josefk

Thank you for the very kind words @NGC 1502 - I have slowed right down to a few objects per session typically even where the session is several hours long and due to our lovely uk weather (not) I consider the observing part of the hobby just “the start of it” insofar as enjoying what was seen - I.e I like to follow up in notes and sketches and reading. i 100% agree on sketching to observe rather than the other way round. It’s transformed how closely I try and look. Other than open clusters I try to scribble something down for almost 100% of observations these days. 👍🏼

The new ACF finally got first light on the 2nd June. A whole month and a bit since i bought it... 😞 ☁️☁️😞☁️... Very first impressions were not great but i think i have a learning curve to get up with it and things got better as the night wore on. Brief findings: Transporting the OTA (in a perfectly sized Opklop bag), handling it, mounting and demounting it were all great. It's 2-speed focus action is nice. There were some vibes while i was being heavy handed at the start but i soon dialled in to the soft touch the micro focuser needed. My very first target was the double double - i don'y know why. It used to be a kind of seeing test object and it was placed ok on this night. It didn't look OK (on this night). It looked like this 8 ♾️ - the first diffraction rings of all four stars were stronger than the stars if thats possible and it was all a bit messy. I didn't buy it for double stars but i felt a bit disheartened. Seeing was terrible (there were about 5 blobby overlapping versions of Vega dancing around) so i'll put off star testing and collimating to another night. The out of focus doughnut looked soundly concentric but i have a feeling the out of focus test doesn't apply to the ACF optical prescription. i.e it can look ok when it isn't. My second target was M57 - its preposterous but i think i saw some pink in the outline of the ring nebula. I wasn't preconditioned too (i haven't looked at AP of M57 recently) and in the moment of the observation i processed the phenomenon to be an optical aberration of the ACF and started cursing it for the second time. Reflecting later and reading about seeing colour here; because it wasn't properly dark and i wasn't dark adapted at all there is an outside possibility this aperture did trigger a colour response 🤞. If true this would be early browny points for it. The rest of the night was spent on galaxies around M81 and M82 and even while its wasn't really dark the new scope began to deliver a little bit what i hoped and expected of it. I'm looking forward to the autumn now already. Dew will need very active mgmt. i may not even take this scope out at >RH90%. I have it wrapped in insulation and ran a Kendrick dew band on 25% power (whatever wattage that is) all night but still lost the scope to a very light misting of dew at the very end of the session (after the OTA being out under the sky for ~5hrs. Dusk till dawn). Running the dew band at higher power will require a bigger energy source than i have currently. Here are a few observing notes from first light: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/422817-m81-m82-and-their-neighbours-020624/#comment-4490690 And here's a gratuitous shot of it mounted up and fully dressed for action:

Here are a few sketches of galaxies observed during nautical dark on the 2nd June 2024. Ignore the SQM value on the sketch - that is an SQM reading from my "dark sky meter" phone app (actually an average of several readings) but it is plainly too dark. I could see 7 stars in UMi but even that overstates how dark the sky was (it wasn't). Theses sketches are tidied versions of eyepiece sketches in all cases. The phone pics of the sketches over emphasises the contrast in them - in real life these sketches are more true to life subtle. While they're not brill sketches i'm posting them here because i bought myself a copy of the Uranometria Deep Sky Field Guide in the spring (thanks again @Franklin 👍) and i'm finding it a superb "next day resource" as a singular source of information on the observed/sketched objects; in the context of observing and crucially sketching I'm finding it especially illuminating to determine what i didn't see and i thought it may be of interest to others. Example for M81 - a favourite target to observe in the same FOV as M82 normally but here observed at higher magnification alone: That's about as much of M81 as i typically see - typically slightly bigger than the visual distance between the two prominent stars to it's East-South-East. Generously maybe i'm seeing 5' in size. I know i'm only seeing the core but it really struck me writing my notes up today and using Uranometria that that 5' i see is a really tiny fraction of the spiral galaxy and only a portion even of the brightest part of the core. I'm pretty keen on knowing the FOV of an eyepiece in my scope and that 14mm Meade UWA EP is ~30' across in the ACF scope i was using here. M81 should very nearly fill it side to side and be fully half the EP FOV in its other dimension. Staggering. Here's M82: I feel like i'm not doing too badly here to see the full length of M82 but i'm clearly missing at least the same again in width (especially in the central region). On the upside on Saturday with the new 10" Meade ACF i clearly detected the dust lane dark knotty parts in the centre. Not quite as strongly as this pic makes out but confidently and consistently enough not to doubt my observation. This is a first for me (to not be any doubt). I'm looking forward to pointing the ACF at M104!!! The galaxies NGC 3077, NGC 2976 and NGC 2787 were observed with M81/M82 and sketched but not posted here. The next sketch here is NGC 2985 - this was another spiral galaxy observed in recent week where the central concentration was uneven and contained brighter spots (at least one other than what i assume to be the core's glow). This is something i will follow up on to see if those brighter spots are anything of note in themselves: Finally the hardest observations of the night - NGC 3065 and NGC 3066 (i couldn't detect NGC 3027 which sits between 2985 and 3065/3066). NGC 3065 needed averted vision but it was consistently present in one place with averted vision. NGC 3066 was much harder - i would say detectable less than 50% of the time even with averted vision and possibly as low as 5% confidently appearing in the same place enough to call it a "tick". NGC 3065 was discovered by William Herschel but i believe NGC 3066 was missed. I put my luck down to modern scopes and knowing it should be there rather than observing skill :-). Anyway - if you got this far thanks for looking - these objects: NGC 3031, NGC 3034, NGC 3077, NGC 2976, NGC 2787, NGC 2985, NGC 3065 and NGC 3066 (and the undetected 3027) are all within a couple of degrees or so of each other so its quite a nice spot just to sit and scroll around while your observing eye gets more and more dark adapted. Roll on the proper dark nights!

