Saganite

Hi Doug , Hope you are keeping well....🙂

The seeing is fair and the transparency is not great here tonight, never the less the GRS and the Europa transit are both showing well in the 6". High overhead Vega and the Double Double are excellent. I cannot see Europa yet.

My 4" is the only scope in my possession that I would never part with and If I could keep only one of my telescopes , this would be it, does everything....🙂

You are not alone. I spent probably an hour over two sessions trying to see M33 this week, tonight being my third session, I will try again. Hard to explain why I get so much out of seeing nothing, or next to nothing on deep sky stuff, but I do . On your second point, if that time comes then I will just pack in. For me it isn't just about seeing what is up there, I could be happy looking at Nasa images if that were the case, no it is about using a fine telescope to try to see what is up there, just a scope and my eyes.

I may not search for any doubles tonight. My wife has opened a favourite bottle of wine for dinner and I suspect every star is going to be a double after that ....

Likewise John, I am seeing a really sharp Saturn with certainly four possibly 5 moons. Jupiter too is looking really nice despite being low. Unfortunately the forecast here is similar to where you are. My Daughter and Granddaughter have just arrived for dinner so I may have seen all I am going to see for tonight. They both were enthralled with the two gas giants though !

A promising start with a beautiful split of Izar at 78x in my 6", and increasing the power to 155x revealed two sharp airy discs each with a fine diffraction ring, so that bodes well for tonight.

I will Joe. Last visit we all spent a week in Daylesford which was a lot better than Melbourne but I still never got away from lights. I did however see both Magellanic Clouds with my bins, which was excellent,

Getting good views of the GRS since the seeing has improved somewhat in the last hour, but still only 133x.

Wow, how good must that be. I would like to experience that ! Maybe next time I visit my daughter in Melbourne I will get a chance to go somewhere similar.

Just like on Monday evening the seeing will only support circa 85x on Jupiter, anything higher and it is soft, but of course better seeing does pass through at intervals. I will try later, but in the interim there is plenty to see in what is again a dark starry night, which does for once look like the Bortle 4 it is supposed to be. I have both refractors on M33 , the Vixen showing a reasonable core directly but better with averted vision . In the 6" however a very visible core with direct vision and outer nebulosity with averted. Certainly the best I have seen for some time. I should really drag the OO12 out for this one, but I feel as lazy tonight as did earlier in the week and am quite happy seated in my Obsy...🙂

That is a very fine image Phil , well done. I was looking at it on Monday evening. It has a very low surface brightness and looking directly I saw nothing. Looking away, ie using peripheral vision, I could pick up the lighter shape of the Galaxy against the darker background.

Looks 100% better now with the powered two wheeled 'eye candy'......yum yum.....🙂

Looking good, can't wait to see it done and in use. How I wish I had an indoor working space like that ! When I made my 8' Octagonal marine ply base for my dome, I had to scrabble around on the patio slabs in the back garden.

The seeing has not improved for me, so the doubles I particularly wanted will have to wait for another time, however I have bagged 14 Messiers since the end of the Io transit, so I will content myself with that. The Moon is looking good so that will round things off very nicely.

What a beautiful sky above my home ! Both my scopes in the dome are now aligned thanks to Rowan's Altitude adjuster plate which I fitted yesterday, and I am enjoying being able to use both while sitting comfortably. I have been following Jupiter since 9pm, catching the GRS and currently watching the transit of Io. The seeing is not great but 92x in the 6" and 110x in the 4" have both shown lovely views. Along the way I had a not so wonderful view of Neptune, but a very nice image of a grey green Uranus. Star tests have been good so as the night wears on, I can leave Jupiter for breaks and double star fun. There is also the feast of Orion to look forward to later. Split Mintaka, low as it is , but it is hardly difficult. A cup of tea now, I think, and back to my cosy seat.

No, nothing, only the massive annual display at Kimbolton Castle. Very loud but short lived....🙂

As I drove home this evening I had hopes, but the cloud has increased considerably, though tomorrow night looks a good possibility. I have had a good few mini sessions in the last couple of weeks and a 2 hour session with friends ,so I will not grumble....🙂

Out from 8pm the seeing was fair. A good hour or so on Saturn with the APM revealing several bands on the planet with excellent colour, a good Cassini, and four moons, Titan, Dione, Tethys, and Rhea. Excellent seeing washed through at intervals when everything became dead sharp, at 171x, but most of the time I was at 140x to 150x. A decent star test on Vega and a quick look at the Double double, followed by Albireo. An extremely bright meteor , slashed across the sky on a line from Vega through Sagitta and down to the South around 9pm. It was still incredibly bright and large as it went behind the bungalow roof which blocks most of my Southern horizon. The high light of the evening perhaps... At about 9.30 I switched to Jupiter, now high enough to reveal , at 140x ,a disc with four good bands and plenty of texture. I was not able to see the GRS or the transit this time as it clouded over soon after, which was a shame. I did have a last quick look at my favourite object , Lunar.

Nothing to do with it being a Vixen I suppose Dave ?.....

Fine report Phil particularly because it is a long focus instrument of considerable age, the sort of telescope I used to dream about as a kid. I no longer have Andromeda, but do still have Arcturus the A.E.Luton 41/2" f14, and I really should use it.

Superb Jim, like it very much !!

Excellent write up which I thoroughly enjoyed reading...👍

Absolutely Rob, it was just like watching Stellarium...🤣

Hi Tim, Yes , it works beautifully. The chap from whom I bought it had made a little cardboard battery pack holding 6 AA batteries and to my astonishment it tracked very accurately right where you can see it for nine hours, the setting circle graduations being exactly in line with the elapsed time. Later that evening I took it into the garden aligned it North with a compass and had a very enjoyable couple of hours.