John

I've just popped out with my 100mm refractor because I noticed that a patch of clearer sky had appeared with Jupiter and the moon in the middle of it. I got some very nice views of Jupiter with the GRS just past mid-transit. The NEB is showing lots of interesting details currently. In particular there is what looks to be a noticeable pale "bay" on the southern edge of the NEB to the NW of the GRS's position. Both the NEB and the SEB seem to have twists or knots in them and variations in the darker colouration. Far from the plain bands that sometimes show. The GRS seems a stronger salmon-pink tone that last time I saw it as well. 150x - 180x seems to be delivering the strongest contrast variations in the jovian features this evening.

Glad I bothered to get out 🙂  

26 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

My Starfield 102 has 8 or 9 baffles in the focuser tube as well as the main tube being baffled. I kept going cross eyed trying to count them 

 

Baffled by baffles 😁

My Vixen has quite few in the focuser drawtube as well plus 4 in the main tube.

14 minutes ago, LongJohn54 said:

I've been getting Aurora alerts for the last 3 hours.  With the almost full moon up I doubt it'll be visible here but there's no harm in trying.

Quite thick cloud here as well as a bright moon so no real chance of aurora sightings I suspect.

If the cloud thins a bit I might take a look at Jupiter later. Apart from that plus the moon, nothing else showing through the murk currently.

I tried a Celestron AVX, an HEQ5 and a Vixen GP-DX while I was searching for a mount for my 130mm F/9.2 refractor. The AVX was GOTO but I just skipped through the setup and used the handset to control the motor drives. The HEQ5 and GP-DX were non-GOTO, just driven in RA and DEC.

If it is better here tonight than it was last night, I won't have enough magnification to do it justice 🙂

2 hours ago, Joe G said:

Hi 

It’s strange the different seeing conditions there were out there. I was out yesterday evening till about 8.30 & the views were the best I’ve seen this last month . I was able to view Jupiter with a Pentax XF 8.5 mm & Saturn with a Meade UWA 5.5 mm showing great amount of  detail

That does seem to be a strong theme from last night - the seeing was poor for some and yet excellent for others. Sometimes not all that much distance between them either. There seems to be more to seeing than just the jetstream position. Maybe more localised factors come into play as well 🤔

Last night I found 225x and even 257x very good for observing Jupiter with my ED120 refractor. More often 150x-180x are better on the giant planet with those higher magnifications being employed on Saturn and the moon. Sometimes even lower (eg: 130x) is the best for Jupiter.

Last night I found even "silly" magnification over 300x and as much as 450x (as high as I can go) was still delivering crisp lunar and double star views. More nights like that would be excellent while the planets are well placed 👍

Just finished my session with a lovely view of the Trapezium stars including E & F. The nebula is rather washed out by moonlight but the stars of Theta 1 Orionis (to give it the full title) were very crisp with the 2 fainter components being visible with direct observation.

Brrr - it is cold though. Winter observing is here, but hopefully with the promise of some more clear nights 😃

1 hour ago, SCANS said:

..... They're definitely better . . . not 4X better......

That raises another interesting topic - cost v performance.

With so much optical equipment there is a marked difference when you move from the basic to the next level (eg: from stock eyepieces to, say, the Starguiders. The performance differences between those and the next step up are quite a lot less and when we start to consider the very top end stuff, the performance differences are subtle at most and sometimes only discernible under good to excellent conditions.

I'm not even sure what "4x better" would look like even if it were there 🤔

15 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

... I did split quite a few doubles, including some wider-but-faint first timers: HD17007, 30 Arietis, HD15695, 66 Ceti, HD15994, HD17332 and HD6651. The tightest I managed were 42 Ceti at 1.6" and Epsilon Arietis at 1.3", though only very occasionally in a boiling murk...

Many thanks for reminding me of Epsilon Arietis, close to Uranus. A lovely tight pair of stars that I have not observed for a long time. My seeing seems to be still good with this pair cleanly split from 225x upwards.

Thanks again 👍

13 minutes ago, Stu said:

Round dark features on the belts I used to know as barges, but this didn’t necessarily look like one of those. Interested to know others thoughts on this feature.

I've noticed a couple of features within the structure of the NEB that looked a bit like twists in the belt. That is not a scientific explanation of course but that is what they put me in mind of. I saw a pale elongated feature that ran diagonally across the NEB a few nights back. I described it as a "pale slash" then but that does not seem to be on show tonight. I did notice a couple of festoons coming from the S edge of the NEB.

There is a lot going on in and around the NEB that is for sure !

I'm just going to find Uranus myself now to complete my gas giant "set" this evening 🙂

Sorry for those for whom the seeing is poor tonight but it's first class here.

On the moon I've had glimpses of the Doppelmayer Rilles in the Mare Humorum which are normally quite a challenge in the 120mm aperture. The concentric ring crater Hesiodus A is showing well in the Mare Nubium. These are very sharp at 300x tonight. 

