Whistlin Bob

Congratulations. Buying a big dob was one of the most wonderful things I've ever done.

A long day into London and back, watching my inbox swell with dumb emails whilst I dealt with meetings and other nonsense, then getting harassed by tramps around New Street station where I was changing trains on the way home did not leave me in a good mood. Then a surprise session with the moon gleaming through a milky sky, and the 8" dob wound up to 300x with a 4mm nirvana ep. I really don't know the moon very well at this age. There were several highlights- Bailly looked great arcing round the terminator. There was a glinting peak near Hedin towering out of the darkness at its base. A crater called Riccioli with a deep canyon that broke through its walls. And me- sat happy and relaxed in the dark and quiet and remembering exactly why I do this.

I'm not anywhere near you, but I've had the same experience with led lights. They're much brighter (unnecessarily so) but the light is far better directed and the remaining glow is from other sources. I can definitely see more. I do wonder if the remaining glow is partly reflection of the led light.

Now that's just teasing!!!!

Congratulations on your 14". I succumbed to the desire to go bigger around 4 years ago, and went for the same size. I've never regretted it. Mine is a truss based Orion USA model, I keep it on a sack truck, so moving from garage to garden isn't a big deal. Assembly takes about ten minutes, which I don't find onerous, although I've kept my 8 inch dob for quickie grab n go sessions. At the zenith it's right at my eye level (I'm 6' tall), which makes the size really good for me, had I gone bigger I'd have needed a ladder or step and that has never felt comfortable in the dark. On your aspiration to see the arms of m51, I'm in Bortle 5 and on the most transparent nights they're pretty clear in my 7mm Celestron ep, so I'm sure it's on for you. I suspect our mirrors are of similar quality, so I would mostly agree on the strengths. However, I've made an aperture mask for mine, which gives me 160mm unobstructed aperture. This tightens stars up hugely, and makes it very competent for double star splitting. If the seeing is a bit wobbly it also improves lunar and planetary views, so I'd definitely recommend that. I'd also recommend a little portable hairdryer- even with a shroud, the secondary is quite prone to dewing up on damper nights. It's soon sorted with a quick blow of warm air- that has prolonged many a session. My other tip would be binoviewers: I use a Williams Optics pair, and on the right targets (esp globs and tighter/brighter open clusters) the views are bright, detailed and immersive. I have to Barlow mine to achieve focus, but I'm guessing the flextube system would give you some extra flexibility there. As you can probably tell, I'm a bit in love with my 14" dob. It has shown me some wonderful sights and I'm hoping to have many more years of use out of it. I hope yours gives you the same satisfaction, and look forward to hearing of your adventures with it.

Mine has been outside for two and a half years- no problems so far, and it's switched off when not in use, so not warm. Keyboard didn't like getting dewed up though!!!

I've got a 12v battery with a socket on it.

I'm another fan of the pocket method. If you put caps on and swap eyepieces regularly then it works great. Fails a bit if you're using one eyepiece persistently though- such as the other night when I had my 4mm nirvana in for ages whilst lunar viewing (also a short eye relief ep, so suffers from proximity of eyes). When this happens I've got a little 12v travel hairdryer that I use. It's quite feeble, so I doubt it's much good at its intended purpose, but does very well for this.

Was trying to focus on imaging last night, but it was one of those nights when nothing works properly and in frustration I walked away and got the 8 inch dob out. Sirius was clearly dancing too much so I didn't spend long failing to split that. I spotted that m93 should be in a gap between the houses and managed the hop to it. It's right in a light dome for me, and there's only about a 30 minute window where I can see it, so I was really pleased to tick it off, even if the background sky did look like chicken soup! Got distracted on the way by HR2910- a pretty little double. Then I turned to the moon for a very happy hour. Seeing was rock steady, and at 300x it felt like I could reach out and touch it. So much was well displayed. The highlights for me were Montes Ripheus (where I could see separation between the ridges), the way Montes Jura was picked out on one edge and then fading, and the 'foothills' leading up to Copernicus. Wonderful stuff!!

