Pixies

Thanks Neil.

I was half-prepared to try a bino observation a few clear mornings ago, but he full moon put me off and I stayed in bed. Now you've confirmed it's visible, I'll be keeping my eyes on the weather forecasts again.

Comparison with M13 is a good one. Should be pretty easy to find.

44 minutes ago, Ratlet said:

Out for a decent run with the new 12mm BST Starguider, in spite of the moon. 

 

With the 130PDS and a barlow this gives me x54 and  x108 power.  Whilst quite close to the 8mm Starguider (x81 and x162)  I already have, I figured it would provide slightly better framing of some DSO.  I initially tried it out on Jupiter and I would say the 8mm beat it here without the barlow (unsurprising) but the seeing or lack of scope cooling meant the barlowed 12mm was the best of the views.  I’m pretty confident that I’d be able to pick out the GRS with it, but by the time the miserable sod got round, Jupiter was behind my house.  Soon™…

 

I did throw the barlowed 12mm at the moon and it was definitely worth it.  Seeing wasn’t great as, like Jupiter, it was above my house so it looked like it was underwater, but it wasn’t too unpleasant.  I should probably do a bit of moon map studying as I’ve essentially no idea what anything is called but the Southern Highlands showed some really nice contrast with one of the craters showing a nice bright central peak and some deep shadows towards the crater walls.  At the far south towards the limb there was a incredibly bright region well within the terminator shadow.  No idea what it was but it was very nice. 

 

I finally remembered that The Garnet Star existed whilst I was outside and got an observation in.  It's remarkably different in colour to anything else near by and stood out nicely.

 

Almach was a fairly easy split with the 12mm but a no go with the 32mm (x20).

 

I tried the Double Cluster but whilst I can see it with my widefield binos I struggled massively to see it with the 32mm.  It’s too near Zenith and navigating that high is a real struggle for me.  I did see lots of clusters though as I panned through but nothing I would conclusively say was the double cluster.

 

I tried a quick look at M81/M82 but they were fairly brutally washed out by the moon.  I was listening to Actual Astronomy podcast and remembered them talking about Auriga being rife with cluster so decided to give that a shot instead, clusters being relatively moon proof.

 

Star hopping has gotten a lot easier since I started using Skysafari instead of Stellarium on my phone but there is always a bit of uncertainty that you are going to find what you are looking for or if you’re going to find something else by accident.  The Starfish Cluster M38 is not one of those objects.  As it rolled into view on the 32mm it quite clearly looked like a Starfish.  It was quite nice to change from the 12mm to the 32mm as it would go from a collection of stars to a granular squashed star fish.  I could also make out NGC 1907, although it was mostly fuzzy.  I star hopped using the 12mm up to M36 but neglected to change the eyepiece here so missed a trick.  I think some of these clusters look better with lower power so you can get the granularity.

 

Back to the 32mm for a hop over to M37.  This is an absolute treat.  There is something faintly organic about it. It almost looks like a cluster of clusters.  Little islands of graininess of unresolved stars separated by very dark bands.  The 12mm framed it beautifully.

 

I finished off with M42.  It’s getting better placed earlier and despite the moon the nebulosity looked great.  This is actually the reason I went for the 12mm.  I thought it might provide better framing for the nebula and make it a bit easier to pick out the nebulosity.  Just about spot on I think.  Comparing to an earlier sketch I’m pretty sure I could make out more faint nebulosity compared to the 8mm and also more structure within the nebula.  I did drop in an SVBONY UHC filter which may have helped in that regard.

 

All in all it was a really good session.  I got more time out of it than I thought I would as it was supposed to cloud over.  I should really have gotten some sketching in, but feeling pressed I just decided to try and cram in as much as I could.

 

M37 is my favourite of the 3 main Auriga clusters. But next time you are in the area, check out NGC1664 - the kite cluster. Very different but really interesting. 

@Simon Stewart Judging from the telescopicwatch website, you have a chance of getting either parabolic or spherical!

https://telescopicwatch.com/celestron-astromaster-130eq-telescope-review/

having used both (albeit, briefly and not my own), the Celestron mount is slightly more stable than the Skywatcher.

Are you fixed on getting  an EQ mount? If not, for a similar price, you can get the highly recommended Skywatcher heritage 150p flextube.

So you can also practice your short hole game during the summer evenings!

On 22/12/2022 at 17:10, Mick H said:

There are three versions Dave, SkySafari $2.99, SkySafari Plus $9.99, SkySafari Pro $24.99.

SkySafari Plus is a good buy.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simulationcurriculum.skysafari5&hl=en_GB&gl=US

@F15Rules - as Mick says, go for the Plus version at least. It's where it becomes a proper astronomy tool. The basic version (used to be free) is better for just star-gazing and helping newbies identify things. Whereas, plus gives you the observation-list features (which is where this app excels) so you can plan an evening's observing using your own or imported lists, make you observation log entries and have them linked to objects (so you can bring up an object and then see all your previous observations of it). It can link with a goto  mount and control it. You can enter all your gear details: scopes and EPs, and then have it show FOV details on the screen. 

The pro version has loads more faint stuff. I find that with an 8" reflector, even in Bortle 6, I can see more stars than is shown in the plus version. So if you spend a lot of time star-hopping for faint stuff with largish aperture, go for pro, IMHO.

As for version 6 vs 7. I actually preferred the older UI, although the star rendering is better in 7.

On 21/12/2022 at 08:25, Ratlet said:

I use it with my Newtonian.  I just turn off the auto rotate and use it right way up for finding a star or target and then hold the phone upside down for star hopping.  Much easier than stellarium.  

I used to do this, until someone pointed out the option in SkySafari to flip the view. 

Apologies if you know and just prefer the 'manual' method.