The floor of Gassendi is a riot of rilles, peaks and rough terrain. So much to see.  

The clouds are staying away and the seeing seems to be really pretty good here now 🙂

With supper out of the way I can concentrate on the moon and Jupiter for a while 👍

I seem to be under a more benign part of the jetstream tonight. 

I've moved on to Neptune now. Tiny little disk (2.3 arc seconds) but clearly not a star at 150x and upwards. I could not spot Triton with the 120mm tonight but the moon is not far away so that might have drowned the mag 12 moon out. 

Some annoying clouds floating around currently. Hope they shove off rather than build up !

If it stays mostly clear I'd like to observe all 4 of the gas giants this evening 🙂

I forgot about this !

I've missed this evenings chance I think. I'll try and get it over the weekend.

If I do it will be my 2nd toolbag - I saw the one they lost from the shuttle Endeavour back in 2008 😁

19 minutes ago, Stu said:

Give it a go John, might be better up your way…

I can't see Jupiter or the moon yet but Saturn is looking quite good with my ED120 at 225x. Some shimmering going on but between those I can see the usual details including the cassini division showing around the ring ansae. 

Jupiter tends to be more challenging though so we will see what that looks like in due course. 

Bit nippy compared to other recent nights 😬

1 minute ago, Stu said:

Popped the all seeing Tak of wonder, that cuts through poor seeing and shows razor sharp views under all conditions…. Except tonight it doesn’t 🤣🤣 Moon wobbling like a jelly and Jupiter under a stream of water. Couldn’t even see GRS 🤬

I've just put my scope out - I might bring it back in on the basis of that report ! 😁

Just now, Naughty Neal said:

I think all the 3k's were made in Japan , my two have the barrels inscribed /etched.

Later production did switch to Taiwan I think but most of the ones that I have seen (both the early "smoothsides" and the later ones with rubber eye cups) had "Japan" stamped on the chrome barrel.  

I've had the 40mm, 25mm, 16mm, 6.7mm and 5mm Meade 3000 plossls. Mine were the Japan made versions and I thought them very sharp.

The 40mm is the only 1.25 inch 40mm eyepiece that I enjoyed using. It does not offer any more AFoV than a regular 40mm plossl but the way the image was presented was quite immersive. The 16mm was very nice as well. 

Apparently the Meade 3000 plossls were FC rather than FMC and their lens edges were not blackened like the 4000 series were, but despite that they seem to be regarded with more fondness than the 4000 series.

It's turned to 98% cloud cover here now. I'm getting the odd glimpse of Jupiter and then longish periods of thicker cloud. Not really worth the bother. Tomorrow evening looks more promising though and the coming week, as the colder weather arrives. 

I've had a few short sessions with the 200P "Classic" dob now and I've enjoyed each one despite their brief nature. No wonder these scopes are so popular 🙂

It's all very opportunistic here. I've just had 10 minutes of Jupiter during a clear patch. 150x was about all I could use - the seeing seems not so good as earlier. I could see a few cloud belts plus the red spot and that was about it. Solid cloud again but the scope is still out, undercover but cooled. 

The clouds are fast moving so things change quite rapidly. Luckily an 8 inch dob can be moved around quite fast !

There are many 80mm refractors that weigh more than the Tak FC100-DC does !

24 minutes ago, AndyM001 said:

Up until recently, I used them in a 100mm Mak, but currently in a Refractor.

Mak's are usually around F/11-F/12. That focal ratio does not challenge an eyepiece at all really. The original poster here has an F/5 scope. Much more testing.

Loads of clouds around this evening but enough clear patches to get some nice views of Saturn with my newly acquired Skywatcher 200P dobsonian. 240x is a sweet spot tonight - very sharp and contrasty 😀

Also had a brief look at the moon. Gassendi looks magnificent very close to the terminator. So much jumbled terrain across it's interior floor !

The "milk carton washer" mod seems to have worked wonders with the azimuth motion. Small nudges at high magnification are much easier to control.

2 minutes ago, AndyM001 said:

I find them okay, but I'm over 60 and although my eyesight is still relatively good, it isn't what it used to be. My biggest problem was trying to get used to the 'black edges' on the higher power eyepieces as you move you eye around, but after some perseverance I managed to get my eye in the right position. For the price I'm really happy with them, they produce some nice crisp images. I'm guessing that people with different eyesight conditions, and different equipment, see things differently. For some they work, others not, for me, they are really good especially at the price point.

What scope are you using them in ?

The scope type can make a lot of difference in how an eyepiece performs.

It's difficult to beat the Starguider ED eyepieces. Some of the focal lengths work better at the F/5 focal ratio of your scope in that they will show sharper star images across more of the field of view. The mid-focal length ones are probably the best - 8mm, 12mm and 15mm.