RobertI

4 hours ago, imakebeer said:

Question for all you visual-only astronomers:

What are y'all looking at through the eyepiece? Please inspire me!

In my short newbie astronomy journey I've headed off down the AP route and I feel like I'm missing out sometimes, starting down at a laptop instead of up at the stars.

Once the gear (SW150PDS + HEQ5 GoTo, by the way) is set up and taking umpteen photos I sometimes sure back, let my eyes adjust and take it in, maybe with a pair of binos.

Pleiades, Orion nebula, Jupiter and its moons, Saturn and its rings... All genuinely impressive through the eyepiece... But then what?

In a photo of say M31 you can make out the galaxy(s) of course which are hard/impossible to see visually (and M31 is it of the brighter ones!), and then bajillions of more distant stars all around - and surely you can't possibly see these visually, even with a really big scope?

But it seems like what you can see visually, even with a half decent scope, is so much more finite - right? (or wrong?) In my previous 70mm/900mm frac, M31 was just a faint smudge and really missed.

So please inspire me! I haven't done much visual with the 150PDS but I'd like to. So how do you keep motivated and fund enough stuff to look at year after year? What do you go looking for?

(I'm guessing a GoTo kinda spoils the fun and art of star hopping to actually get your scope pointed in the right place!)

Cheers & thanks in advance 👍😁🔭

Well I think @mikeDnight has demonstrated perfectly how visual astronomy can be inspiring!

Perhaps galaxies and nebulae aren’t the the most exciting, but there’s a lifetime’s worth of other amazing objects to see visually. Here’s  some of the the reasons I love visual observing:

• The sheer beauty of clusters, doubles and coloured stars (such as carbon stars) which are hard to match digitally IMO
• The magical 3D view of the moon and planets, especially through binoviewers
• The thrill of accidentally finding something new and amazing (done that plenty of times)
• The satisfaction of finally tracking down that elusive faint fuzzy or close double, sometimes having to use every technique and tool in your armoury
• Finding old friends, who sometimes have something new to give (the Veil is a particular favourite) 
• Being able to almost achieve the impossible with very small apertures 
• Enjoying the simplicity of a beautiful precision optical instrument on a manual mount
• Being relaxed, at peace and at one with nature under the stars

Your 150PDS should give some lovely views and reveal plenty. I’d suggest choosing a couple of prominent constellations (eg: Orion and Auriga) and list out the brightest objects in them (open clusters, globulars, doubles and nebulae), and then start working your way through the list. Hope it inspires you too.

Very nice list Nick, I've added some of these to my own lists.

As for adding to your list, it's tough to choose. I love to see two objects in the same field of view. M35 with ngc2158 next door, the double cluster, M97 and M108, the Leo triplet. Seeing Venus within the Pleiades was very memorable, and recently I also saw Mars and M1 in the same field of view. 

Personal standouts are the Veil with an OIII filter, the Trapezium on a night of good seeing, and M13 with a good sized aperture. 

Lovely report Nick, I’ve added some of those objects to my list for next time out. 👍

Skies were clear again tonight, so I got the ZS 66 out for a quick session. While scanning around the southern aspect near Orion at low power I found a lovely pair of equally bright white stars just discernible as a pair - very pretty. I just had to get the 102ED out to have a proper look - I popped in the zoom with a Barlow, and as I zoomed in on this lovely double, one of the pair became another even closer double of equal brightness stars, revealing a beautiful triple. Turns out I was looking at Beta Monocerotis, clearly well known, but not to me! The closer pair are 2.8” apart and mags 5.4 and 5.6, the third is mag 4.6 and stands 7.4” away. An amazing sight. Whilst in multiple star mode I went to Sigma Orionis and could easily see three components and the much fainter fourth.

