Qualia

For general star observing, I see diffraction spikes as a thing of great beauty. There's a sense of elegance about them. On planetary viewing, however, there can be a subtle loss of contrast, the delicate bluring of Jupiter via the spider vanes but, of course, aperture makes up for this sliight loss, revealing a whole new world of detail to discover. I guess this is the reason why there's no perfect scope to own, each has something to offer which the other type simply won't be able to match.

Lostpleiad, for a good couple of years I viewed from the middle of a city and found the following tools to be quite useful. First, if you don't have Stellarium, download it. I also found it essential to have a good star atlas, a 9x50 correct image viewfinder and something like a Telrad. That's was my basic 'getting about' gear. From here, I found that you do have to compromise on longer focal length eyepieces. As mentioned the background sky in light polluted areas becomes too pale, making it that much harder to tweak out faint fuzzies from the background glow. In consequence, you'll need to up the magnification a little. By way of example, a 24mm 68º eyepiece in my f5 wasn't suitable as my sky-browsing eyepiece in the city; the background sky was just too bright for my liking. Instead, I found a 19mm 68º eyepiece a lot more suitable as my low power browser. After identifying the given deep space object, I found my 10mm or 14mm 72º eyepieces the ideal companion to tweak out detail. Essentially, these three eyepieces became my most used. So, my advice would be to try something similar, namely, a 3 eyepiece set up and you've got an excellent short cut to see what may work. Use your zoom as a rough guide to obtaining optimum contrast on low power. Give yourself a good few sessions, with a good number of different deep space objects (nebula, perhaps a galaxy or two, a number of open clusters etc) and note down your findings. You'll probably find that around 60x in the city is about the lowest you can go before losing too much. This will be your low power browsing eyepiece. From this, up the magnification to about 120x or 2mm exit pupil. The exit pupil is just the focal length of your scope (f5) divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. So, if you're using your zoom, click it up to around 10mm (f5 / 10mm = 2mm exit pupil) and see how this works as your middle, high-power. Again, try it on a good number of objects and note down your observations. Once you have found a suitable focal length around 120x, drop down to about 90x and see how this works for you as your middle, lower-power. From playing around with your zoom and taking good note of the numbers used, you'll be able to make a more informed decision when it comes to purchasing a new eyepiece. Final note, I truely believe it is a very good idea to upgrade on eyepieces when living in the city etc. Not only do you gain more aesthetically pleasing perspectives of the night sky, and may even be able to tweak out more detail, but they will help add to the incentive of actually getting out of the light polluted area and viewing the night sky in a more peaceful and forthcoming setting

Wow! I don't think I've ever seen such a collection in my life Truely outstanding

Amazing work, Nick and thank you for putting this together I'm sure it will help many folk and the advice and insights are great Aye, + 1.

Looks like a great session, Nick. The weather has been pretty good the last fortnight here as well; two cloudy nights in the last 12. The week of 2rd to 9th was pretty much washed out with big fat moon and tiring week at work, but this week has been a lot more forthcoming. Last night took the TV 76 out for a first light session and just couldn't budge from Orion and Taurus. So many gorgeous rich field sights. It was a joy jumping from the 10" back to the 3" on the same targets, getting entirely different perspectives on the same entities. As you write, picking out cosmic wonders under darker, clearer skies is a delicious experience. Thanks again for the report

Thank you so much for your kind words. You have really touched my heart, Kev and Bomberbaz thank you The beautiful thing is, we all come from the same source, there is no mystery that we are all stars. We are all dancers and musicians, lovers and poets. We are all cosmic angels and your kindness just goes to show as much Thank you again. Rob

It's the 12.5mm that's the truly rare one. Since BGO closed down sales, I've never seen it sold.

Lovely kit, Shane and definitely covering all grounds with your scopes . I imagine the plossls will also be a handy addition when your get your Lunt as well.

I have hard enough time remembering the basic, most fundamental constellations, Shaun! Let alone star names If I was to be totally frank with you, I don't even know my own mobile or house telephone number. My usual excuse is that it's a rare moment when I get the chance to phone myself

Thank you for your kind words, Mrsmith I'm so glad you stumbled across the post. If a neighbour stumbles across my nocturnal pursuit and I happen to share a view with them of some night sky wonder, you can almost hear their brains crying out, "Is that it!" They step back, offer a pleasantry and away they scuttle and in a way, it's easy to appreciate why they find themselves disappointed. Stargazing is probably made of around 50% observing and 50% imagination. It is a slow and subtle process requiring patience and persistence and at its heart is the culmination of knowledge and skill. It is the knowledge and understanding contained within these spectacular objects of nature that furnaces imagination and wonder. If we don't appreciate or understand the wonder about us, don't quite grasp that we are all riding together on a tiny spinning Earth hurtling about a "sun that is spinning in a whirlwind of a trillion stars, sealed in an envelope of mysterious dark matter" and that against all the possible odds, a tiny group of atoms have grouped together to create you and I, and here we are, together, at this exact moment with a tiny bit of glass gazing up at this immense wonder, then we are left with nothing, nothing but a dull feeling of 'is that it?'

nwink, thank you for your thoughtful and kind letter. As you have seen from many of the replies, you are not alone in your concern. I often think stargazing is a very fragile and often quite subtle pursuit and it is a shame that many folk are often left disappointed with what they see, so I'm really glad you stumbled across the thread and have been encouraged to get out under the dark skies again . That in itself is amazing. I look forward to reading your reports and to hear how you're getting along. Once again, Nwink, thank you Ryan and Steven, thank you for your kind words and thoughts. There is indeed something magical about piercing through the dark cloak of the night and coming across a subtle flame of nature which goes by the name of galaxy, or nebula or star and whose sheer elegance is almost impossible to extinguish. That we are able to view such creations of nature with tiny bits of glass or mirror is in itself mindblowing. What more could we ask for

Thank you for your kind and thoughtful words, gentle men

Thanks, Shane. It's been too long, so it really is good to be back With that said, the Moonshane this summer has had some of the best sessions of its life. The skies are significantly darker where I am now and during the summer when it wasn't cloudy (very humid down here) you can see the Milky Way, M 31 naked eye, the principal stars of Ursa Minor and so on. What tops the session is that not only do I get to see everything I want to see, but I can do it from the comfort of a huge roof top that is literally a ten step climb from our flat. In effect, the Moonshane has become the ultimate grab and go. I just carry it from the store room and out it goes

Thank you all for your kind words and support. When I knew things were going bad at work and that eventually I would lose my job, I closed down 'superfluous' bills which might have trapped me in any untoward debt or borrowing. One of the decisions was to cut the telephone line. Whilst all that was going on, I still wanted to be a part of SGL and I figured if this wasn't possible in person, it might be at least in spirit. During the summer months I thought it would be a nice idea to swot and write up on planetary nebulae, some of the sessions I've had with a microscope, and to keep an observing journal to share with you guys when I returned. What I didn't realise was just how long I was to remain off line. Anyway, I am sorry for the delay and I hope this entry will be of some use and that perhaps something new is learnt. Thank you all again, Rob

Thank you for your kind posts. I great to be back and I hope the post goes some way in making up for my absence .

I apologise for my absence and the delayed appreciation and I hope you won't see this as a reflection of who I am. Thank you everyone for all your kind and thoughtful posts