F15Rules

Just came indoors after my first session for a good while, just 90 minutes, but WHAT a 90 minutes! I genuinely think this is one of the best nights sky I've seen here since we moved here almost 6 years ago. Tonight I just wallowed in the conditions.. Scope: - Tak FS128. Now my only scope, and I am content with that. No other scopes to distract me from this one! Targets, in order of viewing (no prior planned list!): 1. Mars. Surprised how small it's got now since last viewing several weeks back. Pin sharp (and very bright) at 100x (Pentax XL 10.5mm). Adding 1.6x Barlow to 160x plus a red filter really looked great.. North polar cap very evident, with some large darker land masses showing halfway down the disk and in the bottom third. Too small an image for me to see or identify specifics, but a lovely sight. Got up to 200x with 5mm Burgess TMB Planetary (lovely little eyepiece!) and disk still very sharp. Next, Crab Nebula in Taurus. I've only ever glimpsed this twice, and never tried from this location. What a revelation tonight..easily found star hopping north from Betelgeuse..easily, immediately, visible with direct vision with 31mm Axiom LX, in a sea of sparkling stars background. From here I closed in more and more with 23mm Axiom, Morpheus 17.5mm, Pentax 10.5mm and Burgess 5mn (200x). The higher the Mag, the darker the background, and I started to see the extent of this object. The best view was with the Pentax at 100x. Next the Pleiades, just superbly shown with the big 31mm Axiom, the nebulosity clearer than I've ever seen it! Inevitably, M42..instantly saw all 6 main Trap stars, direct vision, and I continued to be able to see them directly right up to 200x, another first for me.. The overall vista with the 23mm Axiom LX at 85 degree fov was absolutely stunning..Bat Wings, Fish Mouth, Trap, Iota and Sigma close by..just beautiful. I came in after 90 minutes, elated, frozen, mesmerised and invigorated. I now remember why I love this hobby so much. And great to read how good a session many others enjoyed tonight as well👍 Dave

Excellent, thanks for sharing! I especially like the way you've captured Mars and it's colour.. Is that a mini blackboard or slate that you use, with chalk? (Forgive me if not, but it struck me that that could be a great way to record an observation, then take a photo of it as a permanent record, then clear the slate for the next one?). Of course, the above wouldn't help your night vision!🤦😁 Dave

Any chance of us admiring your sketches, @josefk?😊

Cheers, Steve👍. We got home from the Midlands family visit at 6.30pm and the sky was lovely .. the Milky way was clearly visible straight out from the brightly lit kitchen.. It actually clouded over soon afterwards, and I was actually quite relieved as it was freezing outside and I was knick knacked!🤦😂. Tonight and tomorrow sound promising here, so fingers crossed for a session🤞👍. I'm quite relieved to hear that your experience with Bvs and the Trap is similar to mine..I was hoping it wasn't just continuing deterioration of my aging eyeballs! I agree that BVs aren't the best on all targets, especially splitting the tiniest/closest of point source doubles etc,..but on the Moon and planets they are marvellous on steady nights. Yes, Foxy is a wonderful scope..I think if only more people had looked through one, there would be a lot more Vixen ED and SD103s apos featuring on the forums..and I speak as a happy Tak owner!😁 Hope you (and everyone else) get the chance of a good session or two in the coming cold spell, Steve😊 Dave

Hi Steve, Sounds like a good session with your Vixen "Foxy"..😊 Were you binoviewing or in Cyclops mode? I've never seen E or F in binoviewers..I always reckon to lose between c 0.5 and 1.0 magnitude when binoviewing: with bright objects, planets, Lunar, this doesn't matter of course, but I've often seen both E&F with an ED103s or my FS128, but only with single ep, never with a binoviewer. Perhaps the Bvs I've owned to date weren't up to it optically 🤔. If the new Maxbright IIs ever become available again I'll be interested to see if they can show the pair.. Dave

Well, that's Jeremy's next exotic travel plan off to a great start then! Dave

My first ever Lunar only books! There's a great little SGL back story to these. A couple of weeks ago I posted this thread here on the lounge.. ..it was slightly mischievous but genuinely true, I have always felt very conflicted about observing the moon, and it's effect on my observing of other objects during it's monthly cycle. Anyway, the thread generated quite a bit of discussion both for and against the Moon (with probably a majority in favour), and I described a session that I had had on Plato, where for the first time I had spent a whole session just on the moon, compared to my normal "quick peek then move on".. Soon after posting the thread, one of SGLs' biggest fans of lunar observing (and a very gifted planetary and lunar sketcher), Mike Hezzlewood, aka @mikeDnight, contacted me by pm and offered me, free gratis, the 4 assorted books on Lunar Observing and the Moon which you see above! These arrived today, and I am chuffed to bits.. I now have no excuse not to read, learn and observe the Moon far more moving forward! I must just say a huge "Thank You" to Mike for his generosity, it really was very kind of him to make this gesture👍. Dave

