Littleguy80

Woke up to my alarm at 3:30 am with the sky looking a bit cloudy. By the time I got outside with the Tak FC100DF it had cleared. I went straight to my main target Comet C/2023 P1 (Nishimura). Found it quite easily. Very compact and bright. I ramped up the power with the Pentax XW 5mm, the comet responded well. Well worth the effort to get up for. I was shocked to see how Jupiter was, I’ve gotten used to low planets. Caught the end of Ganymede’s shadow transit. The planet and shadow nice and sharp in the Tak. Saturn was a bit low but still nice to see. Finished up with a nice widefield view of M42 as a winter preview. Now back to bed for some sleep before work!

Well I’ve broken down and ordered one. I don’t think it will arrive in time for Comet Nishimura but I’m sure it’ll get plenty of use. Will be great to see how much more detail it reveals.

I didn’t know Baader made a SWAN filter. I’ve only heard of the Lumicon version. The reports with the Lumicon are mixed and it’s very expensive. It sounds like for the right comet it can make a noticeable improvement but for others it will make little difference. This seems much more reasonably priced so I’m really tempted to give one a try. I really enjoy comets so quite excited to try one. Thanks for sharing

After finishing up my domestic chores sometime after midnight, I decided to drag the Tak out for a quick look at Jupiter and Saturn. Seeing was a little iffy but the pattern of Jupiter’s moons made interesting viewing. Saturn looked fab and I spotted at least 3 moons. The Milky Way was reasonably clear overhead. Switched up to the 30mm UFF and observed M45. The trio of M31, M32 and M110 was really quite special. After that, I thought why not the Blue Snowball. In went the Docter and the blue fuzz ball looked wonderful. Swung around to the colourful Albireo. M27 was bright and distinct. Bigger than I was expecting with a green tint to my eye. Down to M71 and then over to M57. Finally a little hunt in Delphinus for the lovely little globular cluster NGC 6934. I could have gone on for hours more but work in the morning was starting to weigh on my mind. Just a brilliant unplanned session. Really reignited my love of observing after a quiet spell. It was everything I love about summer observing. Mild temperatures, observing in a t-shirt/shorts, Milky Way overhead. Lots of fun bright targets, nothing too serious, just very relaxed.

Since posting, I keep pondering the loss of my longer focal length eyepieces (APM 30mm UFF/Aero UFF 40mm). I recently had the whole Veil complex in the FOV with the Aero and Tak. Not sure I wanna lose that but then what would I give up?!? I don’t think I’m gonna sleep well tonight now. Just need to keep me reminding itself that it’s not real 😂

Assuming no zooms, I’d go with my most used eyepieces: APM HDC 20mm Docter 12.5mm Delos 10mm Pentwx XW 5mm Vixen HR 3.4mm These to cover 10” F4.7 Dob and 4” F7.4 refractor.

It was the small exit pupil in the Tak that gave me second thoughts. I bet it’ll work nicely for you with Genesis and the FS128

Congrats Stu. I came very close to buying that myself. Looking forward to hearing how you get on with it

I’m yet to delve into the world of binoviewing. The main incentive to do so would be to reduce the impact of floaters for lunar and solar. Perhaps a more relaxed observing experience for those. However, I believe mono is regarded as being more effective for DSO’s and planetary, at least in terms of fine detail. There’s also the additional cost element which has stopped making the move so far.

I think it’s typical of any nature based hobby. For me, the key is to have complimentary hobbies. Find something you enjoy doing when the weather isn’t cooperating and then make the most of the clear skies when they arrive. Adding solar into the mix has helped me a lot for getting more opportunities. I grabbed 15 mins on the sun yesterday morning before work. Seeing was excellent and really gave me a great boost to start the day. I get a real buzz about observing when it comes after a long weather enforced break. I’m not sure it would be quite the same if I got to observe all the time.

Haha the weather hasn’t been kind so far. It’s had a couple of quick test runs on the sun. Very good there

It’s also worth noting that Orthos are amongst the best for DSOs too. On the faint objects I will go from the 10mm Delos to the 9mm BGO. I particularly remember getting my first views of Stephan’s Quintet with the 9mm BGO. My 7mm Meade RGO has given me my best views of Jupiter and Saturn.

10mm BCO courtesy of @bosun21 I’ve fancied trying one of these for a long time due to the number of reports on how good they are at drawing out the faintest of DSOs. Planning a bit of a shootout with my 9mm BGO. I seem to recall @John reviewing the BCOs and comparing them to BGOs when they were first released.

Imagine them both dangling off a cliff and you can only save one…

If you think the search indexer is suffering, just think of all the poor posties delivering all this stuff!

Spent most of the last couple days stressing about a new to me eyepiece which arrived with a fault. Was very happy to get out and remind myself that astronomy is what I do to relax 😂 Lovely transparent skies. Started out with Comet C/2023 E1 (ATLAS). A much easier spot than when I last saw it. Followed up with some summer classics: M11 (Wild ducks cluster), M16 (Eagle Nebula), M17 (Swan Nebula) and M24 (Sagittarius star cloud). The Swan, with my OIII, is a real favourite. I have found memories of being really excited to see it the first time. Still brings a smile to my face.

Managed to catch up a little look at it this evening. Some proper summer observing ☀️🍦🔭

I think @Stu uses one of these. I was digging around old posts looking for the same thing recently. It’s slightly cheaper and more colourful (red so it won’t spoil your dark adaptation 😂) https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/geoptik-padded-case-for-100mm-refractors-f750.html

Yeah, that’s a good idea 👍

Really neat. I had a look for a version suitable for 2” filters but no luck on that

All my own work. It’s done in Apple numbers but I expect I could export it for Excel if you wanted a copy

Excellent. Looking forward to your reports

I created myself a little spreadsheet to keep track of the things I wanted to. While observing I use SkySafari to quickly log what I’ve seen. In the spreadsheet I can just add anything to the individual lists and this then automatically updates the summary. I’ve learnt not to make record keeping too onerous, otherwise my fun hobby starts to feel like a chore. For example, I was recording the sun spots I’ve seen when I first started solar observing but have stopped that now as it didn’t seem a particularly interesting number to record in the end.

Just updated my records and that’s comet number 25 for me. A quarter century no less!

Managed to catch this tonight despite some SkySafari issues that almost led me to give up. Tracked it down to the correct location with my 10” dob. Best view was with the Docter and VIP Barlow giving approx 163x mag. Not an easy spot without astro darkness but definitely there. Finished up with M57, Albireo and M27 for some bright favourites. Thanks for the heads up on this, Andrew