Size9Hex

Really enjoyed reading your report. Glad you had some good views. Takes some effort staying up to observe at this time of year!

The baader fluid and a lens cloth is a good idea. I’d add that I use an air blower first to blow off dust etc, then a fine haired lens brush to gently remove any further dust etc, given that such dust could be abrasive if wiped across the surface with a cloth.

Solar white light viewing is like is box of chocolates as Forest Gump might have said if he was connoisseur of this sort of thing. The big AR approaching the edge of the disk but still putting on a good show. The Wilson effect visible. A thin bright border on the surface surrounding the penumbra. Long swirls of bright faculae trailing the AR in it’s wake, though maybe this is just an impression with no corresponding physics behind it. Two small new spots have emerged and still a way from the edge too. Maybe they’ll turn into something worthwhile? Grab a look if you can!

Really like this topic. If "useful" means useful for getting you excited in seeing and learning what’s up there, the minimum aperture is your eyes and anything above that is a bonus! ? I used 50mm binos for months before getting a scope and they revealed loads. It was this aperture that gave me my ongoing enthusiasm for the hobby. The step up from the naked eye was utterly enormous. As others say, this is dependent on the skies by at least somewhat dark. If the binos had been a 50mm scope with potential for high mag, then even better!

Thanks Nick. Looks a great list. I've all but forgotten what a clear sky looks like though and the forecast doesn't look too promising!

Phone held at the eyepiece. Tricky lining up a tiny camera lens against a tiny exit pupil. The trickiest thing however was figuring out how to switch off the flash, but having got that sorted, I picked up Venus' huge bright yellow and purple aurora no trouble at all.

What a cracking thread. Here's my own contribution to keep it going. This is for anyone who might doubt that you can get exceptional results... ... using a wide field sub f5 achromatic, on a bright planet like Venus, with a high power 4.7mm eyepiece, and then barlowed to 212x, with a pretty dubious focuser, mounted on a manual az, from comfort of a nice warm house, through a latticed window. It's the ideal scenario and I think the results speak for themselves...

A couple more Sky Safari lists in case they're useful... Astro League binocular DSOs. A fantastic set of targets beyond the Messier list for binos and also wide field scopes: Astro League Bino DSO.skylist Astro League Bright Nebula program for connoisseurs of faint stuff: Astro League Bright Nebulae.skylist

Nice one! I was considering this scope for wide field / travel / grab and go, but the lack of 2" focuser put me off. Looks like a really neat upgrade and useful comments about the weight too which is something I wondered about. All the best for your trip!

You're not wrong! It's interesting seeing them all marked at once though. I wonder in a few places if it shows almost a straight line where Herschel dragged his scope across the sky (so to speak). Could well be seeing patterns that aren't there of course. The overall view isn't too bad once you're zoomed into a specific area though (other than Virgo which is frankly horrific).

In case it's useful to others... I'm sharing a few Sky Safari observing lists that I've created. These give you access to a few observing projects beyond the ones that come as default with Sky Safari. These work with version 5 on iOS, but looking at the documentation, it doesn't sound like the format has changed for fair while or that it's any different on Android. These were created using an automated script rather than manually. This meant I could create them very quickly, but because Sky Safari doesn't tell you which (if any) part of the import failed, they may not be 100% correct. Looking at them in the app, I'd say they're about 95% correct which seems fair for a few minutes work, rather than days and days to create them manually! I'm using these alongside a print out of the official list, and as I tick them off on paper, any that are missing eventually become obvious. To import, download from here, email them to your phone/tablet and then just click on the attachment in the email. Hopefully it'll all work smoothly. No tech support offered... ;-) The full Herschel list: Herschel 2500.skylist Eagle Creek Doubles, grouped by the constellation families (with a bit of a northern bias and therefore my apologies to folks in the south): Eagle Doubles Heavenly Waters.skylist Eagle Doubles Hercules.skylist Eagle Doubles Orion.skylist Eagle Doubles Perseus.skylist Eagle Doubles Ursa Major.skylist Eagle Doubles Zodiak.skylist Melotte and Collinder for a few star clusters beyond the usual: Melotte.skylist Collinder.skylist And the Astro League Dark Nebulae: Astro League Dark Nebulae.skylist Enjoy!

Love it. Quite a different image from the usual. Really striking. Nice tip on the UHC too - I'm visual only, but will give that a go!

That sounds awesome. You describe some stunning sights! Saturn must have be incredible. The first of many more great sessions to come with that scope.