mikeDnight

Congratulations Victor. I'd hand you a cigar if I smoked, but I don't, so it will just have to be a thumbs up! Is it a boy or a girl? For some strange reason I want to call it a She because its so beautiful, but I am a bit strange at the best of times.

Truely awesome Chris, and an inspiration to others with modest apertures to have a go at grabbing a memorable image of Mars. 🏆

Excellent sketches Mark!

A beautiful sketch David. Sorry I didn't see this sooner!

I too would not hesitate to go for the doublet FPL53/Lanthanum ED. A couple of years ago i had chance to use an older AstroTech 102 ED alongside a beautiful Takahashi FC100DC. At no time did the AstroTech look like the poor cousin. There was some minimal CA, very well controlled, along the limb of the Moon and when looking at brilliant stars like Vega. This was in no way obtrusive! When in focus the AstroTech was a quality ED apo that happily ran alongside a Tak fluorite with little difference between them. As a lunar and planetary refractor the AstroTech doublet ED performed very well indeed. If you are an observer who obsessively looks for CA as some do, you'll find it, but there will be more colour fringing from atmospheric dispersion and from many eyepiece types than from the ED objective itself. The Triplet may boast better colour control, but you may find the more rapid cool down of the doublet will give you finer planetary definition more quickly and more regularly than the triplet lens will, especially if you're observing straight from a warm room out into the cooler night air. Both will do the job, its just that the doublet may be a more reliable option.

Excellent sketches with some great detail!

That is really beautiful, just like an eyepiece view frozen in time! Enlarging the disk to about a centimetre begins to reveal some subtle detail particularly in the south, but also in the north too. How much do you see? ☺

That sounds like heaven to me, on both counts! ☺

Caught a glimpse of it at 10.40pm but only fleetingly. Lots of cloud and showers! Still its not the 7th until 1am, so I might still have a chance if I can convince myself to stay awake.

Sometimes it pays to look at things from a different perspective!

That's a wonderful sketch and certainly doesn't look like a first attempt. Neither does it look rough! The sketches I make at the eyepiece are often rough and full of scribblings and corrections, but I understand what the mass of confusion means. Somehow, I'm able to translate the mess into an accurate and recognisable representation in a cleaned up sketch soon after. It's fun ! Cant wait to see more of your excellent sketches. 🏆

The German equatorial has the telescope off axis and uses a counterweight to balance the load. It's a great and popular design which allows easy access to the polar regions. An English equatorial is a two armed fork. The telescope is cradled between the fork arms and the fork itself is tilted so that its axis lines up with the pole. It's a good design as it gets rid of the need for a counterweight. However, its only good for relatively short telescopes and accessing the pole can be difficult because the body of the mount gets in the way. Often you'll see older Schmidt Cassegrains mounted on this kind of fork mount, where as more modern SCT's tend to be mounted on computerised altazimuth mounts that track an object. Each has its advantages and its drawbacks! ☺

I seem to remember that SW offered a cheap single lens barlow, so not even an achromatic doublet lens. The Delux version is achromatic and also has an unscrewable lens cell that can be screwed directly onto a binoviewer nose piece. That also liberates the now lensless barlow tube to double as an extension tube if you need that little bit of extra outward focus travel.

I have a Skywatcher Delux costing only a few pounds that when attached to the nose of a binoviewer, allowed a pair of very cheap orthoscopic eyepieces to perform better than a single TMB Super monocentric. And that same Delux barlow when used with a single eyepiece, gave views that were every bit as good as a 2X Takahashi barlow costing around £125. I'd be surprised if you noticed any improvement in image quality if you upgrade your barlow, unless you aim really high such as Zeiss, then you may find you'd need to upgrade your telescope to benefit from any improvement in the barlow. It can be a slippery slope! 🏂

Hi David, I wouldn't say I'm experienced with the various types of mount available today, as there are so many variations. I do have my personal preferences however, which may vary to those of others. I'm not a fan of anything computerised! Computerised mounts are either not fit for purpose, which encompasses pretty much everything below £1000. And everything above £1000 tends to be too clever for me and has a mind of their own. The lower end are highly frustrating and probably responsible for sapping the joy out of the hobby for many a beginner, leading them to believe that astronomy is not for them. While the upper end can be life threatening. I'll never forget my night observing with my friends Paramount and C14, when I spent my time repeatedly having to jump out of the way of the massive tube assembly and steel counterweight, as they hurtled round at high speed after I inadvertently kept pressing the Home button by mistake, which was situated in the centre of the joy stick. Bear in mind, i struggle with a TV remote! I like things to be simple, as all I want to do is look through a telescope, enjoy the sight, and spend as little time as possible having to think. So I like simple altazimuth mounts, which are intuitive and glide with just a touch. These mounts can be both lightweight and reasonably solid, so are ideal for field trips or as a quick grab and go. They also tend to be relatively inexpensive. As I'm primarily a lunar and planetary observer, I find a German equatorial mount of real benefit, as it simply follows the object across the sky either by use of a simple RA motor or by a gentle turn of the RA control knob. German mounts are dead easy to set up, as all you need to do is ensure the polar axis is aimed reasonably close to Polaris and away you go. For visual observing they don't have to be spot on accurate as regards alignment. They take a little more thinking about than an altazimuth mount, buy you'd soon get to grips with it and controlling one would become second nature. I use both types. Below are my AZ4 altazimuth and my Vixen GP (German equatorial).

