Paz

Well done getting over the hurdles of binoviewing, it can be a bit of a process of trial and error and ongoing problem solving!

The view from under the hood, warming the quark up for some solar.

That's a shame, I agree with the comments that it would be good if they sold a stand alone version you could use on any scope, and one that you could use in the day would be good. I guess they may be thinking about it or they may have decided they will earn more money by only selling it with their scopes. I wonder if there's any way to fool the electronics into working in the day. I recall in the past companies would make fuel injection chips impossible to tune so other companies then made chips to intercept the sensor inputs and trick the original chip into doing different fuel mappings. I wonder if that kind of trickery is possible in this case!?

This is interesting, could you use star sense to find planets in the day time?

I had a look at this last night for the first time, using a C8. I came in quite despondent thinking I had not seen it as the star I saw seemed to be in slightly the wrong place but having looked at some AAVSO charts and sky safari again this morning I realised that what I thought was a faint and nearby field star ((GAIA160927556etc - close to the middle of M101) was actually 2023ixf itself all along! May plan had been to just look at M101 and whichever star was not in sky safari would be it, but I had misread the magnitudes of some of the field stars whilst out in the dark and that had thrown me off. I'll be giving it another go, usually once I've clocked something for the first time it's much easier to find and see thereafter.

I had a great session this evening with the ED102R on an EQ5, spurred on by some recent comments / advice on SGL about Venus I got out early and tried to find the planet up high in broad daylight well before it is visible naked eye. I tried sweeping up and down the Dec axis and moving along in RA a little each time but had no luck either in the eyepiece or in a 6x30 finder. After a quarter of an hour of quite hard work I was still looking. Then I had a rest and a think and I downloaded an inclinometer and a compass into my phone and used those to get my scope pointed roughly in the right place and started sweeping around again. After a few minutes I caught a reflection in the finder scope but on looking at it I realised it was an out of focus and astigmatic Venus (astigmatic as I wasn't wearing my glasses). The time was 18:45 and Venus was still 51 degrees high and completely invisible naked eye. After a bit more sweeping this time at the eyepiece I found it and got my finder exactly aligned and the RA axis tracking. I was at this point observing cyclops for simplicity and through a Herschel wedge for dimming which is a very recent development I have been trying with success. The view looked really good - no atmospheric dispersion visible, great seeing as it was so high up, and contrast aided by the lighter sky background. I ended up increasing the magnification and there seemed to be no end to what was possible and I maxed out with a 2.5mm SLV for 286x. I got carried away and added a 2.5x power mate for 714x and a crazy-tiny FOV, and failed to find Venus at all with this! It was so good I was prepared to accept the faffing necessary to switch around to binoviewers and ended up with 10mm SLVs and a 2.6x gpc as far forward as I could get it for about 3.4x magnification giving me 243x. This was great - I think the best view of Venus I have had. I got my observing hood on and settled down for an hour of concentrated effort and then did a sketch of the super-faint differences in albedo I could see plus a very slight ding in the terminator. As Venus got lower some atmospheric dispersion starter to appear but very slight and on the limits of what I could detect. After all this effort I needed a rest and so moved on to the moon, Venus was still invisible naked eye at this point. The moon was a bit too faint for me with the Hershel wedge but a much easier target to observe/enjoy than Venus. Still good clean views and interestingly my attention was drawn away from the terminator deeper into the lit side of the moon as a result of the dimming of the Herschel wedge, without it I would be picking observing features closer to the terminator. One lunar feature that was much better with the wedge was where the sun shines low across the top of a crater and lights up the rim of the lip of the far side of the crater from the sun - crater lips in these positions are often washed out as they are so bright. Not so with the Hershel wedge, I could see terraces and wall features in these positions that I could not see normally. However I then swapped to a prism diagonal for more brightness and had a very good time still at 243x getting more great views, still in broad daylight and with good seeing. I had to give up at 9pm, I don't usually do such long sessions and decided to quit while I was ahead. My approach to Venus is never going to be the same again - in future if it is at all visible naked eye it's too late to observe it, and if I can see any atmospheric dispersion it's also too late to observe it. I will be giving it more attention, trying to catch it even earlier/higher, and trying with both a C8 and ED102R.

I have a ST120 which I've found to be solid on an EQ5, Skytee 2, and AZ4. I found it to be useable but vibey on a Vixen Porta 2. I would guess on an EQ3 it would depend on your tolerance for vibes. Personally I don't think I would go for a ST120 on an EQ3, I know I won't use the Porta 2 with the ST120 unless I have to (i.e. if travelling). I only do visual so could not comment on protography uses.

I've had a pair of these for a couple of years now and I can say they are great, I use them for astronomy and terrestrial and they are the only bins I use now. I wanted one pair of bins that would be pretty good at everything whilst easy to hold and carry around. Also well built and resilient enough to be left lying in a flower bed should this be your thing!

