Littleguy80

Well done, John! This is on my list of targets next time time it’s clear. Possibly tonight or tomorrow. I feel a bit more hopeful regarding my prospects of seeing it now. The sketch will be very helpful. Thank you for sharing

Recently I’ve been pondering my eyepiece collection and how they get used. I have APM/Lunt 100 degree eyepieces and a 30mm ES 82mm. I also have a nice collection of orthos. The orthos all out perform the widefield EPs in terms of contrast and sharpness. This has led me down the path of considering eyepieces with a smaller AFOV but with better optical performance. Starting with the ES82 30mm, the alternative to this would be the APM UFF 30mm. I keep reading really positive reviews on this eyepiece. It’s a 70 degree AFOV but also a lot lighter. My two scopes are a 10” dob and a 80mm frac. The reduced weight would be particularly favourable with the frac. That being said, when sharing views through the big ES eyepiece, I always get a good reaction from my fellow observers. The next eyepiece I have is the APM HDC 20mm. I’m 100% happy with this eyepiece. It’s often used as my finder so I want to keep this focal as 100 degree. It’s performance is very good too. The 13mm is probably the least used of my 100 degree eyepieces. Not sure why. If money were not a consideration I would replace it with a Docter/Noblex 12.5mm, no question. The APM 84 degree 12.5mm eyepiece which is along he same lines as the Docter is getting some very positive reviews and at half the cost is quite a tempting proposition. The final eyepiece for consideration is the 9mm Lunt XWA. This gives around a 2mm exit pupil and gets a lot of use. However, when I’m looking for something really faint it will immediately be swapped out for the 9mm BGO. The Ortho is unbeatable on this. Not sure what the options are here. 10mm Pentax XW or 9mm Nagler perhaps? I’d be interested to hear if anyone else has made the choice to reduce FOV to get better quality views. Is there an ideal middle ground?

Nice report, Gerry. I have a pair of 10x50s for a couple of years now. Stability is an issue for me too. I can pick up M81/M82 in them from home. Lying down does help but arms get tired pretty quickly. Since having the 80mm refractor they’ve had a lot less use. The 80mm refractor and a 40mm eyepiece is more fun in my opinion. All that being said, they do still get used even if they’re not first choice. I’ve quite enjoyed trying to spot brighter comets with them.

Congratulations, Marv. Great to hear of your success It’s a tricky spot now it’s dimming too.

Hehe thanks Ron. I’ll send you out an autograph if you like 🤣

I did the rounds of the comets and some planetary nebula last but a nice split on Iota Cas put Tegmine on my mind. 300x from the 4mm setting on the Nagler zoom in my 10” dob gave a really nice split. I don’t observe a lot of multiple star systems but they two were really nice.

Took my first look at Comet C/2019 Y4 since the reported breakup. The drop in brightness is quite significant. With the SQM reading 19.5, I was still able to pick it up though. I moved onto C/2017 T2 which is comparatively much brighter. Similarly C/2019 Y1, which is now in Cassiopeia, was easily seen at low power despite being much lower than C/2019 Y4. I views both as nebulous glow with a bright core at 133x mag. For the comet hunters there’s still two good comets to observe even if this one fades away.

I’ve had a couple of goes at the pup after reading this report without success. How far out to look is exactly what troubles me too, Stu. Persistence is so often the key with these things though.

I have the TS Optics Herschel wedge which has an ND and Continuum filter built in. For an experiment, I just switched it over so I just have the ND filter. The green from the Continuum filter definitely adds contrast to the granulation. However, I could still pick it up without the Continuum filter. My experience so far suggests it's a mix of having good seeing, focus being spot and getting your eye to focus at the right level. The last bit is tricky and has taken me a long time to get the hang of. I tend to focus on the surface and then slowly draw my eye back from the eyepiece until I find the right focus point. Once I have got it a couple of times it becomes easier to get my eye to find the right focal point.

Went out for a look on lunch break. I'm finding granulation easier to spot now. Not sure if that's improved seeing or I've just gotten my eye in a bit. It does feel a bit like learning averted vision, in that you need to train your to focus at the right point. Still takes a lot of concentration to hold it in focus. It's really incredible yuk much there is to be seen on what would otherwise appear to be a flat featureless disc. Certainly before now, I would have looked and said there was nothing to be seen. I managed to pick up the AR in the location that Stu described. Maybe a little closer to the 6 o clock position but, in all honesty, it was hard to judge precisely. One dark spot and I thought a second one close by but I was less certain of this. A definite unexpected bonus to have this to observer. Thanks for the heads up, Stu!

Updated moved to thread in observing section

My pleasure, Mike. It’s a really nice galaxy. As you said in your original post, being settled between two stars makes it quite eye catching. Completely agree on the constellation boundaries. They managed to mark north with a star so boundaries seem totally achievable!

No problem. It’s quite a bright one at Mag 8.25 (SkySafari). Here’s the blurb on it. As soon as I saw your post, it rang a bell so I had a hunt in SkySafari for it but couldn’t find the mystery galaxy. Now I can see that I actually observed it on the same night as you. I just didn’t put all the pieces together until I saw it last night. Must be getting old!

Pentax are very good. I think the Pentax have a wider field of view than the eyepieces I’ve used. Should good you some very nice views of Venus. Some find a variable polariser helpful to reduce the brightness. I was experimenting with a Violet filter yesterday to try and pick up some cloud detail on Venus. It’s subtle but can be seen. @mikeDnight has some great sketches in the sketching section which are worth checking out.

That was with my 10” dob. Had some really nice views with 80mm refractor too. Was using TV Nagler Zoom and some Baader Genuine Orthos.

Hi @mikeDnight, I think I’ve just stumbled across the galaxy you sketched in your original post, NGC 2403. I just did an eyepiece to sketch comparison and looks like a good match to me. SkySafari screenshot for reference.

Seeing a bit wobbly here but still nice. Switched to widefield in the frac to pick up the Pleiades. Still looking lovely with Venus in the same FOV.

Venus shootout!

Funnily enough I’m looking at Venus right now Trying out a violet filter I just bought to try and see some cloud detail. Venus looks great at 200x magnification. Like a little Moon but without all the surface features

Soaking up the Sun ☀️

Just had a really good half an hour or so on this. Getting granulation 100-125x mag. Over that, I couldn’t find it. After a lot of searching I got the AR. Three tiny spots, or pores I guess they would be now, in a vertical line. I think I picked up other pores too but those are the ones I got most consistently. It took an awful lot of concentration to get my eye focusing on the right point and then to hold it. It felt like a DSO session looking for faint nebulousity. Really tricky. I don’t think I would have seen anything without yesterday’s experience with granulation. Probably my most satisfying WL session to date.

This is exactly what I’ve been experiencing. It’s as much a challenge of your eye finding the right focal point. This is where have spots really helped with seeing granulation, for me at least.

Had a quick look too this morning but couldn’t see it. As it was quite tricky late yesterday I was waiting to see if it was me or it has now gone. Sounds like the later though. It’s kept me entertained these last few days so no complaints.

Great shot, Stu. I often look at my own efforts and think “Stu’s images are sharper”! For example, here’s one of my better efforts from last night. Although, I posted it on my astro society’s FB group today and got a comment along the lines of “you proper astrophotographers don’t even bother to flip the image so the Moon is the right way around”. Made me chuckle. Never been called a proper astrophotographer before. Not even when I won a StuPOD 😉

Hi Mark. I certainly am. I’m super happy with it too. Solar, widefield and packs down into a backpack for carry on luggage. It’s my first refractor so it’s hard to judge it’s performance but seems mighty good to me.