Looking good Magnus @Captain Scarlet. Are you tracking with that set-up? I don't track and though i'm using a front mounted "total" filter at the moment (where what happens inside the OTA is a non-issue) i'm thinking about a Herschel wedge for my 130mm refractor but i've read about being mindful of heat gain on the blackened walls of the OTA from incident light from the solar image and nearly focussed solar image towards the back of the OTA if its not tracked (on axis). Cheers Joe

I like the presentation style @Hals. Excellent.

Nice one @bosun21 - i'm doing this more and more these days - i'm finding it quite interesting to note how dark adapation of the viewing eye is degraded away from the EP even in a dark spot and how even in a dark spot fully shading the EP with a hood or a blanket really deepens the view. I can imagine M13 really sparkled for you.

Great stuff @YogSothoth it was a busy disk wasn't it 🙂

I tried to draw it this afternoon but lost my way with it - like you say loads of detail.

I've had three goes at white light observing/sketching today. First at the end of an all night observation session (between something like 05:30 and 07:00 this morning - seeing was fabulous, (crystal clear and rock steady) even at a lowly altitude of circa 11-degrees. This is my favourite sketch of the daylight day and a lovely hour with the early morning sun. This is by far the best observation and the most careful capture to paper. I dried my dew soaked kit off as well while doing it so win win: Next up was a rather rubbish right way up right way round observation with a spotting scope. This was 12:00 and seeing was horrible. Big lumpy heat bubbles passing through the FOV and very low contrast. I'm not posting the sketch. I quite like a lunar observation in an erect image orientation but i find solar a bit confusing the right way up for some reason. This obs emphasised for me that the quality of the view going forward is 90/10 about timing versus kit. Late afternoon i had a third go. The lone sunspot 3702 on the eastern limb was showing the Wilson effect superbly. My sketch doesn't capture it properly but it appeared like a proper indented saucer in the solar surface: I also tried a soft capture of AR 3698 - i'm very much on the learning curve at this game trying to find the right balance of detail without over egging the contrast (contrast was anyhow reduced this afternoon over this morning)t: I also tried for AR 3700 but saw a kind of teddy bear "likeness" in the leading group - once i'd seen it i couldn't unsee it so my sketch ended up looking like a care bear and went in the bin. Likewise i had another go at AR 3697 - it was quite changed/developed even in the 8 or 9 hrs since this morning. Its a tricky group with a lot of the detail in highlights rather than darks and in trying to capture that it got away from me so that went in the bin as well!

This group has been just fantastic all day. Superb.

I’m neglecting the family on a family picnic. So snap 🥴

Thanks @SwiMatt this one this morning is with just 85mm but it’s a good 85mm. Phenomenal 85mm really - I don’t think anybody told it it’s a small scope. I was also using a binoviewer which helps and the seeing before 07:00 this morning was also very very steady so there is that. I’ve just tried again with a decent 95mm APO (cyclops style) and although the sky looks clear blue to the naked eye - through the scope it’s swimming and milky, nowhere near the same resolution of detail.