If you srltraighten out the light cone going through the prism diagonal by putting a barlow in front of it that might reduce some aberrations from the prism. I always see atmospheric dispersion on Venus. I have an ADC but I don't use it on Venus as for me the added scatter isn't worth the reduced colour dispersion. However I use a lot of dimming amd that means any colour splitting may be dimmed below the threshold of being visible, leaving a cleaner image for viewing.

I've got my C8 set up with a wedge for tonight on Venus. The moon looks pretty good, it will be interesting to see how it goes when the scope is cooled and the sky dims a bit.

That is interesting thanks for posting. I've had some success on Venus recently with an nd1.8 filter and also by stacking colour filters with a nd0.9 filter. A herschel wedge would do a lot of the dimming work but with fewer surfaces and fewer bits of glass in the light path. I'll give it a try.

My Quark has always been ok. When I got it I also got a contraption to be able to measure exactly what was happening (see photo, but thats charging a phone not heating a quark). I have found that normal power bricks used for charging phones work fine and that's what I use in the field. I do worry about the usb connection breaking and I use a 90 degree connector into the quark to minimise the amount of flexing/flapping of the connection.

I've been watching the first of the 2023 Texas Star Party videos on YouTube on the Deep Sky Dude channel. The content is really good, packed with interesting stuff and I would recommend it. I don't know how to post a link, hopefully it's easy to find by searching the title of this thread.

I had a go this morning, was the flare in the position of the spots 3311/3313? That area had the brightest bits I could see at the time. I'm still relatively new to Ha so am not sure myself what is what sometimes.

I had this a couple of weeks ago. I was observing the sun from the local village hall car park as the geography there is good for it and I heard some people approaching that turned out to be a father and son walking to cub scouts. The conversation went like this... Son "Dad, what's that man looking at?" Dad "I don't know, why don't you ask him?" Son "Excuse me, what are you looking at?" Me "The sun" Dad "The SUN!?!" At which point Dad, evidently horrified, lenghtens his stride and moves his little one on at a pace, and that was the end of that!

Great report and a great observing site, I wish there was something like that within reach of where I live!

Nice report. Earlier this week I got some good views of Venus. I was wondering if I could see that one half of the lit side was slightly darker than the other and I could see on photos on the forum from the same day showed this but I haven't considered it a confirmed sighting of a feature as it was so tenuous. I think with some more time observing hopefully my eyes/brain may tune into it and I'll be confident of an observation or be able to confirm a marginal observation from a photo.

I had a go at Venus with the C8 this evening, putting the scope out early to cool it properly, starting in broad daylight and packing up by 9.30pm which is nice and civilised. I think I got the best views of Venus I've ever had! The scope was cool, the seeing was good. I was also experimenting with much more dimming than usual and this actually worked. I tried a nd0.9 which I usually do and this was good but a nd1.8 was even better. I tried come colour filters stacked with the nd0.9 filter and these views were better than the colour filters alone, but just the nd1.8 on its own was best. This was all with a 10mm Delos so 203x and an exit pupil of 1mm. The limb was crisp and clean, the terminator was softer, a gradient in albedo from limb to terminator was noticeable and the phase being over 50% was quite clear. I think I might stick with this setup on Venus for this pass and see if I can get any more out of it.

That is a good read. Imagine having a 7" f17 refractor, thats 3 metres long!

It was more dewy last night where I am than it has been recently, by the time I came in I had dew on the outer OTA of my C8 and on the finders but scope and eyepieces were ok. A dewshield protected the scope and my head works fine as an eyepiece protecter/heater, but when my finders started to dew up I knew the scope corrector plate would have been next soon enough if I had kept going.

