John

There should be a rubber ring around the finder tube which holds it into the front end of the finder mount. If this is missing, the finder flops around and will not hold it's position at all. I've put some red arrows on the pic of your scope where this rubber ring should go. As you adjust the 3 screws at the rear of the mount the finder then tilts gently being held in the mount by the rubber ring. The benefit is that once pointed and aligned it generally should stay aligned. You may have this already in place but I thought it worth checking.

M97 benefits a lot from a UHC or O-III filter. I had some great views of it last night with my 12 inch dobsonian. Filterless, the nearby galaxy M108 was in the same field of view. The UHC and then the O-III filter enhanced the contrast of the nebula but I lost the galaxy. With the O-III I could just make out the "eyes" of the Owl. The central star of M57 is magnitude 15 so just a bit beyond what I can do from home with my 12 inch. The central star in M27 (the Dumbell) is visible though even with my 120mm refractor. It needs a bit of magnification to tease it out. The Dumbell Nebula seems very large after observing M57 ! These nebulae repay some study at different magnifications and with / without filters. Initial impressions can often be a little "so what ?" but the more you look, the more you see, like so many aspects of astro observing

A couple of my favourites are the Eskimo Nebula in Gemini and the Blue Snowball in Andromeda.

It was about mag 5.5 naked eye limit at the zenith here last night. I could see M51 with the 50mm finder, which is usually a reasonably good sign.

Easy now then If it's clear tonight I'll set the 130mm refractor up and take a peek at these and see how they lie.

Mine comes off the scope and is stored indoors. As is the scope in fact. Not had an issue with the battery / battery holder to be honest. The battery seems to last for 12 months or more.

My sketch dates from about 6 years ago. The odd thing is, and I observed Zeta Herc just a few days ago, that the position angle has changed a bit not not massively ? Pi Aquilae (which Mark also mentioned) is quite a bit easier than Zeta Herculis I find. Straightforward by comparison. Somebody on "Cloudynights" managed to image Zeta Herc 3 years ago:

With my ED120 at high power (200x plus) the secondary star looks the colour of dirty blu tack and looks like a small lump practically stuck to the side of the brighter primary star. With my 130mm refractor the secondary star is more star-shaped and the thin gap between them a touch better defined. The separation here is a paltry 1.3 arc seconds approx which is a challenging split when both components are of equal magnitude but with Zeta Herculis the primary is mag 2.9 and the secondary mag 5.4 so quite a difference and that adds further to the challenge of splitting them. I have got them split with my 100mm Takahashi FC-100DL but I need really steady seeing to get this, the star high in the sky and the split comes and goes as a wafer thin black line.

If you point the scope downwards the optics are less exposed to passing birds and bats and the warm air in the tube, which should rise, can escape out through the rear port of the scope and out through the diagonal if it is the mirror type and left uncapped.

The setting circles on most mounts are really not large enough or accurate enough to find things, unfortunately. When people used to use them seriously they were made much larger diameter so that the calibration could be much finer and more precise.

I have managed to split Antares once - with the aforementioned 130mm triplet refractor. Most of the time it has not split for me - it's too low for comfort here.

Great report Mark ! Here is my sketch of Zeta Hercules made with my ED120 refractor. It is still a tough split even with my 130mm LZOS triplet refractor:

I find UHC and O-II filters very useful for observing nebulae, especially planetary nebulae and super nova remnants. They don't provide any benefits for viewing galaxies and star clusters - the opposite really, the diminish the view of those. I tend to use them at low to medium magnifications but sometimes at high magnifications on smaller targets such as the little planetary nebulae. Smaller aperture scopes (less than 100mm) probably get better results with a UHC filter because those have a wider light band pass width than the O-III filters. Astro photographers find these filters very useful as well but there are filters that are optimised for imaging and those optimised for observing. The latter will work for the former purpose OK but the former type are limited in their usefulness for observing. Dark skies will help get the best from them, as with all deep sky observing. You are correct that these filters do only permit certain wavelengths of light to pass through. Pick a target that emits strongly in those wavelengths and you get the results. Stars do get dimmed and can take on a different tint but it's the nebulosity that you are using the filter to see.

Great stuff Mark For me, I've found that the key to SN2020jfo is the right angle it forms with the galactic core and the star just to the S of the galaxy. I've marked what I look for - the green lines are the angle that I look for which rules out the other faint star that can be seen at a more acute angle (red line). Hope that helps a bit. I think this one is still brightening. Below is the newtonian view:

I agree with Mike. The quality of the lens figure and polish is as important as the glass types used. Mind you I've found that the Chinese scopes that use these expensive glass types (FPL-53 glass comes from Japan and costs 18x as much as normal optical BK7) do tend to be pretty well finished optically. I reckon if they are going to spend that much on glass, the figuring, polishing and quality control is done to a higher standard as well. There will always be the odd rogue that slips though though.

Is there a scope in there ???

Superb night here. Added a swathe of galaxies, globular clusters and planetary nebulae to the above supernovae sightings. One of the best deep sky nights for sometime. Cold though so I've packed in and I'm warming up. Snapped my "tools" mid-session. All the big guns got to play in the 12 inch dob tonight

Good advice there from Skipper Billy. Have a browse around and don't feel that you have to post but also there is no problem at all if you do. There are no silly questions on this forum One thing though, please could all posting be in English please ? This is one of the forum rules. Thanks

I suspect they are the same scope under different brandings.

Like mine did when I had a couple of ED150 refractors knocking around as well as my own scopes !

Another nice clear and dark night here. Got the 12 inch dob out mainly to see if I could still see SN2020hvf in NGC3643 (Leo) and SN2020jfo in Messier 61 (Virgo). In short, I have managed to spot both of these. 2020hvf is still magnitude 12.4 I think (same as Monday) and 2020jfo I feel may be a touch brighter than on Monday night but still a rather dim. I reckon it was nearly the same as a mag 13.6 star close to it so perhaps 13.8 or something like that ? Apparently Messier 61 has hosted no fewer than 8 supernovae that we know of. Nice Sky & Telescope piece on these two supernovae here: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/supernovae-light-up-m61-ngc-3643/ I reckon the brighter of these could be seen with a 6 inch scope under a good dark sky. You probably won't see the host galaxy NGC3643 though - that is magnitude 14.9 which is beyond my 12 inch scope under my skies. Edit: Not 100% sure now about the magnitude of NGC 3643. I've seen a number of values between 13.6 and 14.9. I can't see it with my 12 inch scope tonight so I suspect visually it's mag 14 or dimmer.

2020hvf is still quite bright tonight (as SN's go !). About the same as it was on Monday night I think. My 12 inch dob, this time with the 17mm 92 degree Explore Scientific eyepiece (94x) showed it and the fainter star close to it quite nicely.

What a super opportunity to be part of a great team

If it is in the West it is most likely Venus.

Whatever fluid you use, apply it sparingly via a microfibre cloth or similar. Don't apply the fluid direct to the lens. Capillary action has a nasty habit of sucking the stuff between lens elements