Les Ewan

Nice sequence. Ideal conditions too.

Saw the GRS last night (4 Nov) and is not only prominant but a beautiful orange colour. It looks a completely differant feature to how it looked in July when I noted it as pale. Jupiter is full of surprises!

Its a little difficult to quantify because does a telescope in bits count? In theory I have seven telescopes. One is totally dismantled a 6"Reflector dating from the 70's with tarnished mirrors which will probably never be used again, Revelation 12 Dob which is in a similar condition a f5 8" Helios Newtonian TA which is sevicable but with no mount a 6" Russian f8 TAL 2 from the early ninties which I plan to get back into use when I have space for it(its being stored at my sisters house at the moment complete with wooden crates) but it needs its mirrors re coated. I also have a 12" f5 Newt on a EQ6 mount which is can be assembled at any time. My two other scopes are in constant use now a Skywatcher 400P 16"on a driven Dob and finally a Skywatcher 90mm f10 refractor on a driven EQ2 which I use for Solar work.

Hi Polly, I'd be very wary, I've never heard of that brand. It maybe OK but there's a minefield of trash telescopes out there. Remember its not just money involved it could be the death of your grandson's enthusiasm if he's confronted with a substandard telescope. It's not worth the risk consult a proper astronomical dealership even if its just for a decent set of binoculars.

I assume when you say 70 you mean £ 70. If so its fair to say your options are not great. However if you can stretch to £100 you could do worse than the Skywatcher Astrolux. Its a small Newtonian of 76mm on a altaz mount. It will have limitations due to its small mirror but if these are appreciated there will still be plenty to see and at least its a quality instrument and easy to use. Also being a Skywatcher the quality is there to warrant upgrades at a later date such as better eyepieces and even fitting a simple equatorial mount. A small refractor is another option but in my opinion they can be awkward to use because of the low eyepiece angles,I'm biased though I don't like refractors much! Good quality binoculars of 7X50 or 10X50 type would also be a option if your grandson doesn't already have access to a pair. Whatever you decide get the instrument from a astronomical dealer not from a department store I think most experienced observer would agree there.

Amazing. I didn't know that thanks for the info.

In the early hours of 5th January 2003 Saturn crossed in front of the Crab Nebula and I was lucky enough to have good seeing conditions at the time. Not that I saw anything however. Using a 8" Newtonian the Crab was totally blotted out by Saturn's glare, but even so the negative result of seeing nothing of the nebula was still interesting.

As Merlin said earlier Nortons is a great first Atlas after a budding observer has past the rookie stage especially the Gall & Inglis versions of the early 1970's. Norton's were the bible back in the day. At least one addition wasn't so good where all the DSO's were all bracketed under the same symbol a kind of flower pattern of dots which was a bit naff! Nortons are cheap and plentiful on Ebay and I have a couple of them and they are quint to look at and are full of useful tables and old fashioned observing tips. My main Atlas now is the SkyAtlas 2000.0 spiral bound laminated version which is great out in the field and is just about indesructable and impervious to dew with no paper pages to blow about! The laminated edition is white stars on a black background which is not that pleasent to the eye but great for under the night sky.I also have the spiral bound desktop version which is great for just browsing or planning observation sessions.

Last night around 10pm until it clouded over around midnight, I had the best viewing conditions for weeks😎. Of course Jupiter took most of the share of observation time. Using my 16" Dob I manage to use powers up to 171X. Fine detail of all the belts snapped in and out of view (mainly in on this happy occasion) with a small white spot in evidence. The northern region of the disc had a dirty off white hue. The main interest was the Galileans all four had a discernible discs and raising the power to 360X (using a 10mm plossl and a X2 barlow the disc of Callisto was very marked and stood out. The resolution of Callisto seemed enhanced by the close proximity to the bright Jovian disc. Of course this power somewhat washed out Jupiters cloud belts. I've managed to just resolve Ganymedes disc in the past using a 12" Newt but this is the first time Jupiter has been high enough to be a viable target since getting the 16" in 2018.