I saw yesterday that the weather was looking promising today and I thought if that turned out to be true I would make the most of it. It was cloudy all morning but the cloud started to thin from lunchtime. In the early evening I packed the car with a set up for observing white light solar and Venus and drove 6 or 7 miles to what I call a "still sky site", where there a better chance of still air for good views of the sun, moon, and planets compared to home where I am surrounded by heat coming off roads, rooftops, and driveways. I make 3 journeys walking from the car to my spot 100 yards away in a field carrying over an EQ5 and tripod, counterweights, observing chair, a case of eyepieces/wedge/bits, a shoulder bag with solar finder / observing hood / etc, and a 102mm f7 scope. I get the scope roughly balanced and go to attach the wedge, I'm using a T2 quick changer into a T2-2" connector in the scope... except that the T2-2" connector is not in the scope... and its not in the case! I look for any other bits that I could use but I have only packed exactly what I needed (except for the bit I didn't pack). It's game over and I have to pack up and go home! The skies get clearer as the evening goes on and I decide to go out in my garden later to make the most of it. I take out the C8 this time. I haven't used the C8 in a while and I admit it's not my first choice of scope. I check the collimation roughly with a laser and it looks ok so I have a look at Venus but it is a bit mushy with tube currents and I think the collimation is actually still off So I take off the dew shield again and collimate it just by eye, I am out of practice but after a bit of faffing and scope-yoga it's straight (I conclude my laser must have some issue). Venus looks better but still some tube currents are noticeable, A 17.3mm Delos makes for 118x and a ND0.9 filter does a good job of taming the glare. An 8mm Delos makes for 254x , it looks like the seeing itself is not bad but my scope is constantly lagging slightly in temperature as the air cools. Although the temperature is dropping it is not very cold, various households on the estate are playing music with their windows open, and the smell of people partaking of dodgy substances comes and goes on the wind, things like this are the backdrop of summer observing. After the earlier solar observing trip failure I don't feel like trying anything too difficult, so I just check out some doubles and Mars initially and they look nice (although Mars is small). I then try for M66/M65 in Leo. In the 17.3mm Delos they are super tough and I can only see one in averted vision (I guess M66) so I back right out with a 40mm NPL but that turns the background into a bright grey blanket and really I am no better off. I look over to the east and think I'll do one more Messier and then call it a day. Hercules is up so it's going to be M13. In the 40NPL it is not that good due to the bright background. Going to a 17.3mm Delos is better but I carry on to an 8mm Delos to darken the background more and this is better still and still framed ok. I can see subtle swimming of the view as my scope keeps following the ambient temperature down, but this is a good view I admit, and better than the ED102R (my most used scope by far in the last couple of years). This view on its own was worth the hassle and if I had started on M13 I am not sure if I would have moved on to any other targets, because it's always a good idea to know when you're on to a winner and stick with it. My observing is done but the night isn't over yet. When packing up it turns out I trod on a mouse and didn't realise it, then I tread this poor mouse over the floor as I put my kit away initially in the dark. When I get around to putting a light on I finally realise and it looks a scene from a rodent horror movie. I've accidentally crushed plenty of slugs over the years but never a mouse!

That is interesting and sounds worth giving a go, is that better as in better than not using a polarising filter or better than if using a polarising filter in front of the eyepieces or binoviewer?

I'm interested to hear how the 7.5nm continuum filter performs. I've just received one but first light with it was observing through constantly changing thin cloud so I haven't got reliable observations to draw conclusions from yet.

The red coating on the front is what they put on lower quality binoculars to make the CA less obvious in the views, I think by by chopping out the red end. The first astronomy kit I ever had was a pair of binoculars of this nature I received as a present. I thought they were epic at the time, I saw Jupiter and the 4 moons and was amazed! These binoculars are now in bits having been dismantled in the furtherance of scientific discovery. You could work out the specifications fairly accurately as follows... Measure the diameter of the objective lense directly (A) (but note this assumes no internal field stops - they are another trick to improve the views through a poor optic) Measure the diameter of the exit pupil (B). Then A/B = magnification (M). Then the the normal specification for the binoculars would be M x A. You can find the exit pupil by pointing the binoculars up at the clear blue sky (but not near the sun) and putting some paper or tracing paper behind the eyepiece where your eye would be. You will see a circle of light on it. Move the paper in and out until the circle is sharp and focused - that is the right spot to measure its diameter. If for example it is 10x magnification then the exit pupil would be 6mm if the objective was 60mm etc..

If you want a general purpose visual observing scope but a 8-10" dobsonian is not for you then I would recommend a 4" refractor. That kind of size (e.g. 102mm f7) is easy to to handle - bigger refractors than that rapidly become serious in size/weight, and smaller apertures whilst easier to travel with due to being smaller are (imo) no easier/faster to set up if you are at home. The reason for that suggestion is it would do a bit of everything well (accepting the limitations of the aperture). My reasons for not suggesting other scopes would be... SCT - longer focal length so slightly more specialist towards higher magnifications (but to be fair a smallish SCT would fit the vast majority of targets into the field of view), workload collimating it from time to time, longer cool down, possibly having to get into dew shields which is further workload. Maksutov - longer focal length so more specialist towards higher magnifications, much longer cool down, possibly having to get into dew shields which is further workload. (I would add I really like Maksutovs and once set up and onto a target they are absolutely winning, and I don't like it when they get criticised, but if practicality and ease of use are key criteria then Maksutovs have some challenges compared to a refractor). Smaller (say 6") newtonian - workload collimating it, longer cool down (maybe not much longer?), eyepiece height / orientation challenges depending on how you mount it, a 150mm obstructed scope is more aperture than a 102mm refractor for light grasp but other than faint fuzzies where the aperture simply wins the refractor will hold up well. I'm just a visual observer and so my comments don't take into account photography pros and cons. I read with interest the suggestion about electronically assisted observing from @CHR15 , I don't know much about that but that also looks a good option for something that is easy to handle and can cover a lot of ground.