Paz

I can't comment on photography options but for visual observing of objects outside the solar system, double stars, variable stars, and open clusters present a lot of doable targets. On the moon, you can do lots of science, measuring it's distance and position, libration, etc.

There's a good idea, we could all rent out good weather slots to each other!

Nice report, two nights in a row is good going, you have to take the chances when they come!

Open clusters and globular clusters should look great, even from light polluted sites. From dark sites I would go for seeing structure in galaxies and nebulae.

The main things I do, obsessively, are always blow an eyepiece with a blower every time it comes out of the scope and never let an eyepiece dew up. Bits of dust etc blow off easily of it is done soon after they land. But if they are left they get more attached/stuck with time and then a blower won't be able to help. Dew on a surface helps to fix any dirt/dust/particles down even faster hence is beneficial to avoid.

It is a shame that the planets are low, it is human nature that enjoyment=experience-expectations. Imagine if you were an astronomer visiting from another solar system that had no other planets than your own... any view of Jupiter would seem epic. There are some interesting things you can still do, for example plot the position of the moons over time like Galileo did and see if you can work out from that how to tell that they are circling Jupiter, or try to measure it's motion relative to the stars and work out for yourself how long it takes to do an orbit, or measure it's size and work out how it's distance from us is changing over time, or plan a session to try and see a shadow transit. All if those things are possible now.

I decided to have a quick look at the moon this evening and cut some corners to get out quickly. One time saver was to not bother with a diagonal. I got excited that maybe the views would be an epic step up. I didn't notice a huge benefit but I had tube currents to contend with. Anyway ergonomically it was not easy on my neck and I didn't last long before getting a diagonal out. Does anyone else do straight through observing sometimes?

Nice set ups there, looking forward to the results!

Brilliant! However you forgot to tell us what the Wombat thought of the Pinwheel because it's only fair to share the views.

You have written lots of good reports and we are lucky that many on SGL put the time in to share what they do. I really enjoy reading SGL reports with a sky atlas and sky safari to hand - looking up where things are, what they will probably look like, and what we know about them. It has helped a lot with learning the sky and finding good ideas for targets. I enjoy learning new things and I also enjoy reading reports from others treading a path I have already trodden - the shared experience bringing back memories of my own - maybe seeing a good sight for the first time, maybe a night of total failure, being scared out of your wits by dodgy animal noises in the night, seeing friends or strangers amazed by a sight they had no idea was possible, or just freezing to death in the dark. It's nice to see reports by familiar faces - you get to learn over time what others see compared to what you can - if I read a post by someone who posts quite often I can tell fairly well from how they describe an object with their scope with their skies how it is likely to look to me in my scopes with my skies and so judge whether to try for it.

Thanks for posting, that's a good one to have on the observing menu.

I've only been doing astronomy seriously for a few years in the UK and the weather has often been mostly cloudy. The good thing about this is I have never experienced any better so just accept it. A whole month, or more, of no opportunities does happen sometimes.

A sky watcher Mak will do magnifications from about 47x and upwards, and fields of view up to about 1 degree. Any target (dso, lunar, solar, double stars, etc) where you need no less than 47x magnification and no more than 1 degree field of view the Maksutov is going to work very well. No other scope of similar aperture will make a dso look any brighter for the same magnification. The scope of the same aperture that is most commonly described as being capable of beating a maksutov for clarity of views in its range of operation would be a high quality refractor which is going to be very expensive, or very long, or both. Reasons why other scopes with shorter focal lengths are described as good for dso's is because they can go down to lower magnificatikns that are more commonly used with dso's, sometimes because objects are large, sometimes because lower magnifications condense a target and make it easier to pick out, and sometimes because it's nice to frame a target rather than be zoomed right in on it. If you consider the size of the targets you look at, including dso's, you can estimate how many of them a maksutov could not do - it probably wouldn't be a long list. For completeness maksutovs do take longer to cool down than reflectors and refractors, without a dew shield the front can dew up, and you may notice a bit of mirror shift at high magnifications. Cool down isn't such an issue if you are looking at a 127mm scope, dewing can be solved with a shield, and mirror shift isn't a flaw, its just a feature of the design.

I don't think so, as long as the inner lining is black you should be fine.

Regarding the observing hood I have a black onr. It cuts out the light well but I should have got a white one as the black gets very hot if solar observing.

I have a tak diagonal and a baader t2 prism diagonal. The Baader gets used most these days because I can adjust fine focus with it, which saves having the weight of a dual speed focuser, it can take filters, and it's stronger. The tak diagonal is still good, really small and light. I generally use prism diagonals with my Maksutov and SCT, and generally mirrors with my faster scopes.