That sounds like a fantastic session- yes, it was very damp last night. I had a very short session and everything was soaked in just a few minutes.

Fascinating looking place- thanks for sharing.

I've got a 14" dob- so pretty good aperture- and bortle 5 skies.

Well done @Kon- that's an excellent report and a superb achievement in an 8 inch newt, thanks very much for sharing. I've seen the HH a few times from a dark site, but, before last week, only once from home in several years of trying. I then saw it on both Tuesday and Wednesday last week, which highlights just how good the conditions were. Such a shame it's so rare, but as you describe so well, it's a massive thrill when the skies make it possible 😁. I must try an Hb filter on it- my views last week were with a 40mm Stellalyra ep and a UHC filter. It was there, but it didn't pop in the way that describe.

Great report- thanks for sharing.

Great report- thanks for sharing. And well done on getting out to a darker site- reading your report is very motivating.

Really good report and congratulations on the pup 👍 I have spent quite a lot of time with optical fluid and hairdryers trying to clean the nebulosity off the Pleiades 🤦‍♂️ I was only really convinced when I realised you can actually see the granularity in some of the brighter stuff, especially if you wobble your scope a little. Once you get your eye in you can see fainter stuff extending well beyond the cluster- especially if your scope is gently moving.

Really good session tonight... Set up on Aldebaran- lovely gold Almach- white, blue and gorgeous. I think I like this almost as much as Albireo. Uranus- slightly tricky find and looked like a Star initially. Greenish disk apparent with concentration. Tried hard to see the moon's, but couldn't do it. Mag 14 so not surprising. Rigel- spectacular white, split easily made at 8mm (200x) Keid- a new one for me, bit of a hop from Rigel, faint companions split quite nicely. Iota Cass- lovely and steady tonight, white blue and yellow quite clear. IC342- got it- new one for me, bit of a hop again, but quite clear and large at 74x once found. First new galaxy for a while for me. Very pleasing. My son (15) then joined me, so went for some showpieces... Pleiades- wonderful sight in 40mm Stellalyra ep. Dust very visible. Orion m42- with uhc filter. The whole show- fish head, Running Man, Nair Al Saif. Back area a bit faint, but altogether a really tremendous sight. Alnitak- Wow. Flame spotted quite quickly due to its dark lane. Then with time the Horsehead appeared. Sam just caught it too. We were both amazed- only the second time I've seen it from home. Just soaking it in when it started snowing and caused a very rushed packing up!!!

This is nice to think about on a very damp cloudy night. Visual: -Organise myself a little better and give myself proper target lists again; I've become lazy lately. -Do more lunar observing. -Do at least one dark sky trip- it's been over two years because of you know what. -See if I can nab the Horsehead again. -Observe in company more often- both at my local club and at a Star Party. Imaging: - Finish upgrading my portable rig to an HEQ5 with mobile power and make it quick to set up. -I've recently upgraded my main setup to an NEQ6. I want to belt mod it and get it and my 200p working well together for some nice galaxy images come March and April. - I've started a support group for imaging at my local club (emotional and practical !!!)- keep it going and hopefully grow it. (Shameless plug: you can find out more here: https://www.roslistonastronomy.org.uk/, if you're around South Derbyshire or East Staffordshire, we meet on the first Friday of the month, online whilst we see what Covid does, why not give us a look). - Do more planetary and lunar imaging. And for both sides of the hobby: don't let the flipping clouds get me down!

Completely agree. I really enjoy zooming all the way out and then slowly back in and watching the companion gradually emerge. Even better, with unevenly spaced triples this happens twice! For example, at 24mm, Iota Cass looks like a single in my dob, but has elongation by 20mm and splits shortly after. Then as you get down to 12mm or so it elongates again and by 8mm it's clearly a triple. Love it! 😀 It's possible i need to get out more...🤔

Great. I was really happy with my scopes- but now I'm dreaming of a 24" dob!!!! 😂😉

You'll always pay a bit of a penalty in terms of noise ID you don't have active cooling- that's the big advantage that dedicated astro cameras can give, so the other alternative is to look at the second hand market. CCD is a bit out of fashion at the moment, so there can be some good bargains to be had. But the original suggestion of a second hand Canon is still very capable- the image below was taken with a £150 600d that then had to be modified on a 130pds.

