John

I owned one of the Russian (Intes) 150mm maksutov-newtonians for a while and that was the closest thing to quality refractor performance that I've ever had with a reflecting scope. I reckon it was as good as an apo refractor of around 5 inches aperture. But the mak-newts are heavy and are slower to cool than a refractor. Optically very good indeed though. I have read great reports on the Russian mak-cassegrains but I've not used one myself.

Very good indeed I think Michael 👍 Loads of detail - excellent !

Thanks Alan - I'm confusing the 2 shows. The last IAS that I went to was at the venue that the PAS is going to use in March this year - hence my confusion, plus my brain is addled from observing on a cold night tonight (lame excuse I know 🙄). Is there an Impractical Astronomy Show I wonder ? 🤔😁

I'm more inside than outside just now even though there is a superb 130mm refractor all cooled down outside. Although the sky is still clear and the seeing is decent, an annoying blustery wind has sprung up lowering the temps further and seemingly buffeting the scope just when I have a critical high power target in the eyepiece that could do with still-ish conditions to make the best of 🤨 It's still been a good session though, despite that 🙂

My supper beckons as well. I felt that Europa's shadow got less and less distinct as it crossed the disk. Maybe it elongates as the angle between Europa, the Sun and the jovian cloud tops changes ?

I might come along as well, that is OK 🙂 I've not been to the IAS for a few years so it would be good to have a look at the latest developments in equipment, even if I don't really understand them ! Do they still make scopes with glass at one end and a place for a human eye at the other end ? 😉

😅🤐

Good stuff ! I think that shadow belongs to Europa though 🤔 I've found 6mm spot on for Jupiter with the 130mm refractor this evening - 200x with that scope. 7mm and 5mm have been doing a good job as well though.

It sure is cold John !!! 😬 Good observing though. I missed that 80 seconds as Io cleared the jovian shadow - I must have been looking elsewhere. So it seemed to be "now you don't see it, now you do" to me 😁 I'm popping in an out of the house this evening - I can't stay out for too long before the cold starts to seep in. I've been looking at the jovian show at a rather silly 600x but the moons show very distinct disks that look spherical. With Jupiter in the centre and Europa's shadow skimming the cloud tops, the sense of seeing a 3-dimensional view is very tangible. My 130mm rocket ship has taken me into orbit around the giant planet, while I can handle the chilly earth air, that is 😁

Thanks @CraigT82 - I'll look forward to that 🙂 Io has just popped out of Jupiter's shadow to join Ganymede and Europa. Quite a show !:

I've got the 130mm triplet refractor out and cooled. Super start to the observing session with a beautiful moon, steady seeing and interesting moon action at Jupiter 🙂 Highlights so far are seeing the darker material "tyre tracks" running across the floor of the Messier crater (right hand one in this image) at 350x: And Europa's shadow transit with Ganymede and Europa itself in close attendance (Stellarium generated image): Much more to come, I'm sure 😁

The forecast is this for the next 2 days: So my largest refractor, the 130mm triplet, is waiting expectantly 🙂

I have replied to your query on this in the other thread but I think it is unlikely. Some information on the true field of view covered, the imaging equipment used and the orientation of the images (eg: where N, S, E and W are) would help a lot. The key thing is assessing the extent, on the image, of the glare around Sirius and the orientation of the other star shown. The Pup star is usually within the glare surrounding Sirius A - it lies around 11 arc seconds from Sirius to the NE. Sorry to be picky, but if you want to be sure, some precision is needed. There are a number of other stars around Sirius which I would expect also to show on the image.

I'll be honest and say that I think it is unlikely. Sirius B visually appears within the glare from Sirius A and that is for visual observing when using low scatter optics at around 250x magnification or more. The camera will be adding glare to the star as well I think. I did a sketch a while back of the view of Sirius A and the Pup star and the surrounding visual stars with a 120mm refractor at 257x magnification. North will be at the bottom with your scope (a newtonian ?) but these other stars will be visible if the Pup star is to be seen:

Some small gaps have started to appear between the clouds so I've put my ED120 refractor out. I need to star test it following an objective clean so even a few stars will do. More than that would be a bonus - I wasn't planning on any observing this evening 🙂

I agree. If I could not observe with my scope a couple of paces from a warm room, I would not be doing it. Thank goodness for a patio and french windows !

I have just reminded myself of one of my new years resolutions - don't get involved in equipment performance discussions 🙄 As long as we find stuff that we are happy with and the clouds clear occasionally to let us use it, that's what really matters 🙂 It's great that we have some clear skies and that observing reports are rolling in 👍

Sirius is much higher in the sky for you that it is here in the UK so your 130P may well show it reasonably easily. Yon need 200x or more, as little scatter as possible and as steady seeing as possible. The gap between Sirius A and B is around the same as Rigel and it's companion star so you can practice on that and see how that goes 🙂 The big challenge is that Sirius A is appears 10,000 brighter than Sirius B so the dimmer star gets drowned out in the glare of the brighter one.

Excellent result Nik 🙂 I got very occasional glimpses of the Pup last night with my Tak 100 but it was hard work !

I had a nice set of Astro Hutech HD orthos recently - the 7mm, 6mm, 5mm and 4mm. My plan was to have them for the nights of best seeing, toughest targets etc. After I got the Svbony zoom I compared the views carefully a few times on the moon, Saturn and Jupiter and could not see any differences at all. As the zoom was a more comfortable eyepiece all round, and the orthos quite hard work, I let them go to an ortho collector and he is very happy with them 🙂 The sketches that I posted recently were both done using the Svbony zoom.

+2 for the Starguiders. Comfortable to look through and decent performance, very decent in the central range of focal lengths.

I spent a lot of time using the Svbony 8mm-3mm zoom tonight. From time to time I changed to an XW or Ethos or Nagler zoom but the Svbony zoom seemed to be doing as well as anything else this evening 🙂

On that scope I have added the Feathertouch Micro Pinion to replace the stock Takahashi pinion. This gives me a dual speed focuser. The only other Feathertouch focuser that I have used is the 2" FTF2025 fitted to my 130mm triplet refractor which is excellent. It took me a few trials and errors but I have now got the FT micro-pinion to have a very similar feel to that "full" FT unit, which was my objective.

Still pretty nice here 🙂 Best views of E & F Trapezium that I've seen with the 100mm frac for some time. 6mm-7mm seemed to be the "goldilocks" eyepiece focal length. Above and below that showed E well but really struggled to show F in anything other than sporadic glimpses. The 6mm-7mm zone proved to be spot on tonight. 32 Orionis was split quite nicely but the tighter 52 would not, quite, split. A tiny "peanut / snowman" type image of the pair was as good as I could get with the aperture. That one is given by Stella Doppie as a fraction over 1 arc second currently so a big ask for 100mm. I changed tack for a while and used an O-III filter to have a look at the Owl Nebula. Not a great night or scope for that one so a faint circular patch of light was all I got. The Eskimo Nebula was a lot better with the central star showing and, after some careful observation, that "double core" look that it's known for. When I add up the earlier lunar views, very fine Jupiter, GRS transit, double jovian moon vanishing act and the stuff seen since then it's been a good one 🙂

A Tele Vue Hi-Hat 1.25 inch - 2 inch adapter would do the job: You might be able to get something less expensive made for you though or there maybe a less expensive adapter of similar design ?