Captain Scarlet

Brilliant! I love reading your reports even if I am jealous of your 20". What do you use to stabilize yourself when you're up the ladder? I need a small set of steps above certain altitudes, and I rest a finger on the top of my mount to give myself that all-important third point of contact.

Magnus

That split pupil finder is very clever. I might make one for my spotting scope and it’ll be useful and easy to attach directly to a short scope like a Mak for those times when you haven’t much time or you’ve forgotten the finder proper.

I found it last night, this thread is what brought it to my attention. Thought-provoking and a very nice sight.

M

My only filter at the moment is an Oiii, and for some reason it never occurs to me to use it when I’m observing.

I think an H-b and a UHC filter have just risen to the top of my wish-list. (Are they the same thing? H-b I assume is Hydrogen beta, and UHC a mix of wavelengths?)

Hm I think you might have spotted a fatal flaw in my account. I’ve only recently first seen the crab, and on reflection I recall using my baader rdf to get me to the vicinity. Which means I must’ve been using my Intes Mak not my bins. Oops apologies. But it does set me a challenge!

This no-Moon cycle has been particularly fruitful, I think I've managed five productive dark-sky sessions with my 20-minutes-to-set-up 12" newt, including last night which was possibly a final short one before the Moon militates one of my smaller scopes instead, the Skymax180 or the Intes 150.

The forecast had been hovering between mainly cloud with possible clear patches, and clear with occasional cloud. In the event it was the latter, though I was worried about the 100% cloud cover as I was setting up just before dinner. It was due to pass though, and it did.

I set up in an easier-to-deploy place just outside the front (North) porch rather than my 50-metre trek in the field to the South, yielding great views from West to East via North but restricted altitude to the South. In the event, I spent most of the session looking South anyway: oh well.

I started off with M42/Trapezium, to gauge the conditions on the E and F stars, and indeed they were there straighaway and pinpoint, actually the best I've seen them. Seeing was obviously not bad, but the wind was NNW so occasional light gusts would shake things up a bit.

I've been keeping a list of potential targets stolen gleaned from others' (mostly John I think) reports on here, and I decided that cherry-picking from this list was going to be my source tonight.

M1 Crab nebula: Having seen this through binoculars a week or so ago, I found it here with my 10mm Delos at 183x. It was a decidedly obvious bright smudge, but annoying gusts of wind and my unwillingness to get the set of steps prevented me spending too much time looking for detail.

40 Eridani (HR 1325): From John's research this is a triple system comprising a sun-like star, a white dwarf and a red dwarf. Sure enough, there they all were! Obviously the third component at 11.something required effort between wind-shakes but it was clearly there. Tick!

Sigma Orionis: the multiple system that's become a regular for me now. Nothing difficult about its several triples and doubles, but gratifying and beautiful.

52 Orionis HR 1999: My notes suggested this was a challenging double, around one arcsecond, so when I found what appeared to be a single 5th mag star in my field I thought it could be it. At 183x I couldn't make a double at all. I put in the 6mm and 305x still didn't decide it, though I could perhaps see some elongation. No breakdown in the image though, all still very sharp. So I put in my almost-never-used Delos 3.5mm for 522x, and there it was, a clear pair of tight white dots. It was just like a more difficult version of one end of the Double-Double. Funnily enough when a bit of breeze did come through to give a gentle shake, it was even more apparent: two parallel white lines buzzing around the field of view until it settled. And still no image break-down, so seeing very good. Tick!

With the 10mm back in (183x) I moved to the Flame Nebula, which was apparent, and on to the Horsehead. I checked SSpro to see exactly what orientation and which stars I was looking at, and it seems the HH is exactly framed by a quadrilateral of equal-brightness stars, and I was looking exactly at it! Could I make it out. Maybe perhaps-perhaps just, but once again I won't take the tick. I'll need to be sitting down and staring before I can confirm it I think.

With my success at 25 Orionis I had a go at Sirius, even though it was behind a tree, but haha no chance. Diffracted to hell by all the branches. I did console myself with Rigel though, and even put the 3.5mm back in for stupid magnification again. I was rewarded with miles of empty space between Rigel and its companion, and a very pronounced blue colour to it too.

I quickly finished off by pointing at the Pleiades and sticking my DSLR into the focuser to get a few shots to be able to measure exactly by what factor my Paracorr2 acts as a Barlow.

