John

The Skytee II gets so much use with all my fracs except the 130 which is what the T-rex is for. I've rather taken to the slow motion controls and I find that I miss them when I'm using the Ercole.

That Vixen does look lovely !

I have my trusty Tak FC-100DL for the same purposes Stu. Venus has been really nice this evening

The forecast is not great but so far the conditions are pretty good. A little thin, high cloud but that won't stop some binary fun and games !

There are loads provided that you are OK to wait up until it gets properly dark.

The Ring Nebula (M57) in Lyra and the Dumbell Nebula (M27) in Vulpecula spring immediately to my mind. Both straight forward to find and observe with all scopes from 100mm and upwards.

My favorite Summer DSO is the Veil Nebula in Cygnus but you need a UHC or O-III filter to do that justice. It's very hard to see at all without such a filter !

The 2 magnificent globular clusters in Hercules, M13 and M92 should also be on the "must see" list.

I'm sure others will come forward with plenty more !

4 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Hi Ade,

Yes, it's a lump all right!

I haven't tried it in the scope yet but I think it will be fine..I regularly use binoviewers with a diagonal and two eyepieces which must weigh as much together as this ep. I'll check it out and post a photo tomorrow all being well (I'm going to do an eyepiece thread so as not to hijack this thread..)

Dave

The SW zooms have a great reputation. There have been a number of versions but yours looks like one of the more recent ones ?

I'll be very interested to hear how this one performs Dave. I've only used some of the fixed length SW's which were a mixed bunch I have to say.

If we can dispense with GOTO / motor drives than the Skytee II with upgraded clamps does at least have slow motion controls. The Ercole / Sabre / Giro II are great but I'm not sure that I'd want to use a mount without slow motion control with a mak-cassegrain ?

Brighter than it's host galaxy. Pity it was not a couple of months back when Leo was better placed.

Thanks Alan,

Pity that Virgo is rather awkwardly placed after dark here. If that SN had popped a couple of months back .....

The views of the planets would be about the same but the views of deep sky objects would be a little dimmer with the smaller aperture SCT or MCT. The SCT or MCT should show slightly tighter star images which make double stars a touch easier to split.

The SCT / MCT would be more compact to store of course but would take longer to cool down (especially the MCT) to outside temperature, if stored indoors.

I moved from an 8 inch SCT to an 8 inch dobsonian and was pleasantly surprised that the less expensive and simpler dob gave just as nice views.

Others might have different experiences though and I'm sure they will chip in soon

I guess we wont be able to see it as thin as we could last time around because Venus will get too close to the Sun for safe observation in due course ?

I got this far last time (simulated view) - mikeDnight got it a bit thinner I seem to recall ?

2 hours ago, ThomasF1234 said:

So would it be a good idea to go to the bright star next to where it says draco then slew to them two stars on in the triangle and I’ll pretty much be there?

The Cats Eye nebula (ie: the tip of my triangle) is around 3 degrees (6 full moon diameters) from that pair of stars. A 30mm finder has a field that is around 6 degrees wide and a 50mm about 4 degrees so that is a useful guide as to where to put the centre of the view in relation to the 2 stars at the top of the triangle.

Use a low power eyepiece in the scope and look out for a star that looks "bloated" compared with the others.

This image shows a wide view of the sky with the nebula in the middle. Under a dark sky this is the sort of view that you might get with a low power eyepiece in the scope. I see less background stars than this but you get the general idea I hope:

1 hour ago, jetstream said:

Me neither even in my 24, mind you I dont study this underwhelming challenge, it just an occasional pass through observation now. I like the Flame much better and do spend time on it but even a little bit of "untransparency" (new word) makes it hide IMHO.

For me the value of the HH was the worthwhile pursuit and eventual observation.

Similarly for me and I was very pleased to get it from my back yard.

I will probably look in on it again occasionally but no more. I think chasing these "hard to get" targets sharpens your skills though and that pays dividends when observing more straightforward targets - you can tease a bit more out of them.

Jupiter does not respond to high magnifications as well as Saturn does but that is because of the nature of the features we are trying to detect. With Jupiter we are looking for subtle contrast and tone variations which are what defines the surface features. Such features seem to stand out better if you back off the magnification. Also observing the planet with some sunlight still in the sky seems to enhance the tints and contrasts. I've had some of my best view of Jupiter under such conditions.

