Saganite

Get well soon Joe !

The seeing tonight is nothing short of astounding ! I have the Vixen out tonight with single UO Orthos and the 7.2 to 21.5mm zoom and barlow. I have only been out an hour and the Trapezium stars presented as lovely diffraction rings with E& F clearly visible so I soon moved on to Sirius. I was shocked when Sirius focused down to a tight Airy disc with diffraction rings almost complete circles, intermittent sightings of the pup, quite regularly. It appears to be between the 2nd and 3rd diffraction rings. It is hard to be certain since the diffraction rings are scintillating . I don't think I have ever seen Sirius so tight before tonight.

This is on the Calendar then !! Just a 20 minute drive for me so I will be there, again, I can't wait...👍

Hi Dave, My Fullerscopes catalogue from 1975 or 1976, has one.

Until John recently mentioned 52 Orionis, I had never heard of this double ,so last night I put the 12" Dob onto it, and failed so completely to even elongate it, I doubted I was looking at the correct star. I will have to go again.

Amazingly the Moon is steady at 378x which is as far as I can go with a binoviewer, but that is more than enough. I cannot remember the last time it was this good...

Out with the 12" Dob at the moment and a new record.....6 Plato craterlets,... whoopee ! Might have been 7, but also might have been a ' floater '.....

At last Al, observing as nature intended !!....... No going back..

That is a wonderful idea, and I wonder if I could get that past local planning..( aka SWMBO).....

Oh that is sad, I rather liked it....

That explains it I think John , as the 5mm would give you 318x and I could not get more than 230x without it going soft. I wished that I had my 5" refractor set up as well last night, as stars were a bit 'podgy ' in the 12", but I will have both out tonight, in fact the Dob is out now cooling.

Nice report Nik. I too found the seeing improve later, it being between 12.30 and 1 am when I returned to Lunar and found it stable at a much higher mag. I also failed to get a really strong sighting of the central rille in the Alpine Valley with my 12" Dob. Surprising really but perhaps there is an optimum time to view this feature. I also failed to get the Pup. Apart from that it was a good night....

The Moon is still very stable at 230x , amazing tonight !

Just had a look at Thor's Hammer John. I have never been aware of this or seen it, but one to look out for in future sessions. Thanks.

The turn of the 12" OO Dob and the seeing is very good, absolutely stable at 160x on the Moon, and it is difficult to tear myself away and look at something else. Trapezium stars E&F were solid and very visible. The forecast is clear until 3 am.

A nice session Dave and I found pretty much the same as yourself with those targets, but I was happy last night just Moongazing... The seeing was pretty good until a bit later , around 9.30pm, and the transparency got worse. By midnight I almost could not see Orion's belt because of mist/ground fog. Did you find that ? The forecast around here for this evening is clear all the way through to 3 am Thursday morning, so I hope it will be the same for you. I expect I will drag another scope out.....

A short but enjoyable session tonight, mostly Lunar again , with my Vixen ED 103, and it was pretty steady at 105x . The transparency has not been good this evening and I have just come in because it has become quite misty, almost a light fog, such that I can barely make out the Hunters belt ! That is four outings in eight days. What is going on !

I use a cheap skywatcher tube ring with weight suspended from it, and just move the ring up and down as needed. The weight in this case is a very strong taxi magnet that I picked up on Ebay, to which I can add more weight if needed....

The forecast did not look promising this evening so I put the tripod out rather than use my pier, for what I assumed would be a quick look at the Moon. The atmosphere was not very stable but 60x was enough for an enjoyable 75 minutes before the clouds arrived. A break for a light meal and by 8pm the sky was clear and looked pretty good. The Moon was now taking 120x and so another 30 minutes passed. The seeing however was not as good as the 4th Jan because unlike that evening I could not get the E&F stars and nor could I glimpse Sirius B, so back to Lunar. This telescope, newly refurbished , has yet to have a long session because I have been unable to reach focus with my trusty binos until this evening, but the mods I have carried out worked and all is good. A star test on Capella just before I finished at 10pm, gave a near perfect diffraction pattern, so I know for sure that the lens, made 50 odd years ago by AE Ltd is a good 'un !!

A beautiful image Neil taken through a beautiful refractor. I too remember , as a kid, drooling at pictures of Swift telescopes with absolutely no chance of owning one.

That is a really fine and sharp image , well done....👍

Good for you Al, I hope it stays clear. Good to hear from you. Steve

Wet here but tomorrow evening is looking ok for maybe 3 hours....🤞

I also split Rigel along with the other Orion doubles last night, a really clean beautiful split at 90x

Hi Jeremy, Only the second time for absolute certain I am pretty sure, the last being about three or four years ago , on the same night as Dave ( F15 Rules) got it, as we conferred at the time.