RobertI

Interesting article Jeremy. My experience has been that my 10x50s, 66mm APO and 100mm achro generate the most vivid star colours. In each case it’s the deep yellows, the oranges and reds that are most striking, but then I guess most colourful stars fall into this category.

I can understand why the 100mm achro shows vivid colours - the lens gives everything a slightly warmer tint which I think would exaggerate the oranges and reds. Not so sure why the 66mm should be good in this regard, perhaps we are getting into the low ‘illumination’ (brightness) explanation of the article, or perhaps there is another factor at play here, that I often use the scope for low power views which might tend to concentrate colours. And the 10x50s - well they’re achromatic, low power and small aperture, and perhaps two eyes makes a difference too!

It would be interesting to compare colours in my 102ED with and without binoviewers - I would expect the dimmer image and possible stereo vision of binoviewers to show more striking colours. 

Mind slightly blown! 🤯 Looking at the slightly more modest 8” Newt, I wonder how it differs from their existing Quattro range, and why is it sporting the type of focuser you see on non-Synta scopes? The photo of the label is annoyingly blurry! Perhaps this is also an indication of the new styling and colour schemes of future Skywatcher scopes. 

13 hours ago, John said:

Larger than I recall (it's been a while .....)

That’s because it’s expanding John. 😉

On 11/11/2023 at 08:35, Special K said:

Been quite a while since I have wielded the refractor but I set out last night to locate the Cats Eye planetary neb, and also pick up M1 later. Due to location and timing I didn’t get the cat but in the wee hours I got up to a glorious sky, still, quiet, and strikingly beautiful with the winter array swung round the back of the house. Having Jupiter gleaming westward really adds to the excitement!  Bagging the Crab was no problem, and I recall failing to get a decent look in previous attempts. An O-III with a 9mm EP seemed to be the best view.  As usual with nebulae our cones don’t register anything so it’s all grey but definitely oval in shape.

 It’s been over 1000 years since this supernova and it got me thinking why this Messier is the first in his catalogue.  Is it because at that time the nova was more prominent?  It would be quite spectacular for us to have a similar event in this time.  Makes me wonder if Betelgeuse has blown many years ago and that lightshow is on its way!  😊

 

Well done on cracking the crab Kevin. Definitely something that seems to have become more tricky over the years as skies deteriorate. Interestingly as some others have said, it seemed bigger than I remember during a recent observation. For me, it’s one of those objects that has very little of interest to actually observe - no core, shape, colour, mottling , etc, just a grey oval smudge. Perhaps I’m just a poor observer! 

Just watched the video, I can’t understand why the guy keeps “wobbling” the scope to show unsteady the mount and tripod are! 😆 Still at least the video is honest in showing what the scope can do in reality, and its limitations. 

Certainly looks the part, but I am pretty sure it will be an achromat and the phone app will be a planetarium program which will get you in the rough vicinity of the target, rather than the plate-solving tech you get with the Celestron Starsense Explorer. The mount looks solid enough though, with slow motion controls, can’t possibly be any worse than the Celestron! The 45 degree prism is a bit of a compromise, not very good for astronomy, but good for looking at birds in the garden, which is what most of these scopes end up being used for! 

Do you already have a decent altaz mount or do you need to buy one? I‘m just wondering if it’s worth trying the FLT98 on a good altaz mount first to see how more useable the setup is, before splashing out on a new premium scope? 

Lovely sketches, well done! 🙂

I think there is someone selling them on eBay, sorry don’t have the link…

16 minutes ago, globular said:

The Askar 140 is a 140mm f/7 ED triplet and is £2,098 from flo.  Not sure how much this adjustable section added to arrive at this price - but it seems pretty good value overall.  Subject to it actually working well, and the optics being good, etc etc.....

That actually seems really good value, assuming it all works!

I have the 70mm version (Starsense removed) - I’ve repurposed some guidescope rings and a dovetail and it sits nicely on my AZ4 mount. The scope is so light that it also sits ok on my mini-Giro mount on a heavy duty photo tripod. 

