Captain Scarlet

12 doesn’t sound like so much more than 10, but there’s no escaping that (12/10)^3 is 1.73 which I nonetheless still find surprising when seeing them side by side…

Well if you’re ever in this area you’re welcome to visit. I’m sure I could rustle up a scope or two 😁. The best dark site near me is behind my house, which is regularly 21.8+ on my meter. That was a major part of my agreement to relocate here, where a lot of my wife’s family live. I must revisit Kerry at some stage. Although it doesn’t look too far, along the coastal roads it takes hours! And the Fleadh looks interesting. M

If that is on the primary mirror, which it looks as though it is, it would be well beyond my personal threshold for getting it cleaned. Some of the crud looks as though it may be organic. Arrange a day trip to Exeter perhaps and drop it off to FLO for a service?

Perhaps post some photos of how dirty? I have dismantled several similar types of scopes and I second the advice above: if cleaning really is required, it’s best done by a professional. A common and seemingly intuitive first step in dismantling these scopes is actually potentially disastrous. Look up “reverse engineering skymax” for a link to what’s involved. Cheers Magnus

Wow a second actual session in just a few days! I was in two minds about whether to write it up in short form in the “what didst thou see tonight“ thread; or create a separate Observing Report for it. I chose the latter, as proper sessions involving getting all my bits out, especially the observing chair, have been rare enough lately. The last few days here near Skibbereen have been beautiful days of winter sun, although the evenings less reliable. Monday 10th Jan evening was forecast for cloud, and when I checked around 7pm I was surprised to find it clear. So I put out my Skymax180 on my Ayo2 to cool just in case. Unfortunately after dinner, the forecast proved itself, everything was dew-laden and cloud cover was 100%. The Ayo2 on Berlebach Uni is not Grab-n-Go, but not too far off, and it didn’t take too long to get it back in again. The optical train I’d planned was my Skymax180 and Baader Zeiss 2” prism diagonal. It sports the Feathertouch microfocus unit, directly replacing the stock focus-knob. The focuser is very good. Even at 614x whilst inspecting Polaris’ patterns to test the collimation, shifting in, through and out of focus, there was no hint of mirror-shift. Anyway, the next night, Tuesday 11th Jan, was similarly forecast for cloud, with extra fog promised as a bonus. I put the same kit out to cool around 7pm again anyway. After dinner I nipped out and was delighted to see it still clear and not a hint of dew. Everything was still perfectly dry. And so it stayed for the rest of the night. SQM-L gave me 20.24 at zenith. Alignment Fail - I’d taken out my Nexus DSC and wasn’t sure whether I’d bother using it, since I wasn’t planning anything especially difficult, target-wise. The night was more an opportunity to use my Skymax180 which hadn’t seen sky probably for 6 months. In the end I did a quick Align, nothing to lose, and good to get a bit of practice with it. I used Polaris for Align 1 and Deneb for Align 2, pressed OK and big beep: “ALIGNMENT FAIL”. Oh. I tried starting again, this time from a Park position, and changed to Aldebaran for my second Align 2. “ALIGNMENT FAIL”. Grrrr. Then I realized. The last scope I’d had the Nexus on was my AZ-EQ6, and it still had those settings enabled, Phew! I quickly selected the “Ayo” settings from the list of pre-sets, and it aligned fine. Mizar/Alcor – I put in my monster Nagler 31 (91x, the lowest this scope can go with the eyepieces I have, giving 0.88 degrees). I never tire of this system and I was gratified to see lovely pinprick stars across the field. M51 – when touring this area with 56mm binoculars lately I’ve always gone through the sequence M51, M101, M81/2. Given my 7 inches of aperture, this night I was expecting no problems identifying any of those. But it took me a long time to find M51, and in the end I could barely detect it. Right on the edge of perception. I re-aligned locally on nearby stars to be sure, and yes I was in the right place: it was hardly noticeable. I think it was the combination of being only 18 degrees up, right above the local light dome from Skibbereen 7 miles away, and I suspect some low-elevation cloud that often sits atop Lough Hyne hill. On that basis I didn’t even bother with M101. M81/2 – I moved up instead straight to M81, more than 50 degrees up, and it was indeed easy to find and significantly brighter than I see it through my 15x56s. There seemed to be structure to it, too. Similarly for M82, in the same field of view, and the diagonal dark feature through its centre was evident. M42 – the Great Nebula in Orion had risen sufficiently above my roof to become a viable target. Go-To was spot on, and the 4 little pinpoints centred in milky nebulosity came straight to centre-field. Immediately, I could see the E star quite plainly. The F was just about there for small moments, but I probably needed more magnification. I was impressed at how good the nebulosity was in the 180, actually. Being such a long-focal-length scope, I’d never pointed it at M42 before. Anyway, I switched up to the DeLite 18.2 for 158x, and yes, there was the F star too. Not quite as steady as a few nights ago in my 12”, but it did endear the neglected Skymax to me. Rigel – I moved quickly to Rigel to tick it off as a split. Sirius and the Pup were out of the question as I was on the wrong side of the house, so I moved along to M45 – the Pleiades. I’d put my Nagler 31 back in. This time I did not confuse M44 and M45, and also this time I was quite sure that the haze around some of its brighter stars were indeed nebulosity. There was no dew, and up there at the time, no cloud. I also enjoy the asterism “Ally’s Braid”, the shallow “V” of 5 similar-brightness stars stretching south from Alcyone. Uranus – next up was Uranus, a lovely turquoise-ish disc, seen at 158x with the 18.2. I looked up SkySafari to discover where its moons might be, looked very closely for them … and didn’t see any hint. Luna must have been too close, perhaps, a bit over 5 degrees away. The Moon – finally, not having wanted to blow what little dark-adaptation I might have with the Moon up, I pointed to it. I used the Nexus’ directions to guide me to it, totally unnecessary I know, but I get a childish pleasure in seeing the Nexus screen telling me I’m there, and simultaneously noticing out of the corner of my eye, my eyepiece flashing white as it alights on target. I travelled up and down the Terminator. I particularly wanted to see if I could detect any craterlets in Plato. I have seen the four main ones (A, B, C & D) before, from Esher in Middlesex, through my LZOS 105 IIRC, but tonight none were on show. I was using the Ethos 13 by now, giving 222x. A question to those more experienced: If E and F are showing in the Trapezium, should craterlets ABCD+ be on show in Plato? The Moon was wobbling a little, and in that direction lies Baltimore village 2km distant so there may have been turbulence arising from there. I also recognized the only other crater system I know, Clavius. I finished off with a Collimation check on Polaris, using the Ethos 4.7 at 614x. This scope is indeed nicely lined up, it seems. Thanks for getting this far, I do go on! Cheers, Magnus

