Franklin

Are you starting a library by any chance?

I used a Tak DC on a Porta and it was a great little set up for visual. The Porta has a 45mm snout which is intended for the Vixen range of tripods but will fit many other brand tripods that have the more common 60mm recess, the M10 bolt will hold the Porta centrally.

Early evening I had an hour or so with Jupiter despite pockets of low cloud blowing over and later at around 10.00pm it cleared a little so just sat on my garden bench with the binoculars scanning clusters in Perseus, Auriga, Taurus and Gemini. Caught a grand total of 9 Geminids, mostly faint but around 10.30pm one was long, bright and slow, leaving a trail that shot directly through Gemini at an angle that didn't quite follow back to the radiant.

They look like Marty Feldman binoculars to me, I'd get my money back. The exit pupils should be circular if well collimated, ellipse shaped if not.

It's unlucky to open presents before the big day!

Jupiter at x250 looks about the size of a £1 coin not a pea, that's more like x120. Sometimes the GRS is vivid and sometimes it's not, it's a dynamic region in Jupiter's atmosphere and is constantly changing. A neodymium or contrast filter can help seeing the GRS.

Get something like this.

Back in 1979 when I was just a kid with an interest in astronomy there were only a few suppliers of astronomical equipment around. I remember Fullerscopes, Beacon Hill, David Hinds, Astro-Systems and Henry Wildey and in those pre-internet days you had to write a letter, enclosing an SAE (remember those?) to get a catalogue/pricelist. Henry Wildey sent a typed reply to my enquiry listing the range of mirrors he had available (6" f8 and 8" f6 ?).

The rain of the day cleared and left a cloudless early evening sky, very wet and soggy garden but out for the Io shadow transit and the seeing was very good. Jupiter looking crisp at x153 with the SLV6mm in the ED102 F9.

I noticed some good earthshine showing this morning and if clear tomorrow morning (9/12) the Moon, Venus and Spica should all be very close together, a conjunction?

There is a very good "History of Vixen Optics Ltd" on this site.

Clavius has got to be the best crater on the Moon!

I thought Takahashi's were supposed to be free of false colour😁.

Being a commemorative limited edition eyepiece I think it deserves to be kept in its special presentation box!

Put this link on your Taskbar and you'll never miss a Jovian moon event again! Jupiter's Moons (skyandtelescope.org)

That is correct but by how much I don't know, you may also need to use an extension tube to get focus.

Super clear sky all night here in NE Derbyshire and quite mild compared to earlier in the week. My first session was just after dusk and I viewed Saturn which has now passed the meridian at this early hour. Jupiter was next on the list and I observed the emergence of Ganymede from its occultation behind Jupiter and then later the eclipse of Ganymede by Jupiter's shadow, it took nearly 15 minutes to completely disappear. Star clusters in Perseus, Taurus, Auriga and Gemini took up another hour and then watched for Ganymede to appear out of the shadow. Pretty amazing stuff really and I'm sure clever people could gain a lot of knowledge from the timing of these events but for me it's just the wow factor. Continued with some doubles in Orion and Rigel was looking good, the seeing cooperating for a change. Back out again before dawn and observed M44 the Beehive cluster in Cancer (better in the binoculars), Leo high in the South and the Moon showing bright earthshine. I find observing the waning Moon to be more interesting, as I am not as familiar with the Eastern illumination, it offers quite a different view to the Luna landscape. Spica to the SE but no chance of galaxy hunting with the moon where it is so finished the night with Venus, very bright, gibbous and getting noticeably smaller from the last time I observed.

I don't know why but I have always used my left eye when observing through a telescope, ever since I was 10 (now 55). Not only does it just feel more comfortable but I can see a lot more detail using my dominant left eye. With my right I can't even keep my head in the correct position at the eyepiece and if switching from left to right, the view of Jupiter in the right eye is just a very bright blob, whereas using the left reveals all the delicate details that my optics and sky conditions have to offer. I don't think there is much difference between my left and right eye, it's just that over all these years I have trained my left eye to see and it makes a big difference. I mention all of this as it just goes to show that perseverance with observing is key and if you just keep going you will eventually train your eye to pick up the slightest hints of detail that are right on the threshold of visibility. Telescopic observation, especially planetary, is a skill that requires practice to develop but over time you will notice that you are seeing more and more at the eyepiece.

It takes a while to become fully illuminated, almost 1/4 hr.

Clear here and surprisingly quite mild, the snow went as soon as it came.

Fascinating to watch, according to S&T interactive the eclipse began at 7.54pm. I could see Ganymede gradually fading but it was not until 8.07pm that it completely disappeared from view. Back out at 9.44pm to see the reappearance.

Ganymede was occulted by Jupiter earlier today and at about 7.55pm will be eclipsed by Jupiter's shadow.

Taking a diagonal line through the bowl of the plough helps locating these two.

My ED refractors are 70mm, 81mm, 102mm and 115mm, so the largest is only 4.5" not the 5" you're after. However, even just having 1/2" of more aperture than the 4" does make a noticeable difference, not just in the extra light grasp when observing faint fuzzies but extra resolution for planetary. The tube is a bit bigger and a touch heavier which does mean I use the 115 on the larger mount only, whereas the 4" and smaller scopes can do double duty on either the larger mount or the smaller ones for G&G sessions.

For sure. I can see Jupiter's moons in the 6x30 finder.