Yeah- I'd heartily recommend a modified 2nd hand Canon DSLR as a budget option, which is what I started with. The drivers are generally good (although I can't comment on Indi) and you get a good fov. As an alternative, I use a fan cooled Altair 183c on my portable rig, and it performs pretty well, although it has some nasty amp glow, meaning you have to get your calibration frames at pretty much the same time as you image. They have a similar camera with a larger sensor as well, as I recall.

Really good report- thanks for sharing 👍

@nfotis- I don't, but thank you for bumping @alexbb's review into the front page as I missed it the first time- and it's very interesting!

Strange conditions tonight in the aftermath of Storm Arwen. Nothing doing earlier in the evening, but by ten the sky was quite clear. Got the 8 inch dob out and used Betelgeuse to set up. Had a look at the Pleiades to start, nebulosity clear, really nice view. M42 for first time this season at 8mm, nice tight view of trap. Then it clouded over. Forecast wasn't great, went in to put the kids to bed etc, came out to pack up and the sky was now pristine! I decided Go Big or... well I'm already home, but I got my 14" out. M42 40mm with UHC, superb view, Full shape clear, with patience I could even make out some of the fainter bits near the back. Running Man also seen and all the little jewels around Nair Al Saif. I spent a long time here. The first time each year feels like a revelation. Next up to Alnitak area for some more subtle attractions. The star was easily split even with that filter and eyepiece. I could make out the central dark neb in the flame with some confidence, but no other detail. The bank that the Horsehead sits in was definitely there, confirmed with a dob wobble. Did I see the HH? I've only had once at home where I was sure. Definite hint of darkening in the right place. Tried to relax and enjoy a really nice view with sigma o top left and lots of small sharp stars down to Alnitak (the filter does a good job of tightening the stars up). I reckon this time I'm going to have to call it a 'probable' rather than a 'definite' on the HH. Ngc1981- under-appreciated (by me at least) pretty little cluster among the riches. Over to the zoom for some tighter views. Sigma Orion lovely. 2x4 stars readily pulled out. Core of M42 at around 200x bright and spectacular, a fov full of textured reflection nebula. Trapezium sharp at the core, e and f seen but not distinct, drifting in and out of view. Rigel- crisp view with mask, easy split, little companion at 11 o'clock Switched to 30mm ep. Pleiades in 14"- diamonds in the mist. Gorgeous view- stars bright pinpoint white, with misty textured reflection nebulosity between them. Sky was quite weird by this point- long thin banks of cloud with mostly poor transparency, but a few patches full of stars. To the east, the darkest bit of sky for me, Mirach was shining steadily, and was that patch of fuzz M31? Yes it was!!! M31 Core very bright. M32 very obvious nearby. Dark lanes picked out and seen well. M110 also visible without av. Can just about get all 3 cores in 30mm fov. The galaxy was almost vertical in orientation by now- drifting the dob up and down and taking my time , I could see some sort of presence across 3 fields of view. Incredible object. Wow. M33- not as spectacular, but a good view. Unable to discern spiral, but core was obvious, and with extended viewing most of area became clear. After some time and effort I was able to see NGC604- a faint spot appearing only with averted vision. A nebula in another galaxy. I am agog!!! Sky was deteriorating fast now. I moved up to Caroline's rose in Cass. Hard to see due to diminishing transparency, but seeing steady and hints of it were there. It was late and cold now, but Sirius was approaching it's southern high point so I tried to split it. No chance- it was like a disco glitterball! Seven years in this hobby now, and this was one of the best sessions. It's very confounding- you have to put in the effort and make the opportunities happen, but also have the patience to let it come to you. Last night's forecast was very unpromising- yet these were some of the best views I've had of stuff I've seen many times before.