Neil_104

I had a go at Epsilon Draconis last night and am happy to report I got a split. It was a lot more convincing than my views of Izar, with the secondary clearly seen as a star sitting on the first diffraction ring of the primary. I ramped the power straight up to 129x using my 7mm DeLite coupled with the 2.5x Powermate. Colours were creamy for the primary and bluish-grey for the secondary. I've since read that Hass describes the secondary as powder blue, and this is exactly the more artistic way of putting it! Seeing caused the secondary to come in and out of view, at times disappearing, at other times as clear as day (or night I guess). Once I had the split confirmed I then backed off the power to see how far out I could still see it: PM + 9mm (100x) - split. PM + 12.5mm (72x) - split, just about. Had I not seen it at 129x, and therefore knew what to look for, I think this would be less convincing. 7mm (51x) - seen as an extension to the primary. And all this with the glare of my laptop screen a few meters away as I was imaging M57 at the same time for some astronomical multitasking! Whilst in the area I also took a look at the following: STF 2241 (Psi Dra, Dziban) - easy split with 17.5mm (21x), best seen at 51x, colours were bright golden and a quite bright lime green secondary. STFA 35 (Nu Dra) - appeared as two identical suns at 100x. Nice symmetrical, balanced view. STF 2323 (39 Dra) - AB (3.6") were split at 51x. The C component looked very slightly lime green (I seem to see the colour lime green a lot). It needed more power to fully appreciate the split, so I went up to 72x with the PM + 12.5mm. Colours were mostly lost at this point, appearing cream, grey, grey. I can definitely recommend this one, it was a pleasant view. Sat outside under the stars in shorts & t-shirt on a balmy summer's evening, with a beer, as my imaging rig busily worked away on M57. A fine evening.

I don't have any experience with Hyperstar myself, but something that has always put me off getting one for my C6 is the odd-shaped stars. I'm sure it's possible to route the cables well enough to get round (sorry) it, but they always stand out to me if not well-controlled. But I'm fussy about my star shapes. Too much time using the Celestron f6.3 reducer will do that to you 😂 What I can recommend for your C9.25 is the Starizona reducer/corrector. It gives a really good flat field with my C6. I think they have a bigger-sized one for the C9.25/C11. But all that said, if you're just starting off with AP, my advice would be to start with the small fast refractor 😄

Woke up at 3:30am this morning for some reason, couldn't get back to sleep due to the heat so after an hour or so of frustration, I got up. Checked if it was clear, it was! So I went out for my first look at Jupiter this season. I could make out the GRS, some decent detail in the two main belts and a darkening of the Eastern side of the Northern polar region. No real colour other than brown (was only using my 60mm for a quick set up). About 100x was about the maximum I could go to but that was enough. 80x with the WO binos was a bout the best views. Lovely 3D scene with the binoviewers. I was planning on ending up with some doubles before going back to bed, but when looking up from the eyepiece(s) after about 1 hour, the sky had brightened and no stars were visible! I'm very tempted by a 125ED myself...I knew viewing Jupiter would make me want one even more. Hmm, I wonder what REALLY made me want to go out and observe this morning 😄

Eps Dra sounds good - will check it out also on the next clear night. I thought today was looking more promising than yesterday for a clear evening, but it's a no go unfortunately.

Believe it or not I used Powerpoint. When adding shapes it snaps them to a grid so you can align stuff easily. From there I just add circles and play about with the various shape formatting options until it represents my sketch made at the scope. It's very fiddly but worth it, and they print out pretty good as well. I wanted to get some kind of visual representation to add to my written notes as I find it a lot easier to remember the view then. And I can't draw for toffee!

Yep, and conveniently most of it is within a few fields of view when using my 17.5mm Morph! I've observed Beta so far, will have a look into some of those others, especially STF 2474 from your description. Hot on the heels of splitting Izar I got all over-confident and had a go at Delta Cyg, a real challenge for a 60mm I've read. I wouldn't call it a definite split as such (well, not at all really), but I could see an extension of the diffraction ring at the correct PA. Something like this (N up, W left): I also observed Omicron Cyg - that's got to be on a par with Albireo if you ask me - green, gold and white in one FoV 🤩 Also Lambda Cyg - I bit off more than I could chew with this one possibly, but again I could see an extension in the diffraction ring, unless my eyes were tricking me as it had got late by this stage.

So we now have the "Titchy-sixty" and the "Tiddly Fifty-Three" 😄

I'm pleased to report that Izar has now been split. Kinda. Still not the best sky conditions (high level cloud and fast jet stream), so I may yet have a better view of it. But here's a mock-up of how I saw it last night: I'm glad to say the Powermate is performing admirably and providing some much needed umph for the closer doubles. Rho Her before was just about split at 51x, but at 100x there is a clear split and star colours are much more vivid. This was a lovely sight last night:

If your skies are anything like mine this evening then it's definitely not an evening for M31, the Moon reflecting off high level cloud will all but mask it. I'm not sure if you've seen M31 before and so know what to look for or not, but try finding it with your naked eye first. If the skies are dark enough then it always stands out fairly well to me (though of course eye sight will factor in here!). From there it's all the more easy to zoom in on it 🙂 (I've just realised - you may well have been trying to find it with the naked eye 😄)

Just been looking at Saturn through my 60mm with WO binoviewers. Able to merge the images, just, with 9mm X-Cel eyepieces + 2.5x Powermate for 100x. Skies not the best with thin high level cloud. Couldn't quite make out the rings passing in front of the planet. Titan easily seen, and Rhea on the other side of Saturn. Saturn just never ceases to amaze me, year after year after year.

