Mark at Beaufort

Well done catching Mercury - nice photo showing the 3 astro bodies. I was going to try on the 12th but was totally clouded out.

Nice Michael - did you catch Mercury a little further down?

I knew that Mercury was putting on its best morning position in November for the whole year. However, in particular the morning of the 13th had been highlighted by many 2020 years books showing Venus, Crescent Moon and Mercury altogether almost in a line. The weather has not been very kind recently and I was not being very hopeful because of rain coming over night. Just before 7am the cloud was moving away showing Venus and the Crescent Moon. Unfortunately heavy cloud covered the horizon area. I took out my Helios Apollo 15x70 and went hunting for Mercury and just before 7.15am (sky getting brighter) I picked up Mercury. It was great to move between the 3 objects. I was unable to see Mercury with the naked eye but at least I saw the event.

I use my TeleVue mainly for Ha which provides an excellent observing image. Its going to be interesting to compare the SVbony with the TeleVue in my Ha PST scope.

That is useful information John. I undertake Outreach observing (if covid ever allows me again) and I thought this zoom would be a useful addition to protect my main EPs. I did have a Nagler EP almost ruined by someone wearing eye mascara. I note that I can purchase this zoom for £45.99 with free postage so worth a punt. I will let members know how I get on.

I did not appreciate that SVbony produced 3 different zoom EPs. I wonder what the 10-30mm would be like?

I have the TeleVue 8-24 zoom which is very good. Unfortunately its no longer available. However, I did own the Baader Mk3 zoom which was okay. I have heard good things about the Hyperflex 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom which is reasonably priced. I have not seen the SVbony zooms so cannot really comment although I have bought and still use SVbony products. To answer your question a zoom can be really useful and you can get good observation views with them. However, I still prefer individual EPs especially the widefield because zooms have small FOV at the wide end.

Nice idea Steve. Well if we ever have a star party at Lucksall again, and you attend, we can possibly arranged something. I hope you are safe and well in Burnley - not easy times.

Thanks Steve for an interesting write up and review. I always fancied getting one of these but the cost put me off. Its a pity that its not produced in the UK to possibly lower the cost.

Luke its lovely to see you posting again. My regards to Sarah as well. I bet your youngest has grown up a lot from the days I last saw all the family at Lucksall.

Well this is nice to revive this old thread. I bought a pair of Russian 7x50 binos on the 22nd July, 1968 from a shop in Southsea. I still use them from time to time. My other old piece of kit is a Coronado PST which I bought to take to the Annular Eclipse in Spain in 2005. Since then I bought a Double Stack.

Its 6am and yes I have started observing. Venus is very bright and looking towards the horizon I can spot Mercury. Its now late morning and I have the 6" Newt set up with solar filter + UV/IR filter attached to the eyepiece. The large sunspot AR2781 is really something so its good that we are coming out of solar minimum (hopefully)!! 6.30pm - Heritage 130P out to observe Jupiter and Saturn - The Baader Orthos + Baader Classic barlow works well with this scope. 7pm - 9pm - Zoom talk to Herefordshire Astro Society on Venus and recent research on phosphine in the cloud areas 9pm onwards - 12" Dob which had been set up since late afternoon - started with Mars. The quality of the seeing was excellent. Using the 6mm Ethos gave me so much details and I had the best view of Syrtis Major ever. Also used the 9mm Fujiyama and 10mm Baader Classic Ortho Next up Neptune - starting to get a bit of fog plus Moon is getting really bright but I tracked down our most distant planet. Used the Fujiyama + Baader Ortho + Baader barlow. Finally ended with Uranus - again used the same EPs plus star hopped with the help of the 2x40 Helios binos + 80mm finderscope. So there we have it all the planets of the solar system in just over 15 hours.

Thanks for the update John. I only had one chance recently to see the SN and the Moon was very close so cannot be certain that I saw it. I decided to have another go since but cloud has been a constant problem. Tonight its showing total cloud from 7pm to 11pm on 'clear outside' so I might get a chance later with the 12" Dob.

Total cloud cover here in Hereford. I was really hoping to catch Mars tonight plus the SN but it looks highly unlikely. The next 7 days is showing cloud.

@Stuthat is a great report. I have been using the S&T moon mapper but the one you have listed is so much better. I have now bookmarked this website and will use it tonight with the 12" Dob - if it stays clear!!!

That is a very interesting report @Stu . As you know I love my Heritage 130P which I find great for quick grab and go. Also, I cannot believe the quality of the observing using my Skywatcher 150P which I suppose has the same mirror as the Heritage 150. Still not seen Syrtis Major, so far this apparition, so I must check it out over the next few nights. It looks perfectly place about 8pm tonight. Go on @Johntreat yourself to the Heritage 150 I am sure your better half won't notice.

Very well done Luke.

Here is another option - http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Telescopes-Opticstar.asp?p=0_10_1_1_65 It looks a well built frac with a reasonable focuser. A 2" EP should give a 2.5 degree FOV (30mm/70 degree)

That is a useful addition especially if the quality is similar to the Myriad range. I have the 9mm and 20mm Myriad which I really rate. If I had not obtained a used 6mm Ethos late last year I would certainly have bought this EP to give me that bit extra mag above the 9mm.

Thanks everyone for your input. My Herefordshire Astro colleague has seen the posts and now deciding what to do.

Thanks Les - the weather has been so poor I really want another chance to view this SN. I really appreciate your images of this event.

I would welcome some opinions on a suitable mount. A member of my Astro Society has purchased a 6" Achro Frac and needs a suitable mount for visual observing. The scope is this one - https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/explore-scientific-ar152-152mm-f6.5-refractor-0114152.html#SID=1644 As you can see it weighs 10.7 kgs so will need a decent mount. I don't know his budget but mounts like these two might be outside his budget. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth-astronomy-mounts/rowan-az100-alt-az-mount.html or - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-az-eq5-gt-geq-alt-az-mount.html The only one that I can think of is the SkyTee 2 mount complete with tripod, Extension pillar and change of saddles to ADM. I guess this is sort of budget he might be thinking off. I know the SkyTee 2 has a capacity of 15kgs but I really would appreciate some extra thoughts on the subject. I should have said he does not want an EQ mount.

I had the same experience as John and Mark with the Moon making it difficult to view the SN. It certainly helped using the 80mm finderscope and the Stellarium star atlas to see the pattern of stars to locate NGC514. The interesting experience was the eyepiece that gave the best view. I started with the 13mm Ethos, then the 9mm Myraid and finally the 6mm Ethos. To be honest I was not certain that I was viewing the SN. However, the magic bullet was the Baader Classic 10mm Ortho and there is was. So the opinion that has been expressed about viewing fainter DSOs with the Baader Ortho came true viewing the SN.

Sorry to read this. I bought a Celestron SCT in 1999 from their retail shop which I visited to purchase. To me Adam, the last time I saw him still seems fairly young - I hope things work out for them.

Its difficult to put a price on a classic telescope that costs over $5000 new - never mind the Brandon EPs and other accessories. I have only seen and used a Questar 3.5 scope once and that was in California close to the Lick Observatory. The view looking at a partial phase of Venus was truly excellent. As others have stated SGL classifieds is not an auction site so a price should be put by the owner and should just see what happens. This is the one I used for a brief period - very nice.