Luke

Looks nice, thanks for the view. It was one of my highlights touring the moon last night with my 85mm and 60mm. Of course one hopes for good seeing but in its own way I sometimes like a bit of Earth or other imperfections in the image.

Schickard was a lovely sight! And I really enjoyed Babbage and especially the Aristarchus Plateau. I was wondering whether to observe tonight, then my wife made me do it by saying "What about using the Tele Vue 85?" I paired it up with the Tele Vue 60. It's been fun mixing things up this month, I've used all my scopes I think with possibly one exception - I think we might have a Telescope House 66mm up in the loft. That little frac had a lovely stock focuser, I can't imagine I would have parted with it. I jumped a bit though when I used my 8mm Radian. I'd forgotten it had a solar continuum filter on, so I was greeted with a green moon!

Nice one, Simon. I am in this crater's fan club too.

Sweet images, Trevor! Thanks for the views! I can't take many more clear nights! 😄

Some nice detail in the Ford Transit Prom!

Hey Aetherum! I have never done it but I would expect manual stacking in GIMP to produce poor results, quite possibly worse than the individual frames. I'd suggest to try Autostakkert, using hundreds or even thousands of alignment points: https://www.autostakkert.com/ Then after you have stacked the image, try sharpening it using ImPPG: http://greatattractor.github.io/imppg/ The result of stacking will probably be more blurry than the individual frames. However, it should also have far less noise, enabling you to apply a lot of sharpening to it. I do think it is worth stacking 12 frames. I have stacked a similar number before and it made a difference for me. How much the stacking helps will depend on how sharp the focus was and how good the conditions were. I hope that helps and clear skies to you too! You can have some of mine as I have had a good run! I'd love to own a Russian scope one day, with some Russian writing on it somewhere! (I like the Cyrillic alphabet and love the sound of Russian).

That was a great read. Well done bagging the Ring Nebula. I was supposed to be just nipping out for a bit of lunar (cough) but sneaked a quick look at M13 and M57 as well. M13 was pretty decent in my 100mm scope, better than I was expecting.

Thanks, Stu, I look forward to trying it out. Reduced floaters would be a definite plus. I hadn't done much high power viewing since last solar cycle and a bunch of new floaters have moved in! I was thinking, "That sucks!" I do use a Continuum. I think we've got three in total! We have a 2 inch one inside the Baader, which is nice so we don't have to swap from eyepiece to eyepiece. I think that's same as you then? I did try double stacking it with a 1.25 on the eyepiece thread! I expected it to make no difference, thinking it should just pass the same light. And as far as I could tell, it made zip difference.

Looks fantastic to me, very well done!

I propose Roy be in charge of naming all future proms.

Ooooh, I like that! I didn't get around to using the binoviewer for solar today, alas. I particularly want to try white light as I think I am seeing better granulation with my ED120 and Baader Herschel Wedge vs my previous usual of ED100 and Lunt 1.25 inch wedge. I'm curious to see if the granulation pops more with the bino! But today I thought white light was a bit unsteady our way so maybe not the best conditions for the bino. As tired as I am, I can't resist leaving the scopes out for the moon just in case it's clear early doors.

I have a lovely eve viewing at about 250 - 300 mag. I particularly enjoyed the Ramsden rilles and the craters in Plato. I normally have relaxed lunar viewing and don't try to see the finer details, but I really enjoyed pushing my eyeball a bit. Conditions seemed decent our way, it did come and go a little bit. I'm not sure I can manage another late night so I will be happy if any clear patches headed my way would divert to a more deserving location. I'd like to get to know the moon much better. It's like a mass of targets in one that change every night, I feel like you could study it your whole life. And it's pretty amazing how much can be seen with 100mm of aperture.

Ahem, this avo I nearly lost the cap for my ED100, trying to put it on my ED120. Just snatched it back before it fell out of my fumbling fingers and down the tube. It was a late night...

If I'm not mistaken, that's the Great Pyramid of Giza prom. It looked decent here this morning with the faithful ED100 and the Quark. Seeing was not the best for white light but nice to see that smattering of spots again. I hope to view again this avo with a binoviewer, after having fun with it last night on the moon. Thankfully the forecast is saying we'll get some cloud this evening, I need a break! April has been too kind. Far too kind!

Really enjoyed those views, thanks, Roy, packed with detail and very sharp. I quite like the noise myself in the crater closeup, it has a bit of a feeling of grain to me.