I then switched to the to the 17.5mm Morpheus for some wider field views at 40x. I could still JUST see the fourth component of Sigma Orionis with averted vision. Then onto M42. I was very surprised that with the UHC filter in I could make out the full extent of the nebula including the outer arc extending as far as Iota Orionis. Possibly thanks to good transparency, good glass and good filter. 

I then randomly had a look at the Owl Nebula and M108. Although in a brighter part of the sky the Owl was immediately visible with M108 in the same FOV but much harder to see. Putting in the OIII filter really made the Owl stand out - no doubt about what I was looking at. M108 all but disappeared though.

I spent another good hour enjoying the open clusters of Orion, Gemini, Auriga, Perseus and Cassiopeia. 

The combination of the 102ED and 17.5mm Morpheus really does give some special views. Wonderful contrast, subtle colours, tiny faint stars at the edge of visibility and good sharpness across a wide field. And at x40 the sky is sufficiently darkened but the field is still wide enough. My favourite combination of scope and eyepiece at present.

Had an enjoyable session trying out my new Bino Bandit with my 10x50s. To cut to the chase, if anyone uses binoculars or binoviewers for astronomy, even a bit, I would say this is a MUST HAVE accessory. It cuts out all stray light from the peripheral vision and creates a wonderful immersive experience. Having used it for a good hour whilst reclining in my Nadira observing chair this evening, I removed it and wondered how I ever observed without it! It’s now permanently attached to the binocular and I will be getting another one for my binoviewer. 
 

Last time I was out a couple of weeks ago, I was comparing the views through my the ZS66 + 38mm Panaview (giving 10x mag) with my 10x50s. I was curious to see the strengths of each at the same magnification and FOV. The conclusion was that the 10x50s were far more immersive, giving a darker sky and seemingly brighter stars. The ZS66 gave sharper stars and could obviously be mounted more easily, but the views were just washed out. I concluded that this was because of the 6.5mm exit pupil versus the 5mm of the Bino, which made the sky brighter, and potentially I was losing some light because my own pupils were not that dilated. Tonight I tried the 24mm 68 degree ES, giving 16x, and the results were much more pleasing. Darker skies and seemingly more vibrant stars, though interestingly still not the dark skies or vibrant stars of the binocular.  But at 16x many clusters are being resolved and more objects are visible, so the experience is different to the binos anyway. I’m thinking that my 17.5mm Morpheus could even better - next time. 
 

I had an enjoyable time scanning around Orion, Gemini, Taurus, Auriga, Perseus and Cassiopeia with my two optical friends, orienting myself with the binoculars and then investigating further with the telescope. Perseus yielded a lot of interest, especially the double cluster with Stock 2, a very large open cluster nearby in the same field of view, and Trumpler 2, a very small sparse cluster also nearby. It started to get late, Leo was rising quite high now. Time for bed.

Not an astronomical gift, but something I’m looking forward to leafing through. 🙂 

Stag Beetle. 😁

Welcome from North Essex.

That’s really good! Nice rendition.  I’ve also downloaded the app but not had a proper chance to use not yet. Perhaps once you’re happy with your technique, you can share some tips (though Mars is rapidly shrinking and Jupiter disappearing!). It would also be nice to see some smaller ‘zoomed out’ versions of your sketches. 👍

Well done on taking the plunge! It must be a great feeling to know you have the very best, and something you can still enjoy looking at as well as looking through. 👍

2 hours ago, IB20 said:

It’s called Sketchbook on iOS but it’s available on Google Play. It’s free to download but I paid £1.79 to access all the tools/styles although there was plenty in the free version too. Enjoying it so far!

Will have to give that app a go, I think you've captured the eyepiece experience brilliantly there. 👍

A little Christmas ‘aperitif’ - looks like a very nice addition to the toolkit. 

5 hours ago, Jimbo64 said:

Hi again,

After lots of consideration and some great advice from FLO (thanks Chris) I went with this option: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-200pds-heq5-pro.html

It's arriving this afternoon, Clear Outside is suggesting it will be late on Christmas Night before I get good enough weather for first light!

