Paz

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.

Welcome back, I have missed your reports, looking forward to hearing of your exploits with the VX12.

1 hour ago, Zermelo said:

Yes, the more I observe, the more I think that what I describe as poor seeing is often heat rising from nearby buildings, either heat absorbed during daytime in the summer, or heat from chimneys and flues in the winter.

It took me quite a while to realise this, I live in the middle of a smallish but fairly new estate with quite tightly packed roads , houses  drives, small gardens, etc and it means I have heat pollution all around most of the time.

One day I clocked that the best solar observing sessions I had experienced were on holiday away from home. Nowadays if I have time to take my set up to somewhere away from the local heat sources I do, and one of those sites is less than a kilometre away, but its worth he extra hassle of packing my kit into the car and going there.

I had a brief session on Jupiter and the moon, and I'm starting to check out M42 this time around although it's not high enough for a good view before my bedtime yet.

You are on the right track with the fc100 dc if you want a low weight high quality 4" refractor, I would be very happy with one of those.

5 minutes ago, John said:

Perhaps the larger airy disks delivered by smaller apertures help to see the colours more markedly ?

That's what I was thinking, smaller scopes give a dimmer image but the larger airy disc hits more receptors in the eye than a smaller airy disc so if there is enough brightness there then the larger airy disc enables more colour  to be seen?

On 31/10/2023 at 09:03, Simone_DB said:

 Edit: maybe a chair like the that?

I would recommend a chair like this picture. I have had one for years, it looks rickety but it is infinitely adjustable and works.

I would also recommend just setting up and taking down your scope indoors once a night a few times and you'll iron out any issues without getting cold and demoralised.

I still sometimes do this if I'm out of practice.

1 hour ago, DirkSteele said:

I need to leave this thread. All those photos of the big Dobs are stirring something inside me.

 

Repeat after me, mirrors are for shaving! Mirrors are for shaving!

 

Phew, think my wife might kill me if another scope shows up. Especially a monster Dob.

My clearest memory of getting the VX14 was the first moment my wife saw it standing in the living room the next morning. It looks huge when it's indoors and my other half wasn't entirely happy.

So when you get your big Dob just make sure it's outside when your other half first sees it, there will be less trouble!

16 hours ago, Stu said:

The Dob Mob to be precise 😉.

This is a pic of some of the at SGL10 at Lucksall in 2015. Scopes from 14” to 20”, @swamp thing’s blue 20” being the biggest there 👍

I think the white scope near the left is the VX14 that was owned by faulksy at the time that I later bought and still have. faulksy went on to have an even bigger Dob!

I've had many near misses but never dropped anything worse than an eyepiece cap (so fas). 

But these days I only really use 2" and T2 connectors so the risks are slightly less than the old days when I only used 1.25".

Years back I really wanted a Skywatcher 180mm Maksutov and looked for a long time, but on the rare occasions one came up econd hand I'd either be beaten to the draw or I held back due to asking prices. After a long time, maybe more than a year, I gave up and looked for a C8 instead, and there are many more C8s out there so I landed one second hand pretty much immediately.

I've been reflecting on this and in any/every other hobby I have or have had I only have one of whatever it is for that hobby. Only astronomy has dragged me into the thing of having lots of gear. 

One example is I am into hi-fi which isa notorious hobby for having to have all the gear but I've only got one music source, one player, one digital audio converter and one pair of headphones and that's it and I'm very happy enjoying the music and not acquring more gear (alright I fantasise about more gear but there's no harm in window shopping is there?).

I wonder what is different about astronomy, perhaps the issue of the effort required to set up meaning  different scopes at different points on the convenience spectrum is a thing that is less of a thing in other hobbies, and for me personally maybe because I am on an internet forum (which I won't name!) where everyone is a bad influence on each other? 🙂

I think there's a lot to be said for having one scope, and having less gear in general. I can see how reducing the choices you have to make can save time and the stress of decision making and the fear of missing out, leaving more time and head space for observing and just enjoying it.

...but first you have to get through the stress of picking what to get rid of!

I saw it both sides!!!

It was looking bad but I got a 72mm  refractor set up on a Porta 2 in case the weather turned good. I found the Moon/Venus with the help of Sky Safari, I put it in compass mode and squared it with my scope and swung to the right place and that was good enough. Although it was not visible naked eye, through my finder I could just make out the lit limb of the moon. Then I saw Venus which was super bright in comparison, I wonder why my brain noticed the moon first and not Venus but anyway I then took a while to line up my finders as the moon and Venus kept appearing and disappearing behind the clouds. I settled on a 4mm SLV for 108x and 0.4 degree field of view, and could see a well dimmed (by the clouds) view of Venus but the moon was invisible! By moving the scope back and forth I could only just make out the limb of the moon coming and going. I then tried a polarising filter to see if I could do better but I could not see an improvement, so I left that out and just stayed at the eyepiece and tried to not lose Venus.

