Saganite

Ever the pessimist , on Monday evening with my 152, I saw a thick black line with a disc either side.....

Thanks John very helpful ,particularly the link to your previous observation of it. The forecast here tonight is clear from about 8pm to 10 pm, getting foggy by 11pm which suggests the atmosphere will at least be calm though the transparency will worsen as the evening goes on, but being so high I will be ready to have a go from early evening. I will put the dob out but I intend as always to observe it with the ED152, so it will be an interesting challenge .. Being able to observe definitely helped through that terrible year as you point out.

Excellent image, thanks !

That's a lovely image Peter, and amazing that you got it with a smart phone ! I tried to see this on Monday but failed , transparency simply not good enough.

I had to look up NGC 2419, as I don't think I have ever seen this one, so now I know I am keen to have a look. Many thanks... At mag 10.5 I may have to set the dob on this one

Totally unexpected session with varying cloud cover which, by 10.15pm, was too much so after getting lovely splits of Rigel, Alnitak, Algieba, Almach as well as Zeta Cancri, an early night, but great to be out with a scope for two consecutive nights.

Another clear night, seeing pretty good , Pickering 6 to 7. Earlier views of Jupiter at150x were very good in glimpses through cloud for maybe twenty minutes and then lost, but the sky has cleared now. Again I have taken out just the Svbony 3-8 For the ED152 and it has given a beautiful triple split of Tegmine. Lovely sharp Airy discs with intermittent diffraction ring at 400x. The close double actually split nicely at 240x, a very clear and sharp black line between them.

Our postie always rings twice...

Welcome to SGL ..🙂

This I found again last night, and apart from a bigger FOV I saw nothing to complain about when I compared it to my Vixen LVW 3.5mm Double star observing is one aspect and the 3-8mm zoom excels, but I have also had very high power views of the Moon with it, across its range, and I so far cannot fault it.

Unable to get out until 11pm last night I missed the best of Orion thanks to a neighbours tree so started with the lovely pair of Galaxies M81 & 82 both showing very prominently in the ED152. The nearby NGC3077 is normally visible in the the same FOV but was not, so my initial thoughts on the sky transparency were borne out. The Owl Neb M97 and M108 were not visible either, but M51 The Whirlpool was, just. With averted vision I could see a little detail, and certainly the bright nuclei of both elements. I was a bit disappointed as this was the first dark sky session since the Moon was out of the way. Moving to Leo I went straight for the triplet and could see M65 and M66 well, but not The Hamburger Galaxy NGC 3628. I settled down to averted vision, wanting to 'get' the triplet when the sky was obliterated ! My otherside neighbour recently acquired a small dog and when it goes out the 1,000,000 candela searchlight comes on and bathes everywhere in light. The large Birch tree in the garden behind me, which until now had been a ghostly silhouette just to the side of my FOV now stood out in stark relief. My unintended expletive of Oh **** I hope was not heard ,but the light stayed on for half an hour after the pooch must have been back in its bed. To be fair my neighbour is aware of my interest in the night sky and does try to accommodate. There was no point in continuing in the Southern sky so I swung the scope to the West and enjoyed the star clusters in Auriga. When the light went out it was like that moment early on in the Close encounters film when the alien craft switches of its beam as it flies over Richard Dreyfuss....... a thunderous silence ! I returned to Leo and in the darkness , was rewarded with a very prominent pair in M65 and M66 and now, NGC3628, The Leo Triplet. I forgave my neighbour ! As well as the ED 152 I have the recently acquired Lyra Optic 102mm f11 mounted on the AZ100, both aligned and balanced and so with a zoom set to 7.7mm in the 152 ( 156x )and 7.2mm zoom in the f11 (156x) I compared images of Algieba (Gamma Leonis). Both scopes rendered a beautiful split with tight Airy disc and diffraction ring, but I found the F11 image was neater , tighter, just that bit nicer . Apart from the obvious benefit of a Pulsar dome, it does shield you from unwanted light intrusion, so it is possible to preserve night vision much more easily. Again with averted vision I could just make out M95 and M96, but should have been able to see them well from my garden , as I have so many times in the past, but the transparency had not improved , in fact, I think it had worsened. I saw little point in looking for the Virgo galaxies, so I had a look at the Globular Clusters M3 in Canes Venatici and M53 in Coma Berenices, as I moved to Bootes. Here the target was of course Izar a beautiful binary star which at high power ( 300 x using the Svbony zoom ) gave such text book images, a tight white star with a vivid blue companion. Two more Globular Cllusters M13 and M92 rounded of the session at 1.45 am.

I know the feeling...another parcel arrived this morning from FLO and of course it was on time !.......🤣

Absolutely no problem here.

As usual Dave's observing skills proved superior to mine. He spotted the minute detail that a remote trigger was an option, and I missed it... 😄

I would have watched SPM talk about watching paint dry, I adored him and his presentation style , which is why I have seen just a couple of episodes of The Sky at Night since he left us. Nothing wrong with the current format or the presenters but I choose to find anything that I wish to know by others means now. It ceased to draw my interest in 2012.

I think that your thought process is spot on Neil . Berlebach tripod, AZ75 and FC100 is a perfect combination. I have the AZ100 carrying two scopes and I will not chuck out any more superlatives about it. The AZ75 will have the same superb quality of build, so I would not think twice, in fact, as soon as I can afford it I will be getting an AZ75 for my Planet tripod. Go for it and never think about mounting your FC again....

You will need the 30mm as well then.....

A driven AZ100 is equally fuss free, you just plonk it down, point it South with the tube level and switch it on....🙂

Most things through the post I don't care about but my Astro stuff from FLO always arrives when it should, often next day, with whichever delivery service they use.....🙂 It does seem to depend on one's postcode.

Several times over the last 11 years of retirement to my village home in a Bortle 4 area of Cambridgeshire. First time was with Andromeda my 5" F15 refractor and subsequently with my APM ED 152mm refractor. Each time the seeing was excellent, maybe 7- 8 on the Pickering scale. I remember well the first time because I was conversing with Dave (F15Rules) on SGL , and he was seeing it at the same time with his FS128 .

I have had a lot of stuff from FLO delivered across the the last several years and nothing has taken longer than the expected time. The Royal Mail is fine as far as I am concerned.

I think it is a fine image and I would be proud of that if I practiced in the dark art....

Impressed with Dave's ( f15 Rules) Moon image recently, and Stu's recommendation, this arrived this morning and I have to say it so well made, all anodised aluminium, it feels high quality. I look forward to taking a few smart phone images.

Perfect !

Hi Neil, Sorry for the late reply, I have been lucky with a clear sky all evening. I will check it out and let you know tomorrow. Cheers Steve