IB20

I have the 5mm BST and it’s given me some great views of Mars and the moon in my 8” dob but have yet to really test it with some tight doubles. Seems you are narrowing it down to more premium EPs however. Look forward to seeing what you plump for and a first light review.

Windy but clear so just had a gander of M42 with the 15x bins. Fast becoming a favourite.

Not an event as such but seeing the Milky Way in bortle 1 skies at Undara volcanic national park in Queensland, Australia was breathtaking and so memorable for me. It’s incredibly sad that most people will probably never experience truly dark skies and for some reason as a species we seem so enamoured with artificial light. What I would do to be back there with a pair of 15x bins armed with what I know now about the night sky. I do hope I get to see skies like that again one day.

Cheers, the 6mm BCO was next in-line to be purchased but that has been parked for now and I've just pulled the trigger on the Hyperflex 7-21.5mm from FLO. Have never used a zoom before so very much looking forward to it, hopefully it works well with my TV 2x barlow as well.

This is all I use to collimate my 200p. Have to eyeball the secondary but I find it does a perfect job.

Hmmm, this has got me wondering if having a zoom EP would be useful for those days of questionable seeing where it could either be used exclusively or help identify the EP of optimum magnification. The Hyperflex 7.2-21.5 seems to be getting a fair bit of love at a very decent price? Is this a continuous zoom EP? How does it compare to the Baader mk IV?

I’ve just snagged The Queen’s Aeroplane asterism and M52. They were so much harder to observe than I imagined.

Purchased. 👍

Currently I find Mars is an extremely bright off-white disc in my 8” dob. Although I get glimpses of low albedo features and polar caps when this bright, using a variable polarising filter makes observing a much more rewarding experience. Reducing the brightness brings out the red-brown colouration of Mars and improves the contrast of albedo and surface features.

My dog loves to lick the base of my scope when I’m out observing, the weirdo.

Do you think it could be axial tilt and season related? Looking at the Mars opposition calendar, maybe the southern hemisphere summer leads to less frost and possible reduced reflectivity? 🤷🏼‍♂️ I haven’t gone out today, its crystal clear but my observing canine companion has the firework heebee-jeebees!

Lovely. The 15mm BST is probably my favourite EP in the whole range and barlows really well. The 5mm gives some fantastic views of Mars when conditions allow and works wonderfully on the moon. 👍

I always attempt to observe Phobos and/or Deimos when I view Mars. Similarly I convince myself I have glimpsed one, but checking SkySafari shows that it wasn’t and usually turns out to be a low mag star or reflection. Same with the ice giants’ satellites. Trying to observe these faint objects is probably when I’m at my most self-critical as I want to be certain. You’re right about it being fun though, I really enjoy attempting difficult targets, and it’ll be extra satisfying when I eventually clock them.

Exceptional work, thanks for sharing these. You’re really making me want a Pentax XW 7mm!

Hellas Planitia easily spotted tonight, despite a slight haziness from fireworks and occasional high cloud. Perhaps I was looking for it and focusing on its location more after yesterday’s discussion? 🤷🏼‍♂️ Is it possible that knowing what you should be seeing can help show a feature? Is this a thing?

Agree John, about 9-10pm I could clearly see Syrtis Major, Tyrrhena Terra,Terra Sabaea, Isidis Planitia and the south polar cap but couldn’t clearly make out Hellas Planitia.

Lyra. It was the first constellation I searched when my scope arrived in lockdown in May. The double double, Stephenson 1, Sheliak and my first DSO, the ring nebula; all fantastic targets.

As per John’s advice, I have added a telrad reticule finder (this gets affected by dewing) alongside the straight-through 9x spotting scope that came with my 200p. I find they complement each other well. The SkySafari app is my most used tool in navigating the night sky, I try and identify the constellations and orientate myself outside of looking through the scope first. Once I know where the object I want to find is, I can start to star hop from the brightest stars in the nearest constellations or asterisms, and I’ll use my lowest mag eyepiece to help do this. I keep my eyepieces indoors and only take the one I’m using outside to prevent them from dewing up.

Secondary update. Seeing better tonight, Syrtis Major is razor sharp in the BCO. Compared it to the 8mm BST and although nice and easy to make out SM, it doesn’t quite have the definition, so the BCO wins. 🤗

Just a quick thanks to everyone who shouted out the 10mm BCO. I've had a short play tonight despite the windy conditions and could really start to see how this eyepiece will add towards my viewing. I saw more defined boundaries in the albedo features, and it was even possible to tease out different low albedo regions by variation in grey colouration. I also had a short session on the moon and the craters were so sharp and clear, delightful. Very happy with what I've experienced so far, I'm sticking a 6mm BCO on my wanted list for next month's astro purchase. 👌

Just collated the Turn Left at Orion targets into a SkySafari list. This isn’t for people to not purchase the book, it is just for convenience to load an observing list into SkySafari. I highly recommend to read the book prior to using this list. Left at Orion.skylist

Well that was incredibly easy!

Been wanting to upgrade my focuser for a while, so a nice little project whilst it’s bucketing down.

10mm ortho arrived this afternoon. As ever completely clouded over and raining. 🙄

On Monday the seeing was rotten but it was decent last night for Mars. Can’t stress how much the variable polariser helps, need to kill a fair bit of brightness before the features are visible.