michael.h.f.wilkinson

It helps to have a cooled astro camera behind the lens. I should really have used the dual rig on the target and captured OSC with the ASI183MC-Pro I have.

I managed to get 2 hours of O-III and 88 minutes of H-alpha to add to the 86 minutes of H-alpha from January 9, all collected with one of my Samyang 135mm F/2 lenses and my ASI183MM-Pro, with ZWO Mini-EFW and Baader F/2 filter set, on the iOptron HEM15 mount. Stacked the whole shebang in APP and tweaked curves in Gimp. Of course, I would like more data, but I am pretty chuffed with my first colourful Elephant's Trunk

I dragged out my iOptron HEM15 with a Samyang 135 mm F/2 with ASI183MM-Pro and ZWO EFW mini, and managed just 43 120s subs with Baader H-alpha F/2 filter (Windows decided to shut down some time halfway through exposures when I wasn't looking). Did a quick stack in APP and got this: Quite pleased, after quite a struggle with the mount (will review that later)

I have processed the 280 GB of data from last night, and made a little animation. See was quite attrocious, so I am quite pleased with this result, even if the sharpness isn't anywhere near as good as the scope can manage under good conditions. I have attached a lossless compression AVI file (Windows Media player doesn't like this, but VLC has no issues) Jup_194552_lapl4_ap93_pipp.avi

After spotting Denebola to the east from my garden, I made some futile attempts to spot comet 62P/Tsuchinshan with my big Helios LightQuest 16x80mm bins, but no luck from my Bortle 4/5 location. I decided tyo drive north to a dark spot that has previously proven very good for this kind of observation. Just getting out of the car was a joy, the skies were so much darker, and studded with stars (and the odd planet). I quickly aimed my binoculars to the little triangle of stars south of Denebola, and immediately spotted a little fuzzy ball where the comet should be. Just to check the transparency I checked out M65 and M66, and they could definitely be spotted. Swinging back to the comet, I could readily confirm its position. That is comet number 38 bagged, and the first one of the year.

Managed to get quite a few SER files on Jupiter. Seeing was pretty choppy, but at least I got something usable. I am hoping to get an animation later. In this frame you can see Europa just after it emerged from Jupiter's limb, and just before it ducked into Jupiter's shadow. I have made mauch sharper images of Jupiter with my C8, but given the poor seeing, I am quite happy with it.

If you want a 6"wide field scope, you could try to hunt down a Meade SN-6 6"F/5 Schmidt-Newtonian (or go for a rather more expensive ES 6" F/4.8 Mak-Newt, which is still cheaper that a 6"ED or APO frac). I found mine for just EUR 165 for the OTA. Brilliant refractor-like performance without diffraction spikes or noticeable coma. With my 31mm Nagler I get 24.5x magnification and 3.34 deg true FOV. The OTA is also fairly light (5.7 kg) and cools down quickly.

I am considering going to Sfax, Tunisia

I love my 6 mm Delos. Only used in really good seeing in the C8, but very useful in the 80mm F/6

Measure the tube diameter, and use that as a guide. A slightly longer dew heater is not a problem, to short is a pain

I see no problem reporting a first light when conditions are not good. Just mention the conditions and qualify any conclusion. In our eagerness to get a piece of new kit out, we often are tempted to rush it out under conditions we would normally give a pass. Very often you can still get an idea of what the new piece of kit might do (and at least you know it works).

Lovely shot!

I gather the LightQuest was the replacement for the Apollo line.

I only use a 2" Amici prism (William Optics made, by the look of it, but Orion USA branded). It works well at lower magnification, and plays nicely with the 2" Naglers I have. Birdwatching with an APM 80mm F/6 and Nagler 22mm T4, at about 22x magnification with a 3.75 deg FOV is just brilliant. I have used a 45 deg 1.25" Amici prism, but that was a cheap plastic affair that came with a little 70mm F/5 scope I converted into a finder scope. I quickly replaced that horrible plastic contraption with a TS 90 deg 1.25" Amici prism which is far more solid, and works well with heavier EPs. The prism can be seen here: My test of the 2" Amici prism can be found here:

Very nice indeed. What sort of scope did you use?

