Littleguy80

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

Thanks Damian. Nice to hear from you It’s restricted to astro society to members only though we do run public outreach events 2 or 3 times a year. There’s a club night every Friday which makes for some nice social observing on clear nights. I’m a key holder which means I can open up on other nights when it’s clear for members to observe. I’ve had times when I’ve observed alone like this. Are the dob mob planning any sessions together later in the year?

With the warmer evenings and, perhaps, lower expectations with the lack of astronomical darkness, it always seems so relaxing observing this time of year. It’s one of my favourite times of year to observe for that very reason. No straining or pushing to the limits, just enjoying the brighter targets. Planetary nebulae are good this time of year.

Thanks Mark! Took advantage of working from home to dash out for a look. Very impressive.

Love it! Although I’d argue with all your years of observing there’s a bit of stacking going on in your processing too 😂

Lovely Mike. A thoroughly deserved win too!

Really worthwhile experiment and something I would never have thought to try without this post so thank you! Will definitely use this approach with Venus again. Not so sure on the Moon but, as you say, there may be some features where it helps.

That’s incredible. The time lapse really adds some drama with the sudden eruption. Brilliant capture!

I gave this a try tonight. Worked really well with Venus. I also felt that cloud detail along the terminator was perhaps easier to see. Venus perhaps wasn’t as sharp though this may well be due to seeing. I was less keen when using it with the moon. It just felt too dark though maybe it would work better with larger scopes. I like the bright views and don’t use a polarising filter with a normal diagonal and my 100mm scope.

Have had a couple of great sessions with the Atlas the past couple of nights. My little post it system has helped me find six more Lunar 100 targets. I found that I like to have the 21st Century Atlas with me too for the descriptions as they often have little tips or history on particular targets. Picture from last night with the Atlases at my side

Just signed up. Hoping for a 2.4mm to pop up at some point. My Tak seems very happy with the 3.4mm so I’m sure it will be fine with the 2.4mm. My eyes are probably the bigger question mark 😂

That’s cool. Will look out for it next time. Pretty sure you’d need to be Thor to lift it, even in the Moon’s gravitational field 😂

Nice one. Thanks Garry!

I have the MEF3 micro focuser upgrade on the my wish list for my Tak FC100DF. I’ve gotten on well with the Tak standard focuser though would like the dual speed for fine focusing. There is still a bit of me that wonders whether it would be worth the wait and extra pennies for a feather touch though.

I’m loving the jagged shadow in Archimedes too

Beautiful night for it too!

Thanks Paul! Got this myself too. Really neat 😊

Thank you everyone for the comments. It wasn't something that really bothered me other than the question in my mind of is this normal/expected? The views on the Moon after all my playing around with the Vixen HR 3.4mm were fantastic!

Thanks Piero. I felt sure I’d read somewhere that the Taks do better with prism diagonals. That was one of the reasons I tried the prism. I wonder if getting the BBHS mirror version would remove the CA on Venus. I’m not sure why Venus seemed more prone to CA than even the moon.

Looking at the moon with the 5mm BGO it’s barely detectable with the mirror diagonal so looks like the prism is worse for CA as Andrew said.

Well I think it is coming from the diagonals. Top shot is 5mm BGO straight through. Second is nag zoom at 6mm with Clicklock mirror diagonal.

Yeah, it was purple so pretty confident it’s CA.