RobertI

Superb! Great that you had two clear nights, so often our efforts are clouded out. Must have been lovely to be out in the country, with your shepherd's hut and your simple (but quality) setup. Back to basics. 👍

This is exciting news.....hopefully not long now.

I know these satellites are supposed to be of benefit to those in remote regions, but it really is the Wild West up there at the moment, it’s just going to get worse and worse.

Nice renovation. 👍 I don’t know if he has ever been a visual astronomer (sounds like he hasn’t), but I was super-keen on visual astronomy as a teenager, but when I went to uni, it just stopped, and although I bought a C8 (my dream scope as a teen) when I was in my early thirties, I didn’t really get the astro-bug again until I was 45! I’ve no idea what triggered me to get back into it with such sudden enthusiasm, but your son-in-law might find the same ‘trigger’ at some point, especially if the scope is around for him to see. It is rather nice to be lying around unused though. 🙂

The best view I have had of M33 was at a dark site with 10x50 binoculars. I couldn’t believe how bright it seemed, given that from my back garden it’s a struggle at best and on poor nights, it’s just plain invisible.

Ed Ting has posted a review of the GSO 6” Classical Cassegrain if anyone is interested:

Feeling more energetic tonight I got out the 102EDR and C8 side by side. My main goal was to see whether the C8 and bino-viewers worked for DSOs. The BV setup in the C8 gave a magnification of around 120x which was a bit high, but I gave it a go anyway. First was the Trapezium - I was really pleased to see that the E component was immediately and easily visible and the F component was also soon obvious, both with direct vision. The BV worked really well for this. Following on from last night I thought I would try M35 to M38 and was not disappointed, the BV setup worked really well, framing each cluster nicely and encouraging nice long examination. When I viewed M38 I suddenly saw the starfish shape, really striking. It obviously needs a decent aperture to really bring this out. I was so impressed I even made a sketch! See end of post. Then onto the Eskimo Nebula in Gemini. This was really spectacular and the BV and high power worked superbly on this. Then onto some galaxies in Leo. M105 and NGC3384 were both visible in the FOV but the third companion NGC3389 could not be seen. Scanning down the bright M96 and slightly dimmer M96 were also easily seen. M65 and M66 were lovely to see in the same FOV but the third member NGC3628 was not found. Switching to a mono eyepiece at 100x I could immediately make out third member, so now I knew where it was I tried the BVs again and could just about make it out. I think the higher magnification of the BV was too much for this fainter galaxy. Finally I tried the beautiful double Algeiba in Leo. The colours and brightness through the BVs was mesmerising. I compared the view with the refractor, and although the view through the refractor was cleaner and sharper, I preferred the BV view in the C8 as the stars were so much brighter and more colourful. So all in all I think using BVs in the C8 for deep sky viewing worked really well, particularly for clusters, doubles and small bright planetaries. The main downside is the high magnification. I could probably get this down to 100x with a 24mm 68 degree eyepiece - unfortunately using the reducer will not allow me to reach focus. But for small DSO the setup worked really well. This is the sketch of M38 - it’s not good but I’ve outlined the Starfish shape, which is not clear in the sketch unfortunately, but very clear at the eyepiece. What makes it look like a starfish? Well five legs, but also lots of pair of stars along the length of the legs giving the impression of little ‘suckers’, for me at least. Has anyone else seen the starfish before?

Totally agree with this, it’s a pain with the Skytee. These days I actually pick up the whole thing (scope, mount and tripod) when pointing to a different part of the sky so that I keep the azimuth cable pointing towards me - a bit extreme I know!

Some advantages for slo mo: - You don’t have to remember to lock the clutches when changing eyepieces. - You don’t have to rebalance the scope so much - Finer control at very high powers - Less chance of accidentally knocking off the target To be honest I think you get used to whatever you have. The most annoying thing when pushing is if your mount suffers front ‘stiction’, only my smallest mount suffers from this, my other larger Synta mounts are fine. As an experiment I recently used my Skytee without the slo mos and it was fine, although I didn’t like having to touch the focuser to move it. It’s probably better to have slo mo and not need it I guess!

