Nyctimene

Was out yesterday morning at 01.00 CEST with the 5.1" Heritage Flextube to get some moonlight. Sub-average seeing, but still usable for moments up to 130-150x. Started with Aristarch, Herodot and Schröter's Valley close to the terminator, went over to Prinz (spotted the western Rima shortly); the two Gruithuisen domes. Once again, a tiny ink-black shadow spot at Promontorium Laplace. Went southward to Schickard, Nasmyth and Wargentin. Close by was Palus Epidemiarum (appropriate to the earthly situation), with the bright crater Mercator A. Consulting LunarMap HD, I suddenly noticed in it the concentric crater Marth close by to the west - clearly depicted  in the LRO map, a pleasant view. At the eyepiece, the crater, very small, could be made out well, but not it's inner concentric crater wall. The same applied for the second concentric crater Hesiodus A a few degrees to the east (usually I gauge lunar seeing with the detectability of it's concentricity). I hauled out the 18" to get a better view of both craters, but to no avail, even with 250x mag (zoom 8 mmf). So I had a look at the nice crater Ramsden with Ramsden A and a bright spot in the NW crater wall. At 02.05, suddenly a tiny black speck came into view, that moved continuously to the west, visible for about  30-40 seconds. It was really small - smaller than Marth's size, and I twice lost it's view, having difficulties with finding and focusing again, but clearly visible, before it disappeared behind the terminator. No migrating bird (too slow), no plane, and no floater. Never seen anything similar during five decades of observing. I guess some satellite - but what species? Any ideas are appreciated. Slightly confused to bed at 02.20.

Attached a link to a Sky+Telescope article about concentric craters:

https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/celestial-objects-to-watch/crazy-about-concentric-craters02252015/

Thanks for reading

Stephan

19 hours ago, Karen Bexley said:

 I have a good quality pair of Leica 8 x 32 binoculars and a Leica APO Televid 77 field scope

An excellent starter kit, that will serve you for a lifetime - no need to upgrade during the next 1-2 years!

18 hours ago, Star Struck said:

get one of the night sky apps for a phone or tablet. There are some excellent free or very cheap apps that you can download that will be a great help. You can hold the device up and orientate the app to the sky making it easier to find you way around the sky.

You've already downloaded Google's Sky map - a decent, but basic map, good for the first steps.

I'd recommend additionally "SkySafari Plus". A mighty tool, that not only allows to identify stars by pointing the device at their location. More important, you can set the phone's display to match exactly the field of view your binos or field scope will show. You can even set the brightness of stars or e.g. galaxies to the faintest objects your optical devices will show. This makes star hopping from a bright and easy to identify star to a fainter object a breeze. A lot of information about the objects is immediately at your fingertips.You will need some time to exhaust all the features of SkySafari, but it's really rewarding (of course, no affiliation etc. here - just a pleased owner).

Another recommendation: Start a diary/logbook of your observations (e.g. entries about location, sky conditions, instrument, objects observed....). It's fun to read the entries later in cloudy nights - you can see the progress you've made.

Clear skies (I'm blessed here in SW Germany, like you, with Bortle 4 skies)

Stephan

Welcome, Karen, to this friendly forum.

Have a look here :

Stephan

SkySafari (the Plus version will be enough for most situations)

Lunar Map HD (use the LRO chart).

Stephan

Was out this morning with the 8" f/4 near the SE corner of the Dipper's bowl. Slightly sub-average conditions (NELM 5.3 mag) despite 21.2 MPSAS with the SQM-L. Started with M 109, that appeared in the 18mmf/82° ES, giving 44x mag, not impressive (rather low surface brightness), as a 2.5:1 oval, brighter core region. The close by gx 3953 oval (10.1 mag)was almost at par. The faint 5:1 spindle of 3917 (11.7 mag) could only made out with averted vision. Contrasting was 4026, directly visible as 4:1 spindle. In the same field, the Arp 18 group came into view, with the brighter (10.6 mag) spindle 4088 and the faint companion 4085, both "cuddled up" to the side of a conspicuous "Y" of four stars, an aesthetically very pleasing view with 80x mag (10 mmf Ortho). Close by two more spindles - 4157 (11.4 mag; 5:1) and 4100 (11.0; 4:1) All could be made out in the same field of the 18mmf (1.85°). Somewhat tired, I finished with M 81/82, and 3077. Coddington's nebula remained invisible once more (spotted it twice in five decades; the same went with the Encke division in Saturn's rings). Rewarding group of spindles, that I plan to investigate with the 18".

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Spotted the comet this morning with the 8" f/4 traveldob with 44x mag under 5.2 NELM skies. Easy to see; bright, about 7.5 - 8.0 mag, DC= 5, no tail visible; a quite promising view - way better than comet Y4. Should be visible in binoculars (didn't try).

