Davesellars

Great report and account of the night! It's always a pleasure to share our hobby with family. Those were some really good targets for a tour of the night sky! Well done!

A really great report Steve! I'm sure truly dark skies makes the world of difference and well worth the petrol... it sounds like a good site - I've been up to Keswick many times although before I really got into astronomy . I can think of a few good accessible places - in fact I believe there's a campsite close(ish) to the stone circle location up there would be a great place for it.

Thanks Steve! The Baader OIII works very well in my 12" dob on certain objects and in fact I've found it boosting contrast significantly over the Astronomik OIII fairly recent with my observation of M27. However I think that you're correct in certain objects it is perhaps not beneficial because of this cut at that line. With my refractors normally the Astronomik filter is the better choice to bring out the maximum detail available for those apertures.

After the previous night's exceptional transparency, I had my hopes raised it would be similar. It had been a mix of clouds during the day but by late afternoon it gave ways to nice breaks of very clean blue sky. Around 10pm I set up in a corner of the back garden with the 120ST on the Alt/Az which was much more suitable for the Cygnus region where the North America nebula (NaN) would be my primary target fort the evening. Large wafts of clouds were still present but it was forecast to improve considerably around midnight and so I went back in for power nap. It cleared quite a bit in the end by 00:30 although some mid/low level clouds were still present. The transparency was again excellent easily seeing directly to mag 5 without any difficulty. I have previously given the NaN numerous attempts before without success, although I'd only attempted to use a Hbeta filter on it or no filter, half expecting a large cloud of nebulosity to be visible. It turns out, this is far from the case (especially in these skies anyway...) and that I'd been using the wrong filter. With the 32mm Baader Plossl I centred my position between Xi Cyg and 57 Cyg giving me theoretically an entire view of the nebula in the eyepiece FOV. First without any filter for comparison of what extra was going to be added that was not MW "background", fine stars predominate with numerous bright stars - it's really a fantastic open star cluster to view in its own right. Then placing in the Astronomik OIII, the star cloud diminshed and replaced with a nebulous activity. Immediately, I could distinguish the Gulf of Mexico shape that was sharply defined - indeed the lower lobe was relatively bright. Less sharply defined was the 57 Cyg side as the nebula faded in from blackness. I swapped out the Astronomik OIII for the Baader OIII which has a slightly narrower band-pass. This was almost too much for the remainder of the nebula apart from the brighter regions however the Gulf was very sharply defined with this. Swapping out for the Astronomik UHC filter, this was a different view again. Less defined but seemingly more of the main area of the nebula seemed to be apparent - Perhaps a touch of darker region splitting up the nebula into component parts however not defined well. Two very different views really and I could not say that the OIII nor the UHC provided a "better" view. I repeated with the 18mm BCO in place of the 32mm Plossl and found that this gave a really nice result with the Astronomik OIII around the gulf region now showing some distinct bright patches particularly on the western side. For the most part the remainder of the nebula diminished. Now I know what to look for, I shall look forward to pointing the extra light gathering power of the 12" dob on this target! I moved over slightly to the Pelican nebula however I could not see anything here. I think this may be more a target for the 12" dob. Moving to the Veil nebula with the 32mm Plossl initially with the Baader OIII, The Western Veil was very bright and there also seemed to be a hint of NGC 6974 (the middle bit). Switching to the BCO 18mm defined much more and up to the Eastern Veil, this was quite spectacular almost filling the view with an array of knots and twirls I never tire of viewing the Veil! With the 18mm BCO still in place I went to Pleiades. As it's a reflection nebula, no filter... The view with the BCO was quite something - The brightness of the stars almost making any nebulous viewing very difficult however it seemed obvious that a few nebulous "brighter" non distinct areas seemed to be apparent. Next up was M33. With the 18mm BCO this was in your face obvious large area almost filling the frame of 4 brighter stars. The central core was distinctly brighter but I could not make out any distinct arms. With the 10mm BCO a variability of brightness was easy to see in the face of the galaxy (still no arms) however the swirl of the core could definitely be seen. I finished up with the wonderful Double Cluster and was about to move over to the Heart / Soul nebulae when large clouds came over covering the entire sky. It was already close to 2:30am so decided to call it a night. As I was packing away, typically the cloud appeared to move off! Still, it had been a successful and productive evening and very happy to finally bag the North America Nebula!