Never said there was 🙂 There is a brightening a few days either side of opposition though, the Seeliger effect, which is what I was referring to.

I know the feeling 🙂 I remember once when I was trying to log a Saturn observation in my log book. I'd done a rough sketch of the planet on a post it note shortly after coming in for the evening which, amazingly, depicted the ring angle pretty well. I then attempted to replicate the drawing in my log book the next day. A few attempts and much swearing later, I just stuck the post it note in it 😆

Great image! 👍

Yes I can definitely see the convenience a zoom would provide, trouble is they don't have adequate eye relief. The Nagler zooms and the SV Bony have 10mm, which is way too short for me. I need at least 15mm for proper comfort....not due to wearing glasses but due to pesky long eye lashes!! I am considering the Baader zoom, that's got 12-15mm eye relief and so for the most part would be fine. I could use that for the initial find and zoom, and then switch to the lower FL eyepieces if required. Trouble is, I really like my Morphs and don't like the idea of them being made almost redundant by the zoom. We'll see.

From memory I was seeing the secondary as being quite well defined, though very fuzzy, and as you say on the first diffraction ring. I suspect me overlooking it was just a case of not knowing what to expect from such a close double, along with the magnitude difference between the primary and secondary, all at relatively high magnification. I have of course looked at many doubles over the years, but just in a casual manner. This is the first time I've gone at them in any "serious" and systematic way. And I'm loving it it has to be said! However, even with the nut of Izar on the verge of being cracked, the 5mm DeLite is still going to be considered 😄

I was observing Saturn last night, in preparation for the opposition so I could compare the difference in brightness, aaaaaaaaaand it's cloudy 😐

Ah ok, following the thread Stu posted, there's a mock-up of how Izar looks through a 60mm: Yes, that's what I'm seeing. I thought it was bad seeing and low altitude causing some kind of weird aberration, but seems it might actually have been the secondary. D'oh! I'll double check the PA next time I'm out.

I've been busy continuing with my double star observations, with almost 20 in the bag now. I've also invested in some added firepower for the titchy sixty: a 2.5X Powermate: So I resumed my challenge to split Izar last night, fully confident I'd have it split, sketched and logged in a few mins and then onto the rest of the doubles on my list. And..... ....still couldn't split it 😕 This was with a 7mm DeLite plus the powermate for 129x. Geez, what's this gonna take??! At this point I think I have the following options: a) Give up. b) In the words of Martin Brody in the film Jaws, "We're gonna need a bigger boat telescope". c) Get a 5mm DeLite for 180x. d) Wait for a night of such exceptional seeing that I could split stars far beyond the normal expected capabilities of a 60mm refractor. e) Just say I did split it, hope no one notices, and move on. I'm not a quitter, so option a) isn't going to be considered. This is a the 60mm project so getting that 5-inch I've got my eyes on just wouldn't be right. Option c) is tempting. Very tempting. I like that one a lot to be honest. Since I live in the UK, I don't really fancy waiting 10, 20, (30?) years for option d) to roll around. Option e. Hmmm, seems a little dishonest. Nope. Once I do finally split it, it'll be all the more satisfying. So I think I'll give it a few more attempts with the 7mm, clean all the lenses (including my eyes), and hope for some seriously steady skies. All while thinking about that 5mm 🙂

Plenty of 8mm options, but not sure if there's any that also match my other requirements. Thanks for the list Don - I'll have to go through it in case I've missed one. I'm in danger of having to buy the Baader zoom 😂

Yep my thoughts exactly, 8mm seems to be hard to come by at that medium to medium-high price tag. I tried the 8mm BST in the past but thought it was terrible - blurry image and horrendous ghosting when looking at Jupiter. I'd ideally like something I can use for binoviewers, which discounts the Delos as they'd be a bit too unwieldy for my liking. Plus the cost considering I need two of them!

As long as it has an 8mm focal length in the range, with >15mm eye relief, 60-70 degree FoV, and costs somewhere between £130 to £250 in terms of quality then I'll be happy. I don't think I'm being too picky here, it doesn't have to be black with green writing 😄

Oh no! I will do - should I be asking for version 2022-1 specifically? Thanks for responding so quickly as well 👍

I know this thread has been dormant for a while but I have a question on the Discovering Double Stars II book - I've just received my copy (colour edition, spiral bound), looks great but it doesn't have the position angle line on the finder circles. Is there a reason why they were removed? The version I have is 2022-2. The PDF version is currently 2022-1 and has the PA lines. Thanks

Ah the shuttlecock stars, I know them well. One way to truly get rid of them is to use the Starizona .63 reducer, it's not cheap but is very good indeed. Apart from that, spot on collimation helps a bit. And failing all of that, go big on the cropping 😀

Fantastic image. Amazing sharpness to all the tendrils. And really nice stars as well! I much prefer this nebula orientated this way - it doesn't remind me of one of the aliens out of, um, Aliens quite so much!