Davesellars

Expanding my astronomy library... Just received a used (like new) copy of Atlas of the Night Sky by Storm Dunlop. Since I've just got into lunar observation and peeked my interest considerably I mainly purchased this as it has quite an extensive section for the Moon and maps illustrated by Antonin Rukl since his book, Atlas of the Moon is a ridiculous price. Also winging its way here is the 21st Century Atlas of the Moon (Charles Wood).

It has been clear most of the day here until 5 / 6 ish... then true to form it clouded over. I got the 80mm refractor out for a very brief session around 10:30pm but was frustrating with so many clouds.... Then it cleared over completely at midnight!

I have the Stephen James O'Meara books: The Messier Objects, Hidden Treasures, and The Secret Deep which have fantastic observation notes and sketches that were made with a 4" instrument (however from very dark skies), apart from The Secret Deep which he switched to a 5" telescope. While i can't replicate his skies I can get a little closer with using a 12" dob and the techniques he employs using different powers for observing different areas of an object. Another I use extensively is the Interstellarum Deep Sky Guide.

It's completely clear here but the transparency is absolutely awful... Not worth setting up at the moment.

That was brave - using the dob in this wind!!!

Had an hour or so out with the 80ED on the EQ5 as it's extremely windy with some very strong gusts. Moon was really nice at 120x with the 5mm Pentax XW - seeing seemed ok but probably helped by the small aperture giving a nice sharp view. Spent the time exploring around Mason / Plana - noticing and interesting valley or ridge coming from Mason B down to Grove. Also around Posidonius able to detect easily Posidonius C and just about Rimae Posidonius cutting through the crater. The whole area between this and Mare Crisium seemed really nicely illuminated able to make many details in the surface. Hoping the wind is going to die down some and I'll get the 120ST out later for some DSOs!

Chromatic abberation (CA) is only an issue on bright objects like the Moon and planets - however for deep sky objects CA is irrelevant. At a decently dark site a 5" (or thereabouts) refractor will be excellent for DSOs. I have made many good observations with my Skywatcher 120ST and that's at bortle 5 (which is far from brilliant) - for sure your rural site is much darker! Now, at f/5 the scope has CA - I don't care at all about this as this scope is purely for DSOs for when I want a quick session or the conditions are not suitable for when lugging the dob out (wind is not dobsonian friendly!) For planets and lunar - sure it's not good unless you like a blue / violet fringe around the objects however if you use a mask to restrict the aperture from 120mm to say 80mm then that will be quite effective to rectify a reasonable portion of CA. I use it on an AZ4 alt/az or EQ5 mount which is very stable indeed. The other "budget" option I would recommend as a better general stargazing scope would be the SW Evostar 120mm - this weighs a bit more than the 120ST but because of its length I don't think I'd be comfortable with it on the AZ4 - it would be just too much I think. On the EQ5 however it would be really solid. The evostar would also be quite a bit more eyepiece "friendly" at f/8.3 meaning lower price eyepieces will work much better than an f/5 scope. I don't have any experience of the EQ3/2 mount (which is quite a bit cheaper) - i doubt that this would be any more solid that the AZ4 though especially as the legs are the aluminium ones instead of the steel legs. The EQ5 and 120 Evostar is not quite as portable though as the 120ST / AZ4 solution. There's never going to be a perfect solution so try not to get into paralysis analysis thinking and attempting to do it. Planets aren't really visible until later on in the year so perhaps you could make a DSO scope more of a priority and look for a long focal length solution for planets later on...

If you're able to fit it in to the car OK how about the StellaLyra 8" f/6 Dobsonian ? I'd recommend this model over the Skywatcher 8" dob as it has a RACI finder (although for the price difference between the two you could buy the RACI as well), much better focuser and also a base which allows adjustment of the balance of the tube. Another accessory I heartily recommend though with a dob is a Rigel QuikFinder which makes for easy star-hopping (then honing in with the 50mm finder...)

Depends what the scope it is is or dealing with dew on eyepieces? I've found that preventative action is preferable to dealing with once it's dewed up. I do have a battery that I used considerably more when I had my 8" SCT for a heated dew-shield as that thing was just impossible to keep dew at bay otherwise and I was observing in a particularly damp area. Now I use it for the worst of nights with a small dew-strip mainly for the finder eyepiece and occasionally to dry an eyepiece if dew has caught it. However, I use a preventative measure of keeping the eyepieces in a closed Peli case when not in use, Since my oberserving style is changing eyepieces reasonably frequently - I hardly ever have to dry off dew on an eyepiece. My 60mm finder can pretty much go all night without dewing up as I put a home-made dewshield from some foam on it. For my refractors had a similar solution until I lost them - however these normally get used for shorter sessions anyway but I could use one again for the 120mm ST anyway. My 12" dob primary mirror has never ever dewed up... The secondary will dew up if the it's quite bad (again I resolved the issue previously with a home-made foam dewshield which again got lost in the house move). I need to get a new one sorted out as this does cut short my sesssions at times!