Well a few minutes turned into an hour. I’m sure sketching sunspots is a bit like sketching Jupiter. It seems to evolve if you go too slowly. I assume this is AR 3691 - I’ll check later with a coffee. Edit: the breakout detail is actually AR 3697. Looks like it will be a good target today. AR 3691 which was huge on bank holiday Monday is the much diminished spot group in the WNW (11-o’clock).

Mars and Saturn! The nearly closed rings of Saturn look great. Mars was a bit of a blobby mess. This was at the end of a dusk till dawn all nighter. I think I saw my faintest galaxy of the year so far too NGC 3066. Mag 12.8. Not sure if it’s the lowest surface brightness so far this year though till I check my notes later. It was difficult seeing as it was never properly dark. if I get a few minutes of white light Solar in before packing up it’ll be a full house. 👌🏻

Dewey dusk till dewey dawn was a whopping four hours (just barely) and damp throughout. Astro is a smash and grab activity these days 😞. Sticking at it was rewarded with a finish on Saturn at about 04:30. The narrow rings look great. airing off now before packing up. I was hoping for a bit of white light Solar before calling it a night for the “full house” in one session but rising cloud is currently beating the sun to the tree line. Looking west: looking east: with a dawn chorus soundtrack:

Sounds like a couple of extra steps with Android versus how it works with apple devices then. You'll get on with it now you have it though - i have more lists than clear nights to get through them 🙂

I think @wookie1965 and IIRC you simply click each file in your downloads folder and it opens in SkySafari. Once it’s opened in sky safari it is retained in sky safari. It’s been a while since I imported a list “from the wild” so I may have misremembered. Will check shortly. Later: yep - looks like I remembered correctly.

Great read on your build diary there @inFINNity Deck. Inspiring.

Now you (both) tell me! 🤣

i'm on record on here a few times moaning about them with my Classical Cassegrain. I'm ambivalent when they appear across bright stars (they can sometimes even make a nice aesthetic change) but they are ruinous to my appreciation of Mars and Jupiter (unless viewing Jupiter in at dusk or dawn). For planetary observing i appreciate the "in orbit" sensation (sharp planetary disc with black sky) and the planet width diffraction "beams" of my Cassegrain put a scope in between me and the planet in a way that i can't get passed/ignore. I knew within 5-seconds of first light with the Cassegrain on Mars that it was going to cost me anther scope without vanes.

i have every intention of making a similar "before" empty sketch @Nik271 for the same before and after comparison/satisfaction myself (weather willing) 👍

white light observing through the french doors (i.e. from the comfort of my lounge) - lazy lazy boy!

and another couple of spots just now; AR 3685 and AR 3686 which i've been watching since Friday and AR 3695 (also seen with AR 3691 above) and AR 3696. The faculae plage (if i use the right description) around AR 3696 looks a bit strong on my drawing but actually it was this vivid as high thin cloud blew through darkening the rest of the disk. It wasn't this vivid without the assistance of the cloud.

A third day running with AR 3691. I do like a good series 🙂 Its grown hugely in the 24hrs since yesterday - if i understand the stats on solar weather correctly its now 720 millionths of a solar hemisphere and ~ 2 million square km. It's beautiful and fascinating to look at but very difficult to capture the visible detail in a sketch without it getting clumsy and over egged as i'm afraid this one has become.

AR 3691 has evolved a little bit in ~20 hours. Additional sunspots within it and larger overall this afternoon. Fascinating. This is with the Baader filter mounted on a 120mm Achromat - if i keep using this scope i will need a dark purple pen for the umbra and a yellow pencil for the edge of the limb 🙂 On the other hand the additional aperture of this scope (coupled with additional magnification) indicated to me there is no "replacement for displacement" as it were. Granularity clearer in the darkened limb (than a smaller scope the last two days). Faculae much brighter and more vivid than i have captured here and much more "coarseness" rather than density in the umbra. You wouldn't think it from the sketch but it took about three hours dodging rain showers and thunderstorms to accumulate ~45 mins of observation and sketching time. The irony of this game is not lost on me seeing as i only bought the solar filter finally due to prolonged cloudy nights 😂