Littleguy80

I lucked out with this jet passing across the face of the Sun as I was taking photos of the Mercury transit on my iPhone. I believe the jet is based at RAF Lakenheath. I fiddled a bit with exposure and contrast but other than that it’s as is. Had a really great afternoon observing and taking photos of this event. Photo taken with a SkyWatcher Equinox 80, TS Optics Herschel Wedge, 9mm Baader Genuine Ortho and iPhone 8.

They talked about the transit at my son’s school today. He made it home just in time to see it

Just had the BEST luck taking a photo!

Yes!!!

I have the option of driving somewhere from Norwich to find clear skies. Any suggestions of where to head?

Variety is the spice of life. Each eyepiece seems to have its own personality. I really like to experiment with finding the right eyepiece for the object. It’s amazing how much difference getting the right magnification/exit pupil with the right FOV makes to what you’re observing. Plus the different views give a different experience of the object. Doesn’t have to be expensive either. My 9mm BGO cost £50 and has shown me fainter objects than any of my more expensive eyepieces have been able to.

I remember my first time seeing the wanderer, no doubt inspired by another of old Nick’s great reports. It was at a dark site with my trusty 130mm reflector at my side. It must have taken an hour of hunting. I even stopped for a cuppa to warm up half way through. It was fainter than I expected which explained why I kept missing it. I let out a triumphant “Yes!” on finding it and punched the air. No one was there to share the joy but that’s ok, that’s what observing reports and friends on SGL are for. Thanks for another great report, Nick. I’ll be sure to revisit the wanderer again soon

Another nice feature is the T2 thread on the eyepiece holder. I use my Baader clicklock eyepiece holder on top of this. I also use this with my Baader diagonal. Makes for easy eyepiece changes and if you want to rotate the eyepiece to adjust brightness with the polarising filter.

As John said, there is an ND3 filter stacked on top of the narrowband filter. I spoke to TS optics who confirmed the dark element is an ND3. I also have a separate Baader ND3 filter which I sometimes use instead of the ND3/Narrowband filter. Just gives me the option of a white Sun instead of a green Sun. Nice review of a very good value for money wedge

Your effort was once again rewarded with a nice session, Doug. We had some clear skies earlier In Norfolk earlier on. A quick look at M45 showed transparency was quite poor. I took a look at M38 and then tried for C/2017 T2 Panstarrs. No luck. Went onto Vesta, Uranus and then another asteroid called Metis. Another shot at the Comet. Sky looked better but still nothing conclusive. Definite haze in the right area but nothing that felt like an observation. Nice to get the dob out again!

Excellent photos. Caught it when I got home from work. Thanks for the heads up

You can take the horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Not everyone will appreciate what they’re seeing. Good on you for giving up some of your own precious observing time to share with others.

Thanks Paul. I was really impressed with just how much could be seen. Lots of fun with a small scope and a single eyepiece!

Thanks Damian. Wow 10 nights! Have an awesome time. Looking forward to your report

Thanks Dom. I think the Bubble Nebula is particularly tough but you never know unless you try. There’s a lot of things that I’ve managed to see that I never thought I’d be able to.

Boo to the rain. Link to the report in the post above

Thanks Paz. I’m normally pretty good about getting out but work has been super busy lately. I’ve only had my little frac since May but it’s been fab for getting out for quick sessions.

Thanks Iain. I’m very pleased to have good results from a budget EP. Very much looking forward to getting it under dark skies. Those star fields should be even more impressive. I also plan to try it with an H-Beta on the California Nebula

Since starting this thread, each of these eyepieces has become available secondhand. The Panatopic sold for £300 and was too expensive for me. The Vixen LVW went at a bargain price of £100 and I was simply beaten to it by another lucky member. This week, I picked up a 40mm Aero for a total price of £49. I was encouraged by Michael and John's words of praise for this eyepiece. It arrived today and skies were clear so it got a quick first light run out. Report here for those that are interested:

