RobertI

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. 👍

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.

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

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!! 🙂

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.

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!!

I rather like it. Very “cubist”.

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.

Having made the decision to brave the cold and observe the shadow transit of Io, I was disappointed when I realised Jupiter was going to be too low. But I thought, what the hell, the moon and Mars look good, so worth going out anyway. I wasn’t taking any chances in the -2C temperatures, so wore my ski jacket over the top of three layers, hat, hood, two layers of gloves and winter socks. Result - completely toastie for the entire 90 minute session. 🙂 Used the 102ED with binoviewers, giving round 170x, with each eyepiece wrapped in a dewstrap - essential in these cold conditions, especially with BVs it seems. Had some nice views of Mars, was hoping I might get to see Olympus Mons and a hint of the chain of three volcanoes nearby, but not a trace. Seeing didn’t seem too bad when looking at bright stars, but it didn’t seem to translate to good views of Mars. There were some nice dark features visible to the South and the polar cap was just visible, but nothing really stood out tonight. I tried the blue #80A filter and was surprised to discover it did seem to make the polar cap stand out more, turning the planet a pale blue. Tried a yellow #12 filter and that didn’t seem to help a huge amount, possibly a slight increase in contrast in the dark regions, but the yellow tint became quite extreme when viewing the red planet. Finally tried a polarising filter to see if the reduced glare was the reason why the blue filter worked, but the polarising filter was no where near as good. Headed off to the moon and had a nice time scanning the terminator from a lunar phase that I rarely observe. Finally a couple of doubles. Rigel and its companion were an easy split but not very bright due to the moon and mist lighting up the sky. Alnitak was also easy, a tight double with a bright primary which can be tricky, but no problem for the 102ED. Feet starting to get a little cold, time to go in.

That’s grim. Hope it all dries out ok for you.

Personally I would forget the idea of using a 60mm Tak or equivalent as a finder - once you’ve added rings, and diagonal and a quality wide field eyepiece, it will be a really heavy lump to have on the main scope and will make balancing a real pain and make the whole thing unwieldy IMO. I did try something similar in the past and found it too cumbersome. I would go for a right angled finder where your existing finder is (I have this setup and it works really well) and a get a really nice wide field eyepiece for the main scope. You can still buy a Tak 60mm as a standalone travel scope. 🙂 FYI I also have Rigel Quikfinder RDF which I mount near the dew shield, which makes it much easier to look through. HTH. EDIT: Just did a bit of research and you can get a maximum field of view of 3 degrees from your scope, but you will need to use a 2” eyepiece, something like a 38mm Panaview (at the more budget end). Warning - 2” eyepieces are huge!

Excellent work!

Wonderful image.

Top notch image. 👍