John

When I've had a 2 finder setup I've tried to postion the finders so that I can move my eye as easily as possible from the illuminated reticule finder (Rigel in my case) to the optical finder and then to the eyepiece with minimal movement. The additional room on the tube of a 12 inch (Orion Optics in this case) helps.

On Jupiter, it is interesting to note how dark the NEB and SEB are currently and also how the tone of the SEB is noticeably paler to the E of the Great Red Spot and it's hollow than it is immediately to the W of the GRS.

Continuing clear skies here. Fine views of Jupiter. Great Red Spot now on the disk and showing quite well 🙂

It's quite good here. 180x / 225x working well at showing Jupiter's features. That is more than I usually find useful on the giant planet with a 100mm scope.

The Triesnecker rille network (close to the crater of the same name) is also very well defined just now. It's closer still to the terminator so lots of shadow in the narrow rilles. This is a Lunar Orbiter image with the Hyginus Rille in the top right corner of the image.

Some clear sky for a change. The Moon looks lovely with the Hyginus Rille very close to the terminator and superbly defined 🙂

When I do white light solar it has generally been at outreach sessions. At least there is something to show punters now - a few years back the (usually) featureless solar disk was a little underwhelming.

I don't do much solar observing but when I do I find a zoom eyepiece very useful. The Baader 8-24mm zoom would probably be my eyepiece choice unless I want high magnifications in which case I would press the Svbony 3-8mm zoom into use.

Well, Winter is here (in the northern hemisphere) and Orion is rising earlier and earlier so Canis Major and in particular Alpha Canis Majoris or Sirius will be starting to show at a more civilised time. Here is a chance to give a real test to your scope, eyepieces and your observing eye, spotting Sirius B. Sirius B or "the Pup" as it is affectionately known is a white dwarf star which is reckoned to be around the diameter of the Earth and yet having a mass similar to our Sun. Sirius B orbits Sirius A at a distance that is roughly similar to the distance that Uranus orbits our Sun at. I posted this 3 years ago and I hope it is still relevent and useful. Good luck ! 🙂

At least we have had some variation this evening: fine drizzle followed by medium rain followed by misty precipitation followed by murky downpour then back to fine drizzle again. Great 😒

I used a Rigel Quikfinder on my 12 inch dob to keep the upper end weight down, knowing that my taste in eyepieces is a touch on the heavy side 😉

I was surprised to see that as well 🤔

Tom Trusock wrote a couple of other good peices on Naglers as well as that one: CN Report: The Nagler Eyepieces, Part 1 - T1's, T2's, and the Nagler Zooms - Eyepiece Reports - Articles - Articles - Cloudy Nights CN Report: The Nagler Eyepieces, Part II - The Type 4's - Eyepiece Reports - Articles - Articles - Cloudy Nights I've owned Nagler T1's T4's, T5's and T6's over the years. No T2's. I only have the 31mm T5 now. I enjoyed the Naglers that I've owned in the past though 🙂

Under 100 quid by the look of it 🙂

The sky has cleared here for a while so I popped out for 20 minutes or so to see if I could spot any Geminid meteors. I counted 10 definites and a couple of maybes (peripheral vision ones) during that time. Most came down through Orion, a couple up through Auriga and the rest were heading towards Ursa Major. I'll pop out again later perhaps and see if I can spot some more.

Seems to me that there is a niche for a nicely machined adapter to allow a nice but relatively affordable focuser such as the Baader Diamond Steeltrack to be fitted to the Tak FC tubes 🤔

A little to the north, I was looking forward to this evenings clear skies (as forecast by CO) but somehow that hasn't happened 🙄

Lovely scopes, both the 125 and the 128 👍 I wonder how many FS-128's were made annually ?

Likewise, plus Orion. I'm not actually that bothered about meteor showers in all honesty. Mostly they disappoint. A bright unexpected bolide is nice to see though.

I generally don't report on something in any detail until I've had a few sessions with it under varying conditions and on a variety of targets. That can mean quite a long time elapsing between aquisition and feeding back on it in any meaningful way. I don't think that matters though. We all understand thats how it is. I'd much rather read a considered report by an owner who has spent some time using a piece of equipment. The ones posted by @DirkSteele are a good example. Come to think of it, I don't think I've posted a detailed report on any of my scopes. They get "mentioned in dispatches" as it were but they are tools to do a job and it is what is being observed that is more important, IMHO.

I have thin, high cloud starting to spoil things now but it's been a nice session anyway. Jupiter was the best I've seen for a while and Orion is looking really nice, until the thin cloud layer gets to it ! I managed to get E & F Trapezium with the ED120. The best magnification seemed to be around 120x. More than that seemed to make seeing these faint stars harder and less didn't help either. I doubt I'll stay out much longer but it has been a really nice couple of hours observing 🙂

Some nice detail visible in the NEB now with the 5mm (180x) focal length setting of the Svbony 3-8 zoom. There seems to be a festoon or loop that comes off the southern edge of the NEB, loops down into the Eq zone and then re-joins the NEB further east, or west, depending which point you start at. Like the 4th category of dark object in the ID chart below, 2nd example:

While it's not the best I've seen it, Jupiter from here seems better than the last two occasions that I've tried to observe it. Quite a number of cloud belts showing and some structure to the main pair of equatorial ones. 150x seems quite good with the ED120.

Quite clear here at the moment. Seeing still a little "iffy" though. Some nice views of Saturn and Neptune despite this. Hopefully things will settle down later by the time Jupiter comes into my view.

I guess that is because a 6 or 8 inch dobsonian is very good for observing most astronomical targets 🙂 For what they cost, it is difficult to think of another telescope design that provides better views.