Stephan

Almost 15 years after my first observations of the Abell cluster AGC 1367 in Leo, I revisited with the 18" f/4.5 Obsession this group of about 60 galaxies, all located within a 1° field of view. Conditions were slightly sub-average (NELM 5.2 mag), but the seeing was, despite the strong wind, rather good. Starting from the easy to find star 93 Leo, the brightest member 3842 (11.8 mag) showed readily in the 30 mmf/77° Wild-Heerbrugg eyepiece. I swapped to the trusted 10 mmf Ortho, giving 205x mag, and worked my way around. The brighter galaxies could be made out with direct vision along a S - N line, beginning with the small, round 3837 (13.2 mag), followed by the bright, round 3842 with a brighter core region. Very close by 3841 (13.5 mag), and the fainter 3845 (14.0 mag). To the west, the 5:1 spindle of UGC 6697 (13.5 mag) was visible readily with AV, at right angles to it, the 13.9 mag 3844 appeared fainter. N of both, the 13.9 mag 3840. Moving to the east, the 12.6 mag 3861 A was visible directly as a 2:1 oval. Following a line through the 7.5 mag star HD 102122, the nice close pair of 12.8 mag 3873 (round, directly visible) and the adjacent faint 5:1 spindle of 3875 (14.0 mag; AV only) appeared. 3862 and 3867 followed. After 11/2 hours, I slowly got tired. The observation was somewhat similar to the observation of the Virgo cluster with an 8" - wherever I looked, another faint galaxy came into view, and at midnight I stopped trying to identify all those pesky specks..... - . SkySafari 6 Pro was very useful, as was the Interstellarum Deep Sky Guide and the ancient Volume Nr.5 of the Webb Society's  Deep-Sky Observer's Handbook. All in all, a rewarding target for scopes up from 12"; quite pleased, and so to bed.

Attached a picture (Sky+Telescope, April 2017):

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Edit: added the link to the excellent S+T article on Abell 1367 by Bob King (the photo is taken from it):

https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/are-you-ready-willing-and-abell/

Thanks to Gerry's (jetstream) suggestion above, I observed the 3607 group last evening with the Heritage 130 P under 5.2 mag skies. 3607 rather bright, round, with a brighter core region. 3608 N close by, elongated. The 12 mag 3605 could not be made out; but I spotted the equally faint, but larger, 3599 several seconds at the limit of AV.The rather bright 3632 followed (it's not listed in the IsDSA). Relaxed finally with the Leo triplet.

Stephan

Spotted the Intergalactic Wanderer this morning with the 5.1" Heritage Flextube. Nick's (cotterless 45) description was spot on: "a fish hook of stars and a sparkle at the end". Under 5.2 mag skies not a sparkle, but a faint glow, about 2.5 arc min diameter, round, constantly seen with AV and mags of about 130-150x (Seben Zoom+2.25x Barlow), directly perceived for about 50% of observing time. Not that difficult - experience helps!

Was out last night with the Heritage 130 P Flextube under average 5.6 mag skies, slight haze. Started with the ES 26 mmf/62° LER and found easily the small, round gx 4494, that showed a brighter core region, as a stepstone to the famous spindle galaxy 4565, that was visible with direct vision as a marvellous 5:1 spindle. Next was the Koi Fish galaxy 4559, directly visible, but with rather low surface brightness. Three embedded field stars. The Whale galaxy 4631(8.9 mag) followed; beautiful spindle; the 9.5 mag companion galaxy 4656 not as conspicuous as expected and only visible with averted vision (AV). Over to the Silver Needle Gx 4244 (9.8 mag); a 6:1spindle, best seen at 50x mag with AV (Seben Zoom). 4214 (9.8 mag) directly visible, round. The Cocoon galaxy 4490 followed; 3:1 elongated, even the very close by 12.0 mag gx 4485 could be made out with AV (61x mag). 4449 E-W elongated. Finished with the bright (8.3 mag) 2,5:1 spindle of M 106, that showed the brighter core region quite well. After rewarding 11/2 hours I ended the session, once again very pleased with the capable and easy to handle Heritage 130 P - a lifetime scope!

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Almost always,  I'm observing in the early morning hours,  after 3-4 hours of sleep. No street lights; better seeing; rested; and no dark adaption needed. Never been able to observe more than three hours; mostly 11/2 to 2 hours. Works as a retirement schedule for me during the whole week. Before only on weekend.