White light images of the eclipse using a 90mm f10 refractor at prime focus. The camera used was a Nikon 3500D 1/100th sec at 100ISO

Conditions on the evening of the 24th was the best its been for some time. Here is a DSLR image of Jupiter and its satellites strung out in a attractive aspect. The image had to unfortunately be heavily processed using Faststone in the attempt to get the cloud belts and moons appear together. Taken with a Skywatcher 400P driven Dob. The eyepiece used was a Celestron 21mm Ultima Duo and a Celestron X2 barlow. The camera is a Nikon 3500D DSLR. From the left Io,Europa,Jupiter,Callisto,Ganymede.

Although I've had some clearer spells recently lately observing conditions have been very poor for Jupiter not managing to go over 120X before the image degrades into a shimmering mess. I don't know why my local conditions are so bad so often for planetary work maybe I'm under the jet stream more here in Central Scotland.😡

Hi Stu, Its certainly worth while a whole parade of planets around 03:30.😎 I didn't see much detail on Mars using a power of 144X the biggest feature is the distinctly gibbous disc.

Took this image as it was getting light I used a Nikon L29 Compact attached to a 26mm Plossl using a digiscoping bracket. The telescope was a Skywatcher 400mm f 4.8 driven Dob .

Hi Gus, I always see a leaping cat when Syrtis Major , Sinus Sabaeus and Mare Serpentis are near the centre of the disc. I always see a leaping cat when Syrtis Major, Sinus Sabaeus and Mare Serpentis are near the centre of the disc!

Great report.😎 I didn't see the Red Spot myself last night as I didn't start observing until 03:00BST,so it must have rotated out of view but I did get a fairly steady observation of Jupiter with my Skywatcher 400p . In fact I manged to telescopically bag Venus ,Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune within 20 minutes as it was getting light. Venus looked particularly beautiful through 7X50 binoculars in the brightening sky. I also cheated a bit with Uranus and Neptune as I used goto to locate them on this occasion.

A admittedly weak Noctilucent display but a nice Moon/Venus joint rising low in the NE at 03:18. Taken with a undriven Nikon D3200 DSLR with the standard lens. 200ISO 8 sec exposure.

Got these this afternoon using a Skywatcher 90mm f10 refractor and solar filter. The camera was a nikon L29 compact held at a 40mm Celestron plossl eyepiece using a digiscope bracket.

I picked up these little gems about a week ago. These 2X35 vintage opera glasses made entirely of brass cost me £10.99 from a charity shop. I bought them mainly through nostalgia because I used a similar instrument when learning the constellations back around 1971. These are actually great fun to use, low power and super wide field. Last night for instance I got a unusual breath taking view of the Moon and Castor and Pollux all in the same FOV. The FOV are a colossal 10 degrees. Unique view of the Hyades, Pleiades easily fitting in the same FOV is a sight to behold. Being only X2 instrument some of the brighter deep sky objects are too small for these, (though the Beehive Cluster is excellent) but for extended star fields such as around Mirfak they really come into their own. I cant wait to see the Scutum star cloud with these little wonders. A worthy addition to my binocular livery. Although only X2 power they easily split the main pair of Epsilon Lyrae. Even last weeks large Sunspot was easily visible when held steady using both solar filter and by projection. Simple optics of the Huygens and Galilean type give a sense of history, and the optics are easily taken apart for cleaning. Aberration is not such a problem as you would think and is most noticeable around the Moon and on the horizon when used terrestrially. One symptom I had forgotten about using these- your fingers smell of brass afterwards! I imaged them against my Clarke 7X50's for comparison.

Thanks Stu. It may be of interest the simple equipment used.

Looks like Edvard Munch's Scream!😁

Being really spoilt this last few nights with transparent ,calm and relatively mild conditions. As usual for this time of year I've been mainly among the Super Cluster galaxies. 😎 Took some time out to image The Blackeye Galaxy. Telescope used was a Skywatcher 400P Newtonian on a driven Dobsonian mount. A Nikon D3200 DSLR was used at prime focus. The exposure was 25secs at 3200ISO

This was taken using a 90mm Skywatcher refractor on a undriven EQ2 mount. A digiscope bracket was used coupling a Nikon Coolpix L29 compact to a 40mm Celestron plossl.

I've been fascinated all day by that round penumbrae and spot feature above the main spot as it looks really like the grinning emoji 😀!

Thanks.