Nyctimene

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

My 8" f/4 Hofheim Instruments traveldob, paired with the 30mmf/77° Wild Heerbrugg (TFoV 2.89°, mag 27x, EP 7.5 mm) might be a weapon of choice, along with the 2" Astronomik UHC. I'm afraid, that the atmosphere will not be cooperative. It contains, here in SW Germany, a lot of humidity now, even in the winter months, resulting in poor transparency. But I'll give it a try. Thanks, Gerry, for the thread and the link.

Stephan

12 hours ago, jetstream said:

The thought has crossed my mind to try the same thing with the H130 out our front picture window which faces south.

This thread on CloudyNights reflects different experiences and opinions:

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/689502-have-you-ever-observed-through-a-window

I agree with Thomas'  (astrojensen) statements, given that the optical quality of the window panes is decent (as it is in my case).

The Heritage 130 P Flextube is already too large to put it on my sideboard; but might be useful through front picture windows, perhaps on a tripod /AltAz combo.

Stephan

-7° C degrees, NELM just 5 mag, and not keen on wrapping up in several layers of winter clothing. So, once again, I put the "Blue Penguin", a 76/300 Newtonian, on the kitchen sideboard and peeked through the south facing window. I started with M 44, the Beehive cluster in Cnc, that was beautifully framed within the 3° TFoV at 15x mag. The central  V-formed "Heart of the Crab" was distinct. Down to it's companion M 67, that was partially resolved at 30x. The 10.2 mag galaxy 2775 was invisible. The open cluster M 48 in Hydra (5.8 mag) was well resolved, with a central group of  noticeably brighter stars. The  oc 2506, 6° SW, 7.6 mag, was much fainter and just a rather large (7 arc min), round, unresolved glow, visible with AV in 50% of observing time. I finished with the spring harbinger galaxy 2903 in the Lion's head, with 9.0 mag readily visible at 30x as a N-S elongated 3:1structure.

"Every scope has it's sky" - these words of the German observer R. Brandt (around 1930) came to my mind, when I finished the Penguin excursion after 11/2 hours at 02.45 CET. Rewarding targets - and well warmed body and feet (underfloor heating)!

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Wonderful report, Neil, and congratulations on your success with observing so many really difficult targets!

Wasn't so lucky last evening with the 18"; clear, but not transparent with SQM-L 20.7. Just enough to spot R Lep (deep orange), the three components of Keid and two unspectacular Eri galaxies, 1637 and 1653. 2024 without structure, and once again, no luck with the Horsehead (24 resp. 30 mmf, UHC). I must confess, I've never tried really hard.... still a challenge waiting!

Stephan

13 hours ago, scarp15 said:

Cloudy skies seem to be a dominating presence currently, short 'opportunist' sessions are the way to extract something from the winter sky.  

Cloudiness in winter was the reason, why I never saw the Quadrantids meteor shower for almost fifty years. Ok, it's maximum is very pointed, with a window of about 14 hours, but with a ZHR of 110 it rivals the Perseids in August or the Geminids. The two meteors this morning were the first ones, that I could clearly identify as Quadrantids, with the virtual origin in northern Bootes (just rising). Quite a success!

Stephan

A few weeks ago, I moved the 18" Obsession from it's shed to another room inside of the large barn, for easier access to the paved yard. The view is more restricted now, but I can wheel out the scope (wheelbarrow handles already attached) and start observing within three minutes. No slippery grass, dew or white frost. This was convenient this morning, when I woke up at 04.35 CET and noticed, that the nightly clouds had  mostly gone, and the nearby street lights were still off. With the 18mmf/82° Maxvision, giving a TFoV of 0.72° and 114x mag, I started eight minutes later with M 35, already deep to the west. It's stars filled the whole field of view. More fascinating was the nearby oc 2158, a very remote cluster (16500 Lyr). It was well resolved into tiny 13 and fainter mag stars - a really "stardust"-impression, and aesthetically very pleasing. Over to the Leo triplet, M 65, 66 and NGC 3628. The former two showed readily as oblong 3:1 galaxies, and the fainter 3628 revealed even the slightly asymmetric located central dust line. All three were in the same field of view. The oc M67, again filling the field of view, finished the 15 minutes session, that was accompanied by two bright Quadrantid meteors (about -1 mag), heading south with rather high velocity. - The illuminated street lights (at 05.00) terminated the observation, but were helpful, when I pushed the scope back into it's at least temporary new housing. A nice and rewarding start of 2020; and so to bed for additional two hours of sleep.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Was out this morning, unplanned, with the 5.1" Skywatcher Heritage Flextube, under decent 5.7 mag (UMi) skies. Started with M 35 and the adjacent fuzzy 2185, always a nice contrast. Slightly to the west,  oc IC 2157 was quite conspicuous. Over to the Eskimo nebula 2392, that showed the brighter central region and the fainter outer shell at mag 150x, even without filter. Following a reminder, sticking in the Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas, I spotted for the first time the Peanut Nebula  NGC 2371/2 in Gem, a 11.2 mag double-lobed planetary, three degrees SW of Castor, easy to find with the 26 mmf ES. SkySafari's description "similar to M 76" was accurate. A slightly rectangular, NW-SO orientated patch, for short moments showing a central constriction; easy to hold with direct vision at about 150x (Seben Zoom, Baader 2.25x barlow). I went over to the beautiful "Winter Albireo" Iota Cancri, a 31" distant double, with  colour contrast ( deep-yellow primary, -blue-white secondary star;  probably misnamed in SkySafari's description part as Kappa Cancri??). I finished with the UFO galaxy 2683 in Lynx. This 9.1 mag edge-on galaxy has a surface brightness of 12.9 and showed it's almost 10 arc min, 4:1 spindle, NW-SO orientated, easily with direct vision. The brighter central core region could be made out, but no more details. I finished after 11/2 hours at -3°, the observation No. 73, quite pleased, and so to bed.