In the red corner, the Skywatcher ED100 DS Pro, F9. In the blue corner, the Skywatcher Equinox 120, F7.5. Who will become champion of the lunar lightweight belt? Well my money is very much on the ED120. It has more aperture, so surely I will see finer details with it. But there was just that niggle of doubt. The ED100 is a cracking scope and my weapon of choice for solar h-alpha with the Quark. Somehow I booted off the lunar session with my old TS Planetary HR 15mm eyepiece in the ED120. Good grief, what a cracking view, razor sharp. I’ve become a bit of a Tele Vue eyepiece snob and forgotten how much I enjoyed some of the more affordable eyepieces. But tonight I am looking for closer to 300x mag and the winner will be the one that shows me the finest detail. So out come the Tele Vue’s anyway, the Delos 3.5mm and Radian 3mm. I frequently swap them between the two scopes, both of which have the same 900mm focal length. Hmmm, I should do lunar more. There is detail everywhere. The image is brighter in the ED120, but not burning out my eyeball too much. I have to say, there is plenty of detail in the ED100 as well. I spend a couple of hours scouring the moon for the more tricky details to pull out. I am not a trained lunar observer and probably in the past I didn’t push what I could see. But maybe there is something to be said for giving your eyeball a workout. My dual speed focus knob doesn’t know if it’s coming or going. I find small differences in areas like the Ramsden rilles – the ED120 is showing me a tad more of them. I can more easily see a small crater in Sinus Iridum with the 120. Copernicus has a touch more texture in the 120. It’s taken me paying more attention than usual to spot what feels like small differences between the scopes, but perhaps to a seasoned lunar observer with a keener eye for detail than me, the differences would be greater. So I’m about to declare the ED120 the winner. But just one moment. This past month I’ve been trying to use some of my various bits of gear more. And it bugs me that the binoviewer hasn’t been out for some time. I fetch my Baader Maxbright and chuck in the highest glass path corrector, 2.6x. Pop in a pair of 25mm Tele Vue Plossls. Didn’t I have two 20’s as well? Well I can only find one of those. So in goes the binoviewer into the ED120. My goodness! I’m at significantly lower mag than 300 but what strikes me is that I am resolving the same kind of detail as I had done at the 300. And the finer details are easier to see. Wow. How can I up the mag some more? I put the binoviewer in my Tele Vue 2x barlow (seems like I’m a Tele Vue nut) and now I am seeing details beyond what I had got earlier at 300x. Such as in Plato, I can see a few more craters than before. We have a winner! The lunar champ tonight is not the ED100. And it’s not the ED120. It’s the Baader Maxbright. Is this just me being overly enthusiastic about the latest toy I am playing with? I try going mono with the binoviewer. Left eye off. Left eye on. Right eye off. Right eye on. Hmmm, is my right eyeball the best? The worst is definitely both eyes off. A nice bonus on the night – I catch a meteor streaking towards Cassiopeia. I’ve stayed up later than I intended, but it’s been another really good night in a remarkable April for me. And I’d seen a lovely prom on the sun in the morning. I really like how much lunar detail can be seen even in the ED100. It’s a staggering amount, and it’s easier to see those details than the fancy pants solar h-alpha stuff. I’d like to get to know the moon much better than I do. My trusty ED100 would be more than enough for me, but I rather fancy the bino in the 120 next time out.

I think this is the angle from which our garden looks least worst. This is my new daytime visual rig. Solar h-alpha - Skywatcher ED100 DS Pro + Quark It's a long scope but very light for its size and a joy to use. We upgraded the focuser to a Baader Steeltrack, which we are very happy with. I don't personally recommend the Quark having had a number of issues with it and more recently my wife's now being faulty. My Quark is so-so and has a number of marks/spots in the view. But a good Quark and a bit of aperture is hard not to like! Oddly, my wife and I both prefer using the Quark in the ED100 over the 120, even though the 120's focal ratio should be more suited to the Quark (which has an integrated 4.3x telecentric barlow and is said to work best at F30). Solar white light - Skywatcher Equinox 120 + Baader Herschel Wedge I used to use the ED100 on the giro mount together with a Tele Vue 85 and 1.25 inch Lunt Herschel Wedge - but the 85 has now given way to the 120. I was previously using the 120 for solar imaging on a HEQ5, but don't image any more. The scope has our poshest upgraded focuser, a 2.5" Feather Touch Rack and Pinion. It is a very well made unit, not that there is much wrong with the Baader Steeltrack. I do think focusers are the weak point on the Skywatcher scopes, though they can be adjusted and some folks find them fine. The issue I had with the Equinox's focuser was that locking it moved the focal point slightly, if memory recalls, it was otherwise almost a keeper for me. I am now using the Baader Herschel Wedge for visual having previously used it mainly for imaging. It sounds ace that you can use the wedge for visual or for imaging by swapping out the ND filters but in practice I found I couldn't be bothered to keep swapping between the ND filters. The filter goes on a thread inside the wedge and then the 2 inch eyepiece holder threads on top of that, so there's a bit more to it than just unscrewing one filter. I also found the Lunt 1.25 inch to be pretty good too. I feel like the Baader might pay off more in the 120 when conditions are good. Giro Mount on Vixen Hal-130 tripod I really love the Vixen Hal-130 tripod! We also have one on our HEQ5 mount. It is light and strong and reasonably sturdy. I am getting a little wobble with the ED100 and 120 when moving the scopes/focusing but find it minor. Love the giro too, it's a low hassle setup. Solar Finders There's a Tele Vue Sol Searcher on the ED100 attached by Velcro, which is not ideal. I have a fixed one on my Tele Vue 85 that works better. And I am enjoying having a built-in finder on the Baader Herschel Wedge - you can see a bright solar disc on the back of it. Eyepieces I mainly use the Tele Vue 32mm Plossl with the Quark, with an eyeguard extender, because the eye relief is long. I normally use Tele Vue Radians for white light. We have Delos too which are excellent for white light as well but I am fond of the Radians and they are light and that bit more compact.

