IB20

I have the More Blue microfocuser on my 76DCU. It’s very nice, an easy fit and has a finer gear reduction at 12:1 than the MEF3. Cheaper too!

They’ve both been purchased… phew!!

Stop it!!! Must… resist…

The 102ED f7 is a wonderful scope with exceptionally good optics. I’m having a great deal of fun with mine especially for planetary and doubles observing. It’s built incredibly well, I even quite like the rotating focuser now. It sits very nicely on an AZ4 but I have recently upgraded to the AZ75 which is a match made in heaven.

Wonderful. I had a look at M42 on Friday night through my 8” and was blown away by how it looked. Must’ve been the transparency of my skies because it appeared a lot brighter and greener than I can recall in the past. I do love Orion and Sirius season. 😁

How’s the Mewlon’s control of brightness, @JeremyS? Are you using any filters or aren’t they needed? I find with the 8” dob the brightness just swamps everything. Average seeing doesn’t support extra mag to kill the brightness and so tonight the 102ED-R gives miles more pleasing views. Maybe I’m just extra sensitive to brightness in the eyepiece? I am continually impressed by this 4” ED scope, it’s a wonderful instrument and showing me so much. It’s giving me no reason to think about replacing it with a DC or DZ. 😝

Jupiter looks fantastic tonight with the GRS front and centre. For the first time as well I’m fairly certain I can see a white oval storm in the NEB nearly in line with the GRS. I’ve been trying to spot one of those features for three years! Forgot it’s Diwali this weekend, it’s pretty wild and hazy out currently.

Yeah I should maybe rephrase as I’ve tried for M4 before and it’s a real tough one that I’m yet to bag. I’m fairly sure I won’t see the nebulous target from my current location.

Caught it tonight when at a much higher altitude. I have to say it’s a relatively tough spot in the 15x bins but luckily is easily to locate just south of Deneb al Okab. Mag 6.8 HD 176873 is just next to it and I’d say that’s probably a fair representation of its brightness despite being more diffuse! It’s certainly not the best comet I’ve seen that’s for sure.

Well that’s M2 in the bag. Globs are always a very easy spot. Only took the 15x bins out at an easy grab north of Sadalsuud. Whilst in the area I thought I’d get M15 too, save me waiting. A much brighter core than M2 and I’d bet it looks better in a big scope too! Will post in order as it’ll save my brain cells but will record it elsewhere. M2 11/11/23 - an easily detectable globular cluster (15x70 binoculars).

One of these is very high on my wish list currently. They look blummin’ awesome.

As I finally bagged M1 last night, I’m going to see how long it takes me to do all 110 from my back yard (B6-7). Maybe in numerical order but that might drive me crackers! Any that can’t be reached or that aren’t visible will be noted and skipped over until I’m in darker/or a more Southerly location. M2 should be gettable tonight so I’ll update as and when I bag it. Wish me luck! 😅 M1 10/11/2023 - a hard to see diffuse, grey smudge (scope 200P at 69x)

Sounds epic. I still remember those nights I spent at Undara National Park in QLD. Prestine and jaw-dropping views. I couldn’t identify anything!

Just finished the night on Orion. After thinking I much prefer my little fracs (which I still do), seeing the benefits of aperture on M42 still makes me realise I have room in the armoury for a large shaving mirror. 😁 It’s good to have the hunter back in my skies. Transparency has been wonderful tonight even if the seeing hasn’t. The 15x bins alongside the big light cannon have really held their own in these conditions.

THANK YOU!!! I’ve been trying to work out how to do that, it does my brains in when it keeps auto exposing.

Seeing your images, it’s the whites that I seem to struggle to promote in processing. So I’m either capturing at too low an exposure or tracking and stacking is making the difference.

For the first and probably last time 😅 I have finally tracked down M1. I’m going to put this down as a “must have dark skies” target.

So tried the MSM holder on the 200P with the 3.2mm BST and iPhone Pro 14 stock video app. Actually found taking a single image from the video works better than the VideoStack app as the drift time is only about 3 seconds. Not great seeing + high mag & zoom seems to introduce more blur on the stacking app. Single image touched up in LR. Accompanied by Ganymede and Europa.

I’m not seeing it with the 15x70s. I know I’m in the right area as I’m around 110 & 111 Herc but my skies are just a little bit too bright lower down in that direction. Think I need it to be a higher altitude so will try again earlier on tomorrow.

I asked FLO about these roller bearing bases for the 200P and they said there’s no reason it shouldn’t work. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/stellalyra-roller-bearing-for-dobsonian-telescopes-8-to-16-aperture.html

Jeremy has some cracking views of Rupes Recta.

Great sketches. This is the first year since I started in 2020 that I’ve managed to see bluey/grey bruising in the NEB! Wonder if it’s helped by altitude? Or perhaps previous years at opposition the clouds/jet stream haven’t co-operated?

Out with the 15x binoculars tonight. M45 and Melotte 20 look superb; the double cluster despite its location at zenith is absolutely beautiful. Excellent transparency tonight! I need to do more binocular sessions.

Very quick session with the 76mm last night as was expecting an Io shadow transit but SkySafari had turned light time off, probably when the clocks went back 😩 so I was a good 30 odd mins ahead. Still some nice views of Jupiter, seeing not quite there as the previous night. A very noticeable dark brown festoon/barge was trailing the GRS however, sort of cigar shaped and was much larger than barges I’ve seen before.

Got some nice views of Jupiter tonight, lovely detail particularly on the lower boundary of the NEB. At 9:51pm I started to see a pin prick of light just off the Western edge of Jupiter. After a few minutes, Europa fully revealed itself from the planet’s shadow. I think I’ve also nearly sorted push to on my 102ed with my phone and PS Align Pro. Before the clouds rolled in, had a quick find of some targets ending on a really super double star in Mesarthim.