IB20

Some extremely changeable weather at the minute but got a cloud break opportunity last night to view the nova. Easily viewed with 8x & 15x bins still and suggest it’s possibly brightened since I last saw it at around mag 5-5.3. Not a NE object for me at 22:30ish but some street lights in my area get switched off at midnight, so it might be possible from then onwards.

Complete mount novice but the tube rings screw into the base plate ~95mm apart. I can’t see why not if you could find an appropriate saddle though.

Yep! Delivered from FLO via DHL about 2 hours ago and an absolute cinch to set up. First impressions are nicely surprised by the sturdiness of the tripod and the beautiful simplicity of the Az-Alt mount. The OTA is really light and not unwieldy like I thought it might be; the whole set-up must weigh somewhere between 6-7kg, which I'm delighted about. Everything bar the spreader and accessory tray is metal, again a nice surprise considering I was looking at the Vixen A80mf before I clocked that FLO stocked the Starbase 80 set-up. I'll get a first light report up as soon as I can (fingers crossed tonight) but very happy so far. Looks the dogs' danglies too.

I am now a proud frac owner! 😃

Wow, this got super visible! I’d say it’s looking brighter than HD220819 which SkySafari has at mag 6.6.

You’ve pretty much described how I intend to use it. I won’t neglect the 8” dob but it’s another tool in the armoury, especially for g’n’g sessions. 👍🏻

I've been looking at refractor set-ups for about 4 weeks, I've flip flopped between 102mm and 80mms and more recently decided that 80mm was what I wanted. Then it was short faster APO vs slower achro but the budget just kept going up and up for diagonals and mounts. This is exactly what I have been looking for! Such weirdly perfect timing and looks the absolute business. Cheers for the heads up!

Two great EPs, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. I still remember seeing M5 through the 8mm BST, it looked incredible.

Depending on budget, you could always get a Hyperflex and a widefield EP rather than the Baader IV. I find the low mag on the zoom not much use for star hopping as the FOV is too restrictive but it is great to use on an object once located. Maybe something like the Vixen NPL 30mm?

What water butt stand do you use? Do you find it increases vibration?

Oh for sure they are on the small side, but due to their low altitude and being positioned above chimneys radiating heat from my viewing location I found pushing the magnifications gave a less pleasing image. This will change as their altitudes get higher but so far I have had better views with lower mags. I saw the great red spot of Jupiter and equatorial bands easily with the 15mm. At a lower mag I could observe the object for longer as it drifted across the eyepiece which makes teasing out detail easier, at high mags it becomes a much more laboured dob pushing exercise with a mushier image!

The only problem with the zoom I have found is the field of view is a bit smaller than the BSTs. The BSTs really are nice EPs for the money, but plenty do appear on the for sale section of this forum as they tend to be a stepping stone to premium EPs! Personally, I'd recommend fixed length EPs over a zoom in the first instance, the zoom works brilliantly on the moon but I use my fixed length EPs a lot more.

In general in UK conditions I'd say that with my 200P 80x-120x magnification was the most useable, so 10-15mm. I'm quickly learning though that there are a lot of variables and multiple EPs/tools are probably required depending on seeing, altitudes, transparency etc etc. I know this will sound pretty weird but as the 15mm was so good I have invested in the 13mm TV Delite, which is now my DSO eyepiece, but I am keeping the 15mm BST. Here's a list of the main things I have seen so far and what I thought was the best: Mars opposition - 10mm BCO with 2x TV Barlow, 5mm BST a very close 2nd. Low altitude Jupiter - 15mm BST Low altitude Saturn - 15mm BST Uranus - 8mm BST with 2x TV Barlow Neptune - 8mm BST with 2x TV Barlow Moon - Hyperflex 21.5-7.2mm with and without 2x barlow, all the BSTs work wonderfully on the moon though. Double stars - TV 13mm Delite Orion nebula - 18mm BST Dark Sky Objects inc globular clusters - Combination of 25mm BST to find with 13mm Delite to observe Pleiades, Nova in Cassiopeia - 15 x 70 binoculars Hyades, Comet Neowise, open clusters - 8 x 42 binoculars You get the jist, not one EP will do it all but I'd certainly recommend a zoom, a 2x barlow, a widefield EP and a sweet spot magnification workhorse EP.

I have the Hyperflex 21.5-7.2mm and use it in the 200P. It was exceptional on the 78% illuminated moon recently, couldn’t fault it at all. It also provided great views with a 2x barlow on the recent opposition of Mars too. I haven’t used the Baader Mark IV but I can’t believe that it performs £100 better than the Hyperflex, it think the Baader has a wider FOV than the Hyperflex so perhaps that explains the price difference?

I’ve found the BST 15mm is an excellent eyepiece for this scope as is the 10mm BCO, which I found sensational on Mars last Autumn with a polarising filter. I’ll be using it on Jupiter later this year for certain. All the Starguiders are great in the 200P, the 18 & 25mm are probably the weakest however. Haven’t tried the 6mm BCO but have read that it’s a bit tight on eye relief, the 10mm does barlow really well mind.

So I've ranked some of the scopes I've been looking at - scoring on weight of OTA, F ratio, cost etc for what is important to me (entirely my own system pulled from my backside!). It's an interesting result for sure, you lot sure know your telescopes! I might point out that the Tak FC-100DC wins this if it didn't cost nearly 2k more 😅. Another point I'll add is these are all manufacturer specs so possibly not quite accurate, but it's all I could go on. Would the AZ4 aluminium hold the AA Ascent 102ED f7 OK?