Can’t go wrong with that I think. 👍

Lovely sketches,  captures the main features very nicely. 

Sorry, but I just had to share this - dedicated high end 10x50 Astronomy binoculars - yours for a shade under £9000! 😮

https://www.nikon.co.uk/en_GB/product/sport-optics/binoculars/wx/wx-10x50-if#tech_specs

8 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Thanks @JeremyS… it was Saturday 19th November… we had the most amazing weather, beautiful church service and great party 🎉

Finally after almost 10 years together we’re glad to have finally tied the knot 😃

I believe your daughter has/is also getting married 👍

Edit: Warning, off topic photo attached… but at least you finally get to see the man behind @HollyHound🤣

Congratulations sir! 🙂

Impressive commitment to imaging!

Lovely report, some nice winter objects there well described, sounds like your setup was working well. I think I may have created the Cassiopeia SS list, but you can really thank the wonders of Sky Safari!! 🙂

53 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Hawke Endurance ED 8x42 , excellent general purpose bino's, a little over £200 but superb.

Funnily enough I went to a camera shop today and they had those very bins. I had a chance to try them out on daylight, and they seemed excellent. No noticeable CA when viewing something against a bright sky, and seemed sharp to the edges. Very very tempted. Must remember this isn’t my thread! 😆

I think I read that the nosepiece on this diagonal doesn't have a filter thread, which may or may not other you. Without it you lose  bit of flexibility- for example I have screwed the glass path corrector into the nose piece to get increased magnification with my binoviewers.

Edit: just realised this has already been pointed out above. 

On 12/12/2022 at 18:52, Wonderweb said:

I am happy to pay up to £200 for the right set

I’ve been browsing the FLO website and there are some nice 8x42 ED (or HD in some cases) roof prism binoculars around £200 by Pentax, Vortex, Hawke and GPS. Hard to find astronomy reviews for any of them.  I guess with FLO you have the option of returning them if not what you want. What confuses me is that most of those brands also offer 8x42 which are considerably more expensive right up to the £1K mark, but it’s not at all clear what you are paying that extra cash for. I assume you get what you pay for in the main, but what do you get?!! I have to say I am somewhat put off the Vortex and Hawke by watching their videos - they seem to be marketed as hunting binoculars - I just can’t help thinking that hunters won’t demand the same high standards from their optics as astronomers do!! 

Well I don’t know about the OP, but following the above compelling advice, I’m going out to buy myself some 8x42’s!!

8 hours ago, Paul M said:

Tonight I saw the worst M31 mosaic ever!

I set up early evening with aview of getting involved late vening. Things went well and I set off a mosaic plan in APT I generated for M31 ages ago. 

On seeing the camera orientation on the 1st sub I though I might be 90 deg out but I let it run. I had places to be.

I knew it wasnt going to end well so never bothered with any callibration frames and it was only 5 x 60 sec per frame. Rising gibbous Moon, so every frame would have different gradient . I processed it all in ASTAP just as an exercise... just rotate each frame 90 deg in your mind and fill in the missing bits. After all y'all know what it looks like anyway... giggle 😁

Unfortunately the clouds rolled in before I could get down to something more serious   Scope now packed away again  

 

I rather like it. Very “cubist”. 

1 hour ago, Stu said:

In theory this year should be better as Mars is higher but that hasn’t been the case so far for me unfortunately.

Yes same here Stu. I may be wrong, but I think it was about 30% bigger last opposition (22” v 17”) which might make a big difference?

I found Mars really difficult last night and as mentioned above, it is showing a fairly bland aspect at the moment with not much to see. But when it’s good it’s really good. Binoviewers transform the experience for me (same for all planets and moon) allowing me to concentrate for so much longer - it does takes a while for the eyes to adjust and start seeing the detail. I also think binoviewers reduce the glare somewhat, even in my 4” refractor, which helps.