That was it for me, I could see clouds coming in from the North so a decent couple of hours.

Cheers, Magnus

Whenever I search out Uranus I can definitely recognize it for its bluish hue, but then at mag 5.something compressed into a small area perhaps that would be expected? Neptune too

I've got it ... you still have thr front cover on the main tube! 😉

M

Very nice to watch Mark and I like the sketch. Most of the very same things happened to me in 2020, barring the home-schooling and broken foot.

Quick question ... do you sketch black on white (why does auto correct ALWAYS try to begin that last word with an ”s”???) then reverse colour, or white on black?

Good luck for the new year...

Cheers, Magnus

13 hours ago, johninderby said:

I also had both but ended up using just the lower one. Found the tall one just too tall.

... I took the higher one off John. Found it just right. 3 bears and 3 bowls of porridge come to mind 😁

... looked up White Dwarf on Wiki. Discovered that Sirius B is also a White Dwarf. Makes my mission to observe it for the first time all that much richer...

M

On my list. Very glad I stumbled on this thread.

M

It snakes its way between Mintaka and Alnilam quite clear from this screenshot 

On here I believe it’s been called @Stu’s “S”. A lovely asterism.

M

Superb read, thanks. I’m seriously toying with the idea of a 20” dob.

By way of reassurance re the darkness readings: I’m at a 21.8 location in Ireland and have collected a lot of data with my sqm-l over the past year. I’ve modeled it and the model says that zenith-proximity to the MW makes a big difference. So currently, 21.8 nominal will where I am actually produce 21.4-something at zenith.

Cheers, Magnus

Ah yes I forgot. I’ve also stolen one of my wife’s Pashminas, beautiful and soft to fill in the gaps around my neck.

My wife likes swimming in lakes and the sea. She bought herself, at least so she thought, a Dryrobe for ease of changing out of wet kit whilst remaining warm and decent but still out and about. I have formally adopted the Dryrobe, it's perfect for astro use. No special trousers, but Uggs for my feet, thin merino gloves for my hands, a thin woollen hat over which fits my headtorch-band, and I'm good. I've recently satisfied myself that the little warm-pouch pocket sachets aren't bad environmentally either. Just a packet of activated carbon, vermiculite, cellulose and salt which when spent end up as basically just a bag of rust!

M

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

I had to do a double take on that pic Magnus. Thought your main mirror had dropped out for a moment!

😊

Only metaphorically 🙃

Yes I love mine too. 27kg 300p on one side and various Maks on the other...

Interesting. Got me thinking. Suiter also says thicker vanes produce stubbier brighter spikes. I guess as a vane gets infinitesimally thin the diffractions produced by each other side of the edges will interfere each other out. As the lengths get further apart they interfere less until there’s negligible interference and the effect is then simply one of obstructed and reduced aperture and extra edge-lengths.

Have you introduced a heater at all? Could it be a warm air current plume? Also perhaps take a photo with the focuser grossly wound in or out. That will show the whole obstruction-field.

M

I think it may even have been mid last week I had my first clear sky in ages. Unexpected at the time, so without bothering of a telescope I put on a huge coat took a chair into the field behind my house and just soaked in the stars for a couple of hours. SW Ireland so not unlike N Wales very dark, but the stars so bright and so many.

There’s been some talk on SGL lately about messier and how his list came to be. There was discussion about M1 and how it’s not the easiest of his list. So with unexpected clear sky tonight I set myself the goal of trying to find it. I’d only set up my 6” Intes Mak, not the 12”, so I wasn’t too hopeful.

But I found it very quickly, rather a bright large smudge with my Pan 24, sitting on the left edge of an upside-down kite, as seen through the eyepiece. No real detail though, but I expect that to change when I bring my 12” to bear.

Chuffed, it’s another “tick” for me.

M

I think the strength of the diff spikes depend on the lengths of straight edges, thickness doesn’t really come into it. The thickness will increase obstructed area of course and thereby reduce contrast, but the spikes will be unaffected.

a single vane obviously has 2 edges and will throw out 2 spikes from a star in two directions perpendicular to the edges

M

Search on that popular auction site for “bionculars” i.e. misspelt. I did this by accident once and picked up a very expensive pair (Leica) for around 50% of their proper value. I couldn’t understand why nobody else had bid, then it dawned! You might be lucky.

M