paulastro

Thanks Stu, that's very kind of you.

Many thanks Mike. The pic is a bit deceptive in that it was the best in about 150+ frames I took. Most of them were very poor. I also do a little processing to try to improve my pics. Visually as you know when using a binoviewer, the brain works well to make a composite of the images going to each eye which is far better than each single image. With a single eyepiece the views were very poor

It was nice and clear last night, though the seeing was very poor throughout and the Moon always had a halo of haze around it. There was continuous fine scintillation, though visually I could get some fine views with my binoviewer and Orthos at x225. Bailly, the largest crater on the Moon, was well placed and to try and get a reasonable photo I had to take lots of frames at the highest speed I could manage to try and grab a moment of better seeing. The crop of the frame below shows Bailly to the right on the terminator and still partly in shadow to the S. Single frame below taken at 22.41 with the SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11. 1/500 sec at 400 asa.

I agree with Mike, barlows are a great asset, particularly if you are financially challenged most of the time! I also have a Morpheus 17.5 (best eyepiece I've ever owned or used). I have used it with a x2 Ultima barrow to great effect since I've had it. I recently bought a used Celestron X-Cel LX x3 barlow to use with it, and it too make a fabulous combination, giving me just over x150. I've saved myself around £300 by using my barlows - including the money I spent on the used X3 barlow. I also use both barlows to extend the range of my Baader Mk111 zoom.

I'm a big fan of Baader, everything I've ever brought from them has been excellent. From Peter's position it is understandable he would want to be able to collimate his binoviewer. I'm also delighted that Peter is not very far away from me, if I have any difficulties I can't sort out, he's a top man to know - if Peter can't fix it, then it's toast!

Aristarchus and Rima Marius well placed. Nice detail at times, but seeing rather poor. Single frame taken at 21.09, SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/160 sec, 200 asa.

I had a somewhat brief Lunar session a few hours ago, and only realised when I was indoors comparing various maps and atlases to the images that I had taken that I had been to the south pole! My main references I looked at were the Sky and Telescope laminated map of the Moon and the Cambridge Photographic Moon Atlas. The easiest route to follow on any lunar chart is from Clavius, SE to Moretus, immediately S to Short, SW to Newton and then SE again to Malapert. This S pole is then a bit further to the S. Bear in mind if you try this that the foreshortening affects are more the further S you go. In the Cambridge Atlas, Section 41 shows the S pole region with some excellent photographs. I had great fun for an hour or so comparing the Cambridge photos with my crop of the S polar region. The photo was taken at 8.33 pm, single frame, SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/200 sec at 400asa. The larger scale pic is a crop from the full disk pic.

At last, I had a session of the Moon in mostly clear skies from about 8.30 to around 10.45 pm. Thee seeing was good early on but deteriorated toward the end. The Moon (61.6%, 8.78 days) was truly spectacular at times. The highlight for me was the sun rising over the E walls of Copernicus and the area to the E including Eratosthenes and the S Apennines, the nearby areas of dark mare material and further S taking in the Frau Mauro area. Clavius and its environs were also excellent - as were many other areas. I took some pics but spent most time observing, wonderful views using the SW 120ED. The single frame below was taken at 22.15 pm, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/160 sec at 400 asa. The close-ups are crops from two different frames. I'm pleased with the pics, but the real thing was even better through the eyepiece.

Oops, sorry.

Thanks John. I've always found Taks capable of gobbling up magnification too, and the DL I had was no exception. I also find that I can rarely gain anything by using more than x200 on Jupitet, even with my binoviewer. If I ever got to the giddy heights of x300 I'd be very surprised.

Many thanks Andrew. I tend to be on the higher side of yourself Andrew with the 120ED, on Mars at opposition I would use 300x plus depending on seeing. I do use a binoviewer though which is much better than single eye pieces, at least for me anyway.. I find using a binoviewer also just about eliminates floaters under most circumstances

Many thanks Craig, I'd like to take the credit for good focusing, but this is mainly because my camera's adjustable rear screen can magnify the prime focus image (which is x36) by up to x14 which gives me a total mag of x504. As you can imagine it's just like looking through a high power eyepiece. If this seeing is not too bad, you can change the focus as the seeing changes and the image will clearly snap into focus when you have it right. It does take a lot of patience (and many wasted pics!) though when the seeing is poor. It's sometimes hard to take the frame before the seeing changes!

