mikeDnight

Over the last couple of nights I've been entertaining myself by observing a few double stars. One problem I'm having is estimating the contrasting colours of some of these beautiful gems. Subtle colour differences in stars such as the Castor pair leave me questioning myself, as to me the primary is pure white, while the secondary is white/pink. I read somewhere only a few days ago that the secondary is white/yellow. ?? Then there are the strongly contrasting but unequally bright doubles, where to me the primary may be White and the secondary a chalky blue. I wore a green suit for a couple of years quite a few years ago, until I was strongly informed it was petrol blue. It seems I can't trust my colour perception, and to make matters worse, both my eyes give a different perception of colour. My left eye is blue biased while my right eye is orange/pink biased. I thought about cancelling each out by using a binoviewer, but for double stars I really find a single eyepiece works best for me, so far at leased. Does it really matter at the end of the day if I see one star as mild pink while someone else sees a slightly different colour?

I ain't taking my shirt off unless there's money in it!

I wouldnt like to disappoint anyone, so here's another totally pointless scope pic to satisfy the Tak appreciation society. 😊 Not as big as it looks in the pic.

It looks terrific John! Just imagine its your first scope all over again and it will come together easily. Sometimes there can be magic in those old wooden cases. So you're nearly 20yrs old are you? I'm impressed! I barely entered my teens before I gave up on growing up!

As yet another glorious day drew to a close, I set my Tak DZ on its mount in the obsy to cool ready for a night of double star exploring. As the Sun dropped behind the high tree line to my west I rolled back the roof and scanned the sky for Venus. The sky was still very bright, as although the Sun had set from my location, it was still well above the actual horizon. Within only a few seconds I'd found the planet and rapidly aimed the scope at it. The view was excellent with surprisingly steady seeing. I first looked at Venus using a 35mm Ultima and saw the most perfect little crescent holding onto a darkened globe, while set against a blue sky. It was a bit of a wow moment! Even the little 6X30 Tak finder showed the perfect crescent of Venus as its now quite a large object. DZ getting all excited like a dog waiting to go walkies. Premature sunset. Venus in the DZ showed a silver white, ice cold image, and was razor sharp. The dusky cloud tops were in stark contrast to the brilliant silver limb and especially the piercingly sharp cusps/horns. The planet's illuminated side at higher power appeared grey compared to the limb, but the greyness was not uniform. Leading away from the terminator were gentle whisps of deeper grey shadings divided in places with lighter areas. The darkest regions were where the terminator meets the bright polar regions. Using the Wrattan 15 yellow filter which is supposedly ideal for viewing Venus, I remained unimpressed, as it did little if anything to improve the contrast. However, the Wrattan 80A light blue filter was something else. With the 80A which helps highlight brighter areas, the darker cloud tops stood out well. Usually I have little difficulty in seeing the cloud detail on Venus without using any filters, but the 80A did enhance the view on this occasion. Clouds temporarily stopped play. Later in the evening however the sky was as clear as a bell. I spent some time finding a few double stars, then ended the evening checking out a couple of summer delights, M13 and M57. M13 was a bit lacklustre as there was a low gibbous moon now flooding the sky with its light, but when I increased the power using my 3.4mm HR giving 235X, the globular burst into an explosion of countless stars set against a nebulous backdrop. Glorious - and its going to get better! M57 revealed its 13.2 mag companion star just outside the nebulous smoke ring. Then the double double and Albireo before my darling wife came to tell me it was getting late and I'd played out long enough. Now I'm no double star expert but only a tinkerer. The sketches below show the eyepiece view but without the colour, as I've no idea how to do colour in negative. Perhaps I should have made colour sketches on a white background! The view is also prism reversed just to make things more awkward, but the basic idea of what the doubles were like is still there. I suppose the eyepiece view is always going to have a power about it that no drawing could ever replicate. Something for me to work on!

First you build a two walled shed with no roof, then you dig a deep hole through concrete only to fill it in again with concrete. And now youre lighting the fire on one of the hottest days weve had recently. Now your neighbours will really know you've lost the plot! You have to hand it to SGL - I could pay good money and not get entertainment like this! Cant wait to see things progress though. It's looking great so far!

I don't believe you can resist unwrapping it before the day is out! I also have to say "That's the nicest concrete square I've seen in a long time"!

800X on the cusp Jeremy. If I'm going to be daft, I might as well do it in style!

Wow, that's good! It really shows how the shadows change..

It can only be either the suns light from behind the planet as its phase gets thinner, or light catching a raised cloud layer I suppose? It will be interesting to see if it continues more along the north than the south. It can be seen at much lower power by the way, I was just messing around when I used such silly high power.

I ended my observing last night with a few of rich field views, then M13 followed by a few pretty doubles. I really don't know why I don't spend more time on double stars? They are amazing!

Mrs Dnight sent me out to play early last night, while the Sun was still above the horizon, so play I did! Venus on the previous night of the 5th had caught my attention, and last night, 6th, having much better stability allowed me to really push my scope into the realms of the unbelievable. Over time, I felt compelled on more than one occasion to check which eyepiece I was using as the view was so good. I can't remember the exact words I muttered to myself and its probably not something I couldn't write here, but mutter I did. What a great experience to observe Venus under such good conditions and with such a nice scope and eyepiece.

