josefk

Fascinating images and commentary here @Xilman and @Paul M and @tomato. I'm not an imager but to get insight into captures like these of such distant and/or small objects is brilliant. Thanks.

That is lovely!

...its a hard life 🤣

...it could be a mount thread - it may be counter intuitive but i wonder @Sunshine if you could make the TSA-102 you already have GnG by looking at a second lighter mount only? Maybe sacrifice high mag steadiness of a heavy mount for GnG possibility (one handed carry)? I've never handled a TS-102 - is it one of the lighter Tak scopes?

...and i'm with you @RobertI it is quite good fun to find a dim DSO in small kit (or have a damn good look for it even if its a failed observation) as long as you have the comfort that it isn't the only view you will ever have of it...

Rather than scopes competing with each other @Sunshine maybe another perspective is having complimentary kit and then deploying the kit for different purposes in different sessions. For me this means a big set-up for studying stuff (within the limits of my capability) and/or going after fainter stuff while my Grab 'n' Go set-up is for for wider field and/or "just" finding stuff where the pleasure in the GnG session is the star-hopping to find stuff while i may not dwell very long on the object itself. This has drawbacks - i wish i had more resolution for frequent looks at Jupiter in my GnG - but it does mean other than on planets i don't often negatively compare one set of kit with another because i am doing different things with them. Cheers

That sounds like great fun. I also took in NGC 1664 this weekend but last night (its also a Herschel H VIII-59). Unfortunately the sky was so horribly hazy and therefore light that my note says "Seen (i.e “detected”) rather than observed (i.e. "studied"). Hazy orange grey sky. No sparkle, no glow." I absolutely didn't see a stingray shape so your observation will make me go back and look again on a better night and with more aperture. Thank you.

haha. Indeed. i've not had my BV long so have only observed one Globular Cluster with them (i just checked my notes). I think i will have a night of BV/globs this autumn at some point now you've planted the idea. :-). Thanks for the feedback.

Oh no. I don’t want to go down this Rorschach rabbit hole. I see the bunny. (I think) you’ll need to look at M42 back to front for Donnie Darko. “The ears” above the trapezium but the main nebulosity slanting right below those stars. That image would definitely help me draw it. I’m sorry I started this 😂

nice sketches and great picture 🤜🏼 ...i hear your "stingray" and "swift" and raise you a rabbit - i think the nebulosity at M42 (in a star diagonal) looks like the Donnie Darko rabbit - the trap stars are the near eye - once you've seen it you can't unsee it. argh.

Hi Paul, im not sure I’m giving you the right answer to the right question but nexus (shipped with the Rowan mount optionally) has The SAO catalogue on board. cheers

you'll love it even more outside! Enjoy.

Grab 'n' Go fun!

Another bonus Grab 'n' Go last night completely contrary to expectations vs "Clear Outside" but I'm not complaining! It was all about the pleasure of finding last night - walking a 2-degree finder tightrope so when i fell off the trail it was like snakes and ladders - i had to go back "X" places. Vega >> M57 >> M56 >> Albireo >> M27 >> M71 was a nice meander to start with - i can't see anything meaningful in M57 and M27 with my small G'n'G scope but its always a pleasure to "pop in". Saturn (looking lovely and quite brown last night and with Titan to the East) >> M72 >> M73 >> NGC 7009 >> M2 >> M15 was a slightly harder meander in the opposite direction. I tried to get M72 and M73 in the same FOV but both disappeared against the greyish sky at the low 30x magnification required. TBH neither object had much contrast against the sky even at 70x and M72 was pretty marginal - took two attempts and a little waiting. There was a little bit of haze in this direction and at this altitude - when it cleared contrast obviously went up a little bit. NGC 7009 really bright and elongated at 70x while M2 and M15 were not resolved but still lovely fluffy bright balls. M15 evolving to a ball at 70x from "just a nebulous star" at 30x. Saturn >> M30 was an easy hop down but i couldn't see much when i got there - very low down and very low contrast. When i turned to face the other way (North/North-East) i realised i had been missing a really clear and sharp light show in that direction. Doh! In any event two new Herschels there in Perseus - the open clusters H VIII-85 and H VII-61 to round off the night. Fingers crossed for another bonus session before the week is out. Joe

i love those sketches - really really nice.

is that the 8" Astro_Dad? I really enjoy my "not quite 8"" SL Cassegrain and while appreciate the focal length differences between the two scopes i assume the quality of the GSO mirrors are a good part of the quality of the packages.

