Pixies

Hi. Sorry - could you explain this, as I thought the focal length was a function of the mirror (and associated corrector plate)? I don't understand how adding a diagonal could change that? Only have a Mak, so no SCT for experience. Many thanks.

Don't get me wrong, I really like my zoom, but recently when I was trying to split the close pair of Tegmine , only one of these worked (and it wasn't the biggun) It's so useful when trying to find a good magnification to say, split a pair or observe something 'fussy', but I then move to a prime EP to get the clearest view. In the above case, the simple glass of an Ortho was what was required. For planets though, it the dog's danglies.

NGC 457 - The Owl cluster NGC 7789 - Caroline's Rose. Both in Cassiopeia and easy to find. Messier 3 - if you have a clear view east. Gets higher the later you can wait up. As does: M13 - the great cluster in Hercules. Probably a bit low unless you want to wait until 2-3 am.

Yes. Considerably so, as far as my last viewing was concerned.

That's what I'm not sure about - was it just down to the very transparent sky? But there's only one way to find out! M94 was bright, though. I would imagine it would be no problem in Bortle 4. I'm in 5/6 and managed to see more than just the core. Try the Whirlpool too (M51). The later you leave it, the less you'll have to contend with the moon. It sets at 01:20 - but Ursa Major will rise higher, the later you wait. It can be a little bit trickier to use a and track with a dob when things are nearer the zenith..

Following on from last nights sessions - see here for report: M94 was a bit of a surprise to me. I've never tried to view it before and to be honest, hadn't really been aware of it. It was quite easy to find, very bright and even had some detail in the dimmer parts. Far better viewing than the Leo Triple that I started trying to observe early last year, after several suggestions it was a good beginner target. Nearby M106 was very good, too. It made me think. Was last night just a really good night for faint fuzzies, or is M94 a good (and relatively secret) beginner's target?

Sorry - I submitted before I had finished and have edited my response. I believe Les was describing the F4 version with a normal parabolic mirror and no lenses, along with the AZ pronto mount. As per: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/sky-watcher-skyhawk-1145ps-az-pronto.html Which looks like a very neat, light (albeit very fast) setup.

It's a Bird-Jones, I believe. So 'catadioptric' in that there is a corrector lens in the focuser - to correct the spherical aberration from the mirror. I assume Les was describing the F4 one (which is a plain old fast Newt): https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-skyhawk-1145ps-az-pronto-telescope.html

Ok - a bit of a better night, last night. Clear Outside was positive for a few hours before midnight and at 9pm it was looking great. The clouds had cleared, the sky looked very transparent (certainly much more so than any time recently). A brisk SW wind though, and the threat of dew. Nice and mild, too. No gloves tonight! Started with the Trapezium in Orion and it proved how good the seeing was. The E star was visible with direct vision and for the first time I saw the F star! It was popping in and out of direct visiblity, but definitely there. Then on to Auriga: M35, M36, M37 and NGC1664 (12mm BST always provides a good contrast)- all not as bright as I've seen them. I noticed that the southern sky was starting to look a little 'milky' now. Tegmine next. With the 7mm Ortho (x170) I was on the verge of a split, but with the 6mm Ortho (x200) it was definite. Another thumbs-up for the good seeing. Feeling confident, I went for the Intergalactic Wanderer! Found it, but blimey, it's small and faint. More like a faint galaxy than any globular clusters I've observed before. Now for the real faint fuzzies: Leo I group - more luck this time. M105 and the nearby NGC3384 were found quite easily as before - and also M95 and M96, which took a little hunting around to find them. All faint and really needing averted vision. Leo Triplet. Bagged all three this time. M65 and M66 the brightest of the 3. The transparency of the southern sky was definitely getting worse now. The haze/high cloud was building and I thought it was better to try a different direction. So high NE still looked good. So I went for: M51. The Whirlpool galaxy was bright and the 2 cores clear with direct vision. There was a faint hint of some structure, too - which I've never observed before from the back garden. Transparency was still good in this part of the sky. Spent quite some time marveling at the view. Thought I'd check SkySafari for other bright galaxies in this direction... M94: What the..!!! Why has no one mentioned this before?! M31, M81/M82, the Leo triplet - these are all recommended 'beginners' galaxies - but this is something else! It's SO bright. It looks like a large bright planetary nebula! To say you could see it with direct vision was an understatement, and I could see the extended fuzziness with some structure too, like faint rings around the core. It does look more like a PN to me. Love it. Then I hopped over to M106. This was great too. Not as concentrated as M94, it's stretched out and appears quite large and elongated; its light spread out in a long oval with obvious differences in density. These two are going on to my frequent contacts list! However, very soon they started to fade and I noticed the high cloud had reached overhead. Also, the temperature suddenly dropped and I could now see my breath, even though it was still well above freezing. So I called it a night. Best one in ages.

Hi @Jasonb, Your start to observing sounds very similar to mine, with a steep learning curve, lots of binocular action and successes and failures. I'm sure this is the same for most of us. I'm still new at this and remember what it was like. 2 bits of advice (one of which you have already mentioned). Getting a RACI plus a Telrad (to replace the RDF) was a complete game-changer. As you might have noticed, Sky-safari includes the option to place the Telrad circles on the display. This helps no end with star-hopping, especially as the RACI view is pretty much close to the 4deg outer Telrad circle. But you mention the issue you have swapping from 25 to 10mm eyepiece and losing the target. You'll get used to this eventually. Last night I was able to swap between a 30mm and a 6mm 40deg Ortho and still keep the target in view. However, a zoom eyepiece really makes a difference here, and you can get some really good ones now, for not too much cash. Lots of threads on this. Anyway, keep on with the updates. Observing reports are my favourite part of this forum just now - probably because of the lack of clear nights.

With the lack of decent sessions recently, I live vicariously through others reports. So please everyone - keep them coming! I actually had a good night, tonight, and will put up my report soon

How do you find the 16mm Nirvana? I've just got one and using it in my F6 8" dob, the stars at the outer edge show some astigmatism. I'm not sure whether it's my eyes or the scope/EP.

Yep: Loosen the screw (blue) then see if the (red) part in the drawtube comes out.

It looks quite neat out of the fork mount. Is that a home-made dew shield?

They've just started releasing videos again, though. Not sure what this means regarding the status of the shop.

The finder and diagonal are upgrades to what normally comes with the basic OTA. Prob worth about £160 combined new. Good find! A 32mm plossl will be a good 'finder' eyepiece. As it's a 'slow' scope, you don't need anything too fancy. Lots of reasonable zooms available now. A search of the forums will bring back lots of suggestions.

It you look at one particular range of EPs, you 'll find a point at which they change to a 2" size. For example, have a look at: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-eyepieces/explore-scientific-68-degree-series-eyepieces.html The widest view you can get with a standard 1.25" EP is, for example, a 32mm Plossl. Lower focal lengths than that if you have a 1.25" EP with a wider field of view than a Plossl. You can get some 1.25" EPs that have a 2" barrel - but that's more for strength/stability due to weight.

I can't comment on the AP side of things. But those 'flares' on the brighter stars look like scratches or smears across the filter surface in one direction. Is the filter new or secondhand? Have you tried to clean it?

Lots of nice open clusters in Auriga, too. M35, 36, 37, 38. Easy to find, even with binos. One of my faves is the memorably named NGC 1664. The "Kite Cluster". I think it looks like a sting ray:

... for that elusive crystal clear night. Lots of reports of fantastic sessions recently, and with 2 clear moon-less nights forecast, I had hoped for some faint fuzzies and had drawn up a list of some suitable targets. Wednesday night was cloudy until 1am, and even then there was a high haze. Tonight promised more, with clear blue skies all day. However, the transparency was really bad and it might as well have been a midsummer night with the brightness of the sky. I don't know if it was light pollution from the snow on the ground, or a thin cloud/haze, but the sky was blue and only the brightest stars visible. I thought I'd start with some of the usual subjects for moonlit nights: Sigma Orionis first, but could not see the fourth star. I then watched the Trapezium for a several minutes, but it only showed the 4 main stars and not a hint of 'E', which I've been seeing regularly this winter (as regular as it can be, with the infrequent clear nights recently). Then Tegmine. Again, not as successful as before, unable to split the tight pair, just resolving them at x300 magnification. The Eskimo nebula was pretty good. The central star visible with averted vision (x150) without filter. With the UHC filter, the nebulosity was wider, but the bright centre missing. X Cancri was nice and red. I had to guess the location of the constellation of Cancer to start with, as none of it was visible to the naked eye. I knew it was likely to be a hopeless task, but I thought I'd try for some of the brighter galaxies in Leo, especially as I had my first success with the Leo Triplet recently. So I tried there again. I managed 2 out of 3, but M65 and M66 were very faint and I could only make then out with averted vision and bumping the scope. Next I tried for the Leo I group (for the first time). I managed M105 and the nearby NGC3384 - both a little easier than I expected - and also M96, but M95 eluded me. My original plan was to try and see Markarians's chain. Something I've always wanted to do, as it appears so beautiful in any images I've seen of it. My planned observing list included the brightest members plus a few others in the Virgo galaxy cluster. I had even cleared the snow from the western end of the garden path, so I could set the scope up and face North-East over the house towards the darkest part of the sky (usually). But I wandered down and when I looked up, I couldn't even make out Virgo, just Arcturus above it. So I decided to call it a night. One day....

Congrats. I was having a look at NGC 2392 too, tonight. The transparency was pretty poor tonight, though and it wasn't the best view I've had of it. Some of the planetary nebulae are much bigger in comparison. Have you ever seen the Dumbbell nebula? can you even? That's much more of a faint fuzzy and you can see it in binoculars. The Ring nebula is my favourite (M57) perhaps because it was the first target I saw when I got my scope (that I hadn't already seen in binos). People talk about their 'Saturn' moment. The Ring nebula holds that place for me!

Had a look tonight, but the poor transparency here, meant there was no sign of the 4th component. The trapezium was stubbornly 4 stars, too.

There's a Bresser 102 refractor in the classifieds section, just now.

I have a bright sodium light that illuminates a lot of my back garden. Not too bad in the summer, when foliage from a tree hides it, but just now it's a real pain in the bum. Edinburgh's street light upgrades has been delayed due to Covid, and our part of the city is the last to be done and now won't be completed until October this year. However, the rare times I have been travelling through the city centre recently, the difference is obvious. It's noticeably darker. Also, as I look West towards the city centre, the old yellow glow has now been replaced by a white one! I can't say whether it is improving the sky quality, but I can't wait until they replace the old streetlight at the bottom of the garden!

Despite all the apps looking good, Edinburgh last night was cloudy until 1am. Even then, the transparency was so poor, I could see fewer stars than with a full moon. I saved myself for tonight. Fingers crossed!