John

Very nice Dave Here are a couple that I snapped before supper.

I have not made that comparison but I think it would be close given what I've read about the APM / Lunt 100's. Don's points about coma are worth considering though. With my dob being F/5.3 it's not such an issue. F/4 and 100 degree eyepieces without coma correction might not be such a good match.

With the schmidt-newtonian scopes the difference is the mount. The LXD75 is a more capable mount than the LXD55.

As it's out, I might as well point a camera at it. Takahashi FC-100DL:

In the dob I'd go 100 degrees. I have the 14 Delos and it's really nice but with my 12 inch dob the 13mm Ethos is the way I go every time.

That's where the term "the dob hole" comes from. It's a term that can also be applied to your bank balance if you get a bad case of aperture fever and go for something much bigger !

Actually I didn't read your post carefully enough - you did say that of course I think this is one of the eyepieces that Louis was referring to by the way: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Celestron-1-25-Regal-M2-8-24mm-eyepiece-with-case-Boxed-Fully-multi-coated/162688568329?hash=item25e0fe8c09:g:juIAAOSwzHNZy2gr I've not used one myself by Louis is always positive about them.

No problem. Well done for getting the cell off and at least blowing the worst off.

These posts on the Cloudynights forum cover that. It looks like it is possible, with some care: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/573621-new-baader-mark-iv-8-24mm-zoom-eyepiece/?p=8816705 There are some photos from Don Pensack (Starman1) further down that thread.

Ok. I think the dew shield still slides off the objective cell but you will need to find a way to remove the whole objective cell from the scope tube to get to the rear of the objective lens. Once the dew shield is removed, the objective sell should look like this: There are 3 screws around the objective cell with nuts on the inside which I think hold the cell onto the tube - the trick is how to undo these without beeing able to get at the nuts. I don't think the objective cell in these threads onto the tube, which would make things easier. If you really have to (not really recommended) remove the objective, the objective retaining ring around the front end of the objective cell will need to be loosened and removed and the lens elements gently taken out. If you can avoid having to do that though, I would. It is a delicate business.

Great stuff again Mark I had good fun one night a couple of years back just seeing how many of the galaxies shown in the "bowl" of Ursa Major in the S&T Pocket Sky atlas I could pick up with my 12 inch dob - there are quite a lot ! I think these 100 degree eyepieces are really nice for this task - you can get by with just a couple of focal lengths for a whole session of galaxy hunting !

If it is the collimatable type, the objective end should look like the 2nd photo below:

The dew shield on those slides off. It is held on by three felt covered pads which are part of the objective cell. Have you got the type that has a collimatable objective cell ? Once the dew shield is off, you can remove the cell that holds the objective from the counter cell that is screwed onto the scope tube by 3 screws with nuts on the inside. As I recall you can't get to the 3 nuts inside the tube that holds the counter cell in place without removing the objective in it's cell. You need to mark the relative orientation of the cell that holds the objective to the counter cell so that you put it back in the same way. This should minimise the need for re-collimation. I've owned one of these scopes and also the 6 inch version and the Bresser Messier 127L which is of the same design.

What a wonderful triple star ! I have not observed Tegmine for a long while but after observing the open clusters M44 and M67 in Cancer I suddenly remembered Zeta Cancri and panned my ED120 refractor over to it. The 2mm-4mm Nagler zoom eyepiece provided me with the fire power to get a split of the close pair (I think its a touch over an arc second now ?) and with the 3rd star just over 5 arc seconds away these 3 form a wonderful tight group. I'll try this one again with my Tak 100 on another night and see if I can get the close pair split with that. I've really enjoyed "discovering" Tegmine again tonight with the ED120 though I'll re-vist again often while Cancer is well placed.

It's close to a 7th mag star just now - both in the same field at 128x with my ED120. Comet looks similar to last night (unsurprising !).

I find that my 12 inch dobsonian usually noticeably outperforms my refractors which range from 100mm to 130mm in aperture. On deep sky objects the difference is very striking. On the moon and planets the refractors do very well for their aperture but usually the 12 inch will show finer details. Your Skylight F/15 is s super refractor (as are mine) but personally I have always found having some additional aperture beneficial on most targets.

Great report Chris

I agree with Phillip - the Baader zoom would be a good workhorse and earn its keep !