Stephan

Another vote for the Heritage 130 P Flextube. Very easy to handle,  compact, excellent optics. A lifetime scope, that will serve as a grab-and-go and travel scope for many years. Best bang for the buck. Have a look here:

https://neilenglish.net/a-newtonian-travel-scope/

Stephan

My 8" f/4 Hofheim Instruments traveldob, here shown on the recently released equatorial platform, without the shroud, to show the construction details (and John L. Dobson's signature on one of the trusses!). Very compact, lightweight (8 kgs in toto), can be carried out of the shed in a single haul, Excellent optics, that hold collimation well, a smoothly operating Dob mount. At the moment, in a permanently setup situation - I hope, that one day I will be able to collapse it and to travel with it to view the southern skies.

I guess, it will follow me some day into the nursing home....;-)

http://www.hofheiminstruments.com/8-zoll-dobson.html

Stephan

2 hours ago, harpy said:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/barlow-eyepieces/baader-classic-q-225x-barlow.html

2 hours ago, harpy said:

s the above the Barlow you are suggesting?

Yes, exactly. It gets a lot of good reviews and will be a long-time keeper.

I cannot comment on the Vixen eyepieces. With my Heritage 130 P Flextube, I'm using either a 6 mmf orthoscopic eyepiece (German production, no longer available), or the Skywatcher UWA 6 mmf.

The Baader Orthoscopic 6 mmf would be a good choice; have a look here (and read the reviews):

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-planetarium/baader-classic-ortho-bco-eyepiece.html

Orthoscopic eyepieces have a rather narrow True Field of View (=TFoV), but are hard to beat regarding contrast, sharpness and colour correction. For teasing out fine details of Deep Sky objects or on the moon surface, I always rely on my Orthos.

Stephan

The Baader Q-Turret 2.25x Barlow works very well with the Heritage; small (a shorty one), lightweight and very sharp. With a 6 mmf eyepiece, you can go up to 244x mag (moon,  planets,  bright planetary nebulas).

The ES 26 mmf LER eyepiece (62 degrees apparent field of view ) is a a good choice for widefield views, giving 2.5 degrees of true field.

Stephan

Was out this morning 03.00-03.45 CET, this time with the 8"f/4 Hofheim Instruments traveldob, equipped with the 2" ES 24mmf/82°, giving 33x mag. The comet was conveniently located very close to the "pointer triangle" for the search of M 81/82, and the conditions better than a week before (NELM 5.8 mag) - no contrails from the flights leaving Frankfurt airport 60 km NNW, due to the Corona situation. The comet's coma was almost round, DC=4-5, with a diameter of about 8-10 arc min, and a very faint outer sphere extending to 15-20 arc min. No tail, but a conspicuous "false nucleus". Within 20 min, the comet's movement was noticeable. Brightness about 8.5 mag; I compared it to the M 60 galaxy in the Virgo cluster, that gave a similar view. -  M 81/82, along with gx 3077, were impressive. I tried once more to spot IC 2574 (Coddington's nebula) close by, and had, after 10 mins, sometimes the impression of it's faint glow, but I guess, it was "averted imagination". A really tough one. Cold and very windy here, so I finished after 45 mins, hoping for the next nights.

Stephan

Nice report, Neil, as usual.

Had similar conditions yesterday evening 22.00-23.00 CET, when I took out the 5.1" Heritage - high haze, some clouds and chimney smoke interfering, along with a lot of stray light. Spotted the comet in the 26mmf ES, giving 25x mag, as a faint, diffuse glow (DC=3), best seen with mags 25x-50x (S.zoom) and averted vision. Brightness appeared around 9.0 mag, coma diameter about 6 arc min; no nucleus or tail visible. Not spectacular, but there is hope for the next weeks...

Stephan

Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas, for location and visibility with scopes of different apertures.

For descriptions of DSO's, nothing beats this, IMO:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/the-night-sky-observers-guide-volumes-1-2-and-3-book.html

Very precise comments on the appearance of DSOs, for small (4-6"), moderate (8" to 12") and large scopes (16" to 18"), along with finder charts and a lot of drawings.

Stephan

20 minutes ago, Dash1st said:

What do I do?

I'd stay with the decision for the 130 P Flextube, and avoid any EQ mount type for a Newtonian design telescope, that is used visual - for the reasons vlaiv mentioned above:

6 hours ago, vlaiv said:

Issue with EQ type mount is that cheap models are really shaky and light weight. They are a bit awkward to use for beginner - you need to polar align them and motion of the telescope tube is not straight forward to grasp. With EQ type mount, newtonian (mirror) type telescopes often end up in strange positions for observing - you need to rotate whole telescope in its rings to get eyepiece to suitable position

A Dobsonian telescope can be used intuitively, even by children. No hassle with polar aligning etc., just carry it out, plonk it down and observe. The 130 P Flextube is a joy to use - very compact, lightweight, versatile, with excellent optics. Many other pleased owners on here. Have a look at the huge thread on the CloudyNights forum (the AWB scope mentioned there is just the US brand - same built):

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/463109-onesky-newtonian-astronomers-without-borders/

It's my most used grab-and-go scope (together with two eyepieces, the ES 26mmf/62° LER,  the Seben 8-24 mmf Zoom, and the Baader 2.25x turret Barlow).

