mdstuart

John Tegmine splits just with the 4.7mm eyepiece. Nice triple star. Dark sky visible in between the stats. Seeing is much better tonight now the jet stream has moved. Mark

John With my 4.7mm eyepiece it looks like a North South line with the other star below the line. Presumably need a bit more mag to get a peanut split! in the 8 inch dob. I might try Tegmine next. Mark

Here is a picture of the moon through it this evening with my phone.

New Orion Optics dob mount. Lovely smooth motions. Now I have a scope with excellent optics on a proper Orion Optics dob mount.

I tried my az5 with a 200mm newt. It holds it safely but there are vibrations which take time to settle. I have now ordered an Orion Optics dob mount. Mark

Felt like Christmas morning, a new toy. Thank you to John for delivering it today. It really needs a more substantial mount but I could not resist putting it through its paces an an az5. After cool down it delivered razor sharp stars across the whole field of view in my 16mm 82 deg eyepiece. The pole star confirmed the collimation was spot on with the lovely blue companion showing as the tiniest spot. I had a look at the end star in Andromeda which is lovely blue and yellow, stunning. I went from double to double, cluster after cluster, all very fine views. Finally the moon. Wow. So sharp, hints of those cratorlets in plato. So very pleased indeed with the scope. Now I have to sell my skywatcher 127 mak and AZ5 to fund a skytee! Mark

Yes very good transparency tonight John. I was looking at galaxies in Lynx. Mark

I can tell how much you enjoyed that.. Mark

Yes beyond my set up but it was fun trying.

So I observed the field and could see stars down to mag 14.6 but I don't think I saw the JWST. I did manage to spot a few new galaxies this evening including markarian 626 in Lynx. Mark

Chart with wider view.

So it's likely to be clear on Tuesdsy night. I thought I would try and see the mag 14 James Webb telescope. A bit of an ask but you have to try it. So my charts are here for Bristol UK at 8pm if I have used the jpl Web site correctly. Feel free to join me. Mark

Sorry used to have 25 x 100 mm bins . They were fixed magnification...so only good for the brightest and biggest galaxies Mark

Just to support Peters point. Small galaxies need magnification to see them. I often cannot see a galaxy at low power in my dob but it is visible at higher power. I think higher powers also darken the background which helps. There is a yellow book that goes in to the science behind this. Mark

Here is an image from my phone The comet is just visible directly above the bright star d boo.

Lovely clear dark sky. Easily picker out the comet in my 7 x 50 bins. Hint of a tail. Here is my award winning sketch using one note.

Yes just here for the weekend and the skies are dark where I am staying and its going to be clear...just got to be done. Mark

I plan to have a go at locating it tomorrow morning from Lyme Regis with some 7 x 50 binoculars from a charity shop. Mark

Mark I repeated some of your double star observations tonight with a bright moon and my 130mm dob that I got from Nick years ago. That Taurus double double is pretty. I did struve 559 and tau 118 both of which were nice close equal brightness stars. The 130mm dob delivers lovely sharp stars which helps. I could not split 7 tau either in the 130mm dob even with the 4.7mm eyepiece. I could see the fainter companion just like you noted. So thanks for your inspiration this evening. Mark

Not the Matkarian chain. I meant the Markarian list of galaxies. https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/W3Browse/rosat/markarian.html

The Markarian galaxies often have active cores so try a few of those. Not heard that re using a uhc filter before. Interested to hear after your observations. Mark

Hickson 98

I have to say I really enjoyed that. The Triangulum galaxy was easily visible in a 30mm finder which gives you an idea about how good the skies were last night. Mark

Woke up to an amazing sky. Finally had some special views. Loved seeing ngc 2841 again my my 127 mak. M33 was great and even visible in the 30mm finder! Best of all I saw Eddie's coaster on the day of the celebration of his life.

It is just one of those powerful torches.... Cloudy at the moment but the company is great. Mark