I suspect that trying to make the best of Saturns disk detail would also be better at slightly lower magnifications while the ring system features, in the main, have strong contrast variation so higher power works well.

Each of the planets needs a slightly different approach to get the best from it.

I've prepared this from Stellarium. I find the Cats Eye by imagining a long thin triangle with the 2 mag 5 stars at the top end of it and the nebula at the bottom. I've marked my imaginary triangle in red.

The 2 stars at the top of the triangle are visible in a 30mm finder but can be a struggle to the eye unless your seeing conditions are good.

Nobody forgets their first view of Saturn - I can remember thinking it looked so "artificial" when I first saw it with my old 60mm refractor that I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

I have to be honest though, Jupiter is my favourite of the two planets. Always something changing on the surface of Jupiter as well as the moon and shadow transits. You never know quite what you will see there.

Surface detail on Saturn is rather indistinct at best I find. 

Great report and sketches Mike

So what is thought to cause the cusp brightening effect ?

2 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Having a look at images I obviously have seen it but looked straight past it because I didn't realise at the time what I was looking at. (does that actually make sense 😆 )

Just found a wider field image of Orion including the flame and HH which really does show you the dark nebula contrasting the glow from emission nebula.

I will be looking for DN's much more often on DSO's, it will certainly add new depth to the viewing experience and I look forward to approaching M42/43 with renewed enthusiasm. Kudos Hawksmoor for the image. 

 

One of the things you can note from images like that is just how much fainter the HH and IC 434 is. And the Flame can be pretty hard to see in less than dark skies !

The sketches here are the closest I've found to what I managed to observe of it with my 12 inch:

http://www.deepskywatch.com/Astrosketches/horsehead-nebula-sketch.html

No "Chess Knight" head for me - just the vaguest indications of a "bite" out of the faint glow of IC 434.

24 minutes ago, andrew s said:

In my opinion a slow ( above f5) good quality Newtonian is the perfect planetary scope. Far superior to those expensive toy telescopes by Takahashi 🤪

Regards Andrew 

For less than £100 (used) you can get £2K views

(and I own a Tak !)

I can see this object with my 100mm refractor so it is visible in your scope (which is why I mentioned it as a possible target).

At low power (which you would use to find it) it looks like a slightly bloated star. At 100x or more it is clearly a patch of condensed nebulosity with a tiny point of light shining from the centre of it - the central star.

Even if you can't quite make out the central star, the nebula itself is clearly not "star like" once you apply some magnification.

The sketch that I posted in your other thread (also below) is quite an accurate represention of the visual view although darker skies will make it pop out more readily.

I didn't find that a filter helped with this one, other than loosing the central star.

Here is a more detailed finder chart:

The Zennox is a 76mm newtonian with a 700mm focal length. The brand is not associated with quality instruments really.

The Skywatcher is a competant telescope from a respected brand with a good quality primary mirror of 130mm in diameter. For a start it will gather more than 300% more  light than the 76mm Zennox which is a huge advantage for astronomy.

If you can move to the Explorer 130m or something like it, I think you will find observing a whole range of objects a lot more rewarding.

You are keen Baz - 2:30 am !!!!

Moonlight does drown out a lot of DSO's even if the moon itself is on the other side of the sky. Sometimes you can see just about that they are there but they are far from their best.

The Owl can be tough to see even when it is dark. It is another nebula that a UHC or even better an O-III filter works wonders on though.

Good report Steve

I have one of those zooms and I can say that it works pretty well at night too !

I add the Baader 2.25x barlow to it and get a very useful 9.5mm - 3.2mm zoom. Great for splitting double stars.

It's Sheikh Rattle and Roll

I don't know if this helps - it relates to the CR2 focuser I believe:

The "Cats Eye" planetary nebula (NGC 6543) in Draco is small but nice. With relatively small scopes you can also see the central star at higher magnifications.

It seems to survive moonlight quite well too and its on the opposite side of the sky to the moon.

Do you mean the two closer stars of Tegmine ?

These are quite a tough target. Harder than Izar I think.

This is a sketch by Nick Cox with a 6 inch refractor: