Nik271

Very nice! The moon is at its best these days and high in the sky. Shame about the weather!

I had the big Mak out last night but it was complete overkill as the seeing did not support more than 100x. So I looked at some nice wide doubles from Ags' book: Chi Tauri, Eta Persei and Theta Persei. They are all very unequal in magnitude and made a nice challenge with the poor conditions. I should try this with the 127 Mak on a steady night for a proper workout. Then I remembered the Moon is still out (it was 8pm) and looked briefly -it was a shimmering jelly 😞 The best was for the end: finally hunted down the Crystal Ball nebula (NGC 1514). I have been looking for it before and never saw more than the central star. It looked just the same tonight but this time I had done some reasearch and found John's report from some years ago which recommended using OIII filter. I usually don't bother with filters but this planetary really needs it. I used a UHC filter and the nebuloisity showed up immediately. It was not very prominent but definitely there. An OIII filter to be added to the Christmas presents list. I think that's about the end of my observing for some time judging by the forecast ☁️

I was struggling to see the Crystal ball nebula tonight with my 180 Skymax and found this old thread. I added my UHC filter and the nebulosity showed up clearly at x140. Without it it seemed just an ordinary looking star. Great example where the right filter makes a ton of difference. This report was great help, I was prepared to abandon the search. Thanks, John!

I managed another look at it this morning at 6:30am. I had trouble seeing the tail this time - probably the sky was getting brighter and the comet is lower in the sky where there was a slight haze. The coma was very obvious, very much looking like a globular cluster, I estimate it between 5-th and 6-th magnitude, maybe closer to 5 when factoring in the haze. I think this is the last of my morning views of Leonard. I will try in the evenings from now on but have to be extremely lucky - it is only 5-6 degrees in altutude at 5pm.

The Nexstar is a Maksutov Cassegrain and so very tolerant of eyepieces. Reason to change EP should be comfort and maybe wide field of view rather than bad image. I recommend you test the supplied eyepieces under the stars first and this can help you decide your next move. For example you may need more eye relief if you wