Geoff Barnes

24 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Looks cheap, but, in order to get free shipping you have to order 2,000 of them?

That might be a problem Michael, they're only making 500!  

Well done Chris, Enceladus is a tough target alright. I've seen it a few times when the seeing has been excellent with my 12 inch Dob. but more often than not it's invisible. I must try your technique of getting Saturn out of the way to make things easier!

I think you're over complicating this Gina. I would simply fix it to the top of the facia board so that rain can land on it from any direction, and bob's your uncle!  

Can it go here Gina, look like a good spot for it?....

I would probably plump for my Baader 8-24mm Zoom. It may not be the best Ep I've got, but with 17 focal lengths built in and really very good quality views throughout the range it would be my one to keep.  

I would probably plump for my Baader 8-24mm Zoom. It may not be the best Ep I've got, but with 17 focal lengths built in and really very good quality views throughout the range it would be my one to keep.  

10 hours ago, John said:

Add to that Saturns position which might not be favourable during that time

I've just been having a bit of a play with SkySafari and it seems to me that on 31st October 2024 at 9.30 pm in the UK Saturn will be at about 40 degrees altitude. That should be good enough for a decent view for you I would think.  

Following on, has anyone managed to actually observe a lunar transit of Saturn in the past? I imagine my 12 inch Dob would be quite capable of resolving  the shadow of Titan with say a 4mm EP.

Very pretty! Stratocumulus undulatus, billow clouds, caused by a temperature inversion going on up above with rising and sinking air pockets creating the waves of clouds. Not as unusual as one might think, but always makes a nice sight to behold.  

Whilst patiently waiting for weeks now for clear skies I was passing time looking up tbe Galilean app to see if Jupiter was due any lunar transits down here this week.

Having had the thrill of seeing several transits in the past year it occured to me that I have nevsr seen lunar transits of Saturn. That got me searching for relevant information on the subject which led me to an interesting discussion on CloudyNights from 2015.

It seems it only happens about every 15 years or so when the rings are edge on to us on Earth. May be due again around 2024 or so.

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/489933-shadow-transits-of-saturns-moons/

Lucky for you folks up north, Saturn will be high in the sky by then!

6 minutes ago, John said:

Sometimes the springs fitted to the collimation screws are a little weak which can cause the scope to go out of collimation when moved around. I didn't think this was an issue with Skywatcher dobs though ?

Funny you should mention that John, because the scope was going out of collimation so much I recently changed the original SW springs for much stronger ones to see if that solved the problem. I haven't had much chance to use the scope for a few weeks with the rotten winter weather here, but it will be interesting to see if my efforts prove fruitful when the skies clear.

No point starting a new thread, I've just taken my 12 inch mirror off and given it a wash, after 14 months it had developed a slight opaque greyish film over it.

No problems at all with the cleaning, the mirror looks like new again.

My reason for posting is that when I got the mirror cell off I noticed that the 3 black mirror clips were all slightly loose and wobbly. They are all attached with 2 screws so I decided to tighten them just enough to stop the wobble without putting pressure on the mirror edge.

I'm wondering if this could be the reason why my mirror goes out of collimation every time I move the scope around?

Surely the clips are meant to grip the mirror so that it can't move?

Anyone else found their clips to be loose and did you tighten them?

Enjoy the cooler weather Gina! I know as a gardener that the heat knocks the stuffing out of me, far prefer the cooler weather.  

9 minutes ago, Alan White said:

400 km drive for astro, blimey I get a cold sweat going 15 miles to a darker site!

Lol, I can't be bothered to push my Dob out onto the front lawn some nights! 🤣

The Celestron X-Cel's do have a good reputation, but then the Vixen SLV's have a wonderful reputation too and yet in a 3 hour side by side comparison with my SW Planetary 4mm I could see absolutely no difference whatsoever in the quality of the views of Jupiter and Saturn, they were both superb.

Do you have Go-To tracking with your Dob? I always use tracking especially at high power viewing so the target stays on axis without the need for nudging the scope.

I use the SW Planetary 4mm and 5mm with my SW 12 inch Dob and they are better than the ES 82 degree 4.7mm.

I would use the 4mm for Saturn and 5mm for Jupiter for best results. No need for the Barlow with them, too much power will be dim and fuzzy. You will need good seeing conditions though with these high power EP's.

I would dearly love to try one, but alas I don't think it's a problem I shall ever be faced with.  

Hi M55_uk,  I have a Skywatcher F5 305mm Dobsonian and have recently used the 4mm and 5mm Skywatcher Planetary EP's from FLO and they are astonishingly good for their price, I can't recommend them highly enough. Haven't used the 6mm but see no reason why it too wouldn't perform to the same high standard. 

I am aware that telescopes do seem to be suited to certain types and brands of eyepiece, the SW Planetaries seem tailor made for my scope and there is no guarantee they will work so well with your Celestron scope, but you never know until you try.

Welcome Adam, I grew up in Bassett and ended up in Nursling via Eastleigh, whereabouts are you?

Been in Melbourne Oz since 2006.

There are at least two other members on the forum from Southampton that I know of.

After a bit of searching through cupboards and old boxes I managed to find my 50 year old souvenir edition of Man on the Moon.

Has anyone else still got one I wonder? I'd like to post photos of every page but there are 65 of them, so here are the front and back covers...

Sorry about my ugly mug, should have held it in front of my face, but then I wouldn't be able to see what was on the screen.  

Blimey John, with Saturn almost overhead I'm able to give it 375x with my 4mm EP and it stays pin sharp with incredible details, C Ring, Encke Minima, Enceladus etc. etc. Give it a go with whatever power you can!  

Nice Stu!

Have you had a chance to compare the views with your Mewlon yet?

It's strange isn't it how we must all see things differently, I have used the ES 4.7 82 for a couple of years now and yet, try as I might I just cannot warm to it, the views are sharp enough through it but it just seems to lack the wow factor that I get from my Baader Morpheus and now my SW Planetary EP's. It's hard to explain in words, you just have to look through the eyepiece and see how the view affects you both visually and emotionally, and I'm afraid the ES 4.7mm just leaves me cold. Very odd!

Sounds like you might have got a dodgy one there vlaiv. Whilst I haven't used the 7mm version, I have recently done an intense comparison with the SW 4mm and a new Vixen SLV 4mm over 3 hours on Jupiter and Saturn and could not see any difference in the quality of the views whatsoever. The SW matched the Vixen in every aspect of sharpness, detail and colour, though that was on-axis viewing with my go-to Dob in tracking mode.

Like laudropb I haven't noticed any ghosting either, though I have to say I'm not the sort of person to let any minor aberrations bother me so long as my target is looking acceptably sharp and clear.