Been doing a fair bit of reading and research around possible set ups and I must say it's been an eye opener for weights of mounts, tripods and refractors! The 4" F7 Ascent on an AZ4 with steel tripod and with diagonal, EP etc would come in it at around 12.5-13kg, which I'm not sure I'd class as super grab n go. Could it be done any lighter but without introducing excess vibration? I've also been looking into one handed carry set-ups for super portability, so the 72EDs (of which there are many FPL53s!) and one of these on a Vixen porta or AZ5 aluminium would be around the 6-8kg mark, which appeals but with the obvious loss of aperture. Again can these be done any lighter, without busting the bank? There's no way I could mount a frac on a tripod (unless I left it erected somewhere...) and get it outside quicker than my 8" dob. Maybe I already have my grab n go scope, as it takes under a minute to get outside; it's more the cooling that was the issue. The one thing I am certain of is that I want a frac for cloud break sessions on doubles, planetary views, star-fields, white solar etc but also portability for access to all parts of the sky within my garden and for UK trips to dark skies. Pretty much everything is sold out so I'm in no rush and I must've changed my mind tens of times. Who knew it so difficult to pick a refractor!

I hadn’t shown the zoom EP much love since acquiring it, despite it performing well on Mars it lost out to the 10mm BCO. Similarly it has lost out to a combo of the 25mm BST & 13mm Delite for DSOs but now might have found its niche. I started my session early evening and there was visible heat flux affecting the image; being able to change mag instantly really helped cut through this. As it got darker and everything cooled down the zoom just kept performing, even with the 2x barlow.

Well had a decent moon only first session. I’ve discovered that the Hyperflex 21.5-7.2 zoom eyepiece is an exceptional lunar tool and even beat the 10mm BCO. Spent the majority of the time referencing a moon globe app and putting names to craters. I think my favourite so far is Plato. Also saw Rupes Recta; it does actually appear like a straight line! I think I will certainly dedicate more time to lunar viewing as have really enjoyed it. IMG_6223.MOV

The conditions tonight are forecast extremely favourable so I might spend a night exploring the moon. Can anyone recommend any easy beginner lunar targets or regions of interest for tonight? I’ve only really taken pictures of it through my dob and tend to get a bit over-awed and lost when viewing it with higher mags, so maybe having some targets to aim for will make it more enjoyable. Cheers! 👍

Can’t wait to get stuck into this!

Not yet! I’m on two stock notification lists though. I’ve been told end of this month might be a goer.

Not too much difference in mag tonight, I have started to see SAO 20610 next door however which is recorded as mag 9.0 so certainly getting dimmer.

Another clear moonless night so decided to get the 8" dob out again. After cooling for an hour, my first target was one of the hardest I've gone for yet, the Ghost of Jupiter. I had to relocate my scope to a far corner of the back garden to create the necessary elevation to have a go as my neighbour's roof and chimney were the direction I needed to explore. After locating Alphard, I popped in the 25mm BST and tracked across the stars of hydra which kept fading into the brightness of the lower altitude skies. I finally pinpointed mu hydrae, which was a lovely yellow colour and then just a small tilt downwards revealed an diffuse sphere of pale green, a beautiful object. Swapping in the 13mm Delite didn't offer any better clarity, as the object had got so close to the chimney that it was becoming blurred. Returning back to the 25mm returned the nebula to its initial glory. I watched as it drifted out of view for the rest of the night. As I had moved the scope I could actually now swing 180° and get at Cassiopeia too, so thought I'd check on the nova. However having such a small field I couldn't find either M52 or the 4 Cas rhombus which I'd been using with such regularity in the 15x bins, very frustrating! Spica was now coming into view so I went for the Sombrero galaxy as it had impressed so much on me Tuesday night. Aiming for Algorab (a lovely double btw!), moving northwest and locating two sets of triplet stars, the Sombrero is very easy to locate. I found it didn't present as well as Tuesday, either I wasn't as dark adapted or it wasn't as transparent, or both! Still it's a brilliant looking DSO, a long thin strip of light with a bright bulging core. Next up was a pair of globular clusters, M53 and M3. M53 is a fair bit fainter than M3 and I spent more time with the 13mm Delite on M3 but I start to resolve both clusters after some patient viewing. M3 has really been one of my favourites during this galaxy season. My last few outings with the dob I've always tried to get a clean split of Izar, tonight was no different. I cranked up the mag to 240x with the 5mm BST, as I'd been reading that doubles should be really pushed in dobs (can anyone confirm this is true??) and although I could make out two orbs of differing mags and in the correct orientation, I was never satisfied as the image was a constant bubbling mess. I'm not quite sure if this was due to atmospheric seeing or tube currents, but I had left the scope out for a good hour before I'd started, maybe I do need a refractor for doubles... So back to DSOs and the Sunflower galaxy which had evaded me on Tuesday was next up. After lining up Cor Caroli (another nice easy coloured double!) I first jumped to M94 to gauge transparency and it presented with a nice bright core so I had hope for my target. After some toing and froing between a 4 star T shape asterism and Cor Caroli, I glimpsed a pale smudge below 19 Cvn. It's pretty faint but nice to finally bag it! Last one of the night and I see M106 is close by on SkySafari which appears between Chara and Phecda, so line up Chara and using the telrad I pick a spot in the middle of the two stars. Unbelievably there it is, again just a pale grey smudge but it's another messier object in the back pocket and with that I decide to call it a night. Well, I did take the 15x bins out to check on an old nova friend.

Some very nice conditions tonight, got the nova in the 15x bins again and see it between mag 7.8 HD220770 and mag 8.1 HD220138.