IB20

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.

This isn’t lunar x but caught my eye tonight and looked extremely X-ish. I am trying to find out what this feature is but having no luck so far.

I've always enjoyed spending time on the planets and I've been really enjoying viewing Mars in between the appalling weather, on the occasions it's been clear I've had some really nice views with my BST starguiders. I can see albedo features and the SPC, last night I could see white mists/clouds over the northern pole for the first time with the 8mm and 15mm 2 x barlowed. The 12mm barlowed was giving me really pleasant views last night and a few weeks before the opposition the 5mm gave occasional glimpses of good viewing. I picked up a 2x televue barlow and it has been a real treat, a definite improvement from the celestron omni I had. So it got me thinking, with Jupiter and Saturn due to be higher in the sky next year, should I save and invest in a real premium planetary eyepiece? My scope is a 200P skyliner dob so it's 1200mm, f/5.91 and from my experience the EP sweet spot seems to be around 8-6mm on the planets. Can I improve the performance of this scope for planetary viewing with a higher quality EP? I'd prefer to focus on an increase in contrast and sharpness over sweeping wide fields. If anyone could advise or make any recommendations I'd be very grateful!

Another +1 for this. I had a much smaller version for my very first scope and it gave me wonderful views of the moon and Saturn.

Nice views to wake up to, perhaps early morning viewing is the answer to when I return to work.

One day hopefully!

Wow, wow, wow. I was sort of hoping I would struggle to tell the difference between this and my old Omni Celestron barlow but I’m getting some belting views of Mars with my BST Starguiders, particularly the 18 & 15mms. I must resist the temptation to look on FLO...

A thing of beauty courtesy of @PeterCPC! Hopefully not the start of a slippery slope either 😅. Can’t wait for my next Mars session!

Wanted some 15x70s for a while and £89 seemed a mad price! Hopefully get a chance to use tonight.

Th Bino UHC pairing worked a treat tonight! The North American nebula looks fantastic. Thanks for this excellent tip. 👍

This is pretty much how I have started out, primarily because of the advice given from experienced SGLers (and some lockdown spare cash!). Extremely grateful for it too as I have seen some wonderful sights in 4 months and look forward to many more months and years with this very capable set-up.

I have just tried this, although slightly awkward and not entirely dark I could definitely see big smears of light near Deneb! Now to fashion a filter holder to the end of my binos!

Did you accidentally lock the focus with that central screw at the base?

Great tip, will try next chance I get, thank you!

With last night's clear forecast I decided to find some new targets and try again to see the elusive Veil! After last week's incredible moment with Uranus I decided to find Neptune as it was in a favourable portion of the sky. Conditions seemed quite hazy and there seemed an awful lot of light pollution about, so I started out using Psi 1-3 Aqr as my beginning and took it from there. It feels like it took me way longer than it should but thanks to using the bins I realised I was overshooting Neptune's position and ending up at some mag 9+ stars. After locating Neptune I swung the scope to its position and admired the tiny light blue dot that was 4.3 billion km away, another one ticked off my list, very satisfying. Moving on, I'd noticed Cygnus was overhead and more neighbours were turning off their lights meaning my darkness was improving. So I swung the scope up at Sadr, had a look at M29 and then down to 52 Cyg and stuck the UHC Astronomik filter on, alternating between a 40mm SW and 25mm BST. I think I could make out wisps and filaments but barely, but I'm really not sure and there just seemed so much background noise?! I'm in Bortle 6-7 skies, should it be easier to spot than this? Then I went up to the North American nebula and I could definitely make out lighter patches of cloud/gas but it still feels like I need a darker site to get the most out of the filter. Would the OIII improve my viewing at home or will I get a similar effect as with the UHC? Next up Mirach caught my eye, so I decided to have a look with the scope at Andromeda, a big grey fuzzy blob but one that never fails to catch the imagination. Then looking at Skysafari I saw that there was a nebula I'd never heard of right near my location, the Blue Snowball Nebula, and after following the trail of lambda, kappa and iota Andromeda, I found the little beauty. Wow, what a fantastic little object, it looked really good through the 15mm BST too, I was very impressed with the clarity and spent way too much time looking at it. Nearly 3.5 hours after starting, Mars had entered my south facing domain and I'd noticed it'd gotten very transparent. It's a shame Cygnus had disappeared over my roof at this point, or I'd attempt another pop at the veil. I went straight in with Mars at 5mm BST and the variable polarising lens. Honestly the best I've ever seen Mars, I was astonished at how good it looked through my 8" SW Dob. Previous attempts I'd been using averted vision to occasionally see surface detail, but last night, it just stayed detailed throughout transit across the eyepiece. I swapped between the 5mm and 8mm and both EP worked ever so well, I haven't had much chance to use them since purchase but I was incredibly pleased to have them last night. I even gave the 3.2mm a go for a laugh, but it did actually give some passable views, which was a nice surprise. I don't really know why the conditions improved so much to get views like I did on the Snowball and Mars, but I was very happy to get them! Attached is a sketch of Mars through the 5mm on my phone using the Paper 53 app, as I've found this is the easiest way to document my views. Then just as I was packing up I saw the Pleiades were visible so got the 8*42 bins back out and had remarkable views of easily >20 brilliant blue stars, staggering beautiful, very much becoming my favourite object. I then dropped lower down to see the Hyades and beautiful golden Aldebaran twinkling away, stunning. What a brilliant night!