Les Ewan

Seeing for Jupiter was excellent this morning with my Skywatcher 400P Dobsonian. Using a 12.5mm Orthoscopic giving a power of 144X many belt details flashed in and out of view and as the Great Red Spot approached the limb two conspicuous spots in the NEB approached the meridian.

Seeing was remarkable considering the low elevation (as long only moderate power was used )I tried to go up to a 9mm Orthoscopic but that was too much on this occasion.  I will have to wait another year for Saturn to be visible from my main observatory as its still a bit low. 

Glad to receive your questions dumb or otherwise, just don't expect the same answers 100% of the time, especially where equipment is involved.

I'm not even sure there is such a thing as a dumb question, I've been a amateur astronomer for 51 years and I'm still learning new stuff, some of it  on here.  

Hedgehog visits used to be a regular occurrence during my Summer observing  sessions, not now though.☹️. In my area they seemed to have vanished, so much so that I don't even see them flattened on my local public roads anymore!

Seeing from my site in the early hours of the 17th were good for observing  and DSLR imaging of  Jupiter  but 24 hours later conditions were awful even though the sky looked just as clear.

Although seeing seemed to be a lot better in much of England on the 18th here in Central Scotland nearer the Northern  edge of the currant high  the Jet Stream  from the Atlantic then extended South over most of Scotland.

Just look out for the nearest looking modal from Skywatcher. The Orion Sky Quest 16G Dobsonian Synscan base sold in America for example is exactly the same in every detail to the Skywatcher 400P mount sold in Europe except for the colour and labelling. 

Most of the main brand units probably exit out of the same Chinese factory  and the different companies slap on their own livery badges.

Its good fun experimenting stacking with different filter combinations but at the end of the day I don't believe colour filters are of much use. Many will disagree but filters do nothing but dim the image and colour it. I hardly use my filters but in the past I have found the blue 80A does sometimes seem to marginally  improve surface details on Jupiter and Saturn. Its a individual preference, every ones eyes are a little different, use what works for you. 

I obtained this image of Jupiter at around 3am using a Nikon Coolpix L29 compact camera and digiscope bracket. The scope used was a driven Skywatcher 400P 16" Flextube Dobsonian.

Taken this morning at 02:02BST. The camera was a undriven Nikon 3200 DSLR 15sec ex 400ISO.

This is by far the best display so far this summer. Taken at 01:50 BST. Using a Nikon 3200 ,1sec ex at 100ISO

I didn't know Dubhe was a binary, I will give it a go with with my 16" Newt some time.

I hope you  get the feet for the pier because it would be nice to keep this setup as original as possible. 

Although my TAL is stored elsewhere  its manual is kept in my bookcase at home for some reason. The Russian translation is every bit as bad as the  Japanese manuals for Prinz and Tasco telescopes in the 70's.😁

Sorry I meant to type ...'unlike yours'...😵

These are wonderful telescopes ,I have a TAL 2  f8  6" also known as a Siberia which I bought new for £600 in 1992. It has a spherical mirror and 3 eyepieces which are larger than standard 1.25. It has a mains driven equatorial mount and is also issued with a wide array of accessories that would these days be classed as optional extras . Unfortunately lack of space means that its been packed away and is in my sisters house for a few years now (she uses one of the pine storage boxes as a coffee table)!

I'm planning to use it soon when I get another shed to store it in, but like yours the mirrors will need recoated.

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I don't think I would risk any modern refractor with projection  with so much plastics being used these days. I used solar projection with my Prinz 60mm refractor in the 70's with no problems and the cheap suppied  0.95" Huygen eyepieces which were pretty awful for night time use were a advantage for Solar projection. I have a Siberia 150 TAL 6" Newtonian which was issued with a projection screen in the kit. I did use it for projection often in the 90's without a problem but it must be said these scopes were all metal and had metal bodied Huygen and Ramsden eyepieces. 

I don't do projection these days my Skywatcher 90mm refractor and Baader filters do most of my solar work.

Cant have too many eclipses shots.😎  

A lot of cloud about but still got some good views. These were taken at 10:15,10:35 and 11:45 BST using a undriven Canon 1100D EOS 1/800th sec at 100ISO. The lens was a old 500mm fl M42 thread Centon mirror lens and Baadar filter film.

MY favourite astronomy book is The Amateur Astronomer by Patrick Moore which ran into many additions. I already have the 7th edition (1971) and the 9th edition(1978). I've been after the first edition(1957) for some time and I managed to get hold of one from Ebay. It was a bit pricey but having this lovely book now  in my collection is a great delight.😎

It came with the dust cover which is showing  64 years worth of dog ears!

The spine and pages show signs the book has been read but not excessively so. The text is fascinating because Patrick wrote it even before Sputnik so information we take for granted now lay in the future. In the text's Mars section Patrick mentions how hostile the red planet surface is,but though sceptical does not absolutely rule out moss and lichen like plant life. 

The middle section plates are way better than the later editions ,the 1957 Mars map is far clearer and superior artistically than the dot maps of the 1970's editions (which were  by then transferred to the appendix.

The last image shows how the 1st and the 9th edition Mars charts compare.

On 11/04/2021 at 19:39, Tomatobro said:

Having seen what others have captured here is one taken with a MN180. I always thought it was a wind gust trail but it does now seen that I captured it

Your image is very similar to the one I submitted a few days ago. I was brought down to Earth when Kirkster 501 suggested that it's probably not the jet but 2 distant galaxies in the background. I didn't know about these galaxies up till then but they are there. 

The orientation of the appendage on your and my images resemble a favourite picture of mine from a old book that I've had for nearly 50 years- Dr HC Kings Book Of Astronomy. I am confused now whether I really did image the jet.

OOPs I seemed have put this in the wrong section ,sorry.

Thanks for the likes.

Using a 16" Newt I was able to  faintly discern the spiral nature of The Pinwheel visually.😎 Using this scope(driven) I took this image with a Nikon 3200 SLR. Exposure was 30 seconds at 6400ISO it came out quite well (for a SLR at least)with not much trouble but had to darken the background using Fastone

It may have something to do with your X3 barlow, X2 barlows are the usual norm for small scopes. Newts can have a narrow focus profile, your X3 may be mainly designed for refractors or a Cat which have a far wider focus range. I admit I don't really know its just a thought.

Lovely galaxy viewing last night. When upgrading to a  driven16" Dob Newt three years ago I had high hopes of seeing  the M87 jet visually. I've not been able to do so disappointingly. However using the Skywatcher 400P I manage to image the jet with  a 2X barlow attached to my Nikon D3200 SLR and at the very limits of the set up.   

The exposure was 30 seconds at  6400ISO and a little tweaking using Faststone.

I know the image is far from perfect but its amazing what ordinary equipment can do these days.😃

16 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

No idea why three identical posts appeared???  Mods may wish to remove two! Sorry!

Don't worry such a wonderful collection of eyepieces is worth repeating.😎

I'm very lucky only about 15 metres from my back door.😎

Having said that even that short journey is  not without hazard three weeks ago tonight I tripped and fell returning after a observing session and bruised my ribs and done in my kneecap😡.

The force of the fall winded me and I spent almost a full minute rolling about the ground at half two in the morning!

I don't bounce so well in my old age and the ribs still give me gyp.

You may just need a short extension tube.  I have a similar problem with my 400P Dob, Plossls work fine but my Kellners have to be partially extended out from the drawtube to reach focus.