Merak

Last night it stayed clear longer than the previous session of 5 minutes. Shifts had taken it out of me this week so was only going to stay out for 20-30 mins or so. Started of with The Moon, this time bumping up the magnification to 428x. First time I've actually tried such powers and on the limb, details took on a 3D type effect. Will certainly try it again. Went on to look at a few doubles and open clusters, one of which - NGC7610 would've been a nice (easy)one to sketch. Perhaps next time. Another one of note was NGC1502 in Camelopardalis, with 2 of the stars contained with it like a pair a celestial cats eyes. In the end, a 20-30 minute session turned in to over 1 and a half hours. Now to address the 8-13mm eyepiece gap....

Me "Ah it's clear, let's get the scope out for the first time in ages". Ten minutes later: it clouds over. Pic taken with phone through Svbony 3-8mm ep @ 8mm. Mark

Get both!

Apart from a quick look at Jupiter and Uranus, it was mostly open clusters for me. M48 was quite nice to look at, shame it was rather low down amongst the murk.

Have you had a look at the StellaMira 80mm f/6.25 from FLO? At 15" with the dewshield retracted it would fit in a reasonable sized backpack. I'm sure there must be someone on the forum who has used one? In any case, there are a few options out there. I guess if you're taking it out in a backpack, a smaller lighter scope would be handy because you could use a smaller and lighter mount + tripod. Mark

Yes, it seems in part to have turned in to an astro equivalent of bald men arguing over a comb. The mods/admin can close or delete the thread.

I have thought about getting a seestar but that'll have to wait because I've been told that we need a new sofa...

Thanks for the comments. Another thing is those of us working shifts - it seems that some of the decent nights have coincided with when I've had to work - most frustrating! Surely 2024 can't be any worse?

Has anyone kept a log of how many clear nights there have been versus previous years? Location might play a part but this year it seems that it hasn't been that great for clear nights. Cheers, Mark

I use the Skywatcher 6x30 finder and Tak diagonals with mine. On the other side of the cradle on the photo thread screw is a smartphone holder so I can use Astrohopper - this works quite well on a manual altaz mount. I had to add a washer to get the holder at the right angle. I use it on a az4 at the moment but in the future, a mount with slo-mo controls would be nice. I wouldn't mind a microfocuser and the baader clicklock back but I'm in no rush for those.

Just had a play with it in the 76 and as you've mentioned above, no issues with the tak diagonal. 3mm(190x) a bit too much magnification tonight on both Jupiter and Saturn, somewhere between 4mm(142.x5) and 5(114x) would've been the sweet spot on this occasion. I didn't spend too long looking because I was getting backache hunched over the eyepiece looking at Jupiter whilst it's up high - I need to either get an extension for the mount or an observing chair. Edit: I took another look at Jupiter and in the moments of steadier seeing Jupiter looked pretty good with a fair bit of detail. Unless my mind was playing tricks, the GRS had some subtle colour to it. I don't have any other eyepieces to directly compare it to in its range so I can't comment on how it fares against other. I can't rule out buying other eyepieces in the future but the 3-8 will do me for a while.

This arrived today. Even though 'her majesty' has been in all day, Royal Fail decided to leave it on the doorstep - she never heard anyone knock.

I have the Tak diagonal and I believe it may be an issue. In any case, the eyepiece has arrived, hopefully we'll have clear skies this year!

Scrolling through the thread again reminds me that I have to get a parfocal ring to prevent any risk of it hitting the prism in my diagonal......

You can never have too many refractors......