Many thanks for the info, Stu. Ahem, this is my best phone effort to date, taken today. I call it "Moon within a moon." I'd like a quick shot to assist my poor memory post session, but even my weak memory is better than this! 😄

Great report Stu and love the photo with some blue sky. Is that a phone shot? I keep trying with my phone and failing. Is it hand held or do you have something posh holding it in place? And do you have to adjust focus versus how it was for the eyeball? I'd love to be able to take a quick snap to remind me of how the view was.

I do wonder John and jetstream if it was something about the conditions. I often felt when I was imaging with the Edge 8 that the conditions weren't good enough to show much more detail than I could get with my ED120. But when conditions were good, I felt the detail was there and I much preferred to use the Edge 8 in case conditions were good. I don't think my skies are that great typically for high res lunar or planets. The view I had of Jupiter at Kelling Heath with my 12 inch dob shocked me how good it was. It was up two notches on any views I have had from home. Unless it was the single malt! Anyway, tonight I hope to have an equally unscientific shootout between my ED100 and ED120! Surely the 120 will win? But I dunno, there is something special about the F9 ED100! I prefer it with the Quark for solar h-alpha, even though the ED120 should be more optimal with the Quark not only because of more aperture but because the focal ratio should perform better with how the Quark works.

Lovely, thanks for the view, nice to see a piccy of it having enjoyed it today. Some nice resolution from the 120mm.

HEQ5 alignment failed because that wasn't Polaris after all I had lined up. Locking my keys in my car at a star party. Of course, it was clear that night, but I missed it as I went back home to fetch the spare key.

I really enjoyed the big prom today, especially the intricate parts of it between the two "horns". I got a lovely sense of depth with them. I imagine they'd be fun with a binoviewer - must start using mine again! And there was a nice bright patch by the limb. As I no longer do imaging I have started to use my ED120 for visual white light. I've got it dual-mounted on a giro mount with the Quark in my trusty ED100. And I am now using the Baader Herschel Wedge for white light instead of the Lunt 1.25 in my ED100. I tended to use the Lunt partly because I was surprised how good it was for the price, but also because the Baader was a slight pain to use as I had it set up for imaging with an ND 0.6 filter instead of the 3.0 for visual. And it's a nice plus to now be able to use the Baader as a solar finder as well. I am so happy I can use my two biggest fracs together on the giro mount. I assumed they'd be too heavy but my wife told me they were within the capacity. The ED120's view can vibrate a little when I move the scopes or adjust focus, but it's working well enough for me so I am chuffed about that. I might leave this pair out for the moon later if it stays clear. I enjoyed the group of spots towards the centre and the ones over by the limb. And the lone spot was showing a pleasing bit of detail. I thought I could see granulation, though the viewing was not at its best today. I do find the Quark in the ED100 almost always usable in my typical conditions, though I did take a pause when it got particularly wobbly for a period and it steadied enough for me a bit later.

I've used the Quark with the Tele Vue 85 and 40mm Plossl and unfortunately you cannot get full disc - Daystar says you'd need a scope with a focal length of about 450mm or less. I get a very comfortable full disc with the Quark, 40mm or 32mm Plossl, and Tele Vue 60 (360mm focal length). I would pick the Tele Vue 32mm Plossl over the 40mm every time for the Quark, the reason being they show the same field of view (the 40mm is 43° whereas the 32mm is 50°). Also, the eye relief on the 40mm is very long (28mm) and you might need to use an eyeguard extender or even two to find it more comfortable to use. The eye relief for the 32mm is 22mm. It depends on you but I like using two eyeguard extenders with the 40mm and one with the 32mm. You might be fine without an eyeguard extender on the 32mm. I find it okay without one but prefer it with one. Hope that helps.

Very photogenic!