The clouds thinned a little and the moon magically appeared alongside Venus! The first contact was epic, Venus took a minute or so to pass the limb of the moon, I wondered if I would think so what, having seen the moon and Venus so many times but it was amazing.

After that the clouds thinned further and the sun came out. I brought the scope in but left it set up, and I went back out at 10.30 to see Venus re-emerge. I dropped to a 10mm SLV and 43x and a 1.2 degree field of view to get a clear view of the lit limb of the moon in order to have my bearings on where Venus would emerge. It was another roller coaster of cloud coming and going and the Moon appearing and disappearing in the finder, but once I was at the eyepiece as long as I stayed there and kept it in view it was ok, this time the Moon never completely disappeared at the eyepiece.

I got my bearings on where Venus would emerge and watched the time, then a few minutes before I stay at the eyepiece and concentrate. Then Venus pops out right on time and right where I am looking! As soon as Venus appears I can tell my focus is slightly off due to focusing on a dim moon, and I fix this and get a great view with some atmospheric colour in the spells when the could was thinner, which on this occasion I thought was pretty and added to the wonder of the view, rather than being a nuisance. 

What an epic result for me and against the odds - only matched I think by when I saw a Mercury transit once in a small window of clarity between persistent cloud and rain.

Here's a picture when I was getting my finders lined up (I think this was with a 25mm SLV), and a picture of the sky after first contact finished, the clouds cleared up just enough and just in time!

It's looking dodgy here this morning...

Winter 2030, 2031, and 2032 look good, the rings will be on maximum view and Sarurn will be well over 50 degrees up.

...that gives us 7 years to sort the rubbish weather out.

Time flies, it seems not long ago that we were in the minimum with not much to be seen and the maximum isn't far away now.

An 80mm scope will give a 0.5mm exit pupil (which is a rough guide for maximum visual magnification) at 160x, which would mean you are not limited by the seeing so often.

You can go to smaller exit pupils (i.e. higher magnifications) than that with good quality scopes and good eyesight, and that GT81 looks like a good quality scope.

On 05/11/2023 at 10:07, cajen2 said:

I'm with David on this one. We have to understand that not everybody wants to spend (often fruitless) hours in the freezing cold trying to find little dots or fuzzy patches, amazingly. Young people have notoriously short attention spans and suffer from temporary fads and for every child with a scope, I'd bet only one in twenty goes on to take up astro as a hobby.

My daughter is a case in point. When she was young, nothing would do but to learn to play the violin. I bought her a nice one and a teacher....as soon as she discovered that she actually had to practise, that was it. When a teenager, she wanted to play the guitar. So I bought a Fender acoustic for Xmas. No, again, too much trouble to bother practising. A few years ago, she wanted a telescope. I bought her one but she couldn't be bothered to get it out. I've given up! 😂

I agree. I've tried to inspire my kids but I dont have a good track record. They will have a polite look through a scope sometimes if I say there's something exciting to look at, but that's it.

I bought a 1/2 sized guitar for them when they were young, ready to show them how play anything they liked on the radio, or rather Spotify, but with no success.

The main thing they have been inspired by is their gaming PCs.

My preferences are influenced partly by my eyesight. I find that at smaller exit pupils what I can see seems to drop off what others can see. So I observe with as much aperture as I'm prepared to set up and that the conditions will allow.

My 4" f7 refractor has been my most used scope, because of the relationship between how easy it is to use and how good the views are. The set up time for my 4" and 3" refractors is the same and so the 3" is not used except for travel or for solar Ha with a Quark where I need to keep the magnification down.

Since I got a light weight 125mm refractor that has become my most used scope, now that  I'm used to balancing and using it I can set that up as quickly as the 3" or 4" and I benefit from the bigger aperture.

It does require a little more effort to handle but luckily I'm currently able to handle it and it looks like that's taking over as my most used scope.

However, I still fantasise about owning a DZ one day!

I use a mobile phone power brick to power my Quark but never thought about using one to power my eq5. When my stash of normal batteries runs out I'll try using the USB power bricks I already have.

I saw the Io/red spot pass on sky safari and the conditions were good for it but I was caught up in taxi driving duties and so missed it. However I did see this moon ring later on and got a phone picture of it.

There's two sides to this weather, whilst we are not amused these people are loving it...

https://cloudappreciationsociety.org

...they even have a "cloud of the month"!