Andrew s said: Pending a new thread. Taking the definition of empty magnification as making the image scale such that the images highest resolution components are over sampled by the eye (I.e. the eye could fully resolve it at a lower magnification) then if the illumination is high enough and the atmosphere steady enough then there should be no issue. Andrew. Regarding the illumination being high enough, this is what I think of myself as meaning 'empty magnification' . I have discussed this issue with Mike several times. I'm sure Mikes DZ will, on nights of excellent seeing, be capable of 'taking' magnification even higher than the x500 Mike has already used on Venus with this scope. For me at least, even with the superb optics of the DZ, at x500 power on a planet, with my aging eyesight the image would be too dim for me to pick out some features which I may pick up at x250 or so with no problem. This is why, my preference is for a SW 120ED to any of the FC 100mm refractors, the 120 providing me the opportunity to work with higher magnifications than I could with the 100 mm scope. In passing, the theoretical better resolution of the 120 is of no account, as I don't often get sub-arc second seeing unfortunately at home. Also the superior quality of the Tak optics would probably beat the practical resolution of the SW optic when the seeing is particularly good anyway. I'd be interested to hear what others think about this.

More in hope than anything else, I set up the 120ED in the observatory at 7.45 pm. Whilst participating in the Clap for Carers with my wife, youngest daughter and our neighbours at 8pm I glanced upwards and saw the first quarter Moon high in the South peeping out from the cloud. After we had finished our vote of appreciation I rather lost my dignity in a mad rush up the side of the house to get to the observatory at the back of the house. I was set up with the Olympus E-M5 Mk11 on the 120ED with the Moon playing hide and seek with the clouds. In all, as it turned out, I only had eight minutes before a large bank of ominous dark cloud engulfed the Moon from the South and ended the session. I had time to take a few pics of which one is below. The fold out camera screen can magnify the prime focus image by x14. With an effective focal length of 1800mm (the focal length of the scope, x900, multiplied x2 because of the sensor size) this gives a magnification of x36 x14 giving a final magnification of x504. This is not only a good mag to focus with, but it's good enough to 'observe' whilst taking my pics. It was a very impressive terminator. Among other features, E Mare Imbrium, Deslandres, Maginus and Moretus were all very well placed. Alas because of the abrupt finish to the session I didn't have time to use the binoviewer which would have been even better. The Moon was 49.6% illuminated and 7.71 days old. The single frame below was taken at 8.27 pm, 1/250 sec at 400 asa. The close-up images are crops of the same frame.

Excellent for hand held shots Mike. Move over Peachy I say! The Celestron neXYZ phone holder mentioned by Stu is the one I have and mentioned to you earlier.

I was lucky to have a clear break this evening, dodging light cloud until it finally completely clouded up again at 8.50 pm. Stofler and Maurolycus was well placed along with the area to the immediate South, including Licetus with Cavier adjacent to it to the South. Both shadow field with only the W wall of Licetus illuminated - making the pair look rather like a keyhole. The single frame below was taken at 8.23 pm, SW 120ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/125 sec at 400 asa. The crop is of the area mentioned above.

Or even worse for Mike, the 120 DZ 😊

You've already got it!

Delighted the DZ arrived safely Mike. it's been hard work giving you bereavement counceilling since the DC went out the door! You're a top-notch observer Mike and you deserve a top-notch telescope. If anyone can get the best out of it, you can. I'll look forward to seeing plenty more drawings from you. I think it looks fabulous. The longer dew shield makes it look much better as does the more chunky finder. The only way I think it could be enhanced is if you use your artistic skills to give it a nice SW Black Diamond livery 😀. I've just got to be careful when I phone you up now. It would be terrible if Chris answered the phone and I forgot myself and asked how you are getting on with your new scope! 😵

Don't worry Mike, I won't be replacing the 80ED any time soon. Mind you, you said that about your DC and now it's history 🤣.

You obviously just looked at my pics and didn't actually read my post Mike 😀.

Many thanks Stu. It did look lovely didn't it. I rather like colour pics when the Moon is low in the sky, it often has a nice warm colour to it, compared with the rather starker colour when it's higher in the sky.

I was lucky to have some clear sky at the right time in the right part of the sky this evening. Lovely with Venus hanging above the Moon. Seeing wasn't great, with the Moon down to 15 degrees altitude when I took the single frame below at 9.14 pm. It was taken using the SW 80ED, Olympus E-M5 Mk11, 1/5 sec at 250 asa.

I think the most useful advice regarding any ad, where ever it appears is, "If something looks too good to be true, it probably is."

2017 had slipped my mind Mike, unlike the occasion all those years ago 😄