josefk

Just one astro session in February and just five for 2024 so far - it is quite frankly driving me round the twist. I enjoyed Venus in the daytime immensely last year (and it compensated a run of poor nights at one point) so i'm pondering adding solar to the hobby too for similar reasons. Probably white light to start with while i work out how much i want to spend and how to spend it on H-Alpha... Here's my homework in the meanwhile:

I would also vote for the LZOS Steve. Like you I have an 8”CC on an AZ100 and BB planet. a brilliant set-up. I also have a 130mm APO and it competes with the CC. It also beats it on certain targets TBH but in raw capability rather than aesthetic pleasure the APO doesn’t take me into new territory. On the other hand I have an 85mm APO and that does things for me the other two can’t do because it can be out and in use at just a few minutes notice and can travel with me. I could mount it on the AZ200 but I can also mount it much more lightly for shorter sessions and do. In short IME/IMHO the smaller APO is a better compliment to my CC than the larger one. PS. I should qualify I don’t know the respective weights and mounting needs of the 100/800 LZOS and SM125. Possibly my experience of the option for lightly mounting for a fully different way to use the smaller scope doesn’t apply.

...and i've promoted these 'really useful boxes' on here before as well as both a handy portable desk and a way to keep dew off kit not in use at that moment:

hi @PatrickO - here's a prompt i keep at the back of my sketch box for white on black: The Sakura Gelly Roll pens are good for stars, the Pitt pastel is good for fuzzies, the Derwent charcoal and harder Derwent pencil are good for the moon but i freely mix and match all media. The Faber Artist Brush is more useful than it looks here, I use it for putting in faint stars and for putting underneath the gelly roll pens for brighter stars. For paper i like black index cards because then i can bin my mistakes 🙂 and not too much paper is getting soggy in the field at one time (its amazing how damp paper gets outside at the scope) Pastels (even pastels in a pencil format) also get soggy outside in my experience. So i have one that goes outside and gets soggy and others kept inside for nicer work at home. Sketching in my experience is THE biggest teacher of good observation skills. I didn't do it at all till 2022 and now i do it for something like 60% of my obs and i'm a better observer because of it across all target types. My method is for scruffy thumbnail sketches with notes in the field transferred to tidier index cards the next day except for Luna where typically i sketch it once straight to card. This also helps with the "soggy paper problem". Enjoy.

All sorted now Richard but thanks for commenting anyway. I went ahead with the Tak 1.5 Ext-ED and it behaves as I hoped giving a 1.5 multiplication used before the diagonal and not asking for any extra spacers before or after to reach focus. May be not quite as invisible in use as the power mate (Tak heresy and virtually impossible to state with confidence!). Perfectly satisfying and super useful with the FSQ.

IIRC that dipotrx is 0.25 too strong nominally for my actual eye prescription (the exact match dipotrx value for me is discontinued), nevertheless it works well - like a final fine tune focus. Not 100% perfect but much much much better than without. 👍

Unfortunately sometimes eventually needs a helping hand to maintain perfection 😔

this is also a nice "everything in one place" guide but not so much a guide to the eyepiece view even imagining it inverted (more detail here on the extended objects than i would see with my kit in my location)... DSO-guide-Messier.pdf

Thats a nice resource John 👍

Hi @PatrickO - i remember this being posted by another SGL member on here last year re. a representative eyepiece view: When it was originally posted I checked M31, M33, M51 and M77 (extended galaxies) and i don't see them as well where i live as shown in this guide. On the other hand i checked M45 and M57 and i see them better so i guess it will all be a little bit +/- depending the aperture you are using and where you live. Cheers Visual_Guide_to_Messier-objects_HT-Vgy_2023_ENG.pdf

Is that 60Q, 76, 100 left to right @Stu or some other combination?

Absolutely jaw dropping. I just shake my head in awe at what you capture @Nigella Bryant. These are fantastic.

I have no idea why small scopes tickle my fancy - it's irrational - but they do very much and i've enjoyed reading this thread. That's a nice execution of a 'grab and enjoy' set-up @Mumia (& everyone else posting theirs 👍)

Received today from @Franklin - four mint heavyweights for my Astro shelf. I've been after the Uranometria atlas for a while, the deep sky field guide you can still purchase from FLO but i gather it only makes sense or makes most sense when you use it with its intended atlas and that is not sold new in the UK anymore. It is available from Sky & Telescope in the US and though i've had it in my online shopping basket a few times it is hellish expensive bought like that when shipping is added in. Anyway, i'm chuffed to have these new to me reference books and look forward to getting stuck-in.

for the purpose of quantifying sky quality for your own observing notes - not identifying a site to travel to obviously - you can also use Ursa Minor. This was a tip for Auto League observing notes where sky quality is a "required" metric. The sky quality you log is the first numeral. It doesn't add anything you don't know on the night instinctively but adds another "data point" into your log...

Hi @JOC there is indeed an app to take SQM readings. I'm not sure how absolutely accurate it can be but as a relative record i find it useful. I use an app called "Dark Sky Meter" on an iPhone and take several readings per night and average them for my observing log. Its definitely sensitive to moon phase and atmospheric moisture (sky glow) so its reading something...

...not worth a standalone post i don't think but here's Jupiter again almost exactly one month later - 24th February 2024 19:40 ish to about 20:10. No observations in the intervening period i.e sine the end of January. Good grief!!!. Binoviewer's again delivering detail beyond their nominal magnification, i could have watched Juipter for ages i think but it was surprisingly cold out Saturday. Iced scope case and dew shield after just two hours outside. Very steady conditions. NTZ was very prominent and NPR very "groovy". The scratchy dark detail on the NEB to the west is poor pencilling. It isn't real, i didn't see THAT well. The dark storm on the east of the NEB with a dark edge on its left as i saw it below is real.

...not that i get stuck on things and can't move on 🤣 but here's a digital version that captures the real view better...

Fantastic project @Niels11. I have absolutely nothing to contribute regarding similar projects 😔but i recommend you this resource if you haven't seen it. I really enjoy reading (and trying to keep up mentally) with the mapping and descriptions of this guy pursuing similar projects to yourself re large coherent/related structures: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/565226-classic-rich-field/

Indeed VERY nice then @mikeDnight👍🏼

Is that a wooden eye piece case in the chair in the pic above @mikeDnight? Looks nice.

A mix of both @SwiMatt I go in any/every art shop I find looking for the perfect white equivalent of a 0.003 fine liner. I’m not sure what it is about white ink but it seems to only come in brush pens like the Pitt art brush series (nice) and roller nibs (not nice).

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.