9 hours ago, Richard N said:

AZ GTi strange problem

 

Last night my AZ GTi started playing up. When I align it will slew perfectly well to the target but then the app buttons don't seem to work properly - the mount does a short movement and stops (if it moves at all).

 

Checked:

Battery - fully charged

App - removed and reinstalled

Control device - same problem on differnt iPhone

Mount - powered down and left off to reset - no change.

 

If I restart the app the onscreen buttons work fine - it's only after the slew for alignment that it goes wrong. Ideas?

I had something similar recently. A firmware upgrade fixed it

Here's Ed Ting's review of the Celestron Powerseeker 127:

Something for the mould I found on the ST80  objective: 

A UV-C filter lamp.

13 hours ago, Louis D said:

The 12mm BST is much better corrected in the outer field than the 15mm, and yields a more usable power across more scopes.

I agree. Go for the 12mm rather than the 15.

On 27/11/2022 at 13:27, Altair8389 said:

Hi,

I just realised I cannot focus on the Cheshire collimator's cross hairs - they are out of focus no matter how I arrange the focuser and if I move the Cheshire out as much as possible or in as much as possible !

I have the short tube version of the Cheshire, what is wrong here ?

I have the same problem with Cheshires. Longer ones are easier, as the crosshairs are further away. I usually end up getting a teenage child to make final confirmations!

A friend has just bought a similar scope. Hopefully the mirror will be clean, as it's new, but I'm ready with a few spare old EPs!

what's the forecast for tonight?

Covid making me feel just generally knackered. Spending the time watching footie.

5 hours ago, SzabiB said:

I started to regret to buy this mount. 

At the beginning everything was fine, than trouble arrived. 

Last night it went absolutely crazy.

- done the alignment and the mount just started to move suddenly and pointing random places (for example South Pole... which one was obviously under me)

- than during other try of aligning , started to spin 360-s on the Alt axis 

- clicking got super loud and when I managed to set it up and tried to track Jupiter, it was very shaky and gave zero good views (the whole mount shakes with every click)

- the last stunt was when I was trying to observe Mars, flipped itself perfectly 180 degrees on the Az axis and pointed in my face (the machines are coming for us....) than cut out

 

Everything is up to date and it runs from an Anker PowerHouse so deffo no firmware or power issue. 

It was -1 degrees outside, but I guess the mount should handle this kind of temperature with no problem.

Any suggestion? (I purchased it a month ago, so emailed FLO about it this morning)

I had something similar and reinstalling the firmware fixed it. Which version are you running?

You've some problems with it. Perhaps it's worth trying to get FLO to send a replacement.

Nooooooooooo!

**&&^🤬***^%$

That's me out, I'm afraid. I'll contact Lesley and let her know. I'll pay the outstanding too.

Just setting up now.  What's the seeing like tonight? I haven't had a good session with Mars at all this year!

Clear in Edinburgh tonight. What about Peebles?

1 hour ago, pipnina said:

I could look at maybe a 5mm baader hyperion,

Be careful - some Hyperions aren't great with fast scopes (allegedly). Not sure about the 5mm.

9 hours ago, pipnina said:

I should make a point of viewing mars this winter... But it seems to be sinking a bit and I'm not sure if my current eyepiece set is planetary optimised?

I currently have a 10mm vixen SLV (which is quite nice) as my highest power EP. With my 10" dob I get ~120x mag with that but even jupiter looks a tad small still at that power. That said, going too high power might make it more difficult, as I find it hard to nudge my dob all that delicately...

The Vixen SLVs are lovely EPs, however they are only 50° FOV. I have a set I use in my Vixen refractor but that is on a driven EQ mount. 

For Jupiter and Mars, I usually start with around 150x - which will be with an 8mm EP in you scope. They can take higher magnification if the seeing is good. But at that magnification with 50° FOV, it'll be a lot of work nudging a dob. In my dob, I prefer around 65-70° at least at that power.

Heads up!

There's a fully-driven Vixen AP mount and tripod on UK Astro Buy & Sell for a very reasonable cost!

On 21/08/2022 at 20:13, Pixies said:

Well - I'm saying 2 on the night. As I don't want to be left out!

I don't believe it1

I'm actually Monday - Friday, so I'll be away by Pie Night! I'll take my 2 away with me, then...

How about an Alu Manfrotto 055?

I've used it with ST80 weight and AZGti with no problems, only using 1 stage on the leg extensions. they are built like a tank and you get get a good used one for £50.

2 minutes ago, starhiker said:

Most of the effort is made to split the double double and to observe M57. Maybe the 133x eyepiece is not powerful enough, I could only vaguely split one of the double.

Double-double (epsilon lyrae) can be split at lower magnification, but you need reasonable seeing. Last night's atmosphere was wild, the jetstream was right overhead - no wonder you couldn't split it!

18 minutes ago, mr saddo said:

Hi, all , can you help me with the AZ Gti mount,  when I center on a object either in alignment or go to and it's a few degrees off , I put it on target but  it  keeps moving it back  off,  I have to over run the  target to bring it back in center, it's very hard to get  say jupiter or saturn in a 10mm e.p. I  have   owmed the mount and  scope a few days mak127,  location correct, pointed level north, scope on left side. Its just

Sounds like backlash, where the gears are taking up the slack before starting to drive the scope? When centering, are you finishing on up and right arrows?

I find it really useful when trying to split tight doubles or say, when looking at the Trapezium in M42 and trying to hunt down stars E and F. Being able to quickly change magnification without faffing about with multiple eyepieces is great. That also makes it useful for planetary viewing and trying to gauge the best mag for the seeing conditions.

And in spring, when hunting down all the tiny faint galaxies in Leo and Virgo, it helps enormously by providing an range of different contrast.

But all this is applicable to zooms in general, not just the Baader.