To be honest David, I have no experience with the clones, but there are so many scopes and eyepieces today that have the same origin yet still deliver the goods so to speak. If you choose from a well established name then at least you'll have the comfort of knowing the scopes pedigree, which is virtually a guarantee of an established level of optical quality. I read some time ago that there are around 7500 varieties of Apple. All look and taste like apples, yet all have a slightly different flavour, texture or some other quality that makes it special. Similarly today, there are so many excellent ED/apo refractors, each with a slightly different flavour or speciality, yet all can deliver a lifetime of enjoyment. I've often thought that if I had to take a luckydip into a big bag of 4" or 5" ED refractors, whatever I ended up pulling out of the bag would satisfy my needs for the rest of my life. ☺

For me its all about enjoyment, and a good refractor between 3" and 5" can offer a lifetime of quality entertainment. Larger reflectors will have more light gathering ability and theoretical resolution, but their size can be off-putting. From an entirely personal point of view, I wouldn't want to go below around 4" for a refractor, as this aperture offers a sweet spot in terms of power and ease of use. I've owned numerous larger scopes but the one I've used most is a 100mm apo. I'd encourage you to spend a little extra on a 4" ED if you can, as the ED will perform much better on the Moon and planets than a general purpose Chinese achromat. Side by side they are worlds apart!

As well as brightening, the high angle of Mars from the northern hemisphere, and its large apparent size, gives a fine opportunity for observers to get familiar with the planet's features. Often, the initial view through the telescope may appear to be lacking much in the way of detail, but with patience and persistence, as well as continually ensuring the scope is critically focused, even intricate subtle detail will often reveal itself. Some observers like to use coloured filters to highlight certain regions. For example, a #21 orange will enhance the visibility of darker albedo features, where as a #80A blue will highlight brighter ice and cloud or misty regions. Another great way to pluck out detail while observing is to sketch what you see, as while sketching, the more subtle detail begins to reveal itself. And you don't need to be a talented artist, for even a basic outline sketch with a few notes can speak volumes. Below are just some of the observational sketches made so far this apparition. So sharpen that pencil and see how much more you can see.

Staedtler are a very good pencil manufacturer which I use myself Mark. I tend to use smooth paper sketch pads for my finished sketches, but medium for sketching at the eyepiece. I also use a putty rubber, various size blending stumps and my most important tool is a cotton ear bud for softening features. Generally when making a finished sketch I'll scribble some graphite onto a piece of rough paper, then using the ear bud I'll pick up the graphite on the bud and draw in the features using the ear bud rather than the pencil itself. It gives a lovely soft effect to planetary or nebulous detail.

A lovely image Andy. I like how you've caught the white cloud in the north and also on the preceding and following limbs. Easily seen visually, but for some reason many images fail to pick this detail up, but not being an imager I've no idea why. Out of curiosity, is your scope an FS or TOA? I sketched Mars possibly just a little earlier than your image, but your image is a wonderful confirmation of the subtle detail I saw in the southern hemisphere. Hope you don't mind me attaching your image and my flipped sketch as a comparison. The arrow in my sketch is the direction of drift. 22.53 UT. 1/10/20 Regards, Mike

We should observe together sometime David, that is if this virus is ever brought under control. Sometimes local seeing can kill definition. The sketch above represents around 20 minutes of study, continually adjusting the focus so as to maintain a sharp image, so it's not how I see things at first glance. ☺

Thankyou Gordon, Yes, I do find that sketching improves my concentration and makes me look a bit harder for subtle contrast differences that I might otherwise overlook. And of course by looking for longer, it gives more opportunity for less obvious features to reveal themselves in moments of steady seeing. And because I have to continually refocus the scope to make sure sharp focus is maintained as the planet rises, the features on view are continually reinforced. A pencil is a fantastic observing aid, even if the sketch is just a basic outline of features. ☺

At over 22 arc seconds in diameter Mars is an awesome sight in the eyepiece, with detail almost throwing itself at us. Below is last night's sketch which shows Syrtis minor almost bang on the meridian. It was another one of those nights when you feel you've seen all there is to see, but you just can't step away from the eyepiece.

After having fun with my little refractor, what else is there to do but to photograph it?

I ordered the 16mm Masuyama a couple of months ago, but it took a while to arrive. I think I've had it for about four weeks now. I've been curious about them for some time and kept looking at them on FLO's site. The fact they were 85° both intrigued me and put me off, but curiosity got the better of me and suddenly a 16mm arrived on my door step. Just holding the eyepiece in your hand you can feel the quality. I expected the worst view imaginable given my scope is only F8, but when I swept through Cassiopeia my first thought was "Wow"! The 16mm Masuyama is so transparent, even faint clusters deep in the background and that I've probably overlooked before, lit up, almost as if they were back lit. The eye relief is not great if you want to get the whole 85° field, but drawing back from the eyepiece a little still gives a wonderful view, even though you lose some field. There is edge distortion at F8, but I'm happy to lose the edge of field just so I can enjoy the transparency offered by this minimal glass eyepiece. The trouble is I now want more and they're not cheap!