The 190MN is F/5.3 so you do still need reasonably well corrected eyepieces to avoid seeing astigmatism in the outer parts of the field of view. Astigmatism comes from eyepiece optics. Coma (which comes from from the scope optics) is quite a bit less in a mak-newt than a conventional newtonian. Decent eyepieces range from £50 (eg: BST Starguiders) to, well many £hundreds for the really exotic ones. Baader Morpheus are well thought of quality eyepieces with a 76 degree apparent field and a good range of focal lengths. There are many choices really, depending on the budget available.

A zoom might be useful - gives you options to find out just what magnification works best each session as the comet changes in brightness and apparent size. The Baader 8-24 zoom is pretty good but your would need to find a used one to stick to your budget.

Great report Mark Some lovely, and chellenging targets there ! I have to admit that a 12 inch scope under a reasonably good sky really does enable you to get very deep amonst the galaxies. As you pan around the Leo / Virgo / Coma area they just keep popping into view once you get "your eye in". Easy to get lost there !

I use a magnetic kitchen knife strip and a couple of old iron counter weights. Old kitchen scale weights would do though:

Stars though a scope still look like points of light - you just see more of them. Venus is the only planet that is easily visible right now - can't miss it in the west early evening. Use the lowest power eyepiece (25mm ?) while you practice using the scope and finding things.

For some reason that I can't quite explain, even to myself, I decided to have a go at finding the distant and rather faint globular cluster NGC 2419 (Caldwell 25) tonight armed with just the 10cm aperture of my Takahashi FC100-DL. I guess the name used on some charts of "Intergalactic Tramp" has a romantic attraction to it. Lynx and Gemini are also quite close to the zenith tonight which would help pick this magnitude 9 or 10 (depends on the reference) object out of the background sky. It turned out to be quite a challenge as a couple of references that I consulted warned be that it would be with a 10cm aperture scope. I'd definitely now lean towards magnitude 10 ! Although in the constellation Lynx, Pollux and Castor in Gemini are the best initial pointers to the patch of sky where NGC 2419 resides. Then refer to 3 stars in Auriga for the next steps - 65, 63 and 66 loop you around to be close to the right spot. Sliding back over the border into Lynx for the final step. Here is a star chart to better explain the location: This faint and far off cluster is conveniently located next to a couple of close stars that are visible even in my 30mm finder and the three form a line with the globular glowing very faintly (through the scope but NOT in the finder) as the 3rd object. Tonight, despite being very high in a sky with a NELM of around mag 5, was on the margins of being an averted vision object. When I boosted the magnification to 120x or so I could just make out a small fuzzy patch of light with direct vision. I have seen this object with my 12 inch dobsonian a few years back and it was somewhat easier of course but I was being subborn about getting it with the 100mm Tak tonight This is actually a massive and highly luminous globular cluster with 1 million member stars spread across 400 light years of space. It is though around 270,000 light years from us. That is more than 10x as far away as the famous Messier 13 globular cluster in Hercules and 100,000 light years further out from the galactic centre the Magellanic Clouds. This illustrates the distance of this object well: Recent research seems to indicate that the nickname "Intergalactic Tramp" (coined by Harlow Shapley I believe) is not quite accurate as, despite it's remoteness, NGC 2419 is still under the influence of our galaxy. It will however take around 3 billion years to complete one orbit of the galactic centre. Observed visually with a small scope, or even with a larger one, this is not a spectacular object however it is one which provides a good challenge to see and, when you find out a little more about it and realise what you are observing, it takes on a special fascination. This sketch by Phil Harrington was the view from a dark site with a 102mm refractor. My view was not quite as good but not far off: When the Hubble Space Telescope imaged it, NGC 2419 did reveal its full majesty I'm very pleased to have tracked this one down tonight with my little refractor. Very satisfying and I've learned a lot as I've researched it further as well

Just had a look at comet C/2019 Y4 Atlas and also C/2017 T2 Panstarrs with my Tak 100m refractor. In previous observations of these two comets I've consistently felt that Panstarrs was a little brighter and larger in extent than C/2019 Y4 Atlas but this evening the opposite seems to be the case. Y4 Atlas seems to have brightened and expanded in size a little and is now a slightly more distictive object than T2 Panstarrs, even allowing for the higher elevation of Y4 Atlas. "The Sky Live" website has Y4 Atlas at mag 8.3 and T2 Panstarrs at 8.7 this evening so that seems to bear this out. "Heavens Above" has the two at mag 8.0 and 8.5 respectively but again with Y4 Atlas the brighter.