mikeDnight

A late friend used to bring his 180 Mak Cass to my observatory so he could use it on my Vixen GP. The GP will handle the 180 with ease, and if you equip it with either a Vixen RA or Skywatcher eq5 RA drive, it will accurately track for ages. Personally I think the Vixen GP is a great classic EQ that's capable of carrying a much larger scope with ease, providing its mounted on either a solid tripod or pier. Below is my Tak FS128, a hefty telescope, but the GP carried it perfectly. The tripod was made by Peter Drew and is solid.

Excellent! ☺

Absolutely Superb Craig!

My immediate thoughts ran to an early Tal refractor or, perhapse a Vixen F10 or F13 achro. I'm not sure about the later Tal's as I seem to remember they have a plastic lens cell. Lyra did a nice 102 F11, and Antares made a very nice 105mm F14, but an AZ5 might have to somehow turn into a EQ5 or Vixen GP. There is also a new 80mm achromat sold by Takahashi which comes with what appears to be a nice altazimuth mount. But for the price you could get a Second hand SW102ED.

Thankyou everyone for your kind comments. I didn't imagine I'd get much from this sketch, which is a nice surprise. Especially surprising was the magnificent 10/10/9.9 from Ruud. Much better than any of my old school reports from the 60's & 70's, which pretty much all say "Nice boy, could try harder." 😊

You could order a set of laminated double star charts from the Webb Society. That'll keep you occupied for a while. ☺

You bet your boots I wouldn't argue with her. She's tougher than me!

Don't rub it in, its cruel! 😭

A quick observation from last night. I wasn't initially going to post it, as some of the minor craters aren't too accurately positioned, but its still a good representation of the view. The Moon was quite low and there was softness to the view caused by haze, yet the view remained steady.

Really nice sketch Mike.

Unless I see photo's, I'll not believe you've got em!

An early delivery of Luna Cognita greeted me this morning. A serious looking three volume set that I can't wait to delve into. After all, there's nothing else to do!

I could probably provide for five, 60mm, 70mm, 100mm, 115mm 250mm, but I also have two spare mounts, so two could bring their own tubes. I bringing their own scopes, I could comfortably offer room for about 12 observers with scopes. The downside would be that all those with big reflectors, would go home thoroughly disheartened after looking through my 100mm Tak. 😂

If efractors are no good then the Earth is flat!

One of the best things you can do to improve your views of DSO's from a light polluted area, is to block out the surrounding light. There's little you can do about general sky glow, but the light that strikes your eye at the eye/eyepiece interface is destructive to dark adaption. Only when you are properly dark adapted will you see your scope perform at its optimum. Cheap solution - buy a dark lightweight blanket such as a dog bed blanket and hang it over your head and eyepiece. Make sure you are comfortable because you'll be under it for at least 15 to 20 minutes before your eye becomes super sensitive to the fuzzy stuff. If you study a DSO for a reasonable amount of time, you'll soon begin to detect subtle detail you might assume is beyond your scopes capability. If you sketch, you should use a dim red light torch. Shielding your eye from surrounding light sources, even dim ones, will greatly improve even a small scopes ability to deliver contrasty deep sky views. A useful addition to a deep sky observers kit would be a UHC filter. Better in many ways than an OIII as it allows the starlight to pass through more easily.

Perhapse last night wasn't the best night to assess the 127 Mak's lunar performance, as the Moon was all but full. First quarter is best for spectacular detail in spring. Keep the scope cool and you may see a real gain in sharpness.

DOH!!

Attached is a sketch made using a Takahashi FC100DC at 218X. The sketch is prism reversed as I was using a diagonal. The fine rille running parallel to the main rille is what caught my eye. Hope you take a look yourselves next lunation. ☺

Beat ya! 😆 FREE DELIVERY!

It was a nice surprise to find that Mr postman had dropped of my latest Moon fix. Johann Krieger's MOND ATLAS, hard back. Though it isn't really an atlas, it does contain 35 superb observational sketches made by Krieger, who has to be one of the finest selenographers of all time.

Hold a comb in front of your eye so you're looking through the teeth. At the same time, shine a torch through the comb so you see the reflection of the torch and comb teeth in the mirror and walk backwards, keeping the image of the expanding comb teeth in your vision. At the point when the comb teeth begin to topple over, you have reached the focal point. Measure the distance between the mirror surface to where your comb and eye was when the image toppled and you have your focal length. The comb teeth act like a basic Ronchi grating.

Hi John, I ordered mine from the Book Deposatory. It was dispatched this morning, so should be here soon.

Beautiful lunar shots there. The Moon never fails to impress. Thanks for posting.

If you're looking for suggestions Jeremy, how about a Zeiss Barlow for that 1.6mm?

Yes, it is called the terminator on Venus as well as the Moon, or any other planet that shows a phase. Well done John for detecting hints of cloud detail!