Saganite

Hi Roy, Well done ! The year started well and I had probably a dozen sessions in January and then with the summer that we have had, it has been a good year so far for me. Nothing even close to 100 as I don't do Solar, but still the best for a very long time, and as you point out, being retired is a definite boon for this hobby....

Nice one Paul. Those early hours and particularly the last couple before dawn are the best times aren't they.

Unable to coax one from the used market, I found a local supplier with one.

I could not resist the pull of Jupiter at 3.15 am this morning as I looked through the bedroom curtains. I have enjoyed so many memorable outings with my APM ED 6" since the beginning of July, a really lovely scope, and this latest chance to observe Jupiter was impossible to resist. This scope had given me an image of the giant planet, on August 7th/8th , as good as any I have ever seen, both with Andromeda and my OOVX12 Dob with its 12" 1/8th wave mirror. On that occasion I had started observing at 4.15 am and continued into daybreak at about 5.30am. The creamy grey Jovian disc was dead sharp and there was detail of swirls and eddys in abundance, but the GRS above all stood out , a deepish orange in colour, and with the dark banding in the belt arching around it like a raised eyebrow, the whole appearing as a huge and baleful eye staring back at me. The image seemed to me to be calm and still, as though etched into a black background, and remained , with slight atmospheric disturbances like that until daybreak. This was what I anticipated this morning, but by 3.50am when the scope was assembled and cooled on the mount,it did not live up to expectation. At 166x the disc was soft and had the blue and red fringes of atmospheric dispersion showing top and bottom, so I backed off to 90x to achieve sharpness. At this mag, the disc showed pretty decent bands and with some detail, but of course the image scale was much less. However, I was out observing yet again, so it was good. By now, the great Constellation, our dear winter friend Orion was high enough in the East for me to split Rigel and Alnitak easily, but the Trapezium stars stubbornly stayed on four no matter what I tried. At that altitude I wasn't surprised, and that prize will wait for another day. Orion in all its glory will be the great feast of the winter season ! I finished the session with a star cluster tour of Auriga and Pleiades, and returned to my bed.

Nice images of Vega, Mizar, Arcturus and Polaris , in the gathering darkness with neat diffraction patterns promises well for tonight. It shows clear until 4 am. Hope the sky is good for you also. Enjoy !

I would love to split Antares, but it is barely above the rooftops here. It has not stopped me trying again this summer though, and tonight looks promising , so who knows. The AZ100 is nicely balanced, and both scopes are cooling.

He did, very much. I was using my APM ED 152, Bortle 4 sky, good transparency, and pretty good seeing, so the images of both clusters was excellent.

Beautiful image Dan, really interesting ! I showed M92 to my young Grandson just last night.......after M13...

Superb image Neil !

Hi Joe, Thanks. The 10.5mm on the left of the Carton 10.5 is an Orion Megavista, identical eyepiece just different livery. Why Carton chose to print the text that way up, as opposed to Orion's version, I don't know.

Hi Mark, Thanks. The two empty pockets were recently vacated by a pair of 19mm Pans, which were not required after the departure of Andromeda. I had two rectangular holes left after the big sell off / reshuffle and the 48mm Brandon and 24 Ultima in its box fitted perfectly, besides, the Ultima never gets used as I cannot get hold of another...

I have slimmed down to just one case of eyepieces since I last did this, and these are my pairs and the important singletons.......

Hi Joe, The AZ100 on my pier is , as I told you, super solid. Last night I had a beautiful image of Izar , solid pale blue and golden yellow Airy discs ,in the frame at 342X ( Pentax XW 3.5mm ) and just the slightest quiver if I knocked the focuser. You will be delighted mounting your intended frac on the AZ...👍

Ready for action again. Some stunning views of Jupiter with this scope in the last 10 days..

Hi Joe, I will Pm you.

I can tell you that I mounted my APM 152 on centre of target, with the Vixen on the other side, on my Az100 and the Vixen image was about 30% distance between centre and edge of FOV. I had also done this some months ago with my Vixen and the f15 5" .

I have just two refractors now and they have always been fitted with 2" Diagonals. As a long time user of binoviewers I want the safety of a 2" nosepiece and the secure clamping that goes with it.

Telescope House sourced a few TV caps for me two or three years ago, so maybe worth asking them. It was in fact 20th April 2018, so I was a bit out..

Amazing , quite beautiful, and scary, realizing that every white dot is a star probably with planets and without doubt IMHO opinion, somewhere, life !

'tis true... I put an advert out and got a reply the same day for mine.

You love the Pentax XW's Al, so don't part with them again. Of the range I now have only the 3.5mm left but that is only because I choose to use binoviewers wherever possible and pairs of XW's is impossible for me, sadly... I still hanker for the 7mm and 10mm, but I don't need them.

We stayed on a campsite August 2021, about 400 yards from Lands End. I didn't have a scope just binoculars, but it was the darkest sky I have seen in my life, Kelling Heath included, with the Milky Way bright and stretching right across the whole sky, quite beautiful. I hope the weather holds for you and if it does your 6" scope will give you a superb treat. Good luck

The seeing has been excellent for me tonight, as good as last night certainly. Two long sessions with my recently acquired APM ED152 have been impossible to resist. Several Galaxies, a handful of Globular clusters , and plenty of star splitting as well as Lunar earlier this evening. There have been some cloud banks around but have passed quickly enough. Just waiting now for Jupiter to gain some altitude which will finish the session nicely.

I have to agree, it is a lovely image...

The Berlebach Planet arrived this morning and this evenings sky looks beautiful. I am already amazed at how solid is the tripod with my 6" refractor aboard. The proof will come when I can start observing, but so far it just feels right. I might even see how well it carries Andromeda later.