paulastro

I was out using the SW 120ED from 10 pm until around 11.30 pm. The seeing was very changeable, but Aristotles. Eudoxus and Montes Causocus were very favourably illuminated and quite spectacular. Maurolycus and the nearby area on the terminator also showed fine detail at times. The variable seeing made it difficult to obtain a full disk shot without having inconsistent detail across the frame - the single frame below is about as good as it got. It was taken at 10.06 pm with the 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11 on 1/160 sec at 400 asa. The two crops are from the same frame.

Great pictures, thanks for sharing them

A nice Moon out mid evening with the Catherina trio of craters well placed. Seeing not good, but managed several pics. The single frame below was taken at 9.40 pm, SW 80ED, Olympus E-M5 MK11, 1/160 sec at 400 asa. The crop is taken from the same frame.

barkis. Just checking, you do know that this is screen from SkySafari don't you, and not an image I have taken? - just checking, but thank you for your kind words anyway.

This is a pic I took yesterday of my SW 80ED in the observatory set up to look for Venus. The clouds looked fantastic - but then I am a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society .

Cloud and the Sun lighting up nearby haze which made the visual field very bright meant I didn't manage to find Venus until 8.49 pm. I have to admit it's more difficult than using a goto or having a GEM where you can 'dial in' the position on the setting circles which would have been much easier. Also Venus was only just over 12 degrees from the Sun so care has to be taken when sweeping. It was then promptly covered by cloud, but I managed to pick it up again at 9.08 pm and observe it until it set below my local horizon at 9.25 pm. I did manage to get some good views in this time using the SW 80ED up to x225 despite the low altitude. It looked really dramatic, and it's hard to imagine being able to see a much thinner crescent ( 2.3% ). The horns of the crescent seemed to curl round the edge of the invisible disk for some distance. At 56 arcseconds it was an awesome sight as it disappeared into the trees. I'll give it another go today weather permitting, but as it's a degree lower every successive day this may not be possible. No complaints though, it has been a very memorable apparition. Below is a screen grab taken at the time on my phone using SkySafari Pro which is a good representation of how it actually looked - minus the information of course!

Have you tried Ramsden eyepieces Mike? . I can remember the time when an Orthoscopic was beyond the means of any astronomers I knew at the time, they cost four guineas each and were highly desirable. I think time is best spent appreciating the things we have and enjoying them rather than always looking to replace them with something 'better' and often more expensive.

Mike. If you do buy one to see how good they are, I'd be happy to arrange for you to try my 17.5mm Morpheus so you can compare it directly to see if you have made a mistake or not. You'll have to wait until social distancing is eased though. And before you ask, no, I can't post it to you. I may not get it back .

A nice thin 4.6% crescent Moon last night. Two single frames taken at 21.57pm and 10.00pm as the Moon was setting. Both taken with a SW 80ED and an Olympus E-M5 Mk11. Venus nearby looked very similar with an even smaller crescent at only 3.5%. Here's a link for a comparison of the two crescents I posted earlier.

I went out Sunday evening, mostly to observe both the growing (in size) and shrinking (in illumination) of Venus. I didn't pick Venus up until 9.08 pm. About 9 degrees to the West was the waxing Lunar crescent, with Mercury somewhere between the two. I stayed out until 10.05 pm which was when the Moon set, and Mercury stubbornly remained invisible even in 10x50s because of haze near the horizon and the light sky. I observed Venus until it set at 9.33pm in the SW 80ED. It did look superb even with rather poor seeing because of the altitude, I did use mags up to x210 but it was best at about 120, using a Baader Mk111 zoom with a X3 barlow. (sorry to let you down on the mag front Mike ) It was very striking how similar Venus and the Moon looked, both being very thin crescents. They could have been twins apart from the brightness and scale. Venus: mag - 4.1, illumination 3.5%, and apparent size 55.0 arcseconds. Moon: mag - 2.9, Illumination 4.6% and apparent size 30.6 arcminutes - some 33 times bigger than Venus! More importantly, the views were just beautiful. I love to see both the Moon and Venus when they present a thin crescent, so this was areal treat for me to have both together at the same time. Below are some screen grabs of the conjunction below and Venus using SkySafari pro 6 and a couple of single frames taken of the Moon as it set taken with the SW 80ED and Olympus E-M5 Mk11 as the Moon set.

Thanks and good luck for this evening John. I'll be doing the same until it's not possible to see it any longer. The weather looks as if many of us should at least have a chance over the next few days. At the moment its blanket cloud cover but I'm always hopeful.

Quite right Peter. For some years I used to tell anyone who asked what telescope I had that I had a six inch f8 apochromat. It was a six inch f8 Newt of course. It certainly stopped people bragging about the telescopes they had .

Out at 7.18 pm but didnt pick up Venus until 9.13pm due to 80% cloud moving very quickly in the high winds. I observed until 9.44pm when it set behind a distant tree! It looked fabulous in the SW 80ED, a strikingly thin crescent only 4.2% illuminated and a whopping 54.5 arcseconds, mag -4.2. I didnt see Mercury due to a layer of thin cloud, and of course it wasn't that dark, civil dusk not occurring until 22.05pm. Attached pick is a screen shot from SkySafari pro 6 taken at the time.

I think these look really cool, and they remind me of my youth. The experience and image you get looking through one of these is quite something, like stepping back in time. It would also be good to compare the f15 with my SW 80ED, though the experience would be akin to comparing a Questar with a Meade ETX90 !. I can just get away with having my SW 80ED set up on the AZ5 in the lounge, but I fear my wife might notice if I swapped the 80ED with one of these beauties . I dont want one, I dont want one, I dont/do want one, I do want one, aaarrrggghhh!

Don't miss this opportunity this evening if you have clear sky, it's only a little closer ( 1deg 14') tomorrow evening at closest approach.