Seeing was turbulent and so limited any great views of the terminator, so I began admiring the sunlit side and its incredible complexity of brilliant crater rims, countless rays and incredibrle contrasting colour tones. I decided to make a sketch of Messier & Messier A just to occupy myself, but in doing so it really concentrated my attention to the incredible detail in the sunlit region. Far too complex to draw all the detail, I settled for a quick sketch to give an idea of the view.

Hi Steve, Attached are three maps showing the sites I mentioned. It would be easier to take a field trip, but we couldn't do that until after the lockdown is lifted, and probably better mid August onwards as the night's get darker. Park Lane/Hagg Wood Newchurch in Pendle. Trough of Bowland.

Wow, that map paints a grim picture. If it makes you feel any better, I can generally see the mikyway from my front door step on Ighten road. Perhaps that hasn't helped! The skies definitely aren't what they used to be, and Burnley being an old cotton mill town is known for its clouds, rain and generally damp conditions which means there's often a thin cloud layer or haze, even when the stars can be seen. Can be great for planets as we get some very stable seeing at times, but transparency can be more difficult. The brow of the hill at Newchurch In Pendle offers wonderfully transparent skies. One mile in any direction and the seeing deteriorates, so there must be something special about the way the land lies creating local seeing that allowed M33 to be seen with the naked eye. I've had great results from the Trough of Bowland but also nearer to home at the end of Park Lane near Hagg Wood. These sites might be worth trying if DSO's are where your heart lies.

Nice image of Bailly Paul. It looks like you had steadier seeing than I did as far as the Moon is concerned. 128X was the seeing limit for me around the time of your observation. I did get a great view of Venus earlier in the evening though.

Simply, real field = apparent field divided by magnification.

So the two eyepieces you have will give you 35X and 56X respectively. A 2X SW Delux barlow would be a worthwhile addition I think, and would give you 70X and 112X. It would also be good for any other scope you may advance to in the future.

Hi Jeremy, I'm not certain why I used the Q. It may have been that I'd purposely attached it so I would have a slightly higher power and therefore a darker sky background, so as to improve contrast. Or, I was just too lazy to unscrew the thing after using it for lunar or planetary viewing. May be a bit of both? I did think the extender-Q was fantastic. It was just a pain to screw together in the dark. I might get the push fit version for the DZ.

I like both worlds! A barlow can greatly increase your power range at minimal cost, and they are good. A 17.5mm Morpheus for example, when barlowed at 2X makes a stunning 8.75mm (~9mm), Also, many top end eyepieces incorporate a barlow into their design anyway, so there's no reason not to use one. They can offer high power views in comfort when a similar powered eyepiece would have minimal eye relief. On the other hand , there's a good argument for minimal glass when observing the Moon, planets and binary stars, but high end minimal glass eyepieces are often just as expensive as the complex multi element designs. A barlow, or selection of barlow's can greatly reduce the cost of having to buy multiple high end designs, as well as enabling simpler designs to really prove their worth.

Just a few hand held phone pic's through my 100mm frac. Very difficult to get the camera positioned right, but I'm pleased they turned out as well as they did.

You can see it from Burnley Steve. Dark adaption and a transparent night are key. I live only a few hundred yards from you, and although I'm not claiming to have seen the horse head itself, I have seen the flame many times and IC434 once from home, - and I was using a 4" refractor! Dark adaption is key, so devising some method of blocking out surrounding stray light is a must. I have a small run-off roof observatory which is blacked out inside, but even so, I still had to cover my head and eyepiece using a blackout blanket. Its a long haul, as it takes about 20 mins under the blanket just to get dark adapted, but by letting your eye naturally scan the area, trying to keep Alnitak out of the field, eventually you'll first see a shard of light (IC434), then a wall of black nebulosity becomes more and more evident. Using averted vision I convinced myself I could see a tiny notch roughly where the horse head should be, but I didn't see the head. More aperture would be needed, at least from my location. The sketches below offer a reasonable representation of the view through my scope at the time. I used a prism diagonal so it's a mirror image.

You're just trying to start me off again, aren't you!?

Excellent post Dave. Binoviewers & bino viewing can cause a lot of pain for some observers. I allowed one of my astronomer friends to spend an evening with my revelation Binoviewers on his own scope around five years ago. When I came to use them again I had to spend an hour trying to get the images to merge. So it seems that even with a binoviewer that is fully functioning unit, they can take a lot of time to fine tune to the individual. Since then, most observers looking through my binoviewer seem to have very little difficulty getting a merged image, but I am careful to explain how to adjust the eye separation and individual focus. Interestingly, I have been contemplating buying the Baader binoviewer you mentioned. Just a bit cautious about spending so much just incase there is no noticeable gain! As regards the time consuming aspect when changing eyepieces or adjusting the angle of the viewer, I simply take the Hamlet cigar advert- relaxed, contemplative approach. After all, its more enjoyable than whatever's on tv. In fact I can't remember ever getting stressed over anything while observing, such a peaceful mild tempered chap that I am!

Its short focal length is probably where its weakness lies. Having said that, the old F6.5 102mm Vixen ED was an amazing all round scope - if you can find one, and would leave some of these modern doublets standing on planetary. But I cant help thinking what else is available that would fit an AZ4 and give better performance. The SW 100ED and the SW 120ED come to mind. And for only €500 more (assuming similar current £value) you're in the light weight, high performance Tak FC100DC territory.