Despite some clouds (low/mid level) the transparency was again very good. This time with the 120ST I bagged the North America nebula! Also a great view of the Veil nebula and also a faint nebulae in Pleiades. M33 was showing well tonight too.

Thanks! I think the NaN is probably a mixture of experience, transparency and sufficient darkness - but looks like the UHC / OIII filter will be required. Other reports seem to indicate this should be visible in Bortle 4 - 5 given the correct conditions with the filter - I think it may be more down to knowing what to look for more than anything. Hopefully we'll get another cracking night like that and I'll give it a go with the 120ST (for the widest view) armed with the filters...

Well, last night was a bit of a bonus.. Unfortunately, I was not able to take advantage of it fully... The small space we have in our back garden is filled at the moment with a pool (for the kids for the summer). The forecast was anything but good on ClearOutside however I noticed it clearing a touch around 11ish and then looked out again close to midnight to see Jupiter shining brilliantly. I popped the EQ5 out the back door into a small space with not a huge amount of manoeuvrability (enough South/East direction at least) and popped the Starfield 102ED on it with the binoviewers. Within 5 mins I was observing... The scope needed a touch to cool down and Jupiter possibly wasn't showing its best side but some nice detail of the belts was coming through occasionally - the seeing mediocre. It was enough though using my 18mm BCOs with 3x barlow effect to make a judgement call on the FOV that using 12.5mm orthos would give in respect to the time the planet would be travelling through the FOV until the mount needed a nudge with the slo-mo control. Anyway, after some time observing Jupiter the sky just kept getting better and better... The transparency around 1am was off the scale! The Milky Way was very clear with structure (and this is typically a Bortle 5 site) with M31 easily visible naked eye as well as the Double Cluster, The area around Deneb in Cygnus was dense in structure. Truly marvellous! Stars down to 5.2 magnitude direct vision so ~ 5.5 averted (ish). M33 first and with the 18mm BCO showed large nebulous blob without structure direct vision. A touch of averted vision seemed to distinguish some highlight of central structure coming through although it was always on the edge of vision. M31 next which filled the entire view with clear structure and M32 almost embedded in the cloud. M110 was surprisingly large with a bright core and extended area. On to something a touch more challenging for the aperture perhaps with M74 and I could swear I could a faint tiny patch in the 60mm finder... The 18mm BCO showed it cleanly - it didn't have any real brightness at the core and the galaxy and remained small however with some averted vision I could see a faint area of extension. Reminded me of a smaller version of M101. I probably should have tried the 10mm BCO with it which may have got a bit more detail out. Pleiades was next showing a very vague amount of nebulous activity around some regions which I could not affirm. The 18mm BCO however showing an incredible amount of sharpness and colour rendition - I really liked the orange / blue double star in the centre of this cluster. The 32mm Baader Plossl showed a good view getting the entire cluster in. I closed out with the 102ED on Mars with the 10mm BCO with a 2x barlow. The seeing still was not that good but I could easily make out a darker shape within the small disc of the planet. I finished with the 102ED and got the binoculars out (15x70) and scanned around. M33 was pretty much in your face and M31 filling the view nicely. I concentrated on the North American Nebula region - still trying to get a view of this! I am still not sure - it is so difficult to distinguish apart from the density of the stars in this area. The region where it's supposed to be was particularly dense with a "cloud" but I could not really discern any form or structure. I spent a good well scanning around the Milky Way region and called it a night close to 3am. Quite a bonus for a night that was supposed to be cloudy... Wish it was like that every night!!!

In the end I decided to go for the 12.5mm KK Fuyijama orthos. These are purely for planetary / lunar observation so decided this was most likely the best for the job although rather more expensive. After a bit of experimentation with sizing as well, the bridge of my nose rather interferes with anything larger (and not wanting to mess about de-cloaking).

Started out with Jupiter close to midnight with the 102ED as the sky started to clear nicely. After a couple of hours it was spectacularly transparent with some nice structure in the Milky Way so switched to viewing some DSOs.