Stephan

Great report. Nothing beats a big dob under dark skies.

The "Auriga Ladder" you found is already well known as the asterism "Flying Minnow", and can be made out without optical aids in a decent dark night easily. A description can be found in this comprehensive compilation of asterisms (pg. 11):

http://deepsky.waarnemen.com/asterisms/Asterisms_EN_VER4.2.pdf

Optically more pleasing is this:

http://www.deep-sky.co.uk/asterisms.htm

Enjoy!

Stephan

I have the same scope, and use it frequently with the Baader 2.25x Turret Barlow:

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5503_Baader-1-25--Q-Turret-Barlow-and-photo-converter---2-25x-und-1-3x.html

A lightweight, compact and very sharp shorty Barlow; combined with the Seben 8-24 zoom, I frequently crank up the magnification to 183x. When the seeing is very good, I use it with the Skywatcher UWA 6 mmf (mag 244x), e.g. to separate the double star Pi Aquilae (1.4" distance!), and for moon details. It isn't much behind it's famous  brother, the Zeiss Abbe 2x Barlow. Very recommendable, and quite affordable.

Stephan

Besides Canis maior, the most distinctive of the five celestial dogs (C. maior, C. minor, C. venatici).. Always nice to spot it as a winter harbinger between Pleiades and Hyades - once you have seen it, you cannot make it "unseen" any longer. Easy to find with any type of binoculars. Here's a graph (SilverAstro's avatar) to illustrate it's form more clearly:

Happy hunting!

Stephan

Last evening, to make use of a clear night before the announced storm (Sun-Mon.), I placed the 8" f/4 Hofheim traveldob on it's equatorial platform and had, despite rather poor seeing, an hour of pleasure along the western limb regions. The terminator was just behind the crater Riccioli, and I studied with 100x mag it's (in contrast to nearby Grimaldi) rugged floor with two eccentric mountains and terraced walls. Next to it, I observed the well known (to me) crater trio Lohrmann, Hevelius and Cavalerius with it's pointed oval form. Close by, the 5.2 mag star Mu Cancri was approaching the moon's dark limb, and disappeared 22.37 CET. The seeing got better after 20 mins, and the  Rima Sirsalis could be made out well with mags 150x and finally 200x (Hyperion zoom 8 mmf+ Zeiss Abbe 2x Barlow). The same went for the Catena Krafft between craters Krafft and Cardanus, that presented as an uninderrupted rille. I went back to Sirsalis, and could make out, close to it's southern part, rilles on the floor of Darwin. The "21st Century Atlas of the Moon" pointed me (pg.62) to half a dozen of dark lava patches south of Vieta, that were quite obvious, as well as two similar regions within Schickard. The Inghirami crater SW of it was clearly visible, including a N-S rille; but I was not able to make out the famous Inghirami valley  (Lunar 100 No. 97) W of it - I will have to wait for a favourable libration to spot it. I finished at 23.15 with  Hansteen, Billy and the Arrowhead. All in all, a quite nice session, supported by the tracked Dob, electrical hand warmers and a voice recorder instead of taking notes by hand.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Sky and Telescope's "Pocket Sky Atlas": www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p193_Pocket-Sky-Atlas.html

 or, for his smartphone, "SkySafari 6 Plus"; will keep him busy in cloudy nights.

A planisphere, have a look: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/david-chandler-night-sky-planisphere.html

A red light torch, e.g. this: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/red-light-astronomy-torches/skywatcher-dual-led.html

Agree with the wide field Plössl, as mentioned by PEMS above.  IME, no moon filter needed for a 90 mm Maksutov (when observing details, higher magnifications will be needed, which lets the moon's image appear much dimmer).

Stephan

Not only a beginners scope - it will find a long-term use, at least as a travel - or grab-and-go scope. Excellent optics, decent mount, versatile, holds collimation well.  The focuser's slop can be fixed with PTFE strip. Never needed a dewcap or light shroud. Add a 30 mmf Plössl eyepiece,  a 8-24 zoom and a. Baader 2,25 x Barlow for magnifications from 22x up to 183x, and learn to collimate; that's all you will need - and enjoy the journey!

Add.: You may have a look at a similar discussion here (the AWB scope is the same - US brand):

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/632902-is-awb-scope-the-best-entry-level-scope-for-most-beginners/

Stephan