John

16 minutes ago, miguel87 said:

....Oh well, works for me!

That's all that matters.

2 hours ago, Dippy said:

Thank you John. I was also looking at Venus with Skywatcher SWA 3.5mm at the same time. If I say the zoom eyepiece image you kindly shared is 4 out of 10, and the image quality of Skywatcher SWA 3.5mm on the same target is 7, what number from 1 to 10 will you give to the image quality of Pentax XW 3.5mm? I am asking because I am considering to buy a Pentax XW this month. 

I'm not sure that I can really answer that

Perhaps start a separate thread in the eyepieces section on the options you are thinking about ?

2 hours ago, robhatherton said:

Well all the comments just go to show: we can find it quite an easy split or a nightmare all dependent on the seeing!

The seeing does need to be decent to get the more challenging ones.

Great stuff folks - confirms my visual observation last night

I modified this Stellarium screen dump to show the position of what I spotted just after I'd observed it. I can't produce nice images of it like you clever people

Another thing I've learned is not to use the locking screws unless you are transporting the scope.

With the newtonians that I've owned, once you have got collimation right with the collimation adjustment screws, applying the locking screws could move it out again. Now I leave my locking screws loose unless I'm taking the scope somewhere in the car.

The Skytee II, although it has its imperfections, is quite a stable mount even with a large long refractor on board. With around 10kg of counterweights the mount did a reasonable job even with my 130mm F/9.2 triplet. It holds the ED120 rock steady even without a counterweight.

4 hours ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

The 90/900 is sold with the AZ Nano, so unless Bresser have boobed somewhat, and although not the ideal mount for the scope, it's probably fine for his purpose? 

Quite a lot of scopes have been supplied on mounts that are not fully up to the job over the years I'm afraid. I've owned a few of them !

Meade put their long 5 inch and 6 inch refractors on the LXD55 mount on an aluminium tripod for example

Looked impressive but was a nightmare to use at over 100x magnification.

1 hour ago, Dippy said:

Good evening John, would you mind if I ask what eyepiece you were using? 

I was using a 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom eyepiece. I can't recall at what setting - probably around 10-12mm. It's just a shot with the mobile phone camera held over the eyepiece with a simple clamp.

I'm sure I read somewhere that the Bresser MON2 drives were compatible with the GP ?. I believe they are pretty decent quality - better than the Skywatcher set.

https://www.bresseruk.com/bresser-messier-ra-dec-motor-mon2.html

14 minutes ago, Pixies said:

Is that with a star test when out in the dark?

Cheshire eyepiece while there is still some light in the sky, usually followed by a star test on Polaris. Quite often no adjustment is needed - like tonight for example.

Just managed to get SN 2020jfo in M61 as well. Quite tough ar mag 14.4 but I'm pretty confident I've spied it where I've indicated on the Stellaruim generated chart below. Pleased to get these two

I got SN2020hvf a little earlier this evening with my 12 inch dob. Just as you described Neil. A bit brighter than the mag 13 star close to in. No sign of NGC 3643 though.

I've also just managed SN2020jfo in M61. Mush harder at mag 14.4 or thereabouts I think. The host galaxy is easy to find though. Here is where I spotted this one (chart from Stellarium, red blob is where I spotted the SN:

I check my collimation each time I set the scope up. It rarely needs more than a tweak but I do it anyway.

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Good stuff John. In the politest possible way, is it windy with you? 😉 Quite chilly and blowy here, plus a fair amount of cloud so I am staying warm inside tonight I think. Enjoy the views, those Tak finders are lovely in their own right aren’t they?

It was windy but it's calmed down now. I'm using the dob now and have just found the supernova in NGC 3643, but the host galaxy is invisible. The SN is quite bright though.

I keep popping back in for a warm drink but I'm trying to do that without spoiling my dark adaption - which is tricky !

Got a quick snap of Venus through the tak earlier:

Wait for Vega to rise higher in the sky - it will look nicer.

The famous "double double" Epsilon Lyrae is close to it - well worth a peek !

26 minutes ago, Rainmaker said:

Had RACIs before, mainly RDF (Baader SkySurferV) now,  but I agree that the Tak 6x30 is not bad, in fact it probably has the finest optics of any finder I have used....

The TAL finders from Russia are very good optically as well. Not as nicely finished as the Tak but optically very nice indeed.

6 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

If you get a laser, I would recommend just getting a cheap one with an angled face and a 2x barlow so that you can use the barlowed laser technique to collimate the primary.

These days I have reverted to just using a cheshire for the secondary and a short cheshire with the crosshairs removed for the primary. 

My feelings exactly on both points

Thanks Alan.

I've just managed to spot SN 2020hvf. NGC 3643 not visible in my 12 inch scope at 199x tonight but the SN is clear and noticably brighter than a nearby mag 13.15 star.

Next one is 2020jfo. Much easier host galaxy but much dimmer SN !

90mm F/10 refractor will create a fair bit of force on the mount head through lever arm. The 102mm / F/6 somewhat less.

I don't know the Nano mount but it would be worth checking if it's able to cope with the longer tube.

25 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Ugh.  They're unit power finders.  They have 1x, not 0x, power.  The magnify everything by 1x.  If they were 0x magnifiers, then they would demagnify or compress everything to a point like a massive focal reducer and be of little use.  Sorry @John, it's just a pet peeve of mine when these are referred to as zero power finders. 🤓

Well I'm glad you got that off your chest Louis. I stand corrected of course 

I've used lots of both types and they all worked

RACI's on all my scopes now though. Using the straight through on the Tasco the other night reminded me why.

I didn't even get on with the lovely little Tak 30mm straight through ...... my Tak now carries a Skywatcher RACI 

Not a bad finder though - Venus slim phase was clear at just 6x with it this evening.

Glad some folks like the straight throughs though

Could not decide tonight so went for the Tak for Venus and some binary stars and then the dob for some DSO's later

Got Venus just now with the 100mm Takahashi. The slim phase is clear even though the 30mm finder !

If you cannot see any stars with the naked eye in the sky then I agree that the zero power finders would be difficult to use.

I guess this may or may not be related to all this but I find that using high magnification (very high sometimes) and obviously very small exit pupils helps me pick dim point sources out, eg: super novae, quasars, faint planetary moons etc. These don't seem to be as apparent at lower magnifications.

Or is that something different at work ?