@Ricochet That's awesome for the complete information and photo! many thanks. & @Don Pensack - Many thanks too. Good to know these will work OK. @Second Time Around Many thanks for zoom recommendation - It had me thinking and doing some research. I'm not sure about the SVBony ones as reviews suggest they rather lose out in contrast which is of critical importance for planetary observation, however the OVL Hyperflex seems to be much better so I'm considering that as the price is not too bad at £89 each. To be honest though as I've already got 119x covered with the 18mm BCOs I don't really need any other focal length until perhaps 15mm and below to perhaps max 10mm. Still, could be useful to have that range from 10 - 16mm! A concern with the zooms though would be getting them both at the same focal length setting with the binoviewer (since there's no click setting). I think the Starguiders are still "leading". The 12mm focal length also seems to have some good reviews and the comfort level is there (I don't wear glasses so I don't need massive eye relief) - I really like the idea of the 60 degree FOV over going for an ortho at 42 degrees I'll need to nudge much more constantly even if it may be a little sharper...

Thanks for the reply, however the BV nose won't fit directly in my 1.25" diagonal as the nose is very slightly oversized. I currently fit it into a TV 2" to 1.25" adapter and then into a 2" diagonal with a Celestron Omni 2x barlow element fixed on the the BV nose (thus giving 3x). This is really secure as well and so I don't really want to change this arrangement. I'm not really interested in zooms - half decent ones would be around £150 each. Basically, I've got it down to either the 12.5mm orthos or the 12mm BST Starguiders (the mount is untracked so perhaps the BST would be more suitable). I needed to check what these are actually like for lunar observing and sharpness for planetary observation.

I have the OVL //Skywatcher style binoviewers and have been getting on really well with the 18mm BCOs and using a 2x barlow element on the BV nose (gives me effectively 3x) and therefore 119x with the 102ED. This is a great combination and produced outstanding results so far on Jupiter! I'd like a bit more magnification particularly for lunar observation as well as Saturn and Jupiter to get to around 170-180x. So I've been looking at a few options already including 12.5mm orthos however, the BST Starguiders seem to get really good reviews with 60 degrees and proper eyecups would likely to be more comfortable for longer sessions. Does anyone have experience with these in BVs? Also, could someone check the diameter at the widest point of the eyepiece? Just to ensure that two EPs are going to fit OK. I have an IPD of 63mm. Many thanks in advance!

Nice! I was out this morning as well with the 80ED and binoviewers for my first proper solar session with them... 3088 and 3089 are quite something at the moment! in fact a huge amount of activity and structure around the sunspots cloud be seen - I use a 2x Celestron Omni barlow element on the BVs which gives 3x so I was working at approx 8.3mm eyepiece focal length. Binoviewing with solar WL is quite a revelation in the extra detail you can see.

Had a little while viewing Saturn with the 102ED and binoviewers then moving on to Jupiter but was clouded out after 10 mins. Some nice detail - the seeing was reasonable.

Last few years I was a in a similar position (although with 3 young children...). Mostly I just felt drained by the end of the day rather than lack of time! This year I've got back into it fully even though doing a Masters degree as well as my full time job and those 3 kids are still a drain on resources and time!).... I decided to "make" time though since the start of this year and won't start a session until the kids are asleep. There's not that many clear nights in the UK for it to be an effect on other things even if occasionally it's a ridiculously late night. In the other 95% of nights when it's cloudy I get on with my studies or work... Looks like you've got a fantastic setup there for quickly getting out and make the most of a clear night even it's only 15 or 30 mins! I've often had a few 15-30min sessions with the 80ED or 102ED setup quickly on the tripod. Great way to relax. My refractors get much more use than my 12" dob because of the time requirement.

I would definitely be doing this... RVO are actually based in Rotherham (close to Sheffield though) but it's probably only an hour's drive from Lincoln. Call them first and explain the situation to get an appointment to get it sorted out, install the Bobs Knobs and collimate. I've never had to get anything serviced by them yet but they've always given great sales service.

