josefk

BTW. The homemade dew shield worked a treat - it is blackened on the inside!

It was a session between clouds and fog last night. It was cloudy till 22:30 or so and then haze ran in about 01:30 . The haze turned into a full on fog bank by 01:45. Nevertheless in the middle of this wet sandwich was fabulous seeing. At steep angles the seeing was rock steady! The location was my normal dark sky sight in Northamptonshire. Dark sky being highly relative last night with the full moon :-(. My basic plan was a mix of doubles in Lyra (chart 11 in the Cambridge Double Star Atlas) and making a start on Steve O'Meara's Herschel targets for September with a look across at Saturn and Jupiter in between. Mission (other than Jupiter) more or less accomplished. First up Saturn - possibly the best i've seen it this year. I used a mixture of binoviewers at 152x and mono eyepieces at 203x and 305x. There was some glare (it was never "etched") but i don't think I've seen so much detail on the planet so far this season. There was a very clear sense of the rings going behind and in front of the planet and clear shadow of the upper (southern) ring (in my scope view) above the ring on the face of the planet. i think i may have even seen colour in the shade and mild bands on the planet face. Bizarrely even though this was great i wasn't sure i saw the Cassini Division last night. I think i may have but it was at the intermittent level where it could have also been imagination. Titan, Rhea and Dione to the east. There was too much glare for me to see other moons (they were all pretty tight in last night according to Sky Safari). Though Saturn was great; Jupiter at higher altitude was horrible for me - a visibly boiling edge. i could see the NEB/SEB but little else and I didn't hang about. I more or less turned my back on the southern view then (and turned my back on the moon) and started looking for targets i had earmarked in Cygnus and Lyra (with a small detour to Cassiopeia). Collinder 33, Collinder 34, and NGC 1848 in Cassiopeia were all observed. I spent nearly 30 mins trying to pattern match C33 and C34 but gave up in the end. I'm not sure i was seeing all the stars i think i should see there so probably needs a darker night and especially darker for my eye around the eyepiece. Around in Cygnus, NGC 6866 and NGC 6910 were new to me. These are Herschels in the September target list. Both very pretty. NGC 6910 has a very hot looking needle like star in the middle of the array. Near here was a Planetary not on my list for the night but it was close so i took a look - NGC 7027 (PK 084-03.1). It was clear and obvious as a very slightly elongated "star" that wouldn't come to focus (at 200x and 300x) even though everything else around it was sharp. It was a plain grey but no details (it's tiny). On a darker night apparently this one may have some blue to it so i will come back. Finally i had a few doubles on my list (actually i had a lot but i only saw a few). I have put Chart 11 in the Cambridge Double Star Atlas into Sky Safari as an observation list so started to work (cheat) through it. For 61 Cygni and 56 Cygni the seeing was unreal. Rock steady. This is the first time i've had 300x to use in this scope and the diffraction rings were perfect. These are not difficult doubles though the companion to 56 Cygni is faint and i could only "easily" see it at 300x. At 200x knowing exactly where to look i could make it out but at 140x it got a bit lost. As an experiment because the night was so clear and steady i had a look at Albireo at high mag (300x) and really didn't like it. The diffraction rings though perfect "diluted" the colour that is so lovely in this pair. I also went across to the double double - this is my benchmark or calibration double pair. I have never seen them split in such a perfect text book way - car headlights and figure of eight diffraction rings with one ring in the gap for each pair. E2 sharper and more defined than E1. Next up in Lyra was Sheliak. This was a perfect view. Really perfect but i'm not exactly sure which star in the four is "F" and i didn't draw anything. if Aa1/aa2, Ab, B and F are the "four" stars that are tightly grouped and other than Aa1/Aa2 of even magnitude (ish) then i saw the group. Finally (for this post) i observed HD 172865 and companion, HD 174022 and companion, and HD 179709 and companion - all in Lyra. None of these are difficult vis a vis separation and mag differences. These are the ones i saw but there a few misses in this chart 11 list that i haven't kept a record of (it was too wet for paper note taking). The haze had come in by now and as i packed up this haze turned to fog in a matter of minutes. My eyepieces had been getting foggy for the last half hour but by the time i was packed away everything was running with water. Thanks to Clear Outside for the session. If i'd have checked meteoblue i would have stayed at home! Thanks for reading. Cheers

Super report Malcolm. I "think" the moons of Saturn you would have seen would be Titan - farthest out to the east, Rhea next moon in after Titan, then either Dione or Calypso. I myself think i saw Dione based on arc minutes between it and Rhea and between it and Saturn but it was close so there is a possibility of a mistake on my part there. Your sketch also looks like Dione. Great night for Saturn wasn't it!