That's a great job, Steve!! I hate to quote Jeremy, but that Objective on Foxy the Vixen looks entirely, er, lickable!!🤦😂😋 And the APM monster looks great too, I think you can consider both objectives officially clean!👍😎 Dave

Polaris isn't difficult but the magnitude difference (c. mag 2 for Polaris vs mag 9 for the companion) is large. But you should see it as a tiny speck at c 7 o'clock vs Polaris on a clear night. Rigel can be a little difficult if the sky is murky or unsteady, but usually doable at c 7" distance. Alnitak is the most difficult at c 2.4" and needs steady skies. Epsilon Lyrae is a real treat and worth waiting for..you'll need c 100x magnification to be sure of the split of each pair, sitting at right angle orientation to each other, just beautiful. I'm sure you will get them all before long👍 - there's no going back now!😂 Dave

Great stuff @imakebeer😊 Almach is one of the jewels of the Northern skies.. Here's some more info on the system (credit: Wikipedia): "Observation An image of γ Andromedae (Almach) as it appears in a small telescope.. In 1778, German physicist Johann Tobias Mayer discovered that γ Andromedae is a double star. When examined in a small telescope, it appears to be a bright, golden-yellow star next to a dimmer, indigo-blue star, separated by approximately 10 arc seconds. The pair is often considered by stargazers to be a beautiful double star with a striking contrast of color. The brighter member, γ1 Andromedae, is the primary of the system, and is thus designated component γ Andromedae A. It has the official proper name Almach /ˈælmæk/, which was used as the traditional name of the naked eye star, and thus the system as a whole. The fainter secondary is γ2 Andromedae or γ Andromedae B. It was later discovered that γ2 Andromedae is itself a triple star system. What appears as a single star to the naked eye is thus a quadruple star system." It's great to hear about you and your daughter discovering the joys of visual observing together!🤗👍 Dave

I don't think you were deluded, Moon -Monkey, the positioning sounds about right, and an F11 90mm would be able to show the Pup in excellent seeing. The fact that you were able to repeat your observations several times, and that you observed Sirius over an extended period, all suggest to me that your sighting was a genuine one. It may be a long time til everything comes together for you again like that, so do savour the moment. Congratulations!😊👍 Dave

Regarding threads being a bit "screechy", I found that applying a very small amount of Lithium grease, with my little finger and rubbing gently around the threads so almost you can't see it, and then turning the threads gently a couple of times to distribute the grease across the threads should remove the noise👍.

It may just have been tight Stu, and the recent up and down temperature extremes may have loosened it off? Alternatively, (and I've no idea if this is the case in your scope), my FS128 dewshield threads on and off (very fine thread, so care is needed not to cross the threads), but the objective cell has a tiny grub screw on the side of the main ota tube which needs to be unscrewed before the lens cell itself can be unthreaded from the main ota🤔 . Just a thought.. Dave

Indeed, Jeremy..I could wax lyrical about waxing with Renaissance Wax all day!😂

Great job, Stu..👍 I was immediately reminded of a few years ago, when I acquired a Vixen ED103s apo whose owner had died some while previously..the scope had sat unused and uncovered in a dusty shed for some time, and so was filthy.. I took a punt on it and spent an hour or so giving it a good, gentle clean with Baader Wonder Fluid and polishing with Renaissance Wax..it came up very nicely, and she is now happily settled with Steve aka @Saganite 👍

🤦🤦😭😭😂😂

Are you sure it wasn't because you spent so much time studying, sourcing and advising on Handles, Jeremy?? Dave

To get out that many times says you were not only fortunate with the weather, but that you took advantage of every single opportunity to observe/image..that's a very impressive result, congratulations!👍 Dave

You're right, Mike, Superficial is the word..so much detail, it's scary, and hard to make sense of with just short, 5 minute views. The other night I actually used my Moon maps mentioned above, on and off for over an hour, checking that what I thought I was seeing was what I was actually seeing. In this regard, what really helped were the maps with the same orientation view as my scope, ie image right way up but reversed left and right with a diagonal. It was quite rewarding to "navigate" from the map and actually identify objects and features for myself, and to have different maps covering "chunks" of the moon definitely makes it easier to learn key features within that "chunk".. Dave