Fair enough. Clearly I’ve not been paying enough attention. Off to the back of the class. 😔

Haha no judgement implied. But a ‘fessing up like that cannot go without further elaboration

Yes? And?

Port side done. Starboard side tomorrow. Oars out on Sunday 😁

Aha! I’ve just realized what your thread-title means. I thought “inpatient” meant you felt as though somehow you felt you were in hospital being unable to go out due to weather. Now it occurs to me it’s a typo, and you meant to type “impatient” which would make much more sense 😃

John we’ve all seen examples of your handiwork … you of all of us would be able to make a good dob I reckon? Why not?

You have quite the ManCave going on there 😮

I bought a 105mm LZOS a while ago and the seller admitted never having touched the objective, for cleaning or anything else, all the years he owned it. I did clean it after one viewing session with much trepidation and my god the difference! It’s definitely something you should learn to do. With patience, deference, modern hard coatings and recommended cleaning agents you’ll be OK. There’s no shortage of very good advice on here.

Well done! Keeps my inspiration up for the HH.

Great read. Dammit I forgot ngc 1999 for my session

Nice read thanks. Owl nebula and M78 stolen for my next list. Such a joy to see literally everyone out at the same time!

Well there is an OO VX10 in the For Sale section ... surely you can't resist that? Great read by the way! Magnus

Very nice to read Nicola, thanks. The seeing was good wasn't it! 4th was good for me too obviously, but last night, 5th, was looking promising until late afternoon when it totally clouded over. I can't wait to bring my 105 f/6.2 refractor over from the UK for the same really wide views!

Thanks. I think Rigel is too easy a test for "pup prep". Based on my very limited experience I'd say Trapezium F being in plain view is a better guide, though I have seen that too a few times now and only the Pup this once, despite trying every time.

Thank you. With your new skies not having got your 8" out yet surely is some sort of crime?

haha the photo does the boots no justice at all! they are far more crazy than they look, they're lined with what looks like a removable foil-looking thermal liner too! Impossibl;e to drive in them I reckon

It’s so good to see a whole slew of jubilant observing reports arrive, once we British-Islanders (I include Eire 😊) finally get a band of clear weather; and with a New Moon as added bonus! So here’s my report to add to the mix, over two months since I last got a scope out. During the morning I cleaned my mirror, removing a dead spider and some stubborn pollen-splat marks. I was therefore expecting my collimation to be out. In fact, having removed and re-attached the primary mirror cell, collimation was still nearly spot on. However, in the dark, the “barlow-shadow” was barely visible, owing to the secondary having dewed up and frozen! I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to run the leads out for the hairdryer, but no such luck. A blast with it sorted the secondary out, and I was ready for alignment, on Polaris and Procyon. This was also First Light for my new (ridiculous) birthday-boots. I’ve used Uggs for cold dry nights before but they don’t like wet ground. These were perfect! I wasn’t even wearing socks for nearly four hours in -2C. I had a list which I started compiling in early November, and perusing it, I could see that many objects were now too winter-far-gone for any realistic hope of seeing. M42 & Trap E & F – After initial alignment, I went straight to M42. I had my 18.2mm eyepiece in giving 100x, and the Great Orion Nebula was as mesmerizing as the first time I saw it through a 12”. The nebulosity seemed 3D: I felt I could reach in and behind the various clouds. And there the Trapezium was, four lovely little steady points. At this magnification, 100x, I could just about make out the E star, and at fleeting moments the F would appear, both extremely faint. I put in the 10mm delos for 183x, and they both leapt out. I think at this stage, having only recently blasted the hairdryer down the tube on max setting, my “local seeing” (i.e. inside the OTA itself) was also still settling down, accounting for the improving steadiness of the E and F. They were both simply “there” for me to look at. Lovely. If the seeing is this good, I thought, the Pup must be a possibility. I’d never yet seen Sirius B despite many attempts over the last 4-5 years. Sirius and the Pup – A couple of nights previously, on a short binocular session far too windy for a scope, I’d noticed Sirius not twinkling, and through 15x56 binoculars was not a kaleidoscope. I’d wished it wasn’t so windy as seeing was clearly good. As luck would have it, it was the same this night. Sirius was still, and through the eyepiece yes, it was very bright, but more or less steady in its glare and colour. To my amazement and extreme satisfaction I could just about make out, right next to one of the diffraction spikes, a tiny sharp dot come and go. Not unlike Polaris B actually when it appeared. On checking with SS, it was in the correct place. I was delighted, and spent some time persuading myself it wasn’t mere suggestion. Later on in the session, perhaps 90 minutes later, I returned to it and the seeing had