Geoff Barnes

Interesting topic Neil.

Hopefully John will be back soon and contribute, he seems to have mastered the finer arts of observing techniques.

My own limited experience has shown me that spending a decent amount of time at the eyepiece has the most beneficial results. Even when the seeing is good, clear and steady and you are seeing good detail in your subject, there are occasional short times when the atmosphere seems to momentarily disappear and things become so clear you feel you coukd reach out and touch it. This has happened to me mainly with the moon and planets and when it does you can't help but saying "wow".

Averted vision is great for the faint fuzzies out there like galaxies and nebulas, but again occasionally if you give it time even these subjects snap into more detail just for a few seconds.

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).

33 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

Should have it just about the time the next asteriod hits the Earth. 

Look on the bright side maw, at least with goto you'll be able to track it all the way down!  

I was giving my eyepieces a clean recently and it occurred to me that most of the stuff I was cleaning off the lens was probably greasy deposits from my eyelashes. So I got to wondering if simply trimming ones eyelashes (on the observing eye) would help prevent such contamination.

A bit of an odd thought maybe, but do any of you trim your eyelashes? (Spectacle wearers need not reply obviously).  

My list seems to be growing rapidly!

Astronomik 0III Filter, Baader Neodymium Filter, SW RACI 9x50 Finder, TV Delite 3mm or TV 3-6mm Zoom..... 😮

Floaters?

3 minutes ago, Louis D said:

It also depends on whether or not you have a tracking mount to keep objects centered.  If you always observe on-axis, many low cost eyepieces do quite well against the higher cost alternatives.

Agree Louis, I think this is the crucial point that applies to my situation. I almost always track my targets and with my scope well collimated I get fabulously sharp, clear and detailed views at high powers and with fairly modest FOV with my SW Planetary EP's. 

I reckon if I'm clearly seeing Saturn's Encke Minima, C Ring and Enceladus with these lenses then there can't be much wrong with them.  

Hi Ralph, it's intriguing that I bought the ES 82 degree EP as my first "quality" purchase and I really don't get on with it. Whether it is just the short eye relief or what I can't put my finger on it, I just don't enjoy using it.

Now the Baader Morpheus 6.5mm is my very favorite EP, I find the views through it and the comfort it affords simply superb. It gives very sharp, detailed views with a huge eye lens and great eye relief, I love it !  

I was asking this very same question a while back Wes and never really got a definitive answer, so decided to find out for myself.

I already had Skywatcher Planetary 4mm and 5mm EP's and wanted to see for myself if an expensive model was really that much better, because to my eyes the high power views through the SW EP's were superb on Jupiter and Saturn, sharp and detailed.

I had asked around and read countless reviews on here and elsewhere and decided (as my funds are relatively limited) on the Vixen SLV 4mm which seemed to be very highly rated against some illustrious competition.

I spent 3 hours comparing the SW Planetary and the SLV on Jupiter and Saturn (and have done many more since) and could see absolutely no difference whatsoever in the quality of the views through my SW 12 inch Dob.

Now I was using the Go-To tracking so my subjects were always on axis in centre field of view, but that is how I always view.

Now whether a real top end EP like a Teleview or Pentax would improve the views I don't know and probably never will, but the SW Planetary Ep's give me performance that I find totally acceptable.

Others eyes may well see differently!

I know what you mean, I get the shakes just thinking about the damage buying TV EP's would do to my poor bank account! 😰

6 minutes ago, niallk said:

Fabulous report @Stu - a great read

The 14" Alkaid is the job - so compact in the car!  And that silhouette of you with the dob against the Milky Way deserves a big print in a frame on the wall

That got me thinking that it would make a great photo for an Astro calendar. Do FLO produce an annual calendar? We certainly see enough amazing images posted on here to make the most amazing calendar, or even a wonderful "coffee table" book. 

Are you listening FLO?

Hi Brian, I think you need to speak with the lovely Gina on this forum, she has a sky camera at her house (though not working at the moment I believe).

Drooool… anyone know how much my kidneys are worth?

I'm very lucky here Neil, our house has a big overhang over our front patio. I built a very basic marine ply box to keep my scope in, so it is out of the weather but also always at ambient temperature or thereabouts. Seems to work perfectly, I just roll it out onto the front lawn and away I go!  

Don't know if this has been seen elsewhere but I happened upon it accidentally this evening whilst web surfing...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7394833/Is-Pluto-planet-NASA-chief-Jim-Bridenstine-says-be.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus

Mine is the 7ah model, gives me a good 3 hours use before it starts fading. The 17ah would go all night.

Yes very neat and tidy. When you consider the considerable weight of both the scope and the mount, the extra weight of a battery is insignificant.

Easy Peasy Peter. Just sit it on the turntable base and around it goes, no problem at all.

I wouldn't be surprised if your 16 inch goliath could take you round with it!  

Main difference (in England at least) Louis as I remember all too well, is sitting hour after hour in horrendous 20 mile traffic jams whenever there's an "incident" on the road ahead. Fine if the traffic is flowing, as it sometimes does, but total gridlock is becoming a real problem on many UK roads. Now we're in Australia we too think nothing of 200 mile trips, it's just up the road!  

Take a look Adam....https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks.html

Sunday on into next week looks great for clear skies for you.

Weve got a rare clear night here so Im going out shortly to look at Jupiter and Saturn.

Hi siriuslyblack and welcome from me in Melbourne.

As you are also in Oz we currently have Jupiter and Saturn visible at fantastic high altitudes in the sky which means they should look really sharp and detailed on nights of good steady conditions.

I have a big 12 inch Dobsonian and regularly observe both planets at 300x and more on good nights, which gives amazing views.

Even with your new 130mm scope I would expect you to be able ro use 250x on good nights on Saturn, and 200x on Jupiter.

Good luck!

That is the same unit that I use with my 12 inch Dob. It works well so long as you keep it charged up regularly, but only lasts about 3 hours before running out of power. The 17ah unit would last a lot longer so may be a better bet if you can afford it.

Have you checked the vacuum cleaner bag? Small things often end up in there!  

I'm sure I could hear the collective sigh of relief in the forum from down here in Oz! 

Well done Anthony!