Last night I managed to get my binoviewers in to action with my new pair of 18mm BCOs together with a barlow effect of 3x power meant an effective eyepiece FL of 6mm and thus 119x with my 102ED. I'd put the scope out to cool and actually the temperature was dropping fairly rapidly but it was very dry with zero dew. Saturn first at around 11pm.... I'd aligned first with the 25mm Plossls in the binoviewer and for some reason I was getting a double image with the BVs.. after reseating the plossls however this seemed to be fixed - I suspect that they are quite bit more picky with having undercuts. After ensuring this I swapped out for the 18mm BCOs and a touch of fiddling was required loosening a touch one of the eyepiece holders which then presented a perfectly merged image. The seeing was a bit iffy with the planet being so low however being able to just stand there looking into the BVs for minutes on end rather than seconds mono-viewing meant I was able to take full advantage of the brief moments when the seeing stabilised sufficiently. The brighter cream central region was very clear as was the Cassini division in the moments of stability. At 119x, the planet is still quite bright and I felt that it would be beneficial with more power applied to tease out more detail in the bright rings especially. Actually, I was actually quite surprised at how large the planet seemed for only 119x power - it seems to be an illusion from using two eyes instead of one? I spent a good hour with Saturn marvelling at the sight which only seemed to get better with time. After a bit of a break from Saturn I waited for Jupiter to rise sufficiently and indeed at approx 00:45. My first sight of Jupiter with the BVs nearly knocked my socks off! The seeing was considerably better with the additional altitude with much longer periods of stability. There was immediately a considerable amount of detail of the planet's surface and extended periods of time at the eyepiece I was just able to soak it all up without looking away. The GRS was just almost central in its transition, the full structure around the GRS itself was very clear with the central core of the storm showing a nice orange hue which seemed to change with the change in stability of the air - sometimes it would lose the colour altogether and other times quite a bit more intense orange. The South Equatorial belt was sharply defined by the cream/white South Tropical Zone to much lighter South Tropical Belt. Very faint markings in the surface of the SEB could be easily drawn out. The NEB was even more intense with a vivid orange/brown hue that again changed depending on the air stability. Very dark/black smudges were very distinct in the NEB belt along with a mass of shapes and lines that could again be drawn out with extended time at BV. The Northern region also showed very delicate detail of further belts and regions but this was quite indistinct around the polar region. Ganymede then popped up from behind the planet - the satellite rising from the surface as a tiny point of light - It was quite fascinating to watch the moonrise and see it relatively quickly reach the point of separation from Jupiter itself. Jupiter to me looked absolutely huge in the BVs with an excellent level of contrast and detail at 119x - I am not overly sure that more power would be required or beneficial - If so then it would by a light touch perhaps to around 150x. The only issue I found later on was the eyepiece seemed to start fogging up a touch after 20 seconds with my eyes to them - The eyepieces were quite cold to the touch now. I think perhaps with the colder nights it may require the use of dew straps wrapped around to just to keep the eyepieces at slightly raised temperature to avoid this issue. The Moon was rising now, but it would be good while until it was visible from my position so I packed up happy with BVs and their performance with the BCOs which seem to be a superb purchase.

Really clear here and have the 102ED out with the binoviewers and the new 18mm BCOs (at 3x with the barlow). Seeing a bit iffy, but nice details viewing Saturn coming through... totally sold on the binoviewers!

I think that perhaps the mushiness can be contributed somewhat to lack of stabilisation to ambient temperature. When I had my C8 it would take generally 2 hours (and I used to store in an unheated shed sometimes) for stars to appear anything like pin-point. The scope was very well collimated however the inevitable mirror flop would cause issues. Once I moved up to the 12" dob, pin-point(ish) stars would would be much quicker to obtain. IMHO, the SCT design was not suitable for quick sessions requiring far too much cool-down period (if it ever reached it...). I bought the 8" SCT initially was because it touted to be good for everything and also because of its portability (I used to keep the EQ5 mount permanently in the shed) and back in 2014 the price was not too bad at £700. It was very good for DSOs especially with the use of the focal reducer. After a couple of years of intensive DSO hunting with it I felt I'd reached a limit with the aperture and thus sold it for the 12" dob. For lunar observing it was very good however I was never that convinced with planetary observation (particularly Jupiter) with it - I felt it lacked real contrast and the planet was either too bright or if you dimmed it sufficiently with power then details were lost. I never felt that it produced a really sharp image for planetary observation either (probably due to trying to the tube to ambient temperature which was constantly fluctuating.