Michael, I'm sure you'll appreciate the extra light gathering of the 12". For me, going from an 8" SCT to the 12" dob was quite a revelation and has allowed me to see quite a bit more as long as there is good enough transparency in the air. I'm really after a planetary scope. My 120ST is awesome for DSOs on those nights when the dob isn't a good idea (for a short session or it's too windy etc) and I have the 80ED which while it's very sharp is not quite enough aperture for planets and lunar to make it really interesting. So I'm hoping to upgrade before the end of the year to a 4 to 5" ED refactor.

Sky Safari lets you create lists (and import / export) and make note of observations. It also has quite a few standard object lists which are useful to start. One of its best features (for me) is the way you can set up equipment for your scope and eyepieces and display the exact FOV on the map which helps immensely for star-hopping to DSOs.

Nice session and mix of targets! The Eskimo nebula would be a great target for your C8 where you get a lot more magnification on it which would be more likely to tease out the central detail. It definitely doesn't need any filter. Abell 21 (Medusa nebula) Interstellarum Deep Sky Guide has this needing an OIII filter but possible with a 4" - However, its reference is using a dark sky! As it looks very diffuse I think this would be very difficult in anything above Bortle 4. However, I'll have to try it next time with the 12" dob!

Session Date: 29th - 30th Jan, 2022 Time: 9pm - 2:15am Scope: 120ST Transparency: Excellent Somehow, magically it cleared slowly from storm Malik from the early evening. By 8pm the skies were pristine but there was still a good wind (too much for the dob) so I set out the 120ST on the EQ5 (which I hadn't used in years). I'd just received my "fix" to a nearby LED lamp which while does not intrude its light overly on to my property nor lights the sky plays havoc with my dark adaption. A washing line, Three 2.7m washing line props and a 6m x 1.5m green heavy duty tarpaulin and some clips later I'd managed to fully block out the offending light. What a difference!!! I'd previously used a large parasol on its side which worked a little bit to block the worst out - Now no more needing to shield my eyes constantly away from that area or going to change my EP. With a hood to help as well from any other sources I was able to get really quite well dark adapted during the session. NGC 1788 (reflection nebula in Orion) - Getting this one first as it was perfectly positioned at the start of the session. It had caught me out before as it's considerably smaller than I expected. Surrounding the mag 10 star is a small patch of nebulosity that could be held with averted vision almost like a slightly unfocused star but a touch irregular with the 7mm Pentax XW. There was no further extension to the nebulosity or with a lower power (10 and 14mm Delos). So, warming up with some easy targets but spent quite a bit of time with each... M42 - With the 10 and 14mm Delos considerable structure to the nebulosity. There is so much to this nebula - I see something different every time I view it! The wings were very extended and prominent. M43 easily seperated by the dark lane between it and M42. M31 / M32 / M110 - Awesome with the 10mm Delos the core and dust extended dust filling the FOV. M32 bright and large with quite and extension to surrounding the main core. M110 also was directly visible. Moving down power to the 17.3mm Delos showed M32's core quite brighter and disinct however at the loss of most of the remainder of the galaxy. M33 - This is my litmus test for indicating the sky quality particularly the transparency as anything other than very good just washes out the galaxy completely as it has no really bright core to speak of. The 10mm Delos again showed this was immediately visible. A large patch of dust with vaguely angular look. The 14mm gave a touch more brightness to the central region but losing out some extension to the nebula and really needing averted vision to then bring some out. M51 - was a touch low down but showed both cores easily enough. Nothing more distinct. That area of the sky looked to be a touch brighter as well which wasn't helping obviously. It was time to return to a target I'd viewed some weeks ago with the dob as I wanted to attempt this with the much wider view of the 120ST... NGC 2239 Rosette Nebula (bright nebula in Monoceros) - With no filter I could make out a very vague nebulosity around the cluster region however with the OIII this was immediately obvious. To the left (refractor view) side I could easily make a out a large chunk of dark area cutting into the nebula with the other side showing a very distinct dark lane. The top left showing perhaps the brightest area of the neblula although I could not really distinguish the smaller dark lanes. With the OIII filter I went through numerous eyepieces (10, 14, 17.3mm Delos) before settling on a 32mm BC Plossl with the Baader OIII rather than the Astronomik OIII. The structure with this combiniation certainly was the extra light was required for the narrow band of the filter. I also tried the UHC - while this still showed nebulosity it was very much diminished. NGC 2024 Flame nebula (nebula in Orion) - Every night I try for this and most times I fail... Anyway, tonight I had a fleeting glimpse. After trying numerous eyepieces the UHC filter has before shown me something of this so I tried again. The 17.3 Delos seemed not to be capturing enough light with a filter so I went to the 32mm but this was too much. I don't have a good EP inbetween these focal lengths anymore for some reason I sold my Panoptic 24mm Anyway, I found a 25mm plossl that comes with the Skywatcher scopes (which aren't too bad actually!) and used this with the UHC. This seemed to be a good combination of EP focal length and the filter performance and I glimpsed the flame. It was fleeting and I managed to get some sense of it being there after but not quite with the same clarity. What a difficult nebula! About 11:30 I moved on to Leo as I had some galaxies from the Herschel 400 pending there... The additional dark adaption I was able to get proved critical on some of these... The first three are fairly close together NGC 3686 (mag 11.43 galaxy in Leo) - Averted vision only and with the 7mm Pentax XW, although the Delos 10mm a glimpse was very slight the extra power from the Pentax enabled the galaxy to be held slightly in more vision. Very small slighly elongated very faint I think this was reaching the very limit of 120mm aperture with my sky darkess. I'd like to come back to this one later on with the dob at some point as I failed on the next one... NGC 3655 (mag 11.7 galaxy in Leo) - I tried hard on this but going by was 3686 required that touch less extra magnitude (although it is half the size) seemed to undo me. NGC 3626 (mag 11 galaxy in Leo) - definitely easier than NGC 3686. Very faint direct vision however averted vision really seemed to bring this one out with the 10mm Delos. Some extension to the core with an obvious angle of the galaxy's core. Just after midnight I went in for a cup of tea and warm the toes... Reasonably low lighting only to try to maintain some dark adaption. Back out after the mid session interval... I looked to Leo again which was really now favourably placed NGC 3640 (mag 10.4 elliptical galaxy in Leo) - Very diffuse galaxy and needed averted vision to observe using the 10mm Delos. NGC 3521 (mag 9.1 spiral galaxy in Leo) - Wow, this was quite a shock to the eye after the previous small and very faint galaxies. This has real size and very bright! With the Delos 10mm the angle of the spiral and very faint region of the arms (some mottling) seemed to appear against the very bright core that was better defined with the 14mm Delos. I definitely recommend observing this galaxy and will have this on my list for the next time I'm out with the 12" dob. NGC 3810 (10.7 mag spiral galaxy in Leo) - After the visual pleasure of 3521, this was quite the disappointment. Small and difficult averted vision required to hold in view no detail could be described. NGC 2903 (mag 8.85 spiral galaxy in Leo) - Yes! That's more like it again... Reasonably large and very obvious elongated core with some structure and possibility of arms just about discerned with averted vision with the 10mm Delos. Again, quite a visual treat to complete the Leo galaxies I'd had planned and once again I'll come back to this with the 12" dob (fingers crossed for a great transparent night soonish! Now Ursa Major was quite a bit higher around 2am I looked back to M101 to complete the night. Very slight, the core area with the faintest of subtlety around the central region with averted vision. I looked around for a while and notcied the faint whiff of very high clouds.. In the next 10 minutes those got heavier and that was that - play stopped. 9 sessions this month!!! Let's hope February gives as good...

Just got in from a 5 hour session (as high clouds rolled in stopping play) with the 120ST. It was a bit too windy for the dob however it seemed to calm down completely at midnight. Transparency was great.

The transparency last night was the best I've seen it this year - truly excellent. I wasn't feeling 100% though so instead of the dob I opted to take the 120ST with a BCO 10mm and 32mm (as my finder) in my pocket out on to park next to me where I wouldn't be impeded by a streetlight to attempt NGC 1788 - a reflection nebula in Orion. . Unfortunately I didn't take out my iPad for SkySafari reference and ended up looking a little bit too low. It was one of those time where I should have taken out my S&T pocket atlas! Anyway, M42 looked superb with the 10mm and the running man was also easily visible. M31 (just visible naked eye) really showed a good area of dust in the 32mm and almost filled out the 10mm. I switched to binoculars for an easier tour around without any real targets in mind. I revisted M31 and then on to M33 which rather unexpectedly showed a patch of light but no detail. The milky way was easily visible naked eye last night and could followed from Gemini through to Cassiopeia. The double cluster was stunning and just above that the area around the Heart & Soul nebula really showed extensive structure and a kind of density to it with the bins although difficult to say if I was seeing any nebulosity against the background of the milky way. Plieades was obviously a great view but could not discern any nebulosity.