It’s not often that I get a clear moonless night on weekend, so I felt I should make the most of it. I really didn’t feel like it in all honesty, so I took out my little 66mm frac which sits ready in the house on a photo tripod and mini giro-wr, with zoom eyepiece installed. Sitting at my usual usual spot on the patio facing west, I felt the skies around Leo just didn’t hold enough interest for a small scope, so I relocated to the other end of the garden to catch some more interest in the eastern skies. Auriga was well placed so I spent the entire session enjoying Messiers 35,36,37 and 38. M38 first - a large cluster of numerous evenly spaced and similar magnitude stars. Nearby in the same field of view was another little cluster which I later found out was NGC1907. Slewing over to M36, a smaller cluster, with a scattering of stars some of which were brighter than M38. Then over to M37. Probably my favourite, a beautiful compact cluster with. numerous stars which looked like a loose globular cluster without the core. Wonderfully peaceful under the stars - I spared a thought for my friends in Ukraine who are going through some tough times. Finally over to M35, very different again - large, loose, bright with several bright members. Last time out with the 102 I viewed its close neighbouring cluster NGC2158. Sadly not so easy in the 66mm and I could not say I saw it for definite - those extra 36mm make a big difference! An hour later I packed up, but very pleased with what I saw and grateful to have a grab and go scope, otherwise it probably never would have happened.

Lovely report Dave. Getting the pup in the 102 achro was quite an achievement, well done. I agree with you about observing less during my sessions. Slowing down, relaxing and spending more time on each object is very rewarding.

119 Tauri is especially nice with the contrasting white/blue star - nice catch!

It was wonderfully dark and transparent here earlier too, but half an hour later when I stepped outside, the sky had somehow got brighter. Funny how things can change so quickly.

What a beautiful and classic scope. I love the tripod too. Must have given some amazing views. My first scope was a 6” F8 Newt on an manual EQ mount bought by my amazingly supportive parents when I was a teenager. Described in more detail in this post a few years ago.

It’s never a bad policy to “leave well alone”, especially if you’re perfectly happy with how it is performing. 🙂 I guess part of my reason for suggesting the clean was that I have had an RC6 for many years (different to yours I know) and the primary has never dewed up, even when everything else has, so I’m wondering whether your dewing indicates a film on the mirror. My SCT corrector plate was much less prone to dew after I cleaned it, but that was 10 years worth of gunk I removed, so a bit different to your situation! Of course, none of this explains the misty ring after dewing.

Very odd. More annoying than anything, as you say probably won’t affect the viewing significantly, but you’ll just know about it’s there. Also, I find that any kind of dirty film on the mirror will make it more prone to dewing, so that is another good reason to clean. If it was just dust I wouldn’t bother. I’d be inclined to give it a gentle wash with something that can remove dirty film, but that’s just me.

“Revised and enlarged” - as if they need to be any bigger! 😆 Very nice purchase, I have all three, owned from new, now 40 years old, treasured possessions.

A quality looking scope. Looking forward to seeing how you get on, as it’s on my wish list. It’s difficult to appreciate the size from a photo, but zooming in on the focuser on the first photo, the tube does look very big! Would be good to see an average height human next to it 🙂.

Perhaps you could start a separate thread explaining why?

Very nicely designed site, thanks, now bookmarked.

Looks like a wonderful observing site, something to really get excited about. Keep us posted!

Excellent work!

Bit of a dilemma indeed! I think if you get a 4” Tak you’ll want to be able to use its high power abilities on doubles and solar system, so you’ll want a mount upgrade too to keep things steady. The alternative is more light gathering for DSOs, so a 115-125mm would be better, but you’d need a mount upgrade for the increased weight! So I think it boils down to would you like to specialise on doubles and solar system or do you want brighter DSO images? Just my thoughts, probably doesn’t help! You’re probably already aware, the alternative to the 102ED F11 is the 102ED F7 either FPL53 at around £900 or FPL51 at £500. I have found mine much easier to mount and use than my longer 4”F10 Tal. With the money you save over a more premium scope, you could upgrade the mount, get a binoviewer and some other accessories. But if you can afford a Tak…….

Superb!

Just couldn’t resist these, having been reminded of how much I enjoyed them. The Moon, Mars & Venus book is actually a really nice detailed little guide which I will definitely use. The Constellation book less so.