SwiMatt

A little update because I finally had the time to process the lights I took a month ago from my balcony. Besides major stars, I could see M39 (barely visible), and with coverage of 25x2.5", with tons of light pollution, I count this as a victory. The processing was simple and the result is OK-ish - what I would hope for a first attempt: I just stretched the image, removed a couple of visible gradients, and finally annotated the image. The removal of gradients removed a lot of fainter stars, but I'm OK with it. Honestly, I'm looking forward to try some more in the future. But this month my priority has been visual, since we had so little time for it.

Oh man I thought it was only here. It was an abysmal February. Happy to hear you got a break on Wednesday, and I hope our current good weather will reach you eventually. Hang on!

Right! It was quite turbulent yesterday, but I count on trying again soon thanks for the tip!

Just came back from my observation spot in the woods where I had a session of a couple of hours with tons of objects of all sorts. Transparency was bad, only Alpha and Beta Ursae Minori were visible. Started by trying out to see Sirius' pup... impossible task, but Sirius looked like a twinkling caleidoscope, which was fun! So, seeing wasn't great either! I spent some time on Orion: beautiful M42 with trapezium with only 4 stars at 100-150x; then NGC 1981 and Collinder 69 (around Lambda Orionis). Sigma Orionis is a beautiful triple easy to split, and with averted vision I could split in 3 components also Struve 761 in the same FOV. Great great view. Next area was Gemini and Auriga, I looked at the clusters M35, M36, M37 and M38, all beautiful. I had a tougher time to find M37, since I keep forgetting how much dimmer than M36 it is! M38 is my fav of the four with its cross pattern. Turn towards Perseus and the double cluster just fits the FOV at 60x. Finally I swung around to find some fuzzies: M3 was underwhelming, but that's also the worse side of the sky in terms of sky pollution. M94 in Canes Venaticii looks almost stellar at 60x and shows some fuzziness at higher magnification (by comparison with the only star in the field of view, which came into focus easily even at 150x). I finally looked at a couple of double stars, namely Cor Caroli and Algieba. I finished the night with a look at some fun objects in the 10x50 binoculars: Beehive, Pleiades, Kemble's cascade, double cluster, Stock 2 (barely visible) and the funny Cheshire Cat in Auriga. Fun fact, tonight I split Mizar for the first time without visual aid. It was a fun (and cold) night! And realized that the best astronomy buy of 2024 was the string to hold my glasses around my neck... it makes me 40 years wiser

I'm so sure this isn't true

Well, why do you think I haven't attempted the double cluster yet? It's not only because I don't have a low magnification eyepiece... It's a scary target!

My trick is to fix a center star and / or one or two stars at the limits of the field of view. Once those are fixed it's like following any globular cluster or galaxy

I see now that from the computer the pictures I took of the sketches look horrible, also my paper seems to be quite reflective! And I really really need to sharpen my pencil... 😅

I'm already inside since I'm working tomorrow, but I was on my balcony for 1h30 tonight to continue my exploration of the observing list of "Stargazing Under Suburban Skies". Tonight it was all about open clusters, starting with binoculars to take a look at M45, the double cluster, Melotte 20 (the cluster around Alpha Persei) and glimpsing Stock 2 high up in the sky. With the Mak, I started from a re-observation of NGC 752 in Andromeda, which I had seen two days ago. I'm sure I got it in the eyepiece, but it doesn't seem to pop as much as some suggest under very polluted skies (also with transparency not the best and a lot of glare from street lights). I look forward to checking out this one under darker skies. I went on to observe for the first time NGC 457 (the Owl Cluster): it took me a bit to detect the shape, but once I saw it it was quite obvious and fun to look at. Next I saw again M103, which is turning out to be one of my favorite clusters: at 60x it looks like nothing, but it really pops at higher magnifications. The arrow-head shape is quite obvious and it's neat to see that all stars are inside the triangle. Finally, I looked (also for the first time) at M34, very nice cluster which seems almost like a cluster of double stars! I also sketched NGC 457, M103 and M34 (sketches linked below), and I'm quite happy with the result!

I'm continuing my exploration of the observing list in "Stargazing Under Suburban Skies" and tonight I felt like sketching too. Here are sketches for the Owl Cluster (NGC 457), one of my favorites M103, and M34. The Owl and M34 were also my first observations of these objects. I'm still always surprised at how M103 looks like nothing at 60x and really pops at 100x and more. Sketches are with white pastel pencil on black paper. I then mark the brightest stars with white ink once inside. I tend to sketch fast as I don't have tracking, but once I set down the first couple of stars I just get in the flow.

Maybe it's underrated because of how faint and sparse it is? It might be one of those clusters that requires really good optics (and great conditions) to appreciate - at least based on what the book said and my observation yesterday night. It didn't "pop" as much as most clusters I've seen... it definitely made me want to go back to it. Sketching it would be great!

