DirkSteele

I would also note, that while you mention wanting to view the planets (as above, better in the second half of the year), it is also not astronomically dark now until around 10:30pm so deep sky objects will be better after this time. Unfortunately, we are not too far away from no astronomical darkness for a few months in the UK, not that it has ever stopped me before.

Awesome report. Would love to take a tour like that. My proudest moment of reviewing scopes and other Astro equipment over the last 10+ years was receiving an email from Al Nagler asking if he could cite several passages from the review of the 21mm Ethos and the Delos eyepiece reviews on my site and include a link to the full review. I had a astro club meeting that evening and I couldn't stop smiling the whole meeting. Which was noticed more than once.

Nice review. Seems like a bargain eyepiece, even noting some of the short comings you highlighted. On that, Sidgwick gives the formula 4 x (1.22 x wavelength x Focal Ratio2) to calculate depth of focus. As it is proportional to focal ratio squared, the f/7.4 Tak would have 2.2x the depth of focus compared to the f/5 Dobsonian. I wonder if that might be a contributor to your perception of poor field curvature in the 12-inch? Intrinsically, the Dob with its 1,520mm focal length should show less curved field than the 740mm focal length Tak (though the relationship between field curvature and focal length is not quite as straight forward as with a Newtonian, but it still primarily focal length). Perhaps the focal ratio is also stressing the zoom. Virtually all eyepieces look good at f/10, but f/4-5 tends to sort the run of the mill from the superstars.

Been on the shelf for many years. I was already pretty experienced by the time it was published but I bought to see why so many recommended it to beginners. Short answer is it is great.

Big delivery of books to add to the Astronomy library. The one I most excited about has recently been published. The Binocular Handbook by Holger Merlitz. If you know binocular reviews online you probably consider Holger a preeminent reviewer of them. A scientist by profession, he brings a lot of technical know how to the table. Hoping to learn plenty of new things to improve my own ability to review optics.

It is an interesting question. I am not sure your thought experiment of a 5inch vs 8inch would see the smaller scope beat on any object (caveat shortly), but having been doing this for a very long time and used more scopes than I can count, I have found high quality refractors typically make up for 2-3 inch deficiency in aperture by the improved contrast against obstructed scopes where the same extent of detail can be seen even if the image itself is dimmer. The obvious exception is something like M33. That is very low surface brightness and I have had scopes quite a bit bigger than 8" fail to show it where as a 4-5" scope shows it pretty easily. Something like the E and F stars in the trapezium mentioned above also does not surprise me. If seeing is decent, those two stars are a good test for spherical abberation in smaller scopes as the dim stars against bright glowing nebula means they are smeared out by SA and rendered invisible. The impact of extra diffraction from spider vanes and secondary could have a similar impact.

Monthly Baker Street Astronomers meeting in Regent’s Park. Saw some lightning and a few rain showers but did manage some lovely views of the moon during breaks in the cloud. Sadly, sucker holes abounded tonight so not much else was seen.

I am very fortunate. My in-laws own a place only a mile or two from the path of totality so looks like this will be my first total solar eclipse since France in 1999.

Decent session for about 3 hours. A lot of open clusters. Started with M35 (bit close to the moon) before moving on to the three Messier OCs in Auriga before setting up camp in Cassiopeia for a while and taking in about a dozen. Swung over to M3 to take in someone old rather than young before heading to Hercules and M13 and M92. Also had a quick look at M51 and M81/82 before finishing with M57 which had just cleared the tree line. Was colder than I expected so was not quite dressed appropriately (weekend away) but clouds stopped play just before 1am.

Had a good session last night with the Tak FC-100. Plenty of Open Clusters, a few globs and a Galaxy or two.

A big loss to the community. Never had the pleasure to meet him but read much of his writing over the years. A very knowledgeable astronomer who wanted to share that with us all. Deepest condolences to his family.

Had a couple of hours last night with the Takahashi FC100. Spent some time with open clusters and a few globs as well. Plus a Galaxy or two.

Set up in the late afternoon as the forecast promised some clear skies by 10pm.

I would suggest book ending the solar system with Mercury which can be a challenge as it is never high above the horizon and hunting down Pluto at the other end of the solar system which is an exercise in ticking off field stars to find it. Also quasar 3c 273 in Virgo. Also an exercise in ticking off to find but at 2.4 billion light years about the most distant thing you can see visually (mag 12.9).

Started stargazing when I was a child so have been doing this for well over 30 years. This has happened to me a couple of times. The first time, I didn’t really stargaze until the mood took me and that was the better part of a year. Felt there was no point forcing myself if I was not feeling it. When the desire did emerge, I throughly enjoyed it and was very much back in the saddle. The other time, I did force myself out but I waited for a very clear forecast and had an amazing session which really re-energised me. Both methods worked for me, though I suspect I got a little lucky with the good session charging my mojo again. I would not force it. If Astronomy is now in your blood, that desire will come back. Just a shame we have picked a pretty dumb hobby for climate we live in!

Thanks for flagging. There are already some superb entries.

I certainly managed to find my way to Farringdon Road a fair few times once I moved to London back in 2001. Bought my first very high quality scope from them too (the TMB LZOS 115 f/7) in 2004. That certainly changed my perception of what a good telescope image looked like. More than once I would just go into chat telescopes and equipment. Did the same at the widescreen centre until it moved out of London. Now we have no scope shops in the capital. 😢

Did not realise I was sitting on such a gold mine! Have to confess, not sure I recall ever opening the book. Time to correct that error I feel.

Great report and congratulations on the achievement.

Didn’t work out for Cornwall in 1999 but that might be as the article points out the impact is not seen over water and Cornwall is surrounded by the stuff. I experienced exactly that phenomenon at my location in France during the same eclipse. Cloudy at first contact. Completely clear by totality.

Nope, but the astronomy professor who was my tutor for my undergrad and masters had an asteroid named in his honour many years after I graduated. I should try to hunt it down.

Are you finding you are having balance issues with the mount? I have not encountered such issues but have only used a few times over the last couple of months.

That is a good rule of thumb based on my experience. My 105mm refractor vastly outperformed my 11" when I was in Oman in Bortle 1 compared the Bortle 5 location it was located at in the UK. Using a 12" scope in Namibia in a Bortle 1 location was quite something else! Same for my 76mm Takahashi in Mozambique under a Bortle1/2 sky. Seeing details I would not see in an 8" scope at home. I would also say not all Bortle classifications are created quite equal. In Namibia you can just about see shadows from the combined light of the Milky Way and stars and you only know where the horizon is because the stars stop. I have found these African and Middle East type of sites to outperform other similarly classified locations because it is that dark all the way to the horizon, rather than just at higher elevations.

I did this with my 11" years ago. I recall ticking off the stars one by one until I was sure I had it. Should try with something smaller like the 130mm. Better go somewhere darker than London zone 1 though!