Best Wishes to You all for 2020, and

Clear Skies!

Stephan

P.S.: SkySafari's Kappa Cancri seems - while correctly located and labeled - to be misnamed as Lambda Cancri in the description....

On 14/12/2019 at 23:47, Gaudi said:

How is it in the Odenwald? Any recommendations?

Regards

Hello, Andreas,

my location (Mossautal) is already blessed with 21+ MPSAS skies, so I can make use of all my scopes from home. But there are even darker skies towards the Hessen-Bavarian border (the former Limes line), especially the region Würzberg - Breitenbuch - Hesseneck-Hesselbach; reaching the Bortle 3 class; have a look:

https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=11&lat=6377217&lon=1013840&layers=B0TFFFFFFFFFFFF

Years ago, I observed with the 18" from a location south of Breitenbuch - an elevated plain, meadows, free 360° panoramic view; lights only N (and switched off 23.00). Marvellous. At that time, I lived, worked and observed in Waldleiningen (Klinik Schloß Waldleiningen) just a few kms SSE; almost the same dark sky, but not that panoramic view.

Stephan

Hallo, Andreas, und willkommen hier! (from a SW-German stargazer and Dobsonaut (and ex-Gelbfüßler btw.))

Splendid equipment, btw. Where do you observe mainly? Pfälzer Wald? Schwarzwald?

Stephan

Yesterday morning, 03.10 to 03.40 CET, I repeated spontaneously an observation I first made April 10th, 2017 (posted here in the Lunar section) with the 5.1" Heritage. The terminator was at Grimaldi, showing it's crater rim in bright contrast to the rather dark floor of this 220 km-basin. North of Grimaldi, the perspectively distorted crater chain of Lohrmann - Hevelius - Cavalerius showed despite the bad seeing (only 83x mag usable) some detail, as the central mountain of Hevelius, the small crater H  on the W rim, and A on the floor. Rima Hevelius could not be made out. It was interesting, that the otherwise excellent app LunarMap HD had some weaknesses in showing these limb - near details contrasty despite being  set to the highest resolution (LRO hi-res). I had to look up some features in the trusty Rükl atlas. The seeing didn't get any better, so I finished after half an hour (observation No. 70 for this year).

Thanks for reading

Stephan

Spotted C 2017/T2 Panstarrs this morning at 02.30 CET with the 5.1" Skywatcher Heritage Flextube (after 30 mins of fruitless search before - I had SkySafari set for the wrong time!  beware!) at the predicted position between two 7 mag/8 mag stars. I had to switch to mag 81 (Seben Zoom at 8mmf) to make out a faint, slightly oblong disc of about 1 arc min coma diameter. To me, the comet appeared considerably fainter than predicted, around 11.0 mag (compared with the defocussed close by star TYC 3347-0871-1, listed with 11.6mag). No tail visible; DC 5; steadily with AV, sometimes a stellar nucleus flashing up. Looked, as others have mentioned, like a galaxy; not impressive, but still a reward for perseverance in a frosty -5° C night (along with many curses and numb/aching fingertips despite the otherwise very good Astrogloves).

Stephan

Was out this morning for half an hour under sub-average 5.0 mag skies, that gradually fogged up. The 5.1" Heritage with the 26 mmf 62° showed M 42 with less extended "wings"; so I went over to the reflection nebula M 78 and glimpsed it's two embedded "headlight" stars. A search for the Flame nebula didn't show a trace of it. I steered northward and enjoyed the look at Cr 69, the loose star group around Meissa. In the same field of view, I could make out the two 7.5/8.0 stars, that point to the planetary NGC 2022, the Collarbone nebula. Switching to the Seben zoom/Baader 2.25x combo, but without the UHC (somewhere squirreled away atm), I was astonished, that this 11.7 mag object, despite the worsening transparency, revealed itself as a slightly oblong, otherwise featureless disc, sometimes with direct vision, almost steadily to hold with AV, at mags of 130-150x. The rather high surface brightness of 9.2 mag was helpful, as were the foregoing observations with larger scopes; so I finished at 03.10 MEZ, pleased having spotted it with just the incredibly capable 5.1" Heritage. Well worth a try; and rather easy to find (1/3 the way from Meissa to Beteigeuze).