You'll especially enjoy this read now even if you've seen it before. i know i would! http://www.scopeviews.co.uk/TakFS128.htm

Since September i've started on a considered survey of the so called Herschel 400 list and i'm using Steve O'Meara's observing guide to structure target lists for the month. However I'm not big on following lists slavishly AND the H400 list itself is a modern construct AND the H400 is only a small subset of Sir William Herschel's observations and sister Caroline's cataloguing efforts. If you're observing an NGC there's a 1/3 chance they found it or catalogued it for the first time. in short its easier (and more fun) to collect observations for any (i hesitate to say "all") Herschel in a given area even if you are ostensibly chasing and recording the H400 subset in that locale. This should keep me occupied...

Fantastic and an extra memorable first light too!. 👍🏼

Thats a good hint @Nyctimene re. the clear eastern side of that star chain. Thanks. I repeatedly look for nebulosity in M45 in various instruments on many nights and have never been certain i've seen it versus "just glare" or "damp" in the atmosphere. This is a good tip for confidence checking.

another short "Grab 'n' Go" in Burghley Park at the southern edge of Stamford last night. An unexpected bonus session as it was clear outside even while "Clear Outside" said it wasn't and had predicted it wouldn't be all day. TBF "clear" was a bit relative - there was high thin cloud more prominent than the Milky Way that gradually thickened and joined up toward 100% coverage. "Grab 'n' Go" for me if it isn't binoculars is a 95mm short focal length APO with field flattener, an erecting prism, and a zoom eyepiece in the range 30x/2-degrees ...70x/1-degree and no finder. In other words a bird spotting scope. It's ok at angles between the horizon and about 45 degrees. Higher than that it's difficult to get on the eyepiece in a relaxed position. Anyway last night i continued "my survey" in Cassiopeia with this scope but largely i was failing to see the same small relatively obscure open clusters that i failed to see last week so i think i am looking for stuff beyond this scopes light grasp. I did manage to observe Czernik 4. This is a really tiny "three stars and a glow" type open cluster. Trumpler 1 next to it is bigger and M103 in the same field of view positively huge in comparison. 🙂 Striking out on other targets here i swept across to M31 but with the goal to see ifi I could see M110 in this scope. I couldn't even after waiting and waiting at the eyepiece for a hint. M32 was definite and easy of course. Enjoying the masochism i thought i would have a go at M74 - hahahahahah. I could imagine it was there because the star field basically says "look here..." with an arrow but it was just imagination. I did hop up from there successfully for M33 the pinwheel galaxy. "Just a dim smudge in the frame of four stars" but i'm happy to get this on a manual find. After that a sweep along the ecliptic for Jupiter (some ADC and atmospheric glow but surprisingly sharp and dark NEB/SEB - nice), Neptune (easy hop west from Jupiter) and Uranus (a longer hop in in a westwards direction but starting at M45). Uranus at 70x was just hinting at being "fatter" than stellar. Good fun and a smug feeling for sneaking one in early in the week. Cheers

you begin to question your own sanity when you spend 30 minutes trying to tease out as much as possible from this pair: while this pair is only four degrees away: It was a short grab and go session in Burghley Park last night working up into Cassiopeia from Melotte 20. Other clusters grabbed on the way up or in the neighbourhood were Karchenko 8 (on the edge/perimeter of Stock 2), Trumpler 2, IC 1848, IC 1805 (the cluster not the nebula) and Czernik 12. Over to the West Jupiter was pretty steady (at low magnification) and it was an easy three or four degrees hop west from Jupiter to Neptune. A clear star field for ID on Neptune but was "just a dim star" in the scope i was using. Cheers

Is that frost already @SzabiB? Oh dear.

That’s very evocative set of descriptions Mircea. I know you were using the 10x but the 7x42 Habichts have hovered on my “would really like them but can’t really justify them” list for years. I wish I had a local flea market like yours!

Very productive Jeremy. Using the analogy of the astrophotographers i consider these longer sessions like "data gathering" time. I've now got loads to read about and formulate next planned sessions on the back of and that keeps me occupied cloudy nights and until the next clear sky opportunity. 👍🏼