Thanks, Tim, yes it does seem like that at low power. I actually spent most of that session at quite high power though, around 180x to 250x, as it was such steady seeing, for once..but the RA drive on the Tak mount just ensured that the moon stayed virtually still, with very few manual adjustments. Dave

Interesting thread, I hadn't seen that.. I'm trying hard to fall in love with the moon. Wish me luck🥴😂. Dave

I'm putting this thread here, as maybe some who have decided that they hate Lunar wouldn't even see it if it was in the Lunar Observing section. Mods please move if you deem that is appropriate though 😊. I have been looking/ glancing/scowling at the Moon for over 40 years on and off..if I'm honest I'd have to say that I've enjoyed very fast, superficial "looks" at it on a regular basis like this: First Quarter: notice the first thin sliver in the setting sky, admire it's prettiness, have very quick peeks through a scope or binoculars, but inwardly cuss the approaching waxing cycle.. Second Quarter: by now the Moon is getting past half Full, much brighter, and in the autumn and winter seasons getting higher in the sky the more it gets closer to Full. I have the odd look, almost exclusively along the terminator, where my Tak's rendition of razor sharp features along the black/white divide are startling on clear nights. I even whop in my cheap binoviewer for a couple of blindingly bright twin eyed "Spacewalk" views...quickly followed by a "proper session", observing other "proper" celestial targets (even though their presentation is being wrecked by the overpowering pesky Moon!.. Third Quarter: at last! The wretched blinding ball thingy is rising later and later..and shrinking!! Soon, if I have a late evening session, I can get an hour with little or no interference from Luna, and by next week the blasted thing will be gone altogether for almost 2 whole weeks - until the whole thing starts all over again!!🤦 New Moon: Yes!!! This is what REAL observing is all about..no blinding light in the sky, right next to that planet or cluster I wanted to observe, but wait..now that the moon has gone, I'm sure there are more clouds around than when it was full, and turned my usual Bortle 4 skies to Bortle 15??🤦 Now, the above summary is of course rather tongue in cheek, but if I'm honest it does largely summarise my attitude towards the Moon over many years..until now, that is. My one resolution this year is to try to appreciate everything I see when I look up..including our nearest other planet. It struck me that I spend long hours trying to tease out faint, subtle details on so many objects, being delighted when I think I have seen some faint feature on Mars, or split a very unequal double, or a faint cluster with averted vision..and yet, here is a body where any optical aid will show an overwhelming number of features in incredible detail! But...HOW to start making sense of all this detail? So, starting last night, I went out with the sole purpose of observing the moon, and nothing else. I have a copy of an old, but I think, excellent book, Atlas of the Night Sky, by Storm Dunlop (pub 1984), but for Epoch 2000, and it has an excellent section on the Moon, with very clear illustrations to help Lunar beginners like me. One thing that always put me off learning some of the Lunar features is the "Right Way Up, but Left and Right Reversed" orientation of most lunar maps I've seen show (or even more often, inverted and reversed for Newtonians and Dobs!). Well, this book has both the above catered for, but also has maps showing the exact same view as seen through a refractor with a diagonal.. (see photos below), in a series of 16 maps and last night, using this refractor friendly mapping, I was able to spend a very enjoyable 90 minutes on the Plato area, and to begin searching for, and finding, other objects that until now I'd never yet known by name or location. There are also maps and explanatory notes.on Libration and the effects of it, as well as full maps of both the near and far sides of the Moon. So my Lunar exploration has begun, very belatedly: it will never be my main love in astronomy, but already I can see that our sister world can most definitely have an appeal, as I gradually dismantle my former ignorance of it!! I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this "Marmite" subject🤔🙂..and thanks for reading this far. Dave

That's fabulous news Alan..I'd been wondering how things were progressing after our pm exchange, then came across this threads' updates. I think the name Lazarus is spot on, and I'm so chuffed for you that everything has worked out on the end👍. All you have to do now is enjoy what is, and always was, a wonderful refractor. Dave

Thanks Mike, I'll try that👍😁. The funny thing is, all the floaters appear to me as tiny handles floating left to right and back as I move my eyes from side to side🙃..

Very kind, Malcolm, but I know the phone is on its last legs..I've had it 3 years (Moto G8 Plus) but have dropped it several times and the screen looks like a spiders web now, and I can actually see a crack on the rear main camera lens too!🤦 Dave