Not seen that before  It’s an interesting alternative to having a removable section, but at considerable cost I would imagine. 

22 hours ago, John said:

My preferred approach is on the right of this pic 🙂

I still use the Baader zoom, just not with a barlow. The Svbony 3-8 zoom cost only a few £'s more than the zoom barlow.

Hard to argue with that John!

3 minutes ago, The Lapwing said:

Personally, I use nothing else 

Simplicity itself. 🙂

52 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

FLO have just posted a bargain. I expect it to be gone quickly! 

 

There’s also a 125ED at an equally bargain price. 

Nice report Paul. I have also been attracted to this scope, partly due to its BV friendliness. I am assuming that with the removable section, you can use the BV without a GPC/Barlow, meaning you can get nice low power views? 

What they said. ☝️ Four inches doesn’t seem much, but the 4” refractor just seems to hit the spot in so many ways. I have six scopes, but use the 4” refractor ninety percent of the time. 

Fantastic, the joys of a really dark sky. Sounds like you’ve got lots of great observing ahead of you. 🙂

Welcome home and I hope you find lots of help and inspiration here on SGL.

2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I asked why he chose to sell it, and he said "Compared to your refractor, a 120 Equinox ED, the stars in the SCT were #*@₩!"

Yes, I don’t get airy discs with my C8, only ‘hairy discs’. 🙂

Brief session tonight with the 4” under high hazy cloud -  Jupiter was the only thing worth seeking out and was quite steady. Sketch made at the scope and tidied up a little indoors.

2 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

Both images are snapshots of the live stacks from last night.

I reckon that’s almost as good as the view I got at Kelling through a 20” Obsession dob with a 100 degree Ethos eyepiece - just shows how deep EAA can go with a small scope. I’ll never forget dipping my eyes into that eyepiece and drinking in that view though! 

3 hours ago, wookie1965 said:

Put screens up so can block out lights. 

Set up did two star alignment ready to go. 

Neighbours went out left all lights on and then neighbors at the back of me decided have a bonfire night so packed up don't know why I bother. 

I really feel for you, what do you have to do to get some darkness? 😦 I know it’s little consolation, but I once had a neighbour who went away and left her house empty for three months - trouble is she left the bathroom light on! 😡😡

32 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Tonight I've used a 120mm refractor, and 8" f4 Newt and a 12" Dob. They all have their uses 

I’d be interested to know how you are getting on with the 8” F4 Newt for visual, perhaps you can post your experiences at some point (if you haven’t already). 👍

1 hour ago, Epick Crom said:

Hi all. I pulled over on the side of the road on my way from work last night, doing long haulage truck driving. A long 1,200km round trip.

I was 500km from Perth, in the middle of our West Australian outback. The darkness was blinding as I got out of my semi! I brought my trusty Nikon Aculon 10x50mm binoculars with me and proceeded to have a 1 hour long observing session under those pitch black skies, solid bortle 1 with zero light pollution as I was in the middle of nowhere! Highlights included the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, M7, M45, M42, Jupiter and M31 low on the horizon. The Sky was so dark and transparent I could actually see stars rising on the horizon! Keep in mind outback Australia is extremely flat. A religious experience 😍

 

Clear Skies

Joe

That must have been a truly awesome experience, the kind of conditions I can only dream of. Worthy of a separate observing report I think - perhaps next time (and I hope there is a next time). 🙂

It’s a really interesting one. I’ve six visual scopes, only two of them get used on a regular basis and I could live quite happily without the others, although it’s fun to re-acquaint myself with them sometimes and the occasional “shoot out”. I never really have a decision to make over which scope to use, in reality I use my 4” most of the time but I find the 8” is good to have for galaxies, globs and trickier faint stuff. If I was forced to have only one scope I could live with an 8” or 10” dob, but do I want to? Nah!