Paz

I would flag the question of weight. What size and weight of mount will you want to use and what amount of vibes will you tolerate. This can guide what weight of a small scope it is ok to go for. I have a 72mm f6 apo that is my main travel scope now. I have an ST80 that has two advantages over the 72mm, one obviously is aperture but the other is light weight so less vibes, and thus latter point matters a lot when using light portable mounts. My 72mm apo doesn't have a rotating focuser, I avoided scopes withose to save weight. The reasons why the 72mm gets used most are that it has a better focuser, more available infocus, and stronger/better facilities to mount finders on it. I also have a 102mm f7 apo, but to me that is a completely different class and not what I would call small. A 102mm apo would compete with your maksutov, but a 70-80mm apo would be complimentary. I admit I would not want to go below 70mm of aperture myself.

I got an oversized pair so I can wear more socks and I have an extra insulating sheepskin sole in there. I can't walk easily in them but if I'm standing around in the freezing cold they are perfect.

A lot of good points made, I will be better prepared next time, and less likely to blurt out an unfortunate comment!

I was chatting to another parent at a Sunday league football match and we were talking about how to cope with the cold. I had my huge Sorel boots on that I bought for astronomy but also use at freezing football matches. When I explained this the other parent said they had thought about getting a telescope from time to time and asked me was it worth it. It was a casual throwaway type of conversation where you're not thinking too deeply about anything, and the words "no, I wouldn't recommend it in this country" came out before my brain engaged. I immediately felt bad but the conversation moved on to something else. Was it the right thing to say? I don't know but it felt like a Freudian slip alongside being an illistration of my inept social skills. What do you say to people who ask about getting into the hobby, there's plenty of better answers I'm sure, that share the good sides whilst managing expectations.

I am very sorry to hear this news, David was well respected in our community.

I think the channel is ok. It seems to be bringing a Top Gear style of entertainment to astronomy whereby a few guys go off on a chaotic jolly under the pretence of testing out some gear. I think he evidently knows his stuff well enough and the dramas and calamities are created for entertainment effect. The funding is just how the world turns these days and to be fair it is transparent. If you don't want to pay towards a channel you don't have to, and in the case of the trip abroad the channel will be judged soon enough by the subscribing public and will know this. I thought that latest video was within what could reasonably be expected of the channel based on previous videos.

I use binoviewers with a dobsonian. I use the baader 1.7x gpc for newtonians and I mostly use Vixen SLV eyepiece pairs as they are light. I have one pair of Delos eyepieces that are nice but are much heavier and more expensive. If they are worth the cost is a personal call but for me yes. The best views I've had of say the moon have been binoviewing with my dobsonian, and I mean best by a significant margin. But that is a 14" scope so has a lot more aperture than my other scopes. The main advantage I notice is just that it is physically easier to observe as you are looking normally with both eyes open so you can put more attention into observing. There's also the benefit of your eyes/brain picking up more details if the image is bright enough. The main downside for me is the workload that comes with using binoviewers. It's more things to have to think about, more gear, more complications such as balancing and achieving focus. So I go back and forth over time, sometimes I binoview a lot as its nicer to observe that way, and sometimes I go cyclops for a while as its easier to set up and manage that.

I set up at 4.30 to have a look at this. I had a quick look at Saturn first and got caught up in that. Then half an hour later I swung over to Jupiter but it was clouding over so that was the session over... but Saturn was good!

I was on family taxi duty this morning but saw clear skies so I put a solar set up into the boot and once I had done the taxi runs I just looked for a nearby field on Google maps and set up. The field was fine except that it was obviously a very busy dog walking field for a large estate. I set up 72mm Photoline for white light and saw quite a few smallish spots but the sun was low amd seeing not great so I was at not much over 20x. Things were going ok until I discovered I was standing in what had to be the world's most evil dog poo. I thought I had been careful but this one outwitted me. I won't detail it any further other than to say observing came to an abrupt end. Never again!

I have the 10nm and 7.5nm baader solar continuum filters and whilst the 10nm allows enough brightness to be dialled if for any set up or magnification that I might use, the 7.5nm sometimes means I run out of brightness and have to take the polarising filter out of the line to get as much light as I can. I think a 2nm filter at Blue wavelengths is going to be quite dim for visual and so small exit pupils would be a challenge. I'm sure I've tried deep sky filters on the sun before, a Hb filter would be not far off but I guess this Altair filter is very specifically designed and something slightly different is not going to show the same results.

Me neither, but I do think those scopes are going to be Supra.

Those Thousand Oaks filters pass an orange colour, i.e. they filter out some wavelengths. They say this presents a "natural" orange colour but the sun is white not orange. Orange does give some benefits though, it filters out blue and so filters out scatter from the atmosphere, and if you have any chromatic abberation going on for any reason it will reduce that also. I prefer baader film that passes white light without any filtering of colour (at least not that I can observe) , so that I can filter to any colour myself if I want. Neither is bbetters such, it's just something to consider.

Tonight I got a nice grab and go set up ready for having a quick look at M42 later, but when later came, so did the clouds so it didn't even get a run out. I can keep it on stand by though.

I use a 0x finder to get the target in the field of view of a 6x or 9x right angled finder and get dead on from that. I started out with 9x50 right angled finders but eventually changed to mostly using 6x30 for the lighter weight and wider field of view. I'll use a right angled finder whose orientation matches the diagonal I have in the scope, which is usially a mirror but sometimes raci. I will observe a mix of targets I already know, many of which I can get to without needing a map, plus new things. However a few strategies have evolved from trial and error... - I rarely have long observing lists, as they generally result in disappointment. I rarely have more than a few new targets in a session. - I generally plan new targets near to each other or otherwise ensure they are going to be doable star hoos and not a demoralising struggle... I find one target and the next one is often going to be in my finder field of view or close to it. I don't think you have to spend time finding things manually to learn the sky, it's a hobby so you get to choose how youu want to enjoy it. It can help you learn but so can go to, just in a different way. I've had sessions star hopping where all I learned was how much of a pain star hopping can be sometimes, but that's how I do it, and after 10 years I don't feel any desire to change. The flip side is the sense of achievement when you find something that was tough, plus the fact that to me the sky is a mixture of well known well trodden paths interspersed with unfamiliar and unknown places that I might get to explore some day. Edit... just to add, I use sky safari in the field, not paper maps.