Weather and tiredness have pushed astronomy to the side for me recently. The last two nights I put the dob outside to cool and was then too tired to do any observing. The arrival of a new eyepiece today gave me the extra little push I needed. I've been looking for something in 40mm focal length region and decided to go for a 40mm Aero, which came up secondhand this week for a shade under £50. With my Equinox 80 refractor it gives 12.5x magnification and a huge 5.4 degrees TFOV. My skies at home are around 5 - 5.5 NELM so I wasn't too sure how well the 6.4mm exit pupil was going to work. I started in Cassiopeia, using the red dot finder to align on Ruchbah. The hazy glow of NGC663 was immediately obvious and I soon realised that I had a clear view of M103 too. I have 10x50 binoculars and the views were not dissimilar. It was much nicer with the steady view through the refractor and without my arms getting tired from holding the binoculars. Panning over, I next found the delightful NGC457. From there I went to the double cluster in Perseus. Whilst the lower power widefield lost much of the detail I'm used to in the dob, it added so much context to the view. I really enjoyed seeing the way these clusters fitted in the wider star fields. Nothing exemplified this better than Kemble's Cascade. The fine chain of stairs sparkling all the way down to the tiny cluster, NGC1502. Open clusters were a winner but what about galaxies? Andromeda was the obvious first choice and the bright core showed well. With some careful study and verification with SkySafari, I also picked up M32. I looked for M110 but I didn't see anything definite for this. I felt very confident that this would show well at my dark site though. Over to Ursa Major and the pairing of M81 and M82. Bode's showed quite well straight away but the Cigar took more patience. Averted vision was able to bring out the side on galaxy. The Moon was rising so I looked for areas of the sky that weren't yet showing signs of Moon glow. In Lyra, I place Sheliak and Sulafat in the centre of the eyepiece. I thought I was pushing my luck trying for M57 but there was a distinctly fuzzy looking star in the right place. SkySafari was again used to confirm the observation. The Ring became the first planetary nebula of the night. I screwed in the Lumicon OIII filter and moved over to Cygnus. The faint Eastern Veil was the first thing to catch my eye, soon followed by the Western Veil. Both faint but clear with direct vision, comfortably sitting in the same field of view. The North American Nebula, required a bit of time to become clear. Over the course of 5 minutes it noticeably gained in prominence as my eyes adapted to the view. I took a punt at moving over to the Crescent nebula. A nebulous glow grabbed my attention straight away. SkySafari proving that my eye had successfully detected the nebula. With the OIII filter now removed, I gave a little chuckle of delight as I looked upon the pinpoint stars of M29. There was something so lovely about recognising the little cluster. The larger cluster of M39 was like an arrow head within the larger star field of the Milky Way. Albireo was quite a close double star at 12.5x mag and every bit as pretty. The coathanger hung in the sky and made a fun diversion on the way to finding M27. The dumbbell was easy to spot. My evening drew to a close with an averted vision observation of M71. It was fun to be eeking out views of these bright Messiers at low power. Normally easy targets made challenging. All in all, I'm very please with the 40mm Aero. It's a great pairing with my refractor and really opened up the skies for some fun and engaging observing. 21 objects observed in just under an hour. If I'd lost any enthusiasm for stargazing these past couple of weeks then it's now been fully restored!

Brilliant report and sketches, Nick. Lots to look forward to this winter

Absolutely, it’s the challenge. I’ve only ever had manual mounts. Finding targets was a real struggle in those early months. On more than one occasion I punched the air in excitement at finally finding a target. It took me 3 sessions to find the Beehive! I can find most things quite easily now. The challenge is to go fainter. Love this hobby

Thanks Damian. I think that’s why I described it as not being a satisfactory. I’m confident I glimpsed but it wasn’t a strong observation. I still felt excited to have seen something are so many failed attempts. The 10” gives nice views of NGC891. I’m planning on giving that a good amount of attention this winter. It must be stunning with the 22”.

I was able to observe the Merope nebula last night from my local dark site. I used an ES82 30mm which gives an exit pupil of 6.3mm with my 10” dob. The edge of the Merope nebula which runs parallel to the string of bright stars is the easiest to follow I find. Looking slowly from Merope to Alcyone the change in contrast as you go from the reflection nebula to black(ish) sky is normally quite noticeable. At least with a bit of practise!

I just wanted to follow this up to say that I managed to observe this tonight from my dark site. It was quite tricky. I actually used your sketch as a means of confirming that I’d found it! It’s surprising how far from the core of Andromeda this is. This was the highlight of my session tonight so thank you once again for posting your excellent report and sketch