mikeDnight

Hi Jeremy, Mainly Cyclops viewing during the last two nights while making the sketches with a 5mm Ultrascopic and 3.4mm Vixen HR, but I have also used the binoviewer with a 2X Ultima barlow and pair of 18mm Ultima eyepieces. Awesome! ☺

You may have missed a treat last night Chris, assuming your local seeing was up to it. Your love of counting wildlife may have cost you deerly. Sorry! 😉

Mars last night was yet again quite amazing, with detail solidly etched onto its disk. The seeing was steady from the start with just a touch of wobble at higher powers, but at only X160 everything that could be seen was seen. Tonight I used a Baader BBHS Prism instead of viewing directly through the scope as I did the previous night, so the view is mirrored. The prism was at an angle hence the south being uppermost. It makes things interesting/confusing, (as you can see after i messed my orientation up and had to cover it with a sticker); but I just sketch as I see it through the eyepiece. ☺

I'll eagerly look forward to seeing your sketch Chris. ☺

It all sounds good to me Victor. The 100ED comes with a 2" diagonal I believe, so you might want to try that out first be for buying the Baader. The AZ4 comes with a leaver handle that you probably won't need, but the threaded hole can be used for a second locking bolt for added security. I'm pretty sure your eyepieces will work well with the SW 100ED but ask your vendor to be certain. You could ask the vendor if they have a price match offer, you never know, they may match the FLO price.

Thanks Steve, and everyone else for your kind comments. I can't say for certain that the view was any better than it would be with a diagonal, but because the night was an improvement on most other nights recently, I could be tempted to say yes, though it might not be technically true. I was quite comfortable though, because my pier is tall and the mount head about 6 feet from the ground, so I could sit comfortably on my swivel chair and just soak up the view.

On the evening of 20th September I managed my best view yet from this apparition. The following sketch was made without the use of a diagonal or any filters.

It's a great feeling when you compare your sketch and see you've actually recorded recognizable detail from another world. It's really encouraging to see antibodies sketches but as a first sketch its loaded with detail. I really hope that this first step is one of many. ☺

What Jeremy said that John said, "Now"! I've just come in after having one of the best views yet this apparition, with Sinus Meridiani bang on the central meridian. Every time I stepped away from the eyepiece I just had to step back and take just one more look over and again. It was glorious through my 100mm F8 refractor with a 5mm Ultrascopic eyepiece (160X), and 3.4mm HR eyepiece (235X). Don't wait while opposition or you'll miss the show!

Here are a couple of ED's that might be of interest. You'll only need a doublet ED for visual observing, but the two attached use different glasses, with the second being FPL53 coupled with lanthanum, so very close to a true fluorite apo.

As Rob mentioned, an F7 102mm ED would be easier to carry around, especially if it had a retractable dew shield as many do. And they are not too expensive, relatively speaking. At around F7 you'd have the best of both worlds, with high power planetary and wide rich field deep sky views too. With your ES 24mm 82° eyepiece you'll be in astro heaven with eyes filled with diamond dust as you sweep along the milkyway. While at high power, the spring Moon will leave you speechless!

A nice sketch Rob, Mars can be confusing because the names of features have changed over the years. Also, its the dark albedo features that were thought to be seas, hence the terms Mare and sinus etc. So you may find the same area with a different name to the one you're used to, but don't let it bother you too much, just enjoy observing and sketching as much of the subtle detail as you can, and posting them of course. They are greatly encouraging.☺

Don't know how I've missed this Jeremy, but what an encouraging report. It's always nice to hear of someone having a great view of Mars as it proves it is actually possible. Of course the fact you're slightly nearer to the equator than me would generally be considered cheating, but I'll not hold it against you. I hope you have many more excellent nights with Mars this apparition.

Hi Victor. Yes, I've been in a similar situation. I've always been a "frac-guy", and almost unbelievably it was a 152mm Takahashi refractor that I'd worked so hard to get that I found myself using the least. I'd even look for excuses why I shouldn't observe, just so I didn't have to set up the scope, and more importantly carry everything back into the house when I was cold and tired and the tube was covered in ice. One night as I lifted the scope above my head to mount it on its pier mounted G11, my back gave way and I slid down the pier desperately trying not to drop my £10,000.00 refractor. It was a difficult decision as I knew that if I ever let the 152 go, I'd never be able to afford to buy another. Still, the scope that is used most is the best scope to own, and for me that had to be a refractor. I bought a Televue NP101 and a whole armoury of Naglers and Ethos after selling the Takahashi, but sold it within a year after a friend's Vixen 102mm ED thrashed it on planetary. For the next six years I very happily enjoyed using numerous SW 120, 100 and 80mm ED's. But when I heard that Takahashi had again started making a 100mm fluorite apo, I sold my SW refractors and bought a 100mm Tak. It has proved to be my most used scope, and so the best choice for my personal needs. I regret having to let the 152mm Tak go, but it would have been a sin to own it and not use it. Unlike me with my 152mm Tak, you will always be able to buy a 10" Dob again if you really wanted to, but I really understand your love of the 72ED.

