scopes like yours !:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/bst-starguider-eyepieces.html

I guess I was thinking of the old BBC2 nature / geography series "The World About Us" when I thought of the title. I used to watch that as a kid and it kindled my interest in nature and geography at a young age

This is not a detailed report, but just a celebration of what is observable in the sky currently.

Last night I had my ED120 refractor out complimented with 11x70 binoculars. Over a period of around 3 hours I was treated to superb views of a wide range of nebulae, clusters, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Venus, galaxies, coloured binary star systems, the star clouds of the milky way and of course that fabulous, still naked eye visible, comet. On the man-made front, a bright pass of the ISS right overhead put a crick in my neck and a smile on my face. Whichever way I looked, there was something to marvel at 

It really is a beautiful Universe and a privilege to be outside gazing up at it

5 minutes ago, Geoff Barnes said:

Hi @John

I think you missed my earlier enquiry about the altitude of these planets where you are observing, are they below 10 degrees?

You're doing really well to see such details with them low down there.

Sorry Geoff - I did miss that. Jupiter is around 15 degrees where I am and Saturn a touch higher.

Some nights the seeing has been poor but there have also been good nights, like tonight.

My 8th session observing comet C2020 F3 Neowise tonight

I'll miss it when it's no longer visible

As this is the observing section of the forum, no images are required

Really lovely views of Jupiter and Saturn tonight with my ED120 refractor.

Saturn's disk banding stood out particularly well and the globe had a 3D look to it. Glimpses of the Crepe Ring as well as a clearly defined Cassini Division.

Its still a naked eye comet here tonight. A little dimmer perhaps. Pale greenish tint to the nucleus. Seems to be dropping around 1/10th of a magnitude per 24 hours according to posted magnitude estimates. A slow, dignified fading

What a nice report Stu

I'm looking forward to some group observing again, hopefully in the not too distant future.

Overland from Siberia in it's wooden "coffin". TAL Apolar 125:

7 hours ago, KevS said:

(2)Local authority post...……...my experience of Welsh and many local authorities is that by the time the post is advertised it has already been allocated to a relative/friend.

 

 

Having been involved in creating, specifying and recruiting to a number of such posts in central and local government prior to my retirement from the Civil Service, I can categorically state that this is not the case.

Can't argue about the weather point though

For visual observing I'd go for the dob every time.

An EQ mounted scope (and I do have them) is quite awkward to use IMHO.

The dob version is F/6 compared to the Explorers F/5 by the way. F/6 is a bit more forgiving on eyepieces and collimation.

Yes, the XW's also have razor sharp field stops.

The first I head of these was a review of their american versions, the Astro Tech Paradigm's 11 years ago:

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/cn-reports/eyepiece-reports/first-look-astro-tech-paradigm-eyepieces-r1845

The manufacturer (Barsta) has added the 5mm and 3.2mm focal lengths since then.

The Sky's the Limit chap, Alan was the first to import them to the UK I think.

Having owned and used a few over the past few years they are not difficult to recommend as an upgrade to the stock eyepieces

At least, at <£50 a pop, collecting them is not as wallet draining as some ranges I can think of

I ought not to but I do find a fuzzy field stop really annoying as well !

It does not affect the operation of the eyepiece though and the Morpheus otherwise will be delivering probably comparable optical quality to the Delos.

Maybe it's just your Morpheus 12.5 or is it generally found with these eyepieces ?

The 2 Delos that I have (17.3mm and 14mm) have razor sharp field stops but you probably don't want to hear that

1 hour ago, RobH2020 said:

Thanks John. Hmm, sounds like I should've been able to see it then (Sorry forgot to mention I was using a 150mm dob). maybe the seeing just wasn't good enough? They're quite low and it's hard to observe them without houses somewhere below them for me! 

I'm not using my dob on Saturn and Jupiter currently because they are so low.

Fortunately I have some nice refractors on tall tripods which make life easier with low targets.

2 hours ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

..... unexpected observing session.

Often these turn out to be some of the best

22 minutes ago, RobH2020 said:

Saw my first scope view of Saturn and Jupiter last night!! Amazing, real wow moment. 

Got the best views with a BST 18mm starguider and an orion shorty barlow. Tried it with a 10mm plossl but it didn't look good. 

I was hoping to maybe make out the great red spot and the Cassini division but couldn't quite do it. Can you see these through larger scopes? It felt like the seeing wouldn't have been good enough no matter the scope!

Oh and are any planetary filters worth it? I've heard mixed things...

The Cassini Division is visible in scopes from 70mm and upwards. It requires steady seeing though at smaller apertures. It was very obvious the night before last with my 130mm refractor.

The GRS can be seen in scopes of a similar aperture to the above, when it is on "our" side of Jupiter again half decent seeing is required. I spotted it fairly easily with a 90mm mak-cassegrain a few nights back.

Personally I don't find filters do much for my planetary observing but others have found them some help.

With the low position of the planets some are finding Atmospheric Diffraction Correctors (ADC's) working well for them:

6 minutes ago, MikeK02048 said:

Thanks John.  As I said, I only eliminate products made in China.  I'm happy to consider others.  For example, I hear good things about William Optics made in Taiwan.

I don't think most on here are bothered where things are made to be honest with you.