StarSapling

I haven't read any reviews of the Celestron 20x80's, but here is my personal experience with them: I've had a pair of Zhumell 20x80's for several years and love them. They only cost me around $110 and perform perfectly. On a good night, I can split the trapezium with them! A few years back, I thought that I had damaged them using the projection method to observe the Sun, so I thought I would get another pair. Back in the 80's, I always had good experiences with Celestron products, so decided to purchase a pair of their 20x80's. Boy, was I disappointed! Their performance was no

Nice catch. At least there was some faculae showing on the limb.

Nice image. Thanks for posting it. It confirmed that I did indeed glimpse the HH last night with my 120mm f5 refractor.

In the winter months, I use my ability to split A & B, with my 20x80's, as a test for seeing conditions. If I can split them with the bins, I know it is a great night to split doubles with my frac.

On most night around here, I can see both M81 and M82 with my 8x42's.

When the seeing if very good, I can just split A & B (8.7") with my 20x80's.

Great image. Thanks for posting it. Your image confirms what I have been observing visually.

Over the last couple of weeks of observing Venus, I have been noticing what I call bright cusp caps at both cusps. The southern cusp cap appears to be about twice the size of the northern one, and both cusp caps appear to have dusky borders. But this is Venus and I'm never 100% certain of what I'm seeing.

Awesome!

More excellent sketches. Very similar to what I'm observing through my 90mm, except I have yet to definitely see a white oval. I especially like how you did not over emphasize the GRS, a lot of sketcher's (including myself) tend to do that.

Excellent.

I caught a quick glimpse of Mercury Saturday evening. I believe (very low, and Mercury has fooled me before) I could make out a gibbous phase at 142x through my 90mm.

My 10" Dob is thirty years old this year and still going strong!

Excellent report, and your attitude regarding your current equipment is spot on. Years ago, when I first got started, I made the mistake of giving in too quickly to "aperture fever". I've recently gone back to using smaller aperture instruments again and find myself observing much more. You could spend the rest of your observing life with your 130mm and not see everything it could reveal to you.

Excellent report. I'll be visiting the Puppis region tonight, weather permitting.

Looks great to me. My advice (which I need to follow myself): Sketch, Sketch, Sketch

I'm really starting to love the little Bushnell 6x30 bins I recently purchased. I got them primarily to help with starhopping as the finder scopes on my telescopes are 6x30. With their light weight, large field of view and low magnification, they provide a hand held view that is almost as steady as the view through my 10x50's mounted on a tripod. Last night, the sky here was cloudy with a few passing sucker holes, so I didn't feel like setting up my 20x80's on their P-mount. Instead, I decided to use the 6x30's and see what the passing sucker holes would reveal. I go

Fantastic!

In addition to Titan, with your Mak, you should be able to detect four additional Saturn moons. The Sky & Telescope website has an app that will tell you which is which. You will probably have to wait until Saturn is higher in the sky though.

The Hatfield Lunar Atlas.

Tapping the Scope - Old School - Poor Man's Adaptive Optics

Great report. Your Fox encounter reminds me of the time I was observing while wearing sandals, and felt something wet touching my toes. I turned on my red head lamp, looked down and there was this huge skunk licking my toes!

A great sketch.

I caught the tail end of the event by accident last night. One of the moons had just cleared the western limb, and the other was a tiny white disk, closely followed by its shadow, just about to pass off the western limb. Add a well placed GRS to the mix, and it was quite a splendid sight.

Excellent report.