That's a great observing aid. I was slowly sweeping through Cassiopeia a couple of nights ago while playing around a new 16mm Masuyama eyepiece and the clusters were amazing. The Masuyama is so transparent that every cluster stopped me in my tracks, and almost gave the impression that each cluster was back lit. The night itself wasn't that transparent and Cassiopeia itself was still rising, so hopefully there will be some great views to come, and your chart will come in very handy. Thanks! ☺

If you were to use a standard shortly barlow and insert your binoviewer nose piece into it, you'd get around 4X amplification. Screwing the barlow lens directly into the bv nose piece would reduce the amplification. So if using a WO or similar bv you can reach meaningful planetary magnifications by using a short tube barlow such as a 2X Ultima sv or 2X SW Delux, while using longer focal length eyepieces. I generally use 18mm Ultima's or 16.8mm Abbe Ortho's for most of my lunar and planetary observing when using my revelation binoviewer and Ultima barlow, giving approx X178 & X190 respectively in my 100mm F8 refractor.

Using an atlas is thrilling and you have the comfort of knowing you aren't reliant on some form of power supply or electronics. It's also less distracting and less stressful, for me at least, as there are no buttons to fumble with or tiny screens to swipe. Somehow using an atlas is more easily relatable to the night sky. My old Norton's Atlas is littered with comet paths that I pencilled in as I followed the comets across the sky, so it has history going back to Iras-Iraki-Alcock and Halley, and many more, including the biggy Hale Bopp. Finding my way around the sky with an atlas is a more relaxing experience to a technophobe like me. As a result of my years with atlases I'm very familiar with the whereabouts of a great many objects of interest hidden in the night sky, and can generally find most of them quickly and without thinking, so no need for goto either. If I'm unfamiliar with an object, I'll find its position in my Atlas and hunt it down. It's thrilling to find things this way and really bolsters your confidence. Having a machine do it for me takes the joy out of the whole experience.

Hi Jon, Here in Lancashire the planet's haven't been at their best for some time. Jupiter is a shadow of what it can be due to its low altitude. Saturn, although perhaps looking better than Jupiter, is still far from its best. Even Mars has been a bit of a battle due to atmospheric turbulence and less intense albedo features than can often be seen. So it might not be your scope but simply their current positions and our own atmosphere.

If all I had was €150, I'd buy a Pocket Sky Atlas, a pair of binoculars, and learn my way around the sky, which is pretty much what i did when i started 40 years ago. (I bought a Nortons Star Atlas back then though). With a more significant outlay I would definitely buy a "good" altazimuth mounted 4" to 6" refractor if I could afford it, and wouldn't touch a reflector of any kind. I'd also buy a small selection of good quality eyepieces and a barlow lens. And I'd still buy a Pocket Sky or Norton's Atlas and learn my own way around the sky. I wouldn't entertain any electronic goto or app assisted gimmickry, as i'd rather invest in good optics where it really counts, and also because I want to learn where things are and be able to find them for myself.

It's good to look at old drawings by Schiaparalli and many others who also saw these dark linear features (not Lowell). What's remarkable is that many of these old but excellent observations were made using large aperture scopes, but these features appear with careful observation even in smaller apertures like ours.

A turbulent night but with patience the detail eventually revealed itself over time.

Excellent! ☺

Another excellent observation Lee. I'm somewhat reassured that I'm not the only one seeing martian canals.I think the one you've drawn extending from Margaretifer northwards is called Indus. ☺

Unless the 4" achromat with long focal length and of very good quality, I'd probably choose a good 80ED. I used to own a very nice 80mm Equinox that was a remarkable little scope. Often I'd take it out for just a quick few minutes observing before bedtime and still find myself sat on a frosty garden bench an hour later. I've attached a pic of the 80ED I owned and some quick sketches I'd made, (I used the inside of a roll of selotape as a template hence the poor outline). As you can see from the second sketch of Jupiter, the Great Red Spot was easily seen. Not shown on the sketch but still very memorable to me were the jet black shadow transits that at times crossed the disk. Even the subtle wispy cloud tops of Venus revealed themselves.