IB20

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.

Thanks. My scope is the 200P Skywatcher Dob, I probably cooled it for about 45-50 mins but 30 mins is usually fine. I've only viewed from my back garden so far, which is somewhere between bortle 6-7 but the moon was 91% and extremely bright. Session started at 10pm and I packed up at midnight so there were still a few house lights on, my own included. Some of the best advice I've ever received from this forum was not to get too dark adapted for planetary viewing, which has really helped in my experience. I did check my collimation with a star test too and it seemed to be spot on which I'm quite proud about as I've only just learned how to do it.

Oh and now I’ve seen M42 through the bins, I look at it naked eye and it’s obvious! 😅

After seeing some Mars images on Twitter I decided to get my scope cooling. Going straight for Mars, he initially looked a bit washed out and plain with the moon’s bright glow but after 5 mins of being outside I started to get my eye in. After a few eyepiece changes I’d nailed down the sweet spot and the 8mm BST with variable polariser was stunning. A tiny sharp 2 o’clock south polar cap and clear central and northerly low albedo segments were brilliantly visible whilst drifting across the eyepiece. After soaking in the views, I remembered reading about asteroid (8) Flora in the Sky at Night. Looking on Sky Safari it showed as being close to Kaffaljidhma in Cetus. I located yellow Menkar, which along with the blue of 93 Ceti looked absolutely brilliant. Scrolling across to Gamma Ceti, I found the point of light that SkySafari highlighted as 8 Flora. Not much to look at but pretty astonishing that I’m looking at a large asteroid in our solar system, I plan to keep viewing over the next few nights when possible to see how much it moves along the night sky. Then Capella caught my eye, so I had a quick gander around Auriga, and particularly Pi Aurigae which was a fantastic deep orange colour. Checking SkySafari I could see that IC 2149 planetary nebula was near my sights, and after some triangulation I could make out a faint diffuse blue blob and star, but the moon’s brightness was making it real difficult to pop out. No viewing night is complete without me having a look at Uranus, I can’t help myself. I’m getting good at finding it now and the pale aqua disc didn’t disappoint. I barlowed my 8mm for 300x and watched it drift across my eyepiece changing from a white aqua to deep turquoise at the EP edge, just fantastic. I was really hoping to catch a glimpse of one of its moons but I could only make out 3 nearby stars of 10.1, 10.9 and 12 mag. One day I’ll see a moon! I finished up with a few more minutes on Mars and packed up. Then I saw Orion was up and I could get at M42 with my 15 x 70 bins. Since being a kid I’ve been able to identify Orion but I’ve never looked at it through scope or bins until now. Wow, it did not disappoint what a fantastic sight, I was half tempted to get the scope back out and wait a while but I’ve work tomorrow 😭. So the Orion Nebula through a scope will have to wait... Not bad for just a quick Mars session eh?!

I've heard great things about the Morpheus range and I think they might be where I head after my BSTs. I do like those ruler tests, always amazes me how sharp the BSTs look on axis.

Fingers crossed. The last few nights have been crystal clear but I think the jet stream is passing over. Mars has been an orange wobbly the past few nights; it was stunning on Sunday.

I have purchased the 10mm BCO from Rother Valley. Thanks for all the excellently sound advice as usual!

This is great to hear. I’m very tempted by the BCO 10mm and it should work well with my TV Barlow. Is there a particular reason you don’t get on with the 6mm?

What if I were to get a low cost and risk 10mm BCO, which would lend itself to being barlowed to 5mm presumably with increased eye relief?

I know very little about binoviewer set-ups, I'll admit. Maybe a silly question but are they used with reflectors?

Yikes, that small eye lens is making me tired just thinking about looking through it! I hadn't thought about a zoom, are there mid-mag zoom lenses that might be more suited to my current scope? I've been out tonight and the viewing is nowhere near what it was yesterday so I've spent a large portion of my viewing time just swapping EPs and filters.

Thanks John. I haven't ever used a really short eye relief EP, I don't think I'd get on with that short however and having just turned 40 and expect my eyesight will only be going in one direction! I hadn't looked at the Vixens, they do seem to get solid reviews and seem to tick all the boxes so maybe worth more of a thought. I have researched the Delites however and some of my thought process is about securing a real top end EP that will last me throughout the hobby. I do see myself at some point in the future buying a quality refractor too and I'm sure the TVs would work exceptionally well in one of these.