Damn, we had one good night in 6 weeks and we finally got another despite a few clouds. Went through the first 4 objects of the Stargazing Under Suburban Skies book. My favorites today were two doubles, Gamma Andromedae and Eta Cassopieiae. Full report here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/419809-starting-an-observing-list/

I got back from a trip just this afternoon and the forecast gave some decent chance to put in a session so I went out and the sky delivered! First time in weeks (one night available in... February), with my balcony giving me access to the Andromeda / Cassiopeia / Perseus portion of the sky. It was also first light for my new TS-Optics diagonal! After a quick look at Jupiter it was clear that it wouldn't be a night of high magnification... initially my main goal was to hunt down 12P/Pons-Brooks but I had a very hard time to identify any guiding stars in the region due to tons of glare. Instead, I decided to start using "Stargazing Under Suburban Skies" properly. The book proposes a lost of 100 objects to find in light polluted skies, starting from Andromeda and proceedimg by right ascension. In fact, finding Andromeda was already a challenge (again: poor transparency making even Mu Andromedae invisible). When I found it, it showed as the typical ghost that so disappoints in these skies. I went on to split Gamma Andromedae, which shows a beautiful color contrast with the brighter component a deep yellow and the weaker companion a grey/bluish tint. Interestingly, at first at 60x the split was not obvious, at 100x it was very neat (and close) and then back at 60x I could see ot very obviously. Next up, NGC 752 or C28. I was in the right region of the sky, and I did find a cluster of fine stars that looked somewhat like the picture in the book. I will need to confirm this observation on a night with better transparency! The clouds started moving in but I had time to hunt down the next object in the list - Achird aka Eta Cassiopeiae. For me it was the first time testing my skills on a double with such difference of magnitude (haven't done many doubles yet) and it was a thrill to see it split neatly at 60x, and looking even better in the BST at 100x. In conclusion, this book is an absolute must for any beginner astronomer: the observing list is composed of 100 mostly classic objects (e.g. Messier, Caldwell, bright doubles), with great variety of objects. I really look forward to continuing this observing list, and maybe sketch some objects too...

One for clear skies, one for cloudy nights (well ideally both for clear skies but there is a shortage currently): the diagonal substitutes the erecting prism that came with my Mak.

What a coincidence, I'm supposed to get my own copy today

You could maybe think of a calligraphy pen and white ink? Nibs for calligraphy come in all shapes, but it might also be overkill...

Very nice sketches! Are the stars in pastel or ink? I could only guess some ways to draw the diffraction rings, as I haven't tried myself, but you probably tried them already if you draw with pastels first guess being a very sharp pastel pencil and a feather touch, hoping that the paper will catch the pigment. Which I imagine is what you did!

It's the mount that came with the OTA. I did not have time and money to update yet - but I read good report of the AZ5 with the Mak 127. The weak point is the tripod which I will update soon for a carbon one. And yes, portability for me is paramount since I live in a light polluted neighborhood and at the third floor in a small apartment. That bundle gave me the best compromise between aperture and portability (although knowing what I know today, if I did that again I would go with smaller APO).

Thank you all for the answers! Actually, I was aware of the undersize aperture when I bought it, believe it or not. I had read about it but don't remember where. I haven't tried to split many double stars, the lowest I have gone is probably 4 arcseconds (Algieba comes to mind), so cannot confirm what @Zermelo says. I'm not the most avid double stars observer. And no star tests either. I observed the planet in all sorts of conditions and one thing that I can tease out is when seeing is bad 😂 and in terms of cooling, for my planetary sessions I normally put the Mak out well in advance to cool it down (even 1 or 2 hours sometimes), I'm not sure if temperature gradients would be so strong to actually affect the optics once the scope is acclimated, but maybe this is something to account for. Let's put it like this: after few long sessions (probably more than 10 sessions at this point), I find Jupiter quite boring since I can never tease out more than just the equatorial bands. I have seen possible traces of festoons and GRS, but far from conclusive certainty. So far, I thought I didn't have enough optical quality of the OTA or experience: now I am starting to think that the erecting prism might exacerbate the other limits. I will buy a star diagonal and come back with answers as soon as possible (when the weather allows again)

For additional info, I found out that the particular bundle I got (Skymax 127 with AZ5) comes with an erecting prism, not a star diagonal. I wonder why SW would make this choice, considering that on the page of the SW erecting prims it says that it is designed primarily for terrestrial observing. It seems to beat the point of a beginner bundle at that price point...

Thanks for the recommendation @Zermelo and the warning @Louis D!

Dammit 🥲 And also, I will have to relearn my handles directions... thanks @Stu. Any suggestions on what to look for if I wanted a good diagonal that doesn't break my bank?

After 6 months of use, I thought I would get deeper into the "litterature" to try and understand my Maksutov a bit better. I am very happy with it: the stars are very sharp and I got amazing views of the brightest DSOs. One thing that has been frustrating me is that, despite all my attempts, planetary observation still does not give me views rich in detail, but... I guess it will come. Digging deeper into the details, I realized something that has me baffled, to say the least: the views in my Mak aren't flipped - but I seem to understand that it should revert right and left when used with a star diagonal. If this is indeed unusual, I figure that when I got it from FLO (discounted, a customer return) they must have included an erecting prism instead of a star diagonal, and this got me wondering: am I taking full advantage of my optics? Am I losing precious photons and contrast? Might this explain why I have such troubles with observing planetary details? In short: should I buy a star diagonal?

Have you thought of not going to bed at all?

Great question! Personally, I had been in online forums (for other hobbies) before, and I know for a fact that it takes some luck to find one that feels like a real community. The reason I started with SGL and not the other one is that SGL seemed far less American (I lived in the US, I love the US, but... I think you know what I mean here). From the moment I joined - a few weeks after I caught the bug for astronomy - it just felt right. It's a fun bunch people with very deep passion and knowledge of the craft. And from the start I haven't felt like "the noobie", more like a "mentee" in a way. That was fundamental for me to become active on here.