Geoff Barnes

I'm in total agreement with this Greymouser. I've been doing a lot of EP comparisons recently, with my relatively cheap SW Planetary EPs and more high end ones like Vixen SLV, Baader Morpheus and Televue 3-6mm Zoom. The Baader is my favorite, but if there are any advantages in the quality of views through the others my eyes are not capable of seeing them, no matter how hard I try.

My last.purchase for a while, maybe. I've read good reports about this filter, I know Stu uses one a lot. I want to use it primarily on Jupiter which is fairly dazzling high in our skies, hoping it will make it easier to see surface details. Also going to use it on Saturn to try and tease out as much detail as I can. Hilariously, it honestly took me a good five minutes to work out how to open the case. I'm used to lifting a lid on filter cases, tbis one has a sliding drawer that you pull out the front. How dim am I.???

Yes it's all a bit strange down here isn't it Robby! Have you taken any kit with you for observing? Some of the globs and nebulas will blow you away!

Ready for action! Pointing due north, perfectly level, battery on charge and the best clear sky we've had for weeks. I shall enjoy this evening!

Well according to my SW Synscan database I've got 42,900 objects to discover, I think that'll see me out!

All the ones I've seen lately seem to have it. It doesn't interfere with anything and never comes adrift, but you could take it out if it bothers you. Your Dob must have clutch handles on the side of the base and on the bottom if it's a goto model, they all do.

A couple of things, Leave the foam ring in place, I think it's to keep dust etc. out. Don't align to magnetic north as shown by the compass, align to true north. Even when the goto misses its target by a large margin, once you have centred your target by manually pressing the handset buttons, leave it tracking that object for a few minutes and then send it off to another target, it should then be a lot closer to its intended target. I've had all sorts of similar issues with my Dob, and to be honest still do occasionally, but usually it gets reasonably accurate results once it has been tracking something for a few minutes, it then seems to know where things are.

At completely the other end of the scale from John's, mine is just a very cheap padded and insulated lunch box. I keep the eyepieces in their containers and it works really well.

Yes that's what I thought Vlaiv, it's just that in the past Jupiter and Saturn were seen without the spikes, just clear blackness all around their discs. Very odd.

Bit of an odd one this. I've recently noticed during my last few sessions that I'm getting these strange light rays emanating from Jupiter and Saturn in a broad cross shape. I know about diffraction spikes from bright stars from the secondary support arms, but this is different. The light rays extend from the body of the planet at the same width and gradually fade as they extend out into space. It is happening with all my EP's which I keep spotlessly clean so I know it is nothing to do with them. I've also cleaned the secondary mirror which was a bit dirty but this has had no effect. The only thing left to clean is the primary, but that was cleaned a few months ago and is still pretty well spotless. I'm at a loss as to what is causing it, I certainly never used to see this cross of light from planets, so any ideas from you folks as to what it is? I've done a quick sketch of Jupiter to give an idea of what it looks like....

One of the most memorable events posted on the forum John!

Good grief, this makes me sooo glad I'm just a simple, stress free observer! I do really admire your images though Rodd.

My thanks to FLO. Never in my wildest dreams did I think a little bit of green and black would be in my possession, but it arrived today. I had decided I just needed one more high power EP to complete my set for viewing the planets while they are so high in the sky here. It was a toss up in the end between the TV Delite 3mm or the Nagler 3-6mm Zoom. The zoom won in the end for the simple reason that if the 3mm FL of the Delite proved unsuitable then at least I had 4,5 and 6mm FL's with the zoom which I know are usable on the planets here with my SW Planetary and Vixen SLV EP's. Made in Japan too which instills me with confidence in its quality, even though all my Chinese made gear is excellent. Also arrived is the Astronomik OIII filter which I intend to use on the Veil Nebula which is just arriving on the scene here in the late evenings and which I have never seen before. I know John has frequently sung the praises of the OIII in the past for viewing the Veil so I thought I would give it a go. Main drawback here is it is very low in the sky (about 15-17 degrees), so visibility will be the biggest hinderance, but I live in hope.

Reminds me of the scene with Trigger and his broom... You could claim to have had the same telescope for thirty years . You've changed all the glass in it several times but it's still the same telescope! 🤣

Thanks Fred , I'll amend that.

All useful stuff from Moonshane, here's another recent thread started by Neil (Littleguy80) which could be helpful...

John has seen Triton with his 130mm refractor....

It wouldn't surprise me at all if it already exists in a Chinese or Japanese factory somewhere!

Like you John, I am purely an observer. Whilst I love to see the superb images many of our members create, it does seem to me that more than a few are spending as much of their time pulling their hair out, cursing and cussing in frustration because things are not going right as I do on a whole nights observing. Apart from that, the seemingly huge expenses that are involved in putting a good rig together keeps me perfectly happy to stick to simple observing. Just last night I had the thrill of observing Jupiter with Ganymede transiting and emerging from one side while I also watched the GRS entering from the opposite side. So unless imagers are making time lapse videos there is no way to recreate the thrill I had of seeing that in real time. Please keep the images coming though folks, I love to see them and am in awe of your skill and patience producing them!

"Flattery will get you everywhere" as they say!

I've been looking forward to this battle ever since you got the OO Dob Stu. There was never going to be much between them in terms of quality of view, both top bracket scopes. Eager to hear more reports to come.

It's an elder Gina, you could chainsaw it almost to the ground every year and it would put 6 feet back on again. If it's in the way give it a damn good seeing to!

I need to edit my post, I have had a rush of blood to the head and ordered a Televue 3-6mm Zoom and an Astronomik 0III filter from FLO. Should arrive in a couple of weeks going by past purchases.

I originally posted this in the Planetary section but I think it got a bit lost in there so here it is in a more visible thread (hopefully). Got home from work in bright sunshine (the evenings are drawing out a lot now), and was aware that (a) the GRS was visible and (b) the forecast was for gales this evening, so decided to have a quick look before dark. With the sun low in the west shining brilliantly I knew spotting Jupiter would be a difficult task, so aligned the GoTo 12 inch Dobb on the rising moon and then sent it off to find Jupiter. At 71 degrees altitude it was more or less directly above my head and the GoTo is a bit hit and miss when nearly vertical. It ended up a fair way off target but I soon found it via the 9x50 finder and centred the Dob on it using the Baader 8-24mm zoom on low power. It appeared surprisingly bright despite it being broad daylight and the background sky very pale blue, I could barely make out much detail and certainly no sign of any moons at 64x. Zooming in up to 8mm (187x) revealed astonishing detail, the colours of the GRS and the main belts were more intense than I think I'd ever seen them, even the wide central equatorial belt was a bright yellow ochre, and the spot itself quite an intense orange/red. Three moons were clearly visible as pure white pinpoints, Io was behind Jupiter to start with but appeared after 20 minutes to complete the quartet. I kept observing for about half an hour by which time high cloud and increasing wind persuaded me to pack up, but it was one of the best short sessions I've had in a long time and just shows that us astronomers need not have to wait until darkness falls to enjoy our hobby. (Solar viewers aside that is, though there won't be much for them to get excited about for another couple of years when solar Cycle 25 starts up).

Hi John, I only have the Morpheus 6.5mm, and I do have the ES 4.7mm 82 degrees, so not a direct comparison, but in my f5 Dob I find the Morpheus to be streets ahead of the ES. Sharper, clearer, better colour rendition and much more comfortable to use. If these qualities are also found in the 4.5mm Morpheus then it will be no contest for me.