Zermelo

I pulled the trigger on the Bresser. I've been waiting for one for a while, and that price was too good to ignore. The truss ES looks good, but my searches didn't uncover as much love for it as for the Bresser. Thanks for the lead, @GasGiant.

As it happens, I've been thinking about a 10" for a while, but not having a house big enough to store one. I recall that the Bresser has been thought well of here, in particular for the size of its altitude bearings? That is very tempting.

That's a very encouraging start. It may be that, in some areas, a strategy of overnight light reduction, rather than a full switch off, is the way to go. Of course, that requires lighting that can be dimmed. With LED replacements that is possible in principle, though I suspect that some units don't have that capability.

Outreach evening at a nearby school. A pity it wasn't Tuesday or Wednesday, but these things are arranged weeks in advance. Unfortunately, the weather followed the forecasts pretty closely: cloud building up after sunset, becoming continuous. The three of us all focused our efforts on Jupiter, waiting for the few sucker holes to usher in the next in line. In the end, a majority of kids (and some parents) got a glimpse. I took the Skymax this time, knowing that we were planet hunting. My Svbony 10mm UFF gave x150 and showed some nice detail when the sky allowed, including the GRS at the start.

The seeing here tonight was better than yesterday. There wasn't much obvious cloud, though transparency seemed down, and the reading on my sky quality meter was significantly worse than I'd expect, close to new moon. I spent quite a while on Jupiter again, and x140 was about the best power for the Mak. There was a fair bit of detail in the equatorial belts, and the GRS was visible later on. Actually, since it was more distinct than I expected, I may have been seeing the darker region in the wake of the spot that others have been reporting on recently. The double cluster at the zenith showed a better background contrast than M34 and M37 further down. M33 was barely visible, but the 17.5mm Morpheus just about showed some hints of structure. M1 was faint, but obvious. With the slightly improved seeing, tighter doubles were accessible but still quite jumpy, including n1 Orionis (1.8") and 32 Orionis (1.4"). But 52 Orionis was again too much for the atmospherics.

Thanks for this discussion, it led to me buying this one:

I've been wanting to get a proper case for my Skymax127, but not wanting it so much that I would spend any serious money. I read this thread with interest, and had a look at the Patrol Base site, which was mentioned there. They had the following case on sale at what seemed to be a very reasonable price: Now that it's arrived, I'm very impressed with its sturdiness. It actually has wheels and an extending handle. I now have some cutting of foam to do: The supplied foam is actually quite soft. I'll see how it goes, but if it's deforming under the weight of the OTA then I'll get some firmer stuff.

Just called it a night here, after a second spell, they've not been the friendliest of conditions. Very cold, of course, and there were some strong gusts that troubled even the short Mak. The seeing was poor (IV out of V), which was the main limitation. It was much better to the East of us, judging by the reports above. Anyway, tighter doubles were out of the question, but Mesarthim, Zeta Piscium and 35 Piscium all looked good at lower mags in the Svbony SV135 zoom, and OCs M35, M36 and M37 were decent in wider EPs. Mid-level clouds started appearing at around 8, coming and going, but eventually covering most of the sky. One first from this evening (and I don't know why not before now) was that I saw a couple of the open clusters in Auriga, naked eye. Not sure which.

Just had a quick look at Jupiter in the Mak before tea. Io was departing the Jovian disc, and managed to see the shadow in the SEB. Conditions are so-so here, and the Mak hasn't had time to cool properly yet. Best view in Morpheus 9mm, so about x167. Any more and it starts to get mushy. Hope to continue for a bit after tea. CO changed its mind at the last minute, from "100% cloudy all evening" to "clear until 19.00".

I also just came across this current thread, which has some links to other resources:

That's the least that I've seen either of these. I have the Svbony 10mm UFF and it's excellent, and much cheaper than other badgings of the same design. At that price, it would make a great upgrade from the stock 10mm EP for new observers. I've not used the 18mm UFF in any incarnation, but I believe the more complicated 8-element design to be again excellent, and very good value at under £50.

Sorry to hear that it's not worked out for you, Lee, but good that you're sticking with the visual. On the positive side, you do have some decent skies in Cornwall (when it's clear!)

I went out for a final attempt, and in some sucker holes I managed to see Ganymede just appearing from behind Jupiter. A frustrating evening, but worth setting up, just for the Jovian dynamics.

As Stu said, it was cloudy for hours here, then on my last check it was suddenly clear, so I managed to get half an hour in before the entire sky has just clouded out. I watched the action at Jupiter, and it was well worth seeing. One moon, Io I think, was quite close to the disc, North of the equator, and I watched as another (Europa?) approached the other limb, to the South, and disappeared behind it. I think Ganymede was probably transiting already and I didn't spot it. Conditions weren't perfect, but the NEB and SEB were showing quite a bit of detail. I was trying out a Svbony SV135 zoom for the first time (Christmas present), and I could take it up to about x150 (10mm in the Mak) without the image degrading. That was convenient to compare it againt my gold standard, the BCO 10mm. I could see no difference.

This is interesting. Even in a 6", I see Neptune as a slightly greenish blue, and Uranus as a slightly bluish green. I wonder if I have been subconsciously biasing my observations? https://www.space.com/uranus-neptune-similar-shades-of-blue-voyager-2-images

The following was posted on a thread here not long ago (not by me) :

Yes, I noticed that too. I don't normally pay much attention to forecasts beyond tomorrow, but this does seem like a genuine change to clear and cold for a few days. Fingers crossed.

When I started off, I had a small scope on a manual mount. I found it very useful then to learn something about the sky by doing everything manually. I star hopped using a combination of Telrad and 30mm optical finder, which worked well in my Bortle 4 skies, unless the moon interfered. When I got a goto mount, and especially when I paired it with SkySafari, I no longer bothered star hopping. I rarely need the Telrad now; I either use the goto, or else manually slew while watching the scope direction on Skysafari. The goto isn't perfect, so I still need to do the last bit by eye, in a 9x50 RACI. So I still get plenty of practice matching starfields, judging directions and distances. I personally don't miss the fully manual process. Some prefer the chase as much as the conclusion, I prefer to maximize my observing time under the unpredictable UK skies.

I think @Louis Dhas commented previously on the 2" back provision in different markets. On the bundled vs unbundled differences - yes, the provision of collimation screws, and also the finder shoe is in a different position relative to the dovetail.

I'd say Saturn is definitely male, though these days you can't be too sure.

It certainly looks the part. Stu, you let me look through one of your Morpheuses once, and now I have the set. Please, do not let me try out a Feathertouch. It's either ignorance or penury.

I agree on the recent run of poor weather, but there have been a fair few nights with an hour or two of clear skies, or evenings with a degree of mobile, low cloud throughout. Often, these opportunities have been in defiance of a pessimistic forecast. So perhaps recent weeks have favoured visual observers who have the flexibility to set up speculatively, with fewer commitments, or grab-and-go equipment ready to deploy, happy to look at whatever is in the gaps ... but possibly not so good for the imagers.

+1 for this. I bought one of these for about £6 and it does better bringing out detail on Jupiter than anything else I've used.

Indeed. £10 Plossl and Ethos perform quite similarly on a cloud bank. One of nature's levellers 😊