Sunshine

Last night I was out till the wee hours of the morning, Jupiter and Saturn were wonderful, seeing conditions were good. It wasn't till about 2:30am that I decided to bring out my motor drive, camera, laptop, as the views at the eyepiece at 230x were so full of detail, I just couldn't pack it up without an image. My image may be over processed a bit, I understand, I did it to emphasize the harsh lines which Jupiter's equatorial belts have taken. Usually (from what I recall) the transitions between Jupiter's many cloud bands seem to have been somewhat diffuse but, lately I have noticed some banding taking a more pencil drawn, sharp lines appearance to them. If you notice that Jupiter does not appear to be as round as it should be, let me know, I forgot how to correct that in Registax 6.

I would use an abacus if it meant i could have a Tak.

I would NOT mess with collimation on your mak, it looks fine, once you start turning those 6 screws, it can turn into a nightmare real quick.

Been there, done that.

Amazing! cant say I have seen one that wasn't off the edge of the limb only, this looks three dimensional.

Welcome to SGL! you'll find boat loads of info here.

Welcome to SGL, Patrick, we love to listen and help.

That old skywatcher is a fine 120 frac, a good looker too! sounds like you had a memorable session.

Last night, after cracking my head open trying to split Zeta Herc, i noticed Jupiter and Saturn had come into view from behind a neighbouring house. Training my frac on Jupiter, i was surprised to see a beautiful sight that was either Io or Europa slowly making its way around the Jovian limb. Pulling up SkySafari and zooming into jupiter, it had Io transiting across an equatorial belt but, no label for Europa which i thought was the moon that was just about to disappear behind Jupiter. One shadow was clearly visible as a sharply defined black dot smack in the middle of an equatorial belt.  If indeed it was Io which was just about to occult, then it would have been Europa's shadow i observed, i'm not sure which was which as SkySafari didn't seem to label Europa.

This was at about 2:30Am.

Your images are just breathtaking, especially the full disc ones. If they were mine i would print a full disc shot 3ft wide and mount it, would there be a better conversation piece when guests are over?, no.

6 hours ago, Stu said:

In many ways it looks a bit like Izar through a small scope (60mm ish). They show larger airy disks and the secondary is placed bang on the first diffraction ring.

Stu, is this a diagram depicting the pups orbit around its parent? if so, i guess if theres a good time to have a go at it now is the time, considering the pups distance. Your post was a load of fun to read.

Well, thanks a million, I may well have seen it and didn’t know! expecting a sight closer to what Delta Cygni looks like. Boy am I glad for you folks, This changes everything, I do need some more power, it looks like 230 will not do it. Many thanks, It will be a load of fun reading these two linked posts.

Zeta Hercules and Pi Cepheus, the thorns in my side, even on a night of good seeing. Using my 115mm frac and my 3.5mm Pentax, at 230x, I can’t even discern the snowman effect. Are these two doubles beyond the resolving capabilities of my scope?. By comparison, Delta Cygni I can make short work of with the 3.5mm XW but, not those two buggers, they’ll be the end of me. Maybe the issue is (in my case) i just need a little more power? maybe somewhere in the 260x range i may start to see them as a snowman or maybe even split. As of now, adding my Powermate to my 3.5 gives far too much power, over 500x which is useless. 

I SHALL SPLIT THEM!!!

Hello Wojtek, welcome to SGL, enjoy it, we are one big family.

Welcome to SGL!

Hello! welcome to the lounge, have an amazing time with your new scope!

A big welcome! we are glad you're back in the game and, we look forward to hearing about/seeing your astrophotography as you get your feet wet again. 

Hello and welcome, you happen to have picked what is the quintessential beginners telescope, it will not disappoint and will provide you with years of enjoyment.

Also, I highly recommend a book to go with your scope, the beginners bible, titled "Turn Left At Orion" search it out on Amazon. Between that scope and that book, you'll 

be well on your way.

That sticker comes with TeleVue eyepieces, I did the exact same thing with my 150 SW Mak lol.

Those are simply breathtaking images! 

Thats what that is, pretty neat.

That's one sweet little scope setup you have there, you will certainly enjoy it for a long time to come before it will be known simply as your first scope. Yes, there will be many more, don't fight it, resistance is futile.

Welcome, congratulations, we look forward to your first report.

The Televue Powermate is vastly superior to the traditional barlow, have a peek at this article. I have compared my 2.5 powermate to my other 2.5x traditional barlow, the traditional barlow went straight into the bits and bobs box afterward.

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/user-reviews/eyepieces/barlows/televue-25x-powermate-r462

This has been too long in the waiting, i hope it happens on schedule, it will be a very exciting time.

That is a fine looking solar scope, so basically you let them know what scope you are fitting the filters on and they custom make them so they screw on?. This makes it a modular telescope correct?. If this is correct, I can assume that having one made for my 115mm refractor would be an arm and a leg I bet.

Postman brought me my second Pentax, this one I’ll nickname “star Splitter” as it will make for 230x in my scope, perfect for the purpose.