After years of trying my OCD has finally been satisfied and today I got a clean sweep on Clear Outside! I am well chuffed. ...unfortunately its a cloudy clean sweep, never mind. 🤣

I upgraded from the 200mm dovetail bar to a 220mm the point being I didn't want to have to move the scope through the rings out in the field. I found 220mm wasn't enough and then got a 300mm dovetail bar and I'm happy now. This allows me to balance whether I'm just using a tak prism with an SLV, or if I've got a pair of Delos in a binoviewer plus a 10x50 finder hanging on the focuser. Note that the handle only fits with the rings at 200mm, if the rings are further apart then the handle won't fit.

My initial sessions with my ST120 (my first proper scope alongside a MC127) made me think it had a problem with astigmatism... until I eventually worked out it was my eyes and not the scope. First light reports are enjoyable to read and I find the very informative but objectively I suppose last light reports would be when we know most about a scope that we own, but where's the excitement in that?!

From the scopes I've used myself from 60mm to 350mm I find that doubling the aperture gives a striking improvement, a 50% increase provides a strong improvement , 25% is clear but not strong, and once down to 10% or so I would have to go back and forth comparing to really notice. I find the impact on observing to be stronger on dsos than on planets/doubles.

I got half an hour on Jupiter just now and the Io shadow transit. I went out as soon as I could once my domestic duties were finished. The conditions were not great and the wind was annoying but it was great to get out and sit in the dark in peace for a bit, even though I then sat watching the cloud roll in and thicken from the moment I started observing! I could not clearly make out the GRS that was nearing the leading limb and could not see Io itself. When Jupiter disappeared in the clouds I thought about going for doubles in Andromeda and Pegasus where there were still gaps but decided against it and packed up. This turned out to be a good choice because the gaps closed up quickly and once I brought in my scope I went back out for my usual check to make sure I didn't leave anything outside and it was raining! A good session as odd as it may seem, with rarely experienced good timing of when to go out and when to come in.

My main refractors are a TS Photoline 72mm f6, Altair Starwave 102mm f7, and Strlla Mira 125mm f7.8 doublet apos. The 72mm is used for travel and Ha solar. It doesn't get used much at home as it is just as fast to set up the 102mm or 125mm. I got the 125mm this summer and since then my 102mm has not been used other than to do a comparison. I was in the market for a 5" for a few years and always held back due to weight of them meaning too much vibes on a Skytee 2 or EQ5. I am not going to go for anything that needs a bigger heavier mount. Then the SM125 appeared at a weight that meant it was a goer for me. The SM125 is fine for me on those mounts. It makes no difference time wise if I am carrying out any of those 3 scopes, so the big one gets picked. I have intended to do comparisons with a C8 but have not felt like taking the C8 out yet since the SM125 arrived, as the C8 is more of an undertaking to set up and more specialist and complicated to use. I see a noticeable benefit going to 5" from 4" but whether that is worth the cost and slightly extra strength needed to set it up is a personal thing. The 5" is longer and heavier and a bit more to handle but it's within my current abilities.

A double shadow transit of Ganymede and Europa is coming twice for Christmas, and both events are at fairly civilised times... 23rd December both shadows on at around 17.24 - 17.40 (just eyeballing Sky Safari and allowing for light time). 30th December both shadows on at around 22.15 - 23.40. I've not done a double shadow transit before, I hope the shadows will be noticeably different sizes, but mostly I hope it's not cloudy.

Very nice, you will have lots of good times with that, and it looks good in front of the book case, you can just leave it there when not in use!

I went out for an hour tonight, with the SM125, binoviewers, and SLVs at about 169x, observing Jupiter initially. The seeing was mostly poor with but with good moments. I then looked for Uranus and somehow it took me a long time to find it. I then went back to Jupiter about 50 minutes after I first looked earlier. It was much better but still variable seeing. I got some very good views and a yellow filter beat no filter for showing details. The GRS was well past centre by now but was much clearer. It was cold out but after years of gradual improvements I'm happy with my cold weather gear. I use Sorel boots with added sheepskin insoles and heat holder socks, and coming in after an hour my feet were cooking in their own heat because it can't get out! The same with my hands using Scott mitts.

I would like to add my thanks to Steve. I have read many a newsletter and I started out with bins and still use them. I saw Steve do a talk at an astronomy club years and learned a lot from that also.

I've had this scope since mid August. Taking how much you actually use a scope as something objective and measurable I have had 24 sessions since then, using the following scopes... 15 sessions Stella Mira 125mm 5 sessions TS Photoline 72mm refractor 2 sessions Bresser MC 127 Maksutov 1 session Altair ED102R f7 1 session 8x42 Opticron DBA VHD+ Bins Usually this list would have my 102mm f7 refractor as my most used scope by far. Having gone past the honeymoon period the SM 125 has taken over as my main scope. I've taken the handle off and I've got on a longer (300mm) dovetail so I can balance it straight away with very light or very heavy loads without having to move the scope in the rings. There is one thing I am not so keen on is that it's stressful setting up for solar as the dark carbon fibre heats up immediately when setting up in the sun, but it is fine once it is pointing at the sun.