Mark at Beaufort

Achim that is brilliant sketch - really well done

What a wonderful find. There has been a great deal of research surrounding George Henry With together with Rev Henry Cooper Key and Rev Thomas William Webb all of whom were in Herefordshire in the Victorian era. If the Herefordshire Museum are not interested I can, via PM, let the author of the research contact you. Also, I am sure Bob Marriott could provide a great deal of information - see link - http://www.hamaldemon.com/

Enjoyable report Mark. I have become quite frustrated not been able to use the 12" Dob because of constant cloud cover.

Thanks for that. This seems a better idea than carrying the large 12 volt car jump starter to the mount. I also have noted that it is mentioned several times on the Amazon site it's ability to run telescopes and their mounts.

Thanks John so I assume I could plug this cable into the car's 12 volt socket and it work fine and safe.

I am thinking of buying this mount but I need advice on an appropriate cable to connect to my 12 volt external power source (car jump starter) It states that you need an External Power Supply (DC 7.5 - 14 volt, 0.75A) Tip Positive - to be honest I don't have a clue what this means. I suppose I need a cable with a cigar lighter connection and an appropriate connector to go into the mount. Can someone explain this to me and also suggest a suitable cable. What I don't want to do is to burn the motor on the mount when I start to use it. As you can see I need educating on electonics.

I have both the Pronto and the AZ5. If you purchase the better tripod the load capacity of the AZ5 is 9 kgs and that is quoted in the manual. I use a skywatcher 150p and it works very well. Anyway your question is about the Pronto. My pronto sits on a quality cullmann tripod and I use it both for my PST solar scope but also my Heritage 130 newt. The weight of the Heritage is 4.1 kgs and that includes a 9x50 finder scope + a zoom eyepiece. I balance the Heritage and the slow motion gears work okay even when the scope is pointing to the zenith. It's a great grab and go setup.

Mark it looks good. I have been using a professional music stand for many years to hold my large star atlases. I gave a demo when I undertook the talk on starGazine.

Thanks Stephan that is a very useful article. Clearly there are 3 concentric craters that I can try and observe at different times of the Moon phase - 4, 9 and 10 days. Since I added this post I have found that I observed Hesiodus A (no. 81 - Lunar 100 list) on 14th January 2011 - that's 10 years!!. Best I carry out a revisit. So best dates in February - Crozier H (15th) and Hesiodus A (21st)

https://spaceweather.com/ - Reading this website this morning I saw this information about the crater Marth. I was not aware of this and I thought I would make a diary enter to view it on 23rd February or there abouts. Lunar observers maybe interested.

Welcome to sgl from another member based in Hereford. Send me a PM if you want additional information about the local area.

Thanks Paul - like Mike I have never heard the term 'cup handle' before. Great photo - it does appear that the new scope is a very nice performer.

Because the Moon was going to be fairly bright tonight and at the moment its looking okay for observing I decided to view some double stars Looking towards the South I picked two constellations for observing. I used 'The Webb Society Double Star book', 'Sissy Haas - doubles for small telescopes' and the 'Cambridge Double Star Atlas' to find them. Here is a sample. Eridanus - Z649, Z576, 66, 62, 55, 40 and 32 Orion - Delta, Sigma, Lambra, Theta, Rho, 23, Iota with Z747 Sorry about the 'Z' I can't produce the proper Struve symbol.

Too late Mike I have done it for you 🙂

Well tried Chris . I know at 4am this morning the sky was crystal clear with excellent transparency. I used my Heritage 130P mainly because my 12" Dob got very wet (6.00 pm yesterday) because of a heavy downpour which was not expected. Anyway I found NGC4414 again and I felt I got a glimmer towards the centre. Hopefully, I will try with the 12" to be certain.

Nice report Nick I do enjoy your posts and particular the sketches. I really enjoyed viewing Sigma Orionis last night with my Heritage 130P and I will certainly return to Tegmine shortly.

Despite my earlier problem with the Dob I decided to take out the 130P Heritage and undertake the same observing programme. John because you mentioned Deslandres I started there. Using my 9mm and 6mm Orthos with the Baader barlow I had excellent views of this area. The Moon was very stable and I was able to go up to 244x which is pretty good going with the Heritage. Moved over to Mars and some nice markings and then down to Uranus which at 244x was a nice disc. Took in a few doubles - started with the Trapezium then Rigel and ended with Sigma Orionis picking up the 5 stars. The Heritage was placed on a Skywatcher AZ Pronto mount and the slow motion cables worked well. This is an excellent lightweight quick grab and go 5" setup.

Well done John. I set up the 12 inch dob plus all the eyepiece a few hours ago to view moon, mars and uranus. Forecast total clear skies no cloud all night plus the early hours. I had to deliver something to my son (out for 10 minutes) in that time it poured down with everything getting totally wet. You would not believe the mess.

Really nice looking scope. Did the scope come with a finder bracket or was that an extra purchase? I look forward to your first observing review.

I agree with John and remove the fork part. This hopefully will leave a hole where a long 1/4 or 3/8 bolt can be attached to an adapter as mentioned by fifeskies. By the way welcome to sgl.

Last night I set up my Skywatcher 150P to view the Moon's libration to show Mare Humboldtianum. As you can guess it was cloudy and remain that way for the whole evening. However, I left the scope and eyepieces basically set up because I thought I might undertake some white light solar observing. Anyway, I woke up fairly early and it was still astro dark with a perfect clear and transparent sky. Leo and Coma B were perfectly placed so I decided to try and view the SN in NGC 4414. The galaxy is fairly easy to find - draw a line from Cor Caroli and Al Dafirah and almost in the middle is two mag 6 stars very close together. Using my Instellarium atlas and the 60mm Altair finderscope it was easy to work out the patterns and location of NGC 4414. Using a 13mm Ethos I could see the galaxy. Spending sometime studying the galaxy (smudge!!) especially using the 10mm Baader Classic Ortho, I could make out a star. I assume this was the SN - 2021J. Hopefully, if the sky remains clear and I wake up I will have a go with the 12" Dob.

Well just before 5pm I caught sight of the crescent Moon. The cloud was moving in right direction and I thought I might pick up Mercury. Well no hope - it went totally cloudy which is still the situation. Getting very frustrated with constant cloud cover.

Neil there has been some debate about this. When I observe the Sun using a front white light filter I add a UV/IR filter into the focuser. I know some will say its not necessary for visual but it gives me some extra assurance. I bought a SvBony filter which was not that expensive.

Nice report Doug. Like John I wonder whether I will see a clear night again. If I do I think I will observe these doubles you mention.

Thanks Michael for the 'heads up'. Checking back in my log I viewed this galaxy in June 2011 and March 2016 so its a good galaxy to have a SN. Hopefully, it will clear the roof at a reasonable time.