John

Saturn looks good just now 🙂 Even at 300x (ED120 refractor).

Well it's good to know which nights are likely to be cloudy over the coming 3 months ! 😁

Excellent report @Nik271 😁 NGC 604 is one of my favourite targets. I have managed it with my FC100 refractor on a rather good, dark night last year. As you say, it's sometimes a little easier than seeing more than a trace of M 33 itself. There are other HII regions within M33 to track down (I've not managed these as yet) as Pete Lawrence explains here: How to observe our neighbouring galaxies - BBC Sky at Night Magazine Just imaging what NGC 604 would look like if it was within our galaxy ! 😲

Very interesting 🙂 I think it also makes a difference at what exact latitude on Jupiter that the transit occurs on and the levels of contrast of the surface features beneath the moon as it transits. For example, a few years ago the SEB more or less vanished leaving the GRS "hanging" against a pale surface. The disk of a moon transiting at that jovian latitude may have been harder or easier to see against that pale surface than it would have been against the darker SEB that would normally have been running across the disk (as it is currently). I think we can forecast quite accurately the latitude that a moon disk will transit at but maybe not so much the extent / variation in surface features against which the moon will transit ?

👍👍👍

I'm a bit late on this (I've been away) but I have a Tak FC100-DL (the F/9 limited edition that the F/8 DZ replaced) and also an early gold tube Skywatcher ED120. While not a DZ I believe that the performance of the Tak DL is very, very close to that of the later DZ model. I have found that the FC100-DL gets very close to the performance of the ED120 on planetary and lunar resolution and contrast, especially if the seeing conditions are less than very good. It never quite beats the ED120 though, at least to my observing eye. On double stars the ED120 will resolve tighter splits as the aperture difference suggests it should. On DSO's the additional 20mm of aperture also gives the ED120 an edge in terms of, for example, depth of resolving globular clusters, spotting a faint galaxy or the extent of nebulosity that can be seen. At focus the ED120 shows a touch of CA around the brightest point sources such as Sirius or Vega. Nothing detectable on the lunar limb or around Saturn or Jupiter. The Tak FC100-DL shows no discernible CA at focus or either side of it on such targets. I thought I might move the ED120 on when I got the Tak FC100-DL and a TMB/LZOS 130mm F/9.2 triplet back in 2016 but I've not found it out classed by any means and it's still a valued and much used scope. I find that both the FC100 and the ED120 useful at up to 300x quite regularly (on suitable targets of course) and sometimes push up to the 350x mark on tight doubles or for faint point sources such as supernovae or faint planetary moons. I hope that helps a little at least.

A hobby killer could be a very large and potentially capable scope if purchased by someone with little or no experience if their observing circumstances are not right. I'm thinking of folks who "go big" on their 1st scope and order something like a 16 inch dob or 12 inch plus SCT on the basis that they "don't want to feel the need to upgrade". I've seen this happen quite a lot and, unfortunately, the usual result is that the scope is sold off sometime later after some frustration at the effort and time required to set it up and take it down to observe.

That didn't last too long 🤨 Thanks though to the wonders of the alt-az mounted 4 inch frac, some lovely views of Saturn at 180x and 225x plus Almach were had in the brief clear spell. My turn to cook tonight so perhaps the cloud cover is a good thing, for a while at least 😏

Until you get a proper diagonal on the scope and have a look at some stars with that in place we can only make guesses, which is not going to help you much.

It's currently looking clear-ish again here this evening 🙂

A useful piece - thanks for posting it 🙂 Good to see spherical aberration covered. IMHO it can make a more substantial impact than CA on optical performance.

If the extension tube is not a proper 1.25 inch fitting one it could be drooping a little when you use it with an eyepiece or the eyepiece is not being held centrally within it. Either of these things could cause the optical misalignment and the distorted star images that you are seeing. If you want to see what the scope optics can really do I would get a star diagonal for the scope. I don't know where you are in the world but you can get diagonals for as little as £10 on the used market here. Even new a basic but suitable one is not too expensive: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/diagonals/astro-essentials-90-degree-mirror-diagonal.html

The 8mm-3mm zoom is proving it's worth under these conditions. The thickness of the cloud cover varies all the time. When it's thicker I can "throttle back" to 8mm / 113x and still see reasonable detail / contrast. When it thins, a couple of click stops gives 150x and more pretty much instantly to take advantage of the better clarity.

Mine is the DL. It's the only Tak that I have ever used so I don't know how the others behave in this respect.

Well heavy clouds came across and I thought "game over" and bought the scope in. 90 minutes later the clouds have thinned enough to make observing Jupiter worthwhile so I'm back out again, now with the Tak 100 which needs no cool down time so I can get right on with observing. The UK weather does keep you on your toes ! 🙄

Varying degrees of cloud cover here but Jupiter shining bravely through and the views, currently at least, are worthwhile.

We have a little display going off a couple of houses away 🤨 Luckily I'm in for supper at the moment.

Lovely views of Saturn just now. It's 5 brightest moons are quite close into the planet. I can't quite convince myself that I'm seeing Enceladus though. It's just that little bit fainter and very close to the ring system currently. Iapetus is clear enough though.

Clear here, currently. My ED120 is out and just waiting for Saturn to clear the local rooflines.

I think he is using an extension tube now, judging by this earlier post: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/415113-orion-short-tube-ct80-wont-focus/?do=findComment&comment=4428120

It sounds as if your scope is mis-collimated, that is when the objective lens or the focuser tube, or both, are tilted a bit. Can you post a picture of the scope setup as you were using it ?

Do your stars look a bit like this and do they look like that across the whole view or just some of it ?:

I will give the SV 3-8mm zoom a try at the 3mm setting with my 70mm scope at some point and see how it fares. That setting seems to work quite well with my Tak FC100 so I don't expect any particular issues with the 70mm. The 20mm 68 Maxvision gives a 3 degree true field and a good one at that. I have a Panoptic 24mm if I want a wider view in the 1.25 inch fitting and I can always stick a 2 inch diagonal in the scope and use the 31mm Nagler if I want to go really, really wide 🙂 Realistically though, this setup will only get occasional use so I'm not intending to invest any more in it. I don't really do any serious observing on holiday and often won't take a scope at all.

What eyepiece are you using ?

Looking at where the poster is located, I think something simple, reliable and robust is required. A smallish refractor on an alt-azimuth mount perhaps ?