Contrary to the forecast. it's really quite clear at the moment. Just been out with the family to catch a view of the ISS pass over very favourably in view (61 degrees max) and very bright. With binoculars it was quite easy to make its shape. Some nice binocular targets - Pleiades and Orion and back in as with the wind it was absolutely freezing out there!

Agreed. Unfortunately I sold my Skywatcher 120ED a few years ago (had excellent optics as well!) - I regret doing that now...

Thanks Stu! Sorry... some of the reports are longish reading! I'd love to have a 16" but just not really feasbile at the moment - I have to get mine out of conservatory and lug it out up a few steps - i certainly wouldn't want to do that with anything larger than the 12".

Ah, good to know it's possible - I suspect though your 127mm at f9.3 shows considerably less CA to content with than my 120ST at f/5, However, I shall have to give it another when the seeing is very good!

It's "clear" but wow absolutely terrible transparency (I can barely see Orion's sword) - it seemed that was going to be case late afternoon with a white haze hanging in the sky. Perhaps the moon will be better if the seeing is actually good. I'm pretty wiped out after last night's session though so may just have a quick look with the 120ST (as the 80D is currently out of service due to a dodgy focuser).

Session Date: Jan 19th 2022 Scope: 12" Dob. Part 1 Observing time: 6pm - 9pm Transparency: very good (1) Ceres (mag 8.1 Dwarf Planet) - starting with something relatively bright M31/M32/M110 - Really showing well tonight! M31 large and extended covering the entirety of the Delos 17.3 eyepiece. M32 showing up like a beacon to one side and M110 easily visible direct vision - determined from this that the transparency was actually pretty good. Right.. down to work with some faint stuff before the Moon makes an appearance to advance on the Herschel 400 NGC 1055 (mag 10.6 edge-on spiral galaxy in Cetus) - OK... way to start with a very difficult one! Easy to find its position below a mag 6.7 and 7.6 stars close together, With the 10mm Delos, this was requiring complete dark adaption for some time and averted vision to spy a small elongated patch. It was very dim and will attempt this one again to see if I can get more out of this edge-on spiral. M77 (Mag 9 barred-spiral galaxy in Cetus) - just nudging the scope a touch from NGC 1055 is this wonderful galaxy! After the previous one, this was showing up extremely bright hit you in the eye with the 10mm Delos. Extremely bright core probably needing even more power to draw out some detail, however the 10mm Delos did show some faint extension which I assume to be bright arms (checked afterwards this was the case). NGC 936 (mag 10.22 barred-spiral galaxy in Cetus) - reasonable size with the 10mm Delos bright enough elongated core which I assumed to be the bar. With further dark adaption and some averted vision picked up a wisp of the arms. NGC 1535 (mag 9.39 planetary nebula in Eridanus) - Using directly the 10mm Delos no colour was seen but the disk of the planetary was very bright. Could not really determine any structure with this nebula NGC 278 (mag 10.85 spiral galaxy in Cassiopeia) - small direct vision galaxy quite bright but very compact perhaps discerning a little extension from the core with averted vision. NGC 1788 (unknown mag medium size refection nebula in Orion) - Well, this was punishing... I spent a good 20 minutes at least on this alone with the 17.3mm and the 10mm Delos getting as dark adapted as possible, averted vision tricks etc - this one would not really show up. The best I can say is there was a the faintest of an occasional glimpse in the same area. I will repeat this observation another night. Referring to Interstellarum Deep Sky Guide this looks to be much more ghostly and extensive than I expected. Requires darker conditions as was probably showing due to the moon starting to make an appearance. The moon was just starting to come to play lighting up the east region of the sky. The zenith was still nice and dark though.. NGC 1502 (mag 6.9 open cluster in Camelopardalis) - On the route to NGC 1501 (below) is this lovely cluster. Hardest part was getting to this in the first place with a dob pointing pretty much straight up! Mainly mag 9.5 to 10.5 stars in the Delos 10mm showing good brightness across the entire cluster. NGC 1501 (mag 11.89 planetary nebula in Camelopardalis) - No colour here it was quite visible directly though with no filter required. However with the astronomik OIII this nebula really stood out reminding me a little bit of a very small fuzzier version of the ring nebula as the nebula showed a distinct ring, darker centre and central star which just about showed through the nebulosity. Intriguing object - I changed over to the Baader OIII filter which has quite a more limited bandwidth pass for the OIII line. The contrast was certainly improved for the outer ring nebulosity but at sacrifice to the central region which just dimmed losing and structure. M42 - I viewed this about 3 times during the session (at the start once it had cleared sufficiently a tree, mid session and at the end with the Moon having risen in the same area. The structure of the nebula was stunning with the 17.3 Delos at the start when there was absolutely no moon - an incredibly 3D like view with considerable extension to the wings. At 9pm I just put the cap on the dob and went in to warm up and have something to eat before letting the Moon rise sufficiently. Part 2 Observing time: 10:30pm - 12:15 Seeing: good to excellent but very inconsistent I have to say I didn't expect observing the Moon to be so much fun! My second dedicated time on the Moon I was starting to get the hang of it... I learnt to relax and spend minutes at the eyepiece keeping both eyes open was a revelation keeping out stray light my covering the open eye with my hood, suddenly a lot more details would appear and I could spend considerably more time at the eyepiece and just take it in. Like this, more surface details would appear and I could take advantage of the wavering seeing conditions (at brief times it would be truly excellent and others a mess) I realised that power was actually not conducive to getting detail on the surface of the Moon after changing from the 4mm (300x) back to a BCO 10mm (150x) and then settling on a 7mm Pentax for 214x. It was contrast that significantly more important to getting to the detail - the dimming affect from being over-powered did not allow me to see more and in fact details were often quite lost in the process particularly in areas that were not at the terminiator. The 10mm BCO was one of those take the breath away moments - when actual colour seemed to come apparent and it wasn't actually just a grey ball of light. The 7mm also maintained a reasonable amount but I felt this power was better suited and did not lose any detail through the seeing conditions. Mare Crisium - This was just perfect illumination with the back of the crater dissapearing into blackness and the edges of the "cliffs" either side of this highlighted magnificently showing considerable detail. Yerkes E resembles a tadpole with its "tail" that then connects into Yerkes. Cleomedes standing out to the side of Mare Crisium showed considerable depth to it. Petavius - Again, perflectly illuminated - the central mountain area showing considerable stirations and irregularity. The cleave through from the centre to the edge of the crater showed a real depth giving an impression of considerable lava flow from the supposed volcanic activity from this area. Furnerius - With the depth of illumination and show the craterlets showed easily (numerous to the north (dob view) of the crater. Demonax (i think) - This was difficult to determine that this was the actual crater and some of the around it because it was directly on the edge of the terminator... At the very edge looking across the moon, the sheer elevation of these crater cliffs could be seen as from outside of the crater. Spectacular would be an understatement. Plato - not easy because of the lack of contrast however at the better seeing moments I could at least see two of the central craterlets. Hadley Rille - It took me a little while to gain visual knowledge of the area starting from Mons Hadley and getting a good visualisation of the Mons Hadley Delta consistently and following the mountain line up until the white area ends. After getting this and with the Pentax 7mm for 214x at the times of excellent seeing (staying at the eyepiece for a good while..) the "river" of the Hadley Rille was easily apparent running upwards ending in much deeper fissured area. After I had done this once, I was able to repeat again much more easily directly. Some mountains to directly south (dob view) where the very tips were only apparent from inside the shadow. I think this may be the Gauss / Hahn region - but I am not sure. It was pretty difficult for me to teart myself away but it's a school night So... wrapped up at 12:15 to clear up. Almost 5 hours of observing and the 7th session this month which is incredible!

Just come in from viewing the Moon. Like John, Petavius was one of the highlights of the session. Also easily managed to see the Hadley Rille. Seeing was at times excellent but was quite sporadic.

Had a great session from 6 to 9pm on various DSOs and also Ceres into the bargain. Just waiting for the Moon to rise a touch more and will give it a go... Really clear tonight and the transparency was not too shoddy either! Seems to be getting a bit more dewy out there at the moment as I just checked the scope over so maybe a quick session on the moon to finish off the night.

Well done Stu! That's a really great job, especially capturing it on camera with a dob! I really wanted to see if I could observe this but unfortunately the one night it decides to cloud over (thin high clouds mostly) was this night (typical).

Thanks Dave! , the Moon will not be intrusive until around 7ish so may have an hour or so of decently dark skies to start off at least.