josefk

Nice topic @The60mmKid 1. SGL seems to me to be in quite a small group of forums (IMHE) where real life norms for inter personal friendliness and civility are sustained into the online space - a quality not to be taken for granted, 2. SGL is a great source of inspiration and assistance. i don't seek kit advice particularly but i do pick up loads from the observing experience and astro knowledge of others on here and always appreciate it, I'm constantly finding new things to add to my "to see" lists and inspiration to go back to other stuff for a deeper look, 3. "what did you see last night?" is a hobby sustaining thread as i vicariously enjoy the observations of others even while i may be under cloud cover in my location.

It's not your bad English - it might be my bad imagination - you also need to "squint a bit" 😁 The "pale spot" i felt i saw is the yellow circled bit which observing visually i felt contrasted against the NEB and the even the EZ and particularly against the darker stormy red circled bit to its east. i.e it didn't look like a thinning of the NEB or a widening of the EZ but looked like a discrete pale oval. Cheers

i took a look at the moon later @dweller25 and even at this modest ~x100 magnification with two eyes it was immense. Very relaxed, very accessible.

Nice write up @SuburbanMak - that’s a nice series of targets on such a bright moonlit night in any event, never mind the comparison exercise.

I recently received a 2.6 glass path corrector for my maxbright binoviewers. This helps me get to some nice amplified magnifications with my little FSQ in combo with either a power mate or a Tak extender. On Friday I was enjoying Jupiter immensely at x98 with two eyes (2.6GPC, 1.5 Ext-ED, & 18mm TAO) and x169 with one eye. Scale was clearly higher at the higher magnification but I’m not sure there was more detail or it was just easier to see - the jury is out. What was “obvious” though was how much was available to see at just x98 and how steady and sharp (and therefore utterly immersive) it was. My sketches are poor but I enjoy making them and enjoy the steady observing they entail - on Friday a pale feature on the western portion of the NEB was catching my attention. Not a barge but a larger “swirl”. NEB was stormy with darker knots and “nearly festoons”: This tidy sketch is a bit of a composite impression :- BTW big thanks to @Fedele - he kindly posted time aligned confirmation pictures on here. What a lovely community SGL is.

Oh my life @Fedele - that is very generous of you with your time. I do trust my observing - I’m quite cautious/conservative but that is wonderfully satisfying to confirm I wasn’t fooling myself. Thank you very much indeed 👍

Nice pics @Fedele Do you mind if I ask what time of day this was on the 26th? I’m pretty sure I saw a quite prominent pale spot or swirl leading a darker knotty area on the western portion of the NEB around 19:00 through 19:45 GMT yesterday and I wonder if your picture is validating that observation? Nice to think so 😗 cheers

I’m visual only @Stuart1971 - I don’t even take phone snaps through the EP so flatteners schmlatteners so far as I’m concerned 😂 I did consider waiting for the latest Vixen VSD90SS to be out and about (rather than buying the baby Q late last summer) but only for the extra 5mm of aperture not for a newer optical prescription. The FSQ106 is a bit too heavy and from what I can tell a bit tricky to set up for visual and the TV NP101is is a bit too long to mount in the way I like (video head) so the baby Q still stands alone in its niche for a short easily mounted flat field scope.

Jupiter looked phenomenal through this kit last night. x98 with two eyes (2.6 GPC, 1.5 Tak extender, 18mm TAO) being just beautifully aesthetic and satisfying. Mono with a 4mm TOE for x169 brought more scale and more detail but definitely didn’t bring greater immersion.

I like the "by the way" approach @Mircea and definitely recognise it - there's no rush after all! That Steve O'Meara book is also a great resource - i tend to use it more "after the fact" than in the planning but i have loaded several of Steve's monthly plans into my Sky Safari as "by month" H400 lists and this works quite nicely. I myself am pretty strict to keep my spreadsheet up-to-date the next day - if i leave it till a second or third observation is in the queue to catch up then it feels like a chore and i wish to avoid that feeling. All the best

I like swapping notes like that @Skipjack - yes our notes are similar but I like some of the extra characteristics you have recorded. I have my own share logs with simple notes like “bright” @Marvin Jenkins 🙂. I like the idea of having a loose mental checklist of characteristics to record to try and raise the quality of my own records but I’m sloppy and don’t follow through. I can filter my logs to see certain target records next to each other even if they were months apart and it’s quite revealing for what caught the eye and got written down on one observation but not another. good stuff

i should add - for extra interest there is a nice little double star system in NGC 1444 - Struve 446. Cheers

Hi @Skipjack Contrary to my post above i did have a rare session at the weekend where i had a Herschel target list in hand (thanks a little bit to your post bringing the topic to mind actually). I observed these open clusters in the 6.x to 8.x magnitude range and using an 130mm refractor at x125: NGC 2186 - Seen very poorly as a “four stars in a crooked line” asterism with only a hint of filigree around the middle two stars that came and went. NGC 2194 - Behaved very strangely for an open cluster. Maybe four stars with direct vision but tens and tens with averted vision. With averted vision stars were tiny/faint silvery pin pricks. NGC 2281 - Pretty with a few gold toned stars on initial viewing but this colour impression didn’t last. NGC 1444 - Very sparse, very thin. Brought out mildly with averted vision. NGC 1513 - A seemingly distant faint filigree (condensation) with averted vision. A thin small unevenly circular “fairy ring” remained visible with direct vision. I have to pace myself with certain types of open clusters as they are my least favoured targets to observe. I couldn't see NGC 2158 on the edge of M35 though i could see the kind of stick figure asterism just outside of M35 and NGC 2158 should be seen at the feet of this figure. M35 was immeasurably bigger, brighter and more impactful than any H400 OC on tonight's list! This takes me to a whopping 106 objects. Whereabouts in Europe are you? i guess 75 objects in a year is not too much to ask IF the skies cooperate and you haven't left all the harder ones to the final push 🙂. i think i will set the goal to get to the halfway point. Regards