The Nikon 10x50 is a good choice. Great all-round bins. If you get binocular aperture fever, I would seriously consider something like second-hand Helios Apollo 15x70s, or similar, because they are WAY better than the Celestron Skymaster 15x70 (and similar cheap ones). The Celestron is certainly not bad for the money (I had a lot of fun with mine), but they are really 15x64mm bins due to under-sized prisms and various internal baffles. Besides, they do not hold collimation that well. By contrast, the Apollos are built like a tank, and are optically far superior. I currently have the even better Helios LightQuest 16x80s, and they are superb.

I have a 1995 Celestron C8, on a Vixen Great Polaris mount, which has served me well over 28 years. Easy to set up, holds collimation superbly, great planetary imager, great all-round visual scope (lacking only in wide-field observing, but my little 80mm APO triplet does that well). If you can afford it, an EdgeHD version gives better correction. For visual and planetary/lunar imaging the Great Polaris mount suffices, so I assume the Celestron AVX mount or a SkyWatcher EQ5 should do. For imaging DSOs, I use either the APM 80 mm F/6 triplet (usually with 0.8x reducer), or the Meade 6" F/5 Schmidt Newton (and the latter usually on a Vixen GP-DX mount)

I like the fact that they are parfocal (and I made my Delos 8 and 6 mm parfocal with the XWs). Switching magnification to adjust to variable seeing is much easier this way than when I used a 2x TeleXtender or 2.5x PowerMate . The XW with a Meade TeleXtender (similar to a PowerMate) is fine, optically, but the position of focus shifts by a huge amount. I much prefer my current planetary set-up. BTW, the Vixen SLVs perform with near XW performance with a reduced FOV, and they are also parfocal with the XWs

I store my SCT OTA in a garage that has little in the way of heating, but may well add insulation to the OTA for added thermal stability. It is certainly worth trying on the Tri-Band SCT I use for solar, where tube currents can be a real problem

I have the XW 5, 7 and 10 mm and they are absolutely great. I am sometimes tempted to get a 3.5mm which could be useful in the 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton for planetary, but in my C8 (which is my main planetary scope) it would be essentially useless, and the 6" F/5 is really more of a wide-field performer (although it works well on planets and moon too).

Sounds I should stick to my ES 17mm 92 deg and Nagler 22 T4. Both work fine with glasses, and are very sharp across the field, even in my fastest scope (the Meade SN-6 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton). The ES 12mm 92 deg is great as well. Much as I love my Pentax XWs at shorter focal lengths, I don't think I will try these 85 deg offerings.

I have a little APM 80mm F/6 triplet APO I travel with. Nice and compact, only 2.5 kg OTA. Usually I only bring a 1.25" diagonal, and use a MaxVision 24mm for wide field, and three Vixen SLV EPs of 15, 9, and 5 mm. If I can carry a bit more, I do bring a 2" diagonal, and bring the Nagler 22 mm for wide field. For visual only I tend to put a carbon fibre tripod with mini-Giro alt-az mount (check-in luggage of course), for imaging I hope to use the iOptron HEM-15 I got earlier (likewise, to check in)

I wonder if the poorer viewing at higher magnifications is only to do with CA. I have found that my 2" Amici prism works nicely with the 31 mm and 22 mm Naglers, nd also with the 17mm ES 92 deg EP, but not at higher magnifications. The prism creates some odd, asymmetric diffraction spikes that really disturb the view. These bins have similar prisms that could cause similar problems.

I have the Vixen Great Polaris mount, and the EQ5 is a clone, and it holds an 8" SCT quite happily. The 6" F/5 Schmidt-Newton works fine too. I wouldn't put a 6" F/8 Newtonian on it, as the extra length means it will wobble a lot more.

It has clearly had a new outburst. It was much brighter than I expected. I even had a feeling I could see a hint of blue-green colour, but couldn't really be sure.