I wasn't planning on going out last night as it is a week night, I was tired, and it was cloudy. Then the cloud thinned and it was staying warm so I gradually convinced myself what harm could it do putting the ST80 out for a quick look. I went out at 10pm - it was not completely dark and I had the usual light pollution to contend with. As my eyes adjusted I realised there was a thin veil of cloud covering most of the sky with slightly thicker cloud in patches. It was good enough for doubles so I aligned my dot finder using Vega. My finding set up with the ST80 is just the dot finder and because there is nowhere to put a RACI fnder I use a RACI diagonal to make it easier to hop around. The last part of the set up is a Baader Mk4 Zoom so I can go from a field of nearly 3 degrees for finding up and zoom in up to 50x without any need for changing gear. Vega is a slightly colourful and blobby given its brightness combined with the short achromatic scope and my astigmatism. I bring up the "best double stars" list in Sky Safari and set off, my approach being to give each one a go and then look up the details. Zeta Lyrae - no double seen, it turns out the secondary is mag 15.8. I think that is a bit harsh to be in sky safari's best doubles list! Epsilon Lyrae - E1 is a bar, E2 looks like it should split so I go and get 2.5x powermate and have a go. I do split it but it was a bit noisy. It is interesting how E1 is not much tighter (2.2" compared to 2.4")but was definitely not split) or even a peanut. In hindsight I think I had E2 centered most of the time, maybe that didn't help with E1. The rest of the session was without the powermate so only up to 50x. Delta Lyrae - nothing seen - it turns out the seconday is mag 11.2 - it must be out of my reach. M57 - I try to spot this in passing - I can see it very faintly in averted vision. Beta Lyrae - very nice pair, quite wide. Mag 3.5/6.7. Around this magnitude the stars are looking very good. Bright enough to see easily but dim enough to be nice and clean with no CA. The cloud thickens around Vega so I look around for another patch. Cor Caroli - the best looking pair so far, with obvious colour. I was out recently with the C8 on doubles and struggled to see much colour in anything (although this wasn't on the list then) - but tonight with the ST80 colours are more apparent - especially oranges/yellows. Cloud thickens here so I look around and Cygnus looks ok. I line up on Deneb. This area is the first place I ever looked in detail through a scope and the patter of stars towards NGC7000 is instantly recognisable. I notice a close pair of stars nearby and zoom in - they turn out to be SAO49986/SAO49982 and look very good. Sky safari has them as a double mag 9.5/9.5 and 40.4". They don't show in the Cambridge Double Star atlas but I think because they are too faint. 31 Cygni (Omnicron) - I thought I had split this but I was looking at SAO49338 which is unrelated. It turns out the secondary for 31 Cygni is magnitude 13.4 and out of reach. There are though some colorful stars in this area. 18 Cygni (Delta) - I couldn't see a pair of any sort - on looking at Sky Safari i see it is 2.9/6.3 and 2.8" so it would be quite tough. I looked again looking for a peanut or bar and having set my mind on a position angle I was confident about I checked back with Sky Safari. I was................wrong! Not split or seen in any way! 16 Cygni - super nice and a wide split. Mag 6/6.2 39.8". That kind of split and those magnitudes were perfect for the scope and conditions. The stars were nice and crisp, not too dim, and not to bright and noisy. The cloud situation was getting worse and I thought it a good idea to end on a winner. Overall I was very happy with my lot.

Great report and sketches. I've recently started trying to sketch sometimes but it takes me absolutely ages so I need to keep practicing! How long does one of those doubles sketches take to do?

Nice report - Corona Borealis isn't a constellation I've spent a lot of time on - I will try and give it a go this time around.

I've got a few but Lunar map HD gets used the most.

Great report, it is good to go back to something you haven't done for some time and you appreciate it more.

A 1.25" Lacerta wedge.

I've used a Herschel wedge with a st80 and it was fine. The only thing of note was it was close to running out of in focus so not many eyepieces worked. I mostly use my st120 with the wedge for solar. One comment I would add is that I went for a 1.25" wedge as it doesn't take up as much light path as a 2".

I've had an ST120 for a few years and despite accumulating other scopes the ST120 still ranks joint first with my Maksutov as being my most used scopes. A ~4" achromat plus a ~4" maksutov cost less than one quality 4" apo and can cover all the bases admirably. It does show colour on bright targets but filters can manage this well. It's a lot of aperture in a short tube and is low cost and so is not a worry to own. I do aim to get an ed/apo in the future and it's possible when I do I will wish I did it sooner but I'm still enjoying what I've got and am not in a huge hurry.

Thanks very much, that is useful!