Saganite

Lovely atmospheric images there, with a good result. I looked out this morning at about 3.30am and last evenings dire transparency was now fog, so I have yet to see the Comet.

Can't complain about tonight, it has been a terrific week of observing. The seeing started out ok and the transparency was ok, but Just in now because the transparency is dire. So the evenings haul was Jupiter, a bit meh as was Mars, the Auriga clusters, the wonderful Double Cluster and 15 double stars. Could not see M1 by the time I thought about it. Oh, and Uranus, how could I forget that ! APM ED 152 and Carton 7-21mm zoom mostly , with Pentax XW 3.5 when needed

Only been out a short while and went straight for Orion. For the second time this week E&F in the Trapezium were very visible in the APM as was Ori 32 & 52. Particularly pleased with the latter two as they had eluded me last winter, but now I am happy to spend the rest of this session checking out old favourites.

Total cloud cover this evening for me...I am glad to say..🤭 I was out last night for almost 5 hours, the second long session this week, so l am glad the decision to go out was taken from me...🙂

Yep, all set up ready to go.

You are not a million miles away from me, and every night this week is predicted clear, so you should be ok...🤞

A good worthwhile session Mark, and you may not have got Sirius B this time, but I did not and still have not split Ori 52 thanks to the rapidly spreading cloud, but it looks like every night this week is going to be clear so, hopefully there will be chances for both of us.

Nice session Michael, and pleasing that you got the Pup. I keep banging on about the seeing in my part of Cambridgeshire but it was that good. Like you I found that the star focused down to a fairly tight Airy disc and diffraction rings, but it stayed like that for minutes on end for me. I am clouded out now,

A great session Dave, and the seeing tonight was stupendous wasn't it. I remember several years ago that you were concerned that your FS128 was not performing, but it was simply down to endless poor seeing. When it finally came to end your joy at the Tak's performance I remember and a similar thing happened for me tonight with the APM. It is as good as my Vixen.....official...

A good session John, very enjoyable and a good selection of targets. I missed a lot out tonight but got the few that I really wanted. Pleased that old Tak is working for you....

Cheers Stu, but the party just ended ! I can see half of Ursa Major, Mars, and nothing else. Orion has vanished, but I am not complaining, it has been a fabulous few hours...👍

Very nice Stu. The Cambridgeshire skies are incredible this evening. Have fun.

Sirius has focused down to such a tight disc that I can see the Pup star by far the best ever that I have seen it, incredible night so far....I will probably wake up in a minute.

It is getting better and better. I have been after Orionis 32 for a long long time, been close, but tonight with a Pentax XW 3.5mm, a whopping 343x, ( separation approx 1 " ) there it was a beautiful clean split with a black tramline between them.. magic This one is definitely all about the seeing which is why it has taken so long. The APM is delivering tonight for sure. 52 Orionis is next and should be easier.

I have the Vixen mounted alongside and they are visible, not so strongly of course, in that scope at 113x with a 7mm eyepiece...great stuff ! and an exceptional sky around here.

Following on from last night where clouds thwarted my attempts to see the trapezium E&F stars, it is even better tonight. The seeing is about 4 /5 on the Pickering scale, and transparency is excellent, so the E&F stars blazed like tiny beacons in the APM @ 171x. Earlier, Jupiter and Mars were again excellent, particularly Jupiter, fair amount of detail in the equatorial bands. Really superb night in prospect, until about 2 am according to local weather forecast.

Thanks for that Stu. Just incredible and to watch the boosters land is in some ways more exciting !

Well, as you know, I did have a Tak FC100DC, and sold it to replace it with the Vixen, which in my opinion is just as good as the Tak, 99% of the time.. and it looks better to my eyes .

It is only about 14 miles away for me, which is why I haven't missed one yet. There is always plenty of interest for visual only gazers like me and I have yet to see it too crowded. It is a good day out !

Hi Dave, I was using the Carton 7-21 zoom in Foxy, and though I have been using binos for a long time now, I don't recall catching them in that mode either. I prefer double star observations in single eyepiece mode anyway. The clouds rolled in shortly after, which was a shame because I am sure E&F would have been visible as Orion got higher. Here, the forecast is for clear sky from 5pm until 2 am so maybe tonight. The Vixen 4" is utterly superb and is my favourite scope, much as I like the 6" APM.

Easy split of Rigel so I thought E&F in the Trapezium would show , but just not quite high enough yet, so later hopefully. The seeing remains steady.

Using just the Vixen at the moment, and the seeing is very good. Jupiter and Mars showing good detail so far , Albireo presenting text book diffraction patterns, beautiful colours, very steady ! Didn't expect this and been working in the dome so everything moved out hence just the Vixen set up . Should be a good night !

Thanks Dave.

Stu's thread " Cleaning the Tak " was inspirational for me, because I too was concerned at the state of the Objectives in my two scopes, but really did not fancy the job. As it turned out, the Vixen was a doddle because the cell simply screws off the tube and I was able to clean front and back surfaces, albeit, very slowly, methodically , and carefully. This is the very lens that Dave ( F15 ) rescued and cleaned, and is shown in Stu's thread. It was not as bad as the Tak, but was in a similar condition to the APM lens shown in the first image. In the couple of years that I have owned it , it has had a fair bit of use so was in need of a bit of TLC, and the result is sparkling superbness ! The big APM lens did present a very different challenge and though I cleaned the front, again, super carefully, I 'chickened out ' when it came to removal. The dust of course looks far worse than it is, and with the cleaning of the front , the lens is IMHO fine..it will have to be as removal from the tube involves removal of screws and the upsetting of collimation.

Well done, not an easy target, and probably not one that you will capture very often.