deteriorated somewhat and I couldn’t get it. I’d also had to use the hairdryer again which may have affected things. Very pleased, and now I know what to look out for, it may be easier next time. It was a little further out than I was expecting too. Horsehead Attempt – I tried for Barnard 33 Horsehead next, having put my Panoptic 24 in (76x, 0.89 degrees FoV). This was First Light for my Hb filter, too. No joy at all, with or without the Hb. With the filter, certainly there was more hint of barely-detectable gentle mottling, but no definitive HH shape. Without the filter, the same but brighter. Although the seeing was the best I’ve had, transparency was not. The MW on good nights here slaps you in the face, and tonight it wasn’t like that, there seemed to be a gentle milky sheen going on. Leo Triplet minus 1 – Through the bins a couple of nights ago and quite high up I was easily able to see M65 and M66, two of the Leo Triplet. Tonight, they were distinctly less impressive notwithstanding my 300mm of aperture. The difference was, I think, the poor transparency and that Leo was still low down in my worst LP-direction, and there was some extra haze going on there too. I moved on quickly. M1 Crab Nebula – I was keen to see what this looked like through a decent aperture. It was much higher overhead than Leo so I had more hopes. It took me a while to find it, but suddenly as I was panning, this quite bright oval patch streaked across the FoV and there it was. No mistaking it, but also unfortunately no discernable structure to it. The transparency again, I think. Glitch and Rigel – at this point my Nexus DSC decided it was pointing around 160 degrees from where it actually was, so I had to switch everything off and re-align. I chose Polaris again, and decided I wanted a star in Leo rather than Procyon as I’d used previously. I chose Rigel, that well-known Leo star. So when it slewed off past Leo and into Orion, I suddenly realized I was an idiot. Anyway, it didn’t seem to mind. I checked out Rigel B whilst there, very nice, easy split. Mirach’s Ghost NGC 404 – one fuzzy target on my list which was doable was Mirach’s Ghost, aka NGC 404: a galaxy in close proximity to Mirach. There was no doubting through the finder where Mirach was, and as soon as I adjusted orientation to centre it, sure enough, just nearby, was a galaxy. Lovely. Tick. M44 Beehive Cluster – I wanted to check whether I could notice any nebulosity around the stars in the Pleiades, so I instructed my Nexus to take me to M44. Which is not the Pleiades. I was clearly losing my marbles at this stage. The Beehive/Praesepe was of course where it took me, and 0.9degs is far too little FoV for an open cluster like that. However, through the APM 8x50 finder, it did actually look utterly magnificent. M45 Pleiades after brain-glitch2 – This time I went to the proper Pleiades, and sure enough there was quite a lot of haze around the brighter stars. And I still couldn’t decide whether it was dew or nebulosity. I’ve probably had 4 goes over the years having the same experience and uncertainty. I recall @Stu saying the same thing just yesterday, and it chimed! I removed the eyepiece and gave it a hairdry, similarly for the secondary, and the Paracorr2, and I also tried a different eyepiece straight from the warmer case. The “nebulosity” was there around the brighter stars throughout, so I will, on balance, this time, award myself “Nebulosity” rather than “Dew” 😊 . Pan 24 with & without Coma Corrector – finally, I decided to do the last thing on my list which was compare views of a cluster through my Panoptic 24mm with and without the coma corrector attached. I recall I undertook to do this during a conversation a few weeks ago. This eyepiece gives me 66x/1.03degs without CC or 76x/0.89degs with. I found coma was definitely noticeable without the corrector, although I could make it disappear by changing the angle of my head: I wear glasses, and I’ve found that changing the angle of my head/the glasses just a little can “collimate” what I’m looking directly at by looking through my glasses at a different angle. I tried this on “unfocussed donuts” too, and I can make them symmetrical at any part of the image by a small tilt of the head. Heaven only knows what other aberrations I introduce though. I’ll have to experiment some more. Just as I decided to finish, fog and clouds started to obscure the whole sky, so my timing was perfect. And as I type this, 2 days post, the sky is clear but the wind is back: 40mph gusts. Cheers, Magnus

More in a proper observing report hopefully tomorrow but suffice to say I finally got the Pup. Tonight’s seeing was the best I’ve had here, and with my 12” out for the first time in a couple of months. Trap E and F were simply sitting there in plain view, so I thought the Pup might be on, and it was! My first time. Magnus

May it give you joy. I certainly enjoyed it. It looks good with the OO focuser actually! 2nd-hand 8” newt just has to be far and away the best-value scope to get these days. Magnus

I was out last night 2nd Jan with my bins FINALLY after weeks of total cloud. I could not detect it hand-held in windy conditions with my 8x42s but I could with my 15x56s. I haven’t looked at this for a while, the last time was a couple of months ago at least, when it was a much easier target. Magnus