Two new to me Herschels last night NGC 6866 (H VII-59) and NGC 6910 (H VIII-56) in Cygnus, Saturn as good as i've seen it this year, a small PN in also in Cygnus and a bunch of doubles in Lyra. I had to wait a bit for clouds to clear (getting on for 23:00) but when they did seeing at high altitude angles was fantastic. Rock steady. Not so good around Jupiter though for some reason (boiling) and in any event everything was dripping wet by 01:30. High haze turned to low fog in about 15 minutes. As @Zermelo remarked; Clear Outside was spot on. If i'd have carefully checked Meteoblue before setting off i may not have bothered and i would have missed the session. longer report here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/399611-between-clouds-and-fog-saturn-open-clusters-and-doubles/#comment-4287829

Thanks For posting Israel. That’s another considered but also poetic description of what is a familiar object. Your approach to “zooming in” and describing each step motivate me to want to go and look at the same object (sometimes again) to see for myself the characteristics you have described. As others have said - your index to the Messier catalog would make a good field guide when completed. Field guide to the actual observing “process”. Lovely. Joe

...and "a quick squizz out of the kitchen window" is with my own eye in daylight mode so not a great indicator at all really... 🙃

I did thanks and thankfully. It had been on a spreadsheet for a while (LOL) but i was triggered to prompt action when i saw the price go up at FLO. i've had a quick squizz out of the kitchen window and its not instantly comfortable but that's at 300x and 0.6mm exit pupil. i trust it will be a bit more relaxed in its intended role later and should give me a nice pupil 1mm, a nice mag 125x and nice framing at that mag at nearly 50'. I have bright small DSO in mind primarily.

I hope i haven't made a big mistake here. My first 100 degree eyepiece so i'm not sure what to expect from a general comfort and eye placement POV - forecast is clear for Saturday here so will soon find out. A silly 300x in my Cassegrain but should be a good 1mm exit pupil eye piece at more middle of the road magnification in a shorter focal length 'scope on the way.

it's always a balancing act - sometimes literally and comparable weights and focal points for eyepieces that will be used together is another angle again. i have the 24mm panoptic and it's super friendly (i can't think of a better way to describe it but i suppose i mean comfortable and easily comfortable). its also more or less a 2mm eyepiece for me. i'll take a look at that video later. Thanks.

beware those links though @markse68. you end up with eyepiece "analysis" spreadsheets that look like this: 😂

take them as you find them - the trouble is with the internet it could be any old rubbish - i wouldn't be able to tell: https://www.telescope-optics.net/index.htm#TABLE_OF_CONTENTS http://www.rocketmime.com/astronomy/Telescope/telescope_eqn.html the second one is where the pennies dropped for me but i think all the content is on the first one - i just find it harder to digest... Cheers

I’ve been doing some fascinating reading this week on exit pupils from the point of view of eye performance and the penny is slowly dropping for me on scale vs brightness vs contrast vs diffraction vs astigmatism. That panoptic at 2mm will be a cracker.

I noticed the same thing earlier in the week @great_bear . We Brits on here are all poorer when the pound slides against the dollar. I don’t like to be disloyal to our forum sponsor but it goes with saying TV EP’s are around elsewhere at the older prices. I guess they won’t be for long if this is an FX related GBP price adjustment against in the TV case what I assume to be a USD denominated global price list. 😞

Regardless your challenges to capture it @tich that is a lovely PN and a lovely picture of it. Thanks for posting - very nice to see first thing this morning. 👍🏻

That looks superb and the clicklock arrangements you've added on the back look really effective (clicklock is so dark nights, cold hands and tired brain friendly). Will you side by side mount it with a refractor for "best of both worlds" on a given target or do you have particular targets and projects in mind for it?

That’s a great report Steve. M17 sounds good especially. I’ve seen it without a filter “at my dark sky site” but “only” very dark grey on an even darker grey background so I’m keen to use a filter as you have done to maximise the contrast. Per M57 I like The Ring a lot and have spent quite a lot of time with it in the eyepiece but sadly I haven’t seen any hint of colour. So far 🙂

That's a fascinating set of observations and interesting objects to boot. This hobby sometimes presents things were 10% of the experience is at the eyepiece and 90% of the experience is in the "wonder" of that little thing seen at the eyepiece and the interest of planning beforehand to see it and the satisfaction after the fact of having seen it.

spot on!

That just looks idyllic. What a great set-up.

@Stu well there is that as well. I have the GSO 8” cassegrain. Nearly 2.5 meters focal length. I had thought about a 55mm plossl just for the larger (maybe 4mm or so) exit pupil (I wouldn’t really gain FOV with it). That EP would then be a bit specialised though. Not totally redundant but a bit niche. Mmhh.

Thanks @Stu it would be “just” 2.4mm exit pupil with the current set-up. 186mm/79x. I will give the UHC a try first I think. It won’t be wasted to get one for the toolkit anyway. Cheers

@pipnina this has been on my list of "things i didn't see last night" last weekend and this 😞 @Stu i understand the FOV challenge (i can't get wider than 1 degree myself). In your view do you think a UHC or O-III would make the difference to see the brighter edges rotate into the eyepiece (even a FOV restricted eyepiece) if your lying in wait for it in the west as it where. This technique is NOT working for me without a filter I should say; waiting at the eyepiece to see if i discern brightening while that patch of sky rotates over - i couldn't honestly say there is any brightening as the nebula rolls through (or should be rolling through)...

@bosun21 i found it very helpful to make a small table of the different combos' so you can add all the lightpath requirements up. The baader website and manual downloads are very good because they quote the flightpath for every diagonal and accessory spacer/ring/clamp etc. It looks like all the 2" diagonals are over 100mm so with the bino's and the focuser i think it would be a very unusual scope i think that could accommodate all that. As @Franklin says the T2 32mm prism and nosepiece is probably the way to go. I'm not a fan of the T2 coupling nut between bino's and prism but once its all together its very convenient package you can leave assembled in the case. Cheers baader_star_diagonals_t_2_and_2.pdf

Thanks @F15Rules. i'm a fan of winged eyecups on day time bino's and i think the baader either come with them or are easy to retrofit fit with them so definitely on the list... Cheers

Fantastic!