Thanks for reading

Stephan

German amateur (semi-professional) Klaus Wenzel, Wenigumstadt, has been observing very successfully for more than 20 years DSO's and especially QSO's (at the moment, more than 100 visually!) from his roof observatory, which is fitted with a sliding window. He is equipped with a 16" Dob; the room is unheated.

Stephan

https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p2591_Docter-Monocular-8x21-C---gray.html

Extremely compact, lightweight, very sharp optics. Not well suited for use with spectacles. A trusty companion for day and night.

Stephan

Nice review of a short session. I love crater Fauth with it's distinctive "keyhole" shape, and always have a look at it when passing Copernicus. Fauth's "Großer Mondatlas"  is the extraordinary creation of "the last of the great selenographers to map the moon by hand and eye". The atlas (priced now at 2.500€!) was displayed for a diameter of 3,5 metres; have a look at the map of the Mare Imbrium region:

Stephan

+1 for the Skywatcher Heritage 130 P Flextube. Compact, lightweight, versatile, and easily transportable even by a child; excellent optics, that hold collimation well; decent and sturdy Dob mount. Can be handled almost intuitively - children love it; see below:

Re buying "extras": I'd avoid to purchase a moon filter. The moon's picture in a small scope may seem too bright at low magnifications; but it dims down rapidly when you switch to higher powers. A decent moon app (LunarMap HD), or book (21st Century Atlas of the Moon by Wood/Collins) would be a better investment.

Good luck with your choice - and welcome to this friendly forum!

Stephan

11 hours ago, Rob Sellent said:

So, above all, whatever you decide, just as @Paul M says keep it simple, keep it fun and don't make it a chore

+1 for that. Enjoy your scope, try to find the balance between planned and spontaneous observing. You want to relax and admire the celestial views, so consider your stargazing more as a kind of meditation, and not another variety of work. Don't feel obliged to take notes or to post reports on here.

Stephan

8 minutes ago, Deisler said:

Will definitely buy Pro version once I am more into it.

About twice a year, SkySafari is available at reduced prices (-50%). For use with an 8" to 10" Dob, the Plus version will do (owns most of the features of the Pro version).

Stephan

The E/NE horizon looks quite promising. During winter, the constellation Orion will rise in the evening hours in that direction. You can try to spot  and identify it's brighter stars (e.g. Beteigeuze, Rigel, or Alnitak in the belt) and get the declination values for these from SkySafari. This way  you'd get knowledge of the southernmost star declinations visible from your garden. If you, for example, can spot Rigel (-8°), then you can assume, that you can see all stars with a  higher declination during the course of a year; allowing exact planning. You can even plot the compass direction (= azimuth values in SkySafari) against the declination.

SkySafari (at least the Pro version) enables you to create your own horizon panorama (look at "Help - Sky and Horizons"), so you could have an image of your own back yard horizon. Never done this (and it looks a bit complicated), but might be interesting.

Stephan

At any rate, I'd return the  Capricorn - the wobbly EQ 1mount would be a source of constant hassle. The 200 P Skywatcher Dob is a lifetime scope  and  excellent all-rounder; if it's too big and bulky, the smaller Skywatcher Heritage 130 P Flextube is a good alternative. Very compact, easy to transport and to set up; very good f/5 optics, that hold the collimation well, decent Dob mount. If you are living under light-polluted skies, a versatile travel - or grab-and-go scope. Many pleased owners on here (including myself). A huge thread on CloudyNights (One Sky Newtonian = Heritage 130P); just to meander around:

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

Would leave enough money for red/white torch, Pocket Sky Atlas, SkySafari 6 Plus, and decent eyepieces, even a 10x50 binocular (Olympus DPS e.g.).

No need for GoTo - it's better to "learn the ropes" in the old fashioned style, IMO.

Stephan

What about this :

https://www.astroshop.eu/kits/astromedia-kit-the-sun-projector/p,1720

Works quite well for observing sunspots - never tried it for planetary transits, though.

Would be available even for a small budget.

Stephan

Never had animal related problems within five decades of observing from garden locations in rural areas. Most scary are curious owls; you can't hear them flying, and suddenly they appear two or three meters away from your head.... but never attack you, of course. But, yes, nature can be noisy.

You might try to change your "victim" paradigm to a more active role. Many of the animals you will hear over the years are rare or even endangered species (e.g.  some owls). A nice idea (found on CloudyNights years ago) is to start a catalogue of nightly active animals and their typical noises (that you can get from the net). You will be pleased, when you can distinguish the calls of several owl species, and suddenly hear a really rare birdcall - you can tick it off your list. Curiosity is a mighty antidote for fearfulness, as is familiarization.

Stephan

10 hours ago, chris raabe said:

it is nice to know there are others from Germany here!

One more - not so far away from you, in the central Odenwald region, 10 km S of Erbach/Michelstadt. Nice dark skies still here (SQM-L 21+). If you are interested to observe with me (18" Obsession), PM me.

Stephan