Brilliant write up and photos. What a trip and what a set of experiences! Fantastic.

Another great list @PeterC65 and sounds like a fantastic pairing to finish. I didn’t know about that new SN and it should be in the reach of my cassegrain so that goes on my list! Thanks

Lovely lovely sketch and that shadow is really nice.

Thank you @mikeDnight It was a striking sight - really quite mesmerising. I also enjoyed the pressure to “crack on” because the shadows were changing even over a period of a few minutes!

What a productive night @Fraunhoffer super and super sketches. Ptolemaeus caught my eye last night. Cold wasn't it!

The conjunction of Jupiter and the moon early evening last night was a fabulous thing; naked eye, in a wide field eyepiece and up close but flicking between them. What a treat. Though Jupiter in the end was the primary target - the crater Ptolemaeus was extremely eye-catching on the terminator of the moon. More specifically the lovely sawtooth shadow cast by its western ridge. Here's a poor tidy sketch done this morning: i prefer the more visceral one from the EP last night: Letting my imagination run away with itself what a fabulous thing it would be to scramble around the ridge in a multi-day hike (suitably equipped of course). For a personal sense of scale if this were a terrestrial thing it would take me 5hrs to cycle across the crater floor! BTW - i'm slightly perplexed this morning not to find any photography on line that remotely resembles how i sketched it so though i'm 99.9% sure it is Ptolemaeus if you know better be sure to let me know 🙂

After some of your comments earlier in the week about Sirius this was on my “to do” list last night as well. Unfortunately even really late on (after midnight) Sirius was a scintillating disco ball. I knew roughly where to look for “B” but even holding Sirius out of the EP it wouldn’t come for me. Next time!

Pretty inspirational stuff @PeterC65. They’re all pretty cool targets and observations!

The little and large Takka twins getting the Sir Alex Ferguson (cold) hairdryer treatment this morning after enabling a lovely long session in the sub zero temps last night. if you remember the father Ted “small cows” sketch of a few years ago - the TOA on the floor “isn’t small, …it’s far away”. 😂

Hi Ags, I think it’s contrast is pretty good - it’s well baffled BTW - so for DSO I feel (with little comparative evidence TBF) like I’m getting quite a high quality nicely contrasted view with the benefits of a decent aperture. I use it for a lot of DSO at x140 and a 1.3mm exit pupil. This gives me a black sky, nice stars and a contrasty target. Per diffraction on planets - I have had champion views of Jupiter re planet detail itself (marble like detail and sharpness) but what bothers me is the planet width diffraction “beams” you get shooting off into space (pretty much from the limb of the planet). This really destroys the “in orbit” feeling I enjoy. You are always aware you are using a scope whereas with a refractor (I don’t own a Mak or SCT) the blackness of space to the limb of the planet (on a good dry night) gives me the “just in orbit” sensation I like. I think I have a sketch or two I could post of the effect - I’ll take a look. Cheers

... sorry double post

I have this very scope Ags and really rate it. PROs It is a very robust physical package (though heavy it is compactly heavy) and travels well in a car on Globulars and Planetary Nebula it is really fantastic and feels like a lot of bang for its buck on other DSO that fit its FOV capability it is fine (even OC) and the FOV context for any given DSO i.e surrounding stars to to the edge is also fine (i.e flat and aberration free). I do like nice edges even if i'm looking in the middle 🙂 CONs It is not 8". I trust the flashlight test and it is 185mm when checked this way - this also makes the central obstruction bigger by % if that matters to you. This is disappointing because i'm quite anal and quite like the Interstellar Deep Sky Atlas that groups objects by 4", 8" and "large" aperture visibility probability. The secondary mirror supports are quite thick and they create very bright diffraction spikes. I don't mind them on stars (i accept them as par for the course) but i hate hate hate them on planets and they completely ruin the Mars, Jupiter and Venus planetary experience for me. Strangely they are not so disturbing on Saturn which makes no sense. i bought this as a planetary oriented scope so this was a major disappointment for me - i should have done my homework better. It gets back heavy fast - all its own weight is in the mirror so when you add stuff it gets harder to balance I struggle to get super high magnification out of it and wondered for a while if that was about the quality of its mirrors - on balance though i'm convinced its actually about the quality of my skies because on a few nights here and there (over 2-years of ownership) i have had x300+ out of it with perfect airy disks and perfectly etched (black white black white black white) diffraction rings so i think the scope itself is fine. Would i buy it again? No - but that's only because i like it so much I wish i had bought the 10" version instead! There's even a very tempting 12" now but its super heavy.