josefk

3 hours ago, John said:

I think you are doing a great job of capturing the beauty of such stars 👍

My Vixen ED102SS F/6.5 shows more prominent diffraction rings (similar to your Tak FSQ 85) than my Tak FC100-DL F/9 does. I rather like seeing a neat diffraction ring especially surrounding or enclosing a close pair of evenly matched stars. My Tak does not show them around Alnitak, or at least they are so fine I can't see them. Gamma Leonis and Gamma Virginis look aesthetically slightly nicer with the Vixen than the Tak because of this, I feel. 

I also like the "diamond ring" effect of a dimmer secondary star apparently resting on the diffraction ring from the brighter component.

Maybe faster focal ratio scopes show slightly more prominent diffraction rings ?

Nice sketches 🙂

Thanks John. I Seem to remember reading that faint diffraction rings are a signifier of throughput quality of the optical system because it means maximum light is going into the airy disk. I could be wrong or mis-remembering so now I’m going to look it up. When they’re steady I do like them myself too and as you say the diamond ring effect. 

If anyone has any tips for sketching diffraction rings in a balanced way i'll gladly take them. Both of these sketches fail to capture the etched fabulousness of these two star systems last night with their associated super steady diffraction patterns really adding to the view. Seeing was fantastic and at an exit pupil of 0.5mm these two lovely systems were both exceptionally aesthetic.

Sigma Orionis (w/ STF 761). "C" was as "present" in the Sigma Ori group as i think i've seen it. No patience or peering required.

Alnitak. At the eyepiece this struck me like a black and white cross section of an eye with "B" like the cornea bulge on the wall of the eyeball. The separation at 2.1" was black and "wide". There were two steady diffraction rings, B was sitting on or just inside the first (with much more obvious contrast to it than i've shown here) and with the second ring much fainter than the first (and quite a bit fainter than this poor sketch). I think (but haven't checked yet) that this may be an Astro League double star (sketched) observation i didn't have before :-).

I recognise every word @Stu and feel the same with my AZ100, BB planet, and TOA. Just a super satisfying combo that while a bit heavy to get out and setup, is super rewarding and super pleasurable when I do. Everything gets out of the way of observing. 
I just wish I could use it 200 nights per year instead of …mmmh 20. 

Alnitak looked wonderful last night Ed for me at an exit pupil of almost exactly 0.5mm with an 85mm scope. Perfect white marble primary with secondary sitting perfectly separated on the first quite faint diffraction ring with a second diffraction ring just outside of that and framing both components. Perfect seeing. 

You cant beat a small perfectly formed scope IMHO. 

Sounds win/win to me @Knighty2112 The best of both. Scotland merited the win TBH so fair play. 

Nice write up @Louis D - these side by side comparisons are always useful datapoints. 

Short opportunistic GnG (85mm) session last night after watching Scotland retain the Calcutta Cup (boo) and before creeping cloud from the West (double boo). 

Jupiter looked great through binoviewers at ~x100. Big storm on the NEB with clear SEB, NEB, NTropZ, NTB and “grooved” NPR. 
 

Swapping out to mono at x169 I checked Sigma Orionis out because I really love this system and the faint companion this evening was as sharp and present as I’ve seen it I think. Guessing the seeing was particularly good I swung to Sirius and it was unbelievably steady and almost completely colour free. Steady white diffraction rings rather than colourful glitter ball scintillation.  I could kid my self I could see the pup but I knew where to look and I think I really was kidding myself so I won’t count it this time. I can confirm the field stop of a 4mm TOE is sharp and almost completely free of distracting internal reflections though (I watched Sirius passed the field stop quite a bit to see if the pup would show). 
 

Rigel was incredible. Pure white steady diffraction rings and an obvious companion and Alnitak was also incredibly aesthetic, the companion sitting on or just inside the first diffraction ring. 
 

Amazing how familiar sights can be so “newly” lovely under the right conditions. 

13 hours ago, MalcolmM said:

Is anyone observing Jupiter at the moment (19.15)? Is there a largish oval white spot in the North Equatorial Belt? I think I'm seeing one just west (refractor view) of the center point in the NEB. Never seen one before,  and hoping I am seeing one tonight 🙂

Malcolm 

I was out about then Malcolm. I’m afraid I didn’t see a white oval but did see a dark “swhirly” storm on the eastern half of the NEB. 

Fantastic Nikolai but you have to bring them all back when the skies cooperate to really make them say "wow". 🙂 

i'm a visual-only-unpowered-mount-guy so can't help with the question but it sounds like you've jumped in pretty effectively. Welcome to SGL.

I'm sure someone who knows what they're talking about vis-a-vis powering the AZ-EQ6 will be along shortly...😀

4 minutes ago, badhex said:

and I get to indulge my silly ideas like trying to find Enceladus with the smallest scope possible

EXACTLY the kind of thing i enjoy here Joe, and @Nik271's similar NGC 604 in a small scope thread and some similar ones on Jupiter moon events - little bits and bobs that catch the imagination and to swap notes over the next day. Brings a little bit of a social dimension to an essentially loner hobby (in my case). Diverting and educational. I never saw Enceladus with 85mm but was smiling while trying and i still haven't seen NGC 604 but i learnt that star field at the edge of M33 really well so i'm genuinely better prepared next time i try!

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.