PeterW

Waves it good but in the twilight with my 15x70 yesterday. Peter

Probably my last attempt to see it before it rounds the sun, thin cloud moving through, not sure which direction. Pons brooks is just below right of hamal, quite easy in my 10x50, diffuse spot, but no obvious tail. Glad to have seen. Peter

I’ll be treasuring the 2024 calendar for a long time, always got it, such great shots. Peter

I’ve seen a lot of nebula images that show essentially nothing, as Ed noted, but it’s there in the data, it just needs better processing to do it justice. If they could add some extra processing levers to allow more to be pulled out then I might drop off the fence, but I can’t be bothered if I have to download and run the data through extra software. For newbies who want to see something it’s a game changer… most astro objects through a similarly priced store scope (apart from the moon, maybe the planets and maybe a few asterisms) will be much worse, especially when you factor in the issue with trying to find stuff! How many cheap scopes linger in lofts and cupboards as they could find stuff and it didn’t look like on the box…. Peter

If the onboard processing was better so you could show nebulae better and mosaic mode was added then it would be almost perfect. Sure a cooled camera on an apo with a really solid EQ mount will beat it…. Field of view you can’t win on…. Good for big nebulae or able to shoot planets and galaxies… half your buyers will hate you. I think the balance is great, but we still need mosaic! you can always wait, a bigger and more costly one will probably arrive, will it be better, will it have different compromises?? Peter

The Aurora oval forecast is showing some angry red at the moment, fingers crossed this hangs about and we don’t have any “confusing” thin cloud. Mercury is low in the west… in case this flops. Peter

… gone red… gone more off the charts than it normally does, forecast is (fingers crossed) good till nearly midnight… Peter

I picked up some secondhand Leica 8x20 trinovid, the smallest of this class of binos. Views narrower than I prefer, but they take up no space in my jacket pocket, so easy to carry all the time, never know when they might come in handy. peter

Just seen it in my elderly 15x70 from suburbia, will try to see it as often as I can till it disappears into the southern hemisphere. Peter

If you want hydrogen nebulae then a narrowband Hbeta can deliver, otherwise a narrow oiii can be good. There are some good CN threads: eg https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/722322-pushing-the-filter-envelope-observing-galactic-nebulae-with-handheld-binoculars-under-suburban-skies/ c.hay has done a lot of testing. peter

Using the full 7mm pupil can begin to show worse stars as your eye lens has worse figure for larger pupil diameters. I’d get a trigger grip and monopod like this… https://binocularsky.com/binoc_mount.php stabilise the 15x70, to improve the view. As others suggest a lighter 8x would be useful, could also be carried around and used in the daytime. peter

I’ve always been a right eye observer, but when the exit pupil gets small, the floaters start to get annoying. Well tonight I decided to get the other eye have a go, and it seems suffers less from floaters. Previously I’d found it harder to use as it’s my non-dominant eye. Quick session as there were clouds about and so I didn’t get the maps out. Saw a fine shadow down the southern edge of the alpine valley and a couple of the small craters along catena Davey with the 127Mak, which seems good, so maybe left eye for the moon from now on! Peter

“We come from the dark side”, no-one suspected anything… just a few blokes staring at a wall looking though “eyepieces”. Very useful “planning session” too. Peter

What size scope do you need to benefit from it? Peter

The dark sky reserve will be posting annual updates to their SQM survey and will list multiple good sites in the dark sky area. Local groups will know more and if the council is active in reducing the light pollution, sounds like a good plan to move, though you have to watch out for neighbours with crazy LED flood fittings that can cause issues. peter

The S&T field atlas of the moon (available in normal and mirror versions) are very good for overviews as other atlas provide too small a field of view. Some of the Apollo era charts are surprisingly detailed, though the coverage isn’t complete. The duplex atlas is the current one to get, decent and available (unlike many others!) For things to observe the lunar 100 is good, “features of the near side of the moon” by John Moore is also useful as it provides charts to find all the different types of feature you might be interested and want to find more of… domes, rimae etc. (I’ve think got a spare copy of the 1st edition going spare). Peter

Given the focal length I wonder if the normal starsense (the auto set-up, non auto guider model) could do a reasonable job. peter

https://www.celestron.com/products/celestron-origin-intelligent-home-observatory Celestron a big news, a 6” RASA as some predicted. Lots more options for all of us! Peter

new one from Unistellar just announced at CES. https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/unistellar-reveals-new-odyssey-and-odyssey-pro-smart-telescopes-at-ces-2024 peter

H-beta is good, works on more nebulae than people sometimes believe. I’ve used a pair on my binoculars to see hydrogen nebulae from a suburban location. Need to shield your eye from all stray light as the filter blocks a lot. peter

Similarly I am waiting for some more reviews, seems to do best with larger optics than I have available?! Peter

Short exposures using an intensifier will also just look like snow…. You need to integrate for a little while to see the inage, using fast optics maximises the brightness. If you use too much magnification you can also starve the intensifier and get a similar result. This is why people take longer exposures with NV, to smooth the noise to get a smooth image. The reason we can see hydrogen nebulae normally isn’t that they’re faint it’s that our eyes are rubbish at seeing deep red light. if you want more detail on nebulae then why not use the tried and trusted reconciliation route, measure the spread and remove it. I am sure it’s only a matter of time before some amateur makes a laser guide star system, though sodium orange is not an easy colour to create. Then you could detect and correct the blurring in real time. Peter

I’m not far from your previous location Ian, sadly M31 is not naked eye anymore. Peter

My SQM now reads about half a magnitude higher (darker) since full cut off LED locally (potential for some spectral systematic issues though). I can sometimes see all of UMi , but never the milkyway. peter

Long shot, but does anyone have any SQM data for places in London over a period of many years? I am seeing if we have any historic time series “ground truth” light pollution data for places in London. There have been plenty of changes in light fittings and some reports of “10% rises in light pollution” floating about. Looking at VIIRS data it seems some area may have seen reduction and others increases in light pollution, so anyone witH SQM data could be helpful to see if things might correlate. A recent paper noted that streetlights (at least in the city in the US studied) contributed potentially less than 10% to the overall night light levels seen from space…. Thanks Peter