Sorry, going to add to the clouds (probably)... Two 18mm Baader Classic Orthos just delivered fresh from FLO for the binoviewers... Hopefully it will stay clear long enough tonight to try them out on some planetary and perhaps lunar (although it's getting rather late for that now...

I saw that it quite strong and tried to capture some photos but without a tripod the results were not convincing... Don't think it was quite dark enough to see visually...

Was out until quite late last night but it clouded out pretty much completely before the planets were sufficiently high enough to get a scope out. Managed to see a couple of bright Perseids early on though.

Nice report, Paul! A good list of objects and doubles observed. If your seeing was anything like mine last night, the seeing was pretty terrible for the planets anyway!

Had a session viewing the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter through the 102ED refractor. Unfortunately, the seeing was pretty poor and seemed to get considerably worse with far too much movement in the air to even distinguish the GRS.

I'd setup late afternoon with the 80ED and binoviewers to give them a go first time properly on the Sun with Baader film filter. Using a 45 degree prism diagonal that came with a Skywatcher scope I was able to obtain focus using a pair of essentially equal 25mm plossls that also came with a couple of different scopes. White light solar success and the view of the Sun was certainly much easier with two eyes than one! My Wife joined me for a little while and we both viewed the various sun-spots that are scattered on the surface at the moment. She was quite impressed that you could see so much on the surface! The 25mm plossls are sufficient for solar WL with the binoviewer's barlow giving essentially 2X and I think that increasing magnification with the boiling surface probably won't be beneficial. Apart from the Baader filter, everything was left out for viewing the Moon later. At just after 10pm, the Moon was rising magnificently looking large and beautiful with an orange/yellow hue to it. Through the binoviewers the view was quite something! As others had mentioned before it was much easier to relax into the view and just soak it in the view. Although there was some CA caused from the 45 degree erecting diagonal it wasn't too bad - certainly this would be improved with a non-erecting prism I believe. My daughters (9, 7 and almost 5 years old) and Wife were all keen to come out and have a look especially as it still very warm. As the Moon rose a bit higher it became steadier. With the 25mm plossls the full disc was visible in the field of view but with great clarity and comfort with the brightness actually not too bad considering it was almost fully illuminated. My 9 and 7 years daughters were both gobsmacked by the detail and were relaying back all the details they could see (rilles, valleys, mountains and seas). My 4 year old was searching for the Man on the Moon! 🤣 An hour flew by with all three taking turns... While waiting for turns my Wife and daughters scanned the sky remarking at the many satellites that could be seen crossing. One shooting star (perseid) was seen, and I was a little surprised more wasn't as we head towards the maximum. While waiting for Saturn just to clear a large bush, I turned the scope to the Double Cluster, this was not ideal with binoviewers imho with quite a lot of the fainter stuff being lost, but my daughters were both impressed with the massive amount of stars still visible.. It was very late and my youngest now hit the hay as she was starting to get cranky! Back to Saturn and with the binoviewers I could certainly see a touch of CA in effect because of the brightness of the object. Still, the view was nice and clear in the binoviewers with a great view (although small) of the rings. My daughters really loved this! Definitely, needs 10mm eyepieces though to produce and effective 5mm eyepiece focal length which would good power for this type of object and Jupiter... So will be on the lookout to duplicate my 10mm BCO. I changed over to mono vision and popped in a 4mm eyepiece... This was superb on Saturn. The Cassini division was easily visible and the seeing was quite steady for good moments of time. This was a little more difficult for my daughters to initially use one eye instead of two but once they got it, both gasped at the level of detail and size of the gas giant. my 9 year reported that she could see the Cassini division as well once I explained what to look for. It was almost midnight and both my daughters retired for the night. I stayed out for a little longer viewing Saturn alone. It was beautifully clear night, the transparency seemed OK but not great - the full Moon sufficiently bright even if it was low down that the Milky Way could not be seen and so I called it a night at close to 1am. So, the binoviewers were a success! I think if I can find a good price for a standard Celestron 90 degree prism as these don't have compression fitting which is not suitable for the binoviewer nose and also a second hand 10mm BCO, I'll be set...