mark81

Mike, That's a stunning sketch. You've got the surface brightness spot on! As for the one you didn't post - they sometimes just don't go to plan do they... I often look at a sketch of mine and wonder what I was thinking..but I suppose it all helps in the long run.. Mark

That's my first ever Wahoo! Thanks!

I had a naked eye session on the 21st September under nice dark skies and took this sketch of Aquila, Sagitta and Delphinus with the Broocchis Cluster and The Milky. A great bonus was being able to resolve two stars in the Coathanger... Black Card, white pencil and white gel pen under red light...

Hi Steve, welcome to the forum. I always tend to recommend 10x50s for Astronomy and I use my Olympus Dpsi 10x50s for Astro and Nature viewing. Some people find them a little on the big side for bird watching and opt for a pair of 8x42s which are much more compact and lighter - so no need to tripod mount. Let us know what sort of skies you have as this can impact on how certain size bins can perform.... That extra 8mm really can make a difference in the amount of objects up for grabs in the night sky. Not sure you'll notice much difference in the two binsyouve mentioned .. both great makes... Mark

@Mike JW Thanks for the info. Lots of great ways of going about it. I use the Cambridge Star Atlas too. They do tend to stick to one's well within the the reaches of smaller scopes (which helps me slot)

@Lurcher Those charts look like a great way of keeping things in order. - I'll get some of those ready - Thanks

Your Lunar sketches are really good! I never seem to have the patience for all the shading. I have also thought of doing some double star sketches, so I'll look forward to seeing how you get along. I guess, to make a double star sketch more interesting, we'll have to include notes on the star mag, the separation, the scope mag, ep, ETC...

I use my 10x50s all the time and have enjoyed many of the Messier objects with them, but I always find myself going for the open star clusters. The bigger the better obviously but don't be afraid to have a go at the smaller ones - you won't see much detail (if any) on the tiny ones, but just picking them out and learning your way around the sky can be real fun. Enjoy.

The last time I viewed the Moon the sky was full of fast moving wispy cloud. Worked great as a Moon Filter - but when it would suddenly clear it was like shining a torch in your eye....

I've always found the BST EPs to work well with my ST80 (f5) but if you go for the 3.2mm you've got a very high mag EP that you with the scopes you've got, you might not use that often... I would go for a 6-7mm that is light enough to Barlow which I guess will get more use. For high power on my ST80, I use the SW UWA 6mm and to be honest I prefer viewing Jupiter and Saturn at slightly lower power...

Very nice sketches. It's very hard to be accurate on the fine details but to be done a nice job there..

Great News on getting the whole setup - up and running - Ive been looking out for a good report on this since you picked this beast up back in the summer. It does sound like a bit of an effort - but the results seem to make it more than worthwhile.... Mark

+1 for checking out Auriga - perfectly placed for binocular viewers

The determination paid off! Nice image.

Great edition again. Nice review of the 15x70s - I was only taking a look at them on FLO last night and I thought the price seemed too good to be true - but they do seem to impress way more than the basic 15x70s.. Thanks again