jetstream

These are some seriously good images Avani, great work!

I observed the moon a couple of days ago with the TSA120/2.4mm HR and at .32mm exit pupil the image was superb. With binos the low power views were stunning as well up to about 250x. The HR's unleash the power of this telescope...

Yes, Astrosystems built it, same as my 15"- which is excellent. You have a fine telescope Singlin! I find the features in these to be VG such as the filter slide and the all important mirror cell. The sec holder is top tier and the 15" holds collimation superbly.

Well its almost here and in the final stages of assy, can't wait to try it out.

My feeling is that the Vixen HR's are going to be superb on Saturn, possibly the best out there. Not to say they won't excel on everything else. They also split stars amazingly well IMHO.

Sounds all good members! I eagerly wait the reports reflecting these dark skies!

Estwing and I share the same experience...this object is tough and underwhelming. Good luck Paul, your going to need it

As you observe these nebula often-yes keep going back over and over- you will see more and more. Once your "nebula eyes" are at or near their limit you will then be limited by the sky, not to say that the sky won't limit you now. I see the nebula as you describe with no filter. With the UHC I see the shape as a shade, but with mottling in a beautiful array of stars. There is a base structure of mottling with more popping in and out of view, similar to holding a threshold target for seconds and then it disappears only to reappear. I see the Crescent nebula outline very well with the interior full of very fine filaments in my 15"/OIII/UHC and I can see the brightest portion of the shell-a short spike- with no filter in direct vision. Under very good skies your 10"/Lunt 20mm/UHC will show a smaller version as described above with the filaments visible but harder to see, at leat my 10" shows it this way. Question- how many stars (roughly) do you see under "boomerang" of the Flaming Star? You are doing very well and you are going to be limited by your skies.

Great report Neil and congrats for seeing the Flaming Star!

GSO 12mm plossl, Baader Q barlow?

Congrats for a fine session in a dark sky! This is hugely important and also a bit of an issue for me here- at these cold temps there are times the ice crystals just keep coming, reducing my SQM. I think this ice lights up the sky more than normal moisture, dust etc as it really reflects light.I can be down up to .4mag from optimum because of this. Great observation Paul!

Great that you got it working! yes, best to wait until conditions improve before going out and once they do I'm eagerly waiting your reports, these telescopes have quite a following actually. They show the moon really well too, what eyepieces do you have?

Thanks Shaun, is there a gold one next to it? Stellarium doesn't name it but I think this is the right place-thanks btw!

Crisp and clear right now at -35c, no wind yet and with ice crystals precipitating out of the air reducing transparency a hair. The 15" was enlisted with the Binotron 27's/32mm TV plossls to go for a Horse Head try with no filter. Using the 1.3x on the powerswitch Alnitak was brought into the FOV and swung over to the Flame neb which showed segmented so onto the HH. It showed weakly in the binos but it did show Out with the binos in with the 20mm Lunt HDC- the HH appeared better in this EP and that much better with the UHC. Observing the Double Cluster I noticed a really nice golden (carbon?) star above a dark lane in the upper cluster, next to the core - anyone know what star this is?

Great post John, I just got in from viewing M42 and what I now know as the "cliff", all very bright tonight with the cliff starkly bordering that swirling mass of green.