IB20

What do people recommend for magnification and EP ranges for BV use (I seem to have fairly close IPD)?

The object is in Stellarium but again is unnamed, closest GAIA catalogued star is 17.5 mag. Sky Safari has pgc catalogue but nothing for that area. 🤷🏼

Great shot with an amazing amount of activity on display. I can’t even get at the sun currently for any WL action, shame had some really nice clear days recently.

Castor A & B system through the f12.75 76DCQ is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Just the most outstanding star colouration and control; two perfectly and I mean perfectly, spherical white orbs 🤩. Incredible.

I am getting bad Mewlon envy coming in here 🤣

Managed to snap Jupiter with a Ganymede pimple. The dob is fighting back against the Tak tonight, the views of Jupiter and Mars have been unbelievably good. Shame I have to cool it down 2 hours in winter 😅

A first for me, put the 8” dob out to cool about 14:30 and am just catching the tail end of a Europa shadow transit in still decentish daylight. 😃

Can anyone recommend a padded storage/travel bag for the 76DCU & 1.7q extender? Either constructed or separated. Many thanks 😃.

I’ve been back out for some Geminids action and took the 76DCQ, the seeing has definitely got worse. Seems more moisture in the air. Had a go at Sirius 387x… absolutely no chance, even Rigel was sub-optimal and the Tak eats that for breakfast.

Six geminids in under 20 mins. 3 really bright, lovely stuff! 🤗

Have just seen two in quick succession near Rigel. Extremely bright!

Had a quick 45 minute season with the Tak 76DCQ? with Jupiter and Mars being at good altitude and conditions seemingly OK. Even got a stab at Saturn after it appeared between the rooftops. It’s hard to compare with the base unit as I don’t have the two side by side but I’m fairly certain Mars was sharper, showed better colour and superb contrast, not by a huge amount but there were real wow moments when seeing allowed and moments when it’s the best I’ve seen it, even compared to the 8” dob for 2020’s opposition. The module gives 240x with the 4mm TOE which is usually the most I can get out of Mars on average seeing, it’s great to know I can still use the 4mm even with the extender. Saturn looked stunning too, even at such a low altitude and weaving through houses I was amazed at the image I was getting at the eyepiece. Gutted it’s on its way for this season! Jupiter was as good as through the base unit but with the module my 7mm gives 97x which is about ideal for “regular” seeing. Look forward testing it out with some Jovian transits! Can’t wait for the next session; hopefully get some lunar viewing in. The scope looks unbelievably good too… 😄 Digital sketch of tonight’s Mars below.

Now a f12.75 super apo. 😃

So with some help from the knowledgable team at @FLO and super helpful diagram from @MalcolmM i have been able to get it sorted. There were 2 eventual options, an M56 camera adaptor and M56i clicklock or a Tak reducer, extension and M54 clicklock. Neither particularly cheap but I went with the former for aesthetics but also binoviewer potential. With the adaptor in place cyclops XWs and TOEs come to focus readily with focus travel either side which is a huge relief! Still to try the BVs but will try both natively and with GPC.

Lovely big black shadow visible right now under the SEB and GRS on show too.

Too early for me to catch this and couldn’t risk waking the toddler! Glad lots of people got to enjoy it though and there are plenty of fantastic images knocking about. Hopefully it’s clear New Year’s night for another lunar occultation of Uranus, at a more civilised time of 10-11pm too! 😄

Mars showing a northern polar ice cap and low southern hemisphere albedo belt, which I’m trying trying to clarify the name of. But fairly nondescript otherwise. So I keep returning to my favourite double, Rigel. It’s quite low so extremely scintillatory? but still short work for the Tak 76 DCU.

Are you finding that the Q module makes a bigger optical difference on the FC-60 compared with the 76DCU?

Thanks @mikeDnight, it’s just been nice to get back outside under the stars after a long period of cloud. I don’t spend enough time on the moon but when I do I always have a great observing session.

First time I’ve had some intermittent clear skies for 2-3 weeks so popped the 76DCU out. Whilst seeing was quite poor for Mars, the moon was fair game for some nice views at 143x and 228x with the 4mm and 2.5mm TOEs respectively. Spent a great deal of time observing craters I hadn’t observed before, snapped some afocal iPhone images and have just used the NASA lunar phase map to identify the stand out craters https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4955 Enjoyable little session, you can always rely on the moon.

Not sure if I have developed an astronomer’s bias or if I paying more notice to conditions but compared to when I was a lot younger I’m sure UK Autumn/Winters are yielding a lot fewer frosty, clear nights. If true seems quite a noticeable impact of climate change in a relatively short space of time.

PST is probably my next big Astro purchase so will be interesting to hear how it works out. If the Tak does work well with it would also be very interested to hear. A light go-to mount would be a pretty cool addition.

Is this for the 76DCU?

Brilliant! Have just checked Skysafari and it was Ganymede’s shadow. I bet it looked fantastic; I love how visible the shadow transits are, even in small aperture scopes. Been clouded out for days here but glad someone is getting enjoyable views.

Tonight and similar conditions to tonight @MalcolmM! 😅 Not had much joy with the 4mm TOE for the last 2-3 sessions. Seemingly suffering from a huge amount of water vapour in the atmosphere and the 5XW is the optimum mag for right now.