John

The ISS pass was very bright from here. Went just below Spica in Virgo. The Dragon capsule was supposed to be around 4 minutes behind it and a bit lower but I could not see it. It was predicted as about magnitude 2.5 which might have been a bit faint with that much light still in the sky. My "window" between trees in that direction is not that large either so it would be easy to miss it.

Think through what you want it to do for you. Then work out if a refractor is the tool you need.

Getting these things to work right for you is all about experimentation It's difficult to judge if you have got it "right" until you actually use the thing under the stars. Pay £1000 for an Orion Optics dob and you will still need to tweak and adjust things.

Just for information, a newtonian reflector is also an apochromatic telescope

I think the Super 2.5 is a Super 25 really so 25mm - that is your low power eyepiece and the one to use as you get used to the scope. Don't worry - the scope is a good one and very popular on here. These things are scientific instruments though so some time is needed to get used to how they function, what they can do and also what they cannot do.

I've said "bye bye" to Venus for this apparition now. I got it down to 1.3% illuminated which beats what I managed last time around so I'm happy

Yes, that is quite possible. Probably best to get a refractor that compliments what your 150mm newtonian can do so you get a different experience when you use each scope. They will have different strengths and weaknesses.

Refractor optics cost more per mm to make because there are 4 or more optical surfaces to figure, polish and coat compared to just the two surfaces for a newtonian. A 150mm refractor is expensive and sizes above that comparatively rare whereas reflectors can easily be made in 200mm, 250mm, 300mm and up to around 500mm. So if you want a larger aperture for deep sky objects, a reflecting telescope is the way to go. Refractors have a lot of fans though for the purity of their image, their relatively robust collimation, their lack of a central obstruction etc, etc. The subject of these different designs of telescope is the subject of many books, articles and, many, many posts, on forums Here is a piece by our own Steve Richards ( @steppenwolf ) with a contribution from Paul Money, on these designs: https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/advice/buyers-guides/first-telescope-reflector-or-refractor/

A great session ! The Blinking Planetary has become a favourite of mine over the past few weeks. I see similar tints in it to you. Nice central star as well !

A wide field of view is also quite important - it is a huge object in total - 3.5 degrees across. Each of the major elements is around 1.5 degrees in extent. The eastern segment is easier to spot than the western part although the latter does run right by the star 52 Cygni so it is easier to locate. This chart and also the composite image below, give an idea of the scale of the thing: Apologies to @Whistlin Bob for hijacking his thread slightly.

Yes it does, but not much. An O-III filter is the key to seeing the Veil. It can make the difference between seeing practially nothing at all and a rather nice view. A UHC also helps but the O-III filter is the best on this target.

Great report ! Interesting use of the "vehicle tyre" binary star split measurement tool It was a lovely night last night and did, eventually, get dark for a little while.

OK folks - we have established 2 options on where to source these now and I'm sure there are other vendors as well. They come up quite a lot on the pre-owned market too so there is another option

These are Chinese clones of the Japanese Widescan III eyepieces. The earlier Widescan II's were sold back in the 1980's / 90's branded by Fullerscopes as their "Super Wide Plossl" range although it is not a plossl design at all. I've owned the Japanese versions which, as has been said, were good at F/10 but edge sharpness declined rapidly in faster scopes. I let them go when my main scopes were an F/6.5 refractor and an F/6 dob - the zone of sharpness was just too restricted at those focal ratios. I would expect this clone design to have similar characteristics.

After a very nice session of lunar observing, described here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/355693-cracking-seeing-tonight/ I spent some time with my 12 inch dobsonian observing some of the brighter globular clusters and planetary nebulae. Nothing too challenging but nice, relaxing observing. Messier 13 in particular, was very spectacular with my 6mm Ethos eyepiece - the full sprawling extent of the cluster took up about 1/3rd of the field of view at 265x, The dark feature known as "the propeller" was very evident. Very similar to this drawing by Michael Vlasov: By the time I was thinking of packing up, Ophiuchus was in full view. Looking at the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas reminded me that Barnard's Star, our closest stellar neighbour visible from the northern hemisphere, was well placed, so I decided to have a look at it. I've not observed Barnard's Star for some time. It is reasonably faint at magnitude 9.5 so a little care is needed to make sure that the correct star is being observed. With my 12 inch dob it was not hard to see tonight and it does have an orange (to my eye) tint to it. An up-to-date star chart is needed because, due to it's relatively close proximity, Barnard's Star has a large proper motion - just over 10 arc seconds per year. I found this "Astronomy Now" piece by Ade Ashford very helpful in addition to my Pocket Sky Atlas: https://astronomynow.com/2018/08/17/find-barnards-star-the-suns-closest-stellar-neighbour-visible-from-the-uk/ This is the 4th closest star to our solar system and the closest red dwarf apparently. It is only 1.9x larger than Jupiter and a lot smaller than our Sun: I took the liberty of waving, just in case anyone was observing us from there. Barnard's Star does have at least one known exo-planet which is thought to be about 2x-3x as massive as Earth Not a particularly hard challenge with a 12 inch scope but a nice way to round off a warm nights observing It looked nothing at all like this, of course

It was lovely tonight

Here is a chart of M57 and the surrounding stars: The Owl Nebula responds well to a UHC or even better, an O-III filter. They help this object "pop" out of the background sky appreciably.

The stock 25mm is not bad but the stock 10mm is a bit poor. The BST Starguiders are a lot better.

I have my 12 inch dob out tonight so I might have another shot at SWAN with that if I stay up late.

I use a crummy old Samsung S3 mini phone, the standard phone app and the cheapest bracket that I could find. It works OK for my snaps but I don't try anything fancy.

For the image a 7.2 - 21.5 zoom but I don't know what setting it was on - maybe around 15mm ?. The mobile camera was "zoomed" a bit as well to frame the eyepiece exit pupil. Visually I added a 2.25x barlow which takes the top end to 3.2mm so a touch under 500x with this scope. I have the Nagler 2-4mm zoom in now on the 3mm setting (530x) for stunning views of the Triesnecker Rilles complex

My 12 inch scope was cooling while I took part in my society Zoom meeting earlier so once that had finished I could go straight out and observe. The seeing is really steady here currently and the lunar surface a mass of intricate detail Piling on the magnification, the detail just gets better and stays sharp. Messier and Messier A showing wonderfully at 497x ! Messier is showing it's "tyre tracks" feature across the crater floor. Lovely stuff ! This is an Apollo 15 image of this pair (1 = Messier, 2 = Messier A) This is my mobile phone snap of a much wider area of the surface:

Good advice there.

I've owned a couple of the 2x 2" Powermates (separate times). I don't image but I found them optically superb for visual observing. Apart from the amplified image, you would just not know they are there. There are others that get very close and cost less it has to be said. The ES Focal Extender is an example. But the Powermates are top class IMHO Used with a big eyepiece you do get a tall stack though

Have you thought about the maksutov-cassegrain design ? Shorter tube so easier to mount steadilly. Long focal length so good sized planetary images. Sharp optics and more aperture for your money than an apo refractor.