RobertI

Cheers Stu. I did see the granulation but sadly I didn't know about AR 12805 - had I seen your very useful screenshot above I would have given it a go! I made a note of www.solarmonitor.org for future reference though - I am a bit of a solar novice, but I'm looking forward to doing more observing and possibly a sketch or image or too. I hate to sound like a scratched record, but the binoviewers have been a game changer for me and made the moon, and now the sun, objects of real interest.

Nice report and nice smart phone pics Stu. I've also just been out for some white light solar - this time using my binoviewers and 102ED-R. Unfortunately I couldn't reach focus with the 1.6x GPC (57x mag) and Herschel Wedge, so had to go for the barlow which give around 175x - far too much mag, or so I thought. I homed in on the only feature visible (12804) and was completely blown away by what I saw - the amount of detail was way more than I was expecting, with structure visible in and around the penumbra of the main spot and lots of bright areas (faculae? ....sorry, I'm a bit of a solar novice!). Once again the binoviewers proving their worth. Hopefully a lot more solar to come this summer. I did discover one downside of observing during the day - the birds seem to love to 'aim' for the siny white scope!

I had a brief go myself last night with the 102EDR. Cranked the magnification up to around x300 but nothing was apparent - I didn't look for long to be honest as the view was quite unpleasant. Might try with the 150PL tonight.

Although the full moon is not considered the best time to observe the lunar surface, clear nights are few and far between, so I thought I would have a look anyway. I'm glad I did as I was rewarded with some great views and at x57 I was able to take in the whole globe in the FOV. Observations made with the 102ED-R and Binoviewers. The most obvious features were the crater 'rays', with Tycho, Copernicus, Kepler and Aristarchus being the most prominent. The rays from Tycho were spectacular, stretching across one third of the lunar diameter - what an impact that must have been! It happened 108 million years ago but looks like it happened yesterday. Aristarchus was probably the brightest feature on the lunar surface, with the meandering Schroter's Valley clearly visible nearby as a bright white line. The whole area around Aristarchus was notable for being a green in colour and different to the surrounding grey areas. Other features of interest included the crater Messier and Messier A in the Sea of Fertility, with its distinctive 'dual rays' point towards the lunar centre. The crater Godin appeared as very bright but small gold ring - one of many such features but probably the best. The Sea of Serenity was criss-crossed by numerous rays, giving the impression of runways on a busy airport. There was much more to discover, but I was happy with my haul. Don't forget the full moon, especially at low power to get the full impact.

That’s great, thanks John. 👍

Still might have time to try the pup before it goes. My main scopes are a C8 SCT, 150PL newt and a 102mm ED frac (sadly my 130P is out on loan) - I was thinking the 150PL is probably my best bet for spotting the pup - what do people think?

That’s a very useful feature for binoviewing. 👍 Lovely scope, I have the 102 ED-R and couldn’t be happier. I reckon the 125 is terrific value for money.

Sadly not looking so promising here, but thanks for the heads up, look forward to all the reports! 🙂

Had a couple of brief but pleasant outings recently. The first night I thought I would try the dual setup which I have enjoyed so much in the past (4" frac alongside 8" SCT). This time I mounted the refractor on the top clamp thinking it would allow me to line up both scopes exactly. The result was it was more trouble than it was worth and I shall be moving the clamp back onto the end for a more traditional side by side arrangement. Anyway I started off with M42. WIth the moon nearby I was more interested in the Trapezium - the E component was immediately visible in the C8 but more fleeting in the 4". I didn't look to hard for the F as the conditions were rather wobbly. I popped the 38mm Panaview into the C8 (realising I cannot make full use of the 2" FOV in that scope) and was rewarded with a wonderful view of the nebula, even with the moon nearby. Adding a 2" UHC really increased contrast and showed the extened wings very clearly. Moving on to Leo, with the 38mm (sans UHC) I instantly spotted the M105 and NGC3384 close together and panning across found M96 and then M95. The wide angle of the Panaview at 55x really made galaxy spotting easy. Moving up to x100 made the galaxies brighter against the darker sky, but more difficult to locate. Turning to the 102EDR at x70, the galaxies were still easy to see but not quite so bright. You can't beat the C8 for faint fuzzies. While in Leo, I had a squint at Gamma Leonis, a beautiful golden double, lovely in both scopes. 54 Leonis also presented a lovely white pair of differing magnitudes. My second outing was a very brief view of the moon with the 102EDR and binoviewers. At around x57 Luna only filled half the FOV but was totally captivating with so many different shades visible and features outlined in super crisp detail. I would have been happy to spend an hour with the scope and an atlas, re-aquainting myself with Luna's geography, but sadly cloud descended. I know I may have gone on about this before, but the binoviewers have made the moon an object of real interest to me, probably for the first time. Looking forward to the next opportunity.

Wonderful sketch (all of them in fact). I'd be happy to have these on my wall!

An interesting challenge! I have often given an audible “wow” when viewing objects. Doubles and multiples can be very special - the best of the bunch has to be the Trapezium, a set of tiny perfect pearls set in the fiery maelstrom of the nebula. But there are so many other wow objects to choose from, all stirring up our own personal emotions and feelings.

I know the feeling Mike! I always seem to be browsing my next purchase and scheming my next project. The Vixen looks like a lovely mount - I guess the price is down to the 'modularity' - I am always reluctant to pay a premium for aspects I'm unlikely to use. Having said that my Skytee has a top mounted clamp which I tried to use the other day - it was a complete pain in the bum to use so is effectively a useless feature I paid extra for - I wish they'd removed the top clamp feature and add some decent side clamps.

Sounds like the scope is fine, hopefully the mount will operate fine too. These scopes are pretty robust. I once had a 7kg CG5 mount fall 4 feet into concrete - it was fine and still working years later! I also had my old apo refractor fall from a tripod onto a hard floor, thanks to a dodgy clamp - again no damage thankfully.

Well done Chris. I watched the landing (well lots of people getting excited in the control room and some simulations) and it was great. Well done on the images.

Last weekend I got the idea into my head that a more permanent setup would allow me to resurrect my interest in EAA. Eventually I realised that I didn’t have room in my garden for a useable observatory, so I started to look at options for outdoor semi-permanent piers. After looking at £500 steel options I came across the DIY “Tod” pier, as championed by @Peter Drew, which utilises two hollow concrete blocks - an excellent invention! Excited at the design, I spent the weekend looking at what else I would need, and after going down numerous rabbit holes, I came across the ASI AIR hub, a truly amazing piece of kit. Looking at the functionality it seemed to me that it makes setup and operation so easy, I wouldn’t need a permanent setup after all! So over the course of the weekend, I went from planning a full observatory to only needing an ASI AIR! I still like the look of the Tod pier though, perhaps I’ll get both. 🙂

....and then sunny again in the morning. It is infuriating. ☹️

There are a few of these types of scope around now, the most mature seems to be the Unistellar EVScope. I have to say the Unistellar has got further than I expected, they are selling them and people are using them. But it seems that people are getting mixed results and it doesn't seem like a game changer to me especially at £2,500. Perhaps at a quarter of the price it might be.

Good choice John, that will be a really lovely visual scope

Hi Chris, good to see you getting back into the imaging saddle, that setup is working well. I love the animations in the video! 😂

Ah, now I see what the sell off is for! What’ve you gone for? (apologies if mentioned in other threads)

My neighbours moved out the day before yesterday. Great, I thought, I might get some darkness before the next neighbours move in. Unfortunately they have left their bathroom light on! Typical. I have no idea when the new neighbours are moving in. 😩

Interesting read. I have been wondering about binoviewing the brighter DSOs, so that was an interesting read. I have virtually the same setup, and get 56x with my 1.6 GPC and a FOV of 1.2 degrees, so should be good enough for clusters. I’ll give it a go next time. 👍

Excellent result John, interesting commentary. Look forward to hearing how you get on with the ED120. Although encouraged by your excellent post, Sirius lies close to the rooftops from my garden and I will have to take a trip to a site with a better horizon if I am to try this. I may run out of time this year ......

That is an annoyance I have to agree. However I recently realised that, when you have finished you observing, if you loosen the spreader nut a few turns, you can rotate the spreader out of the way and this allows you to half-collapse the legs - I’ve found this is enough for me to fit the tripod through the shed door and I leave it set up like that for next time. It actually does make life easier, but might not work for all.

I would have thought the 102EDR + Skytee + Berlebach (no extension needed) would be a reasonably lightweight but super-stable setup? I reckon that setup is 10-12kg lighter than your current setup? Regarding the scope, I have never owned a 120ED to compare but I have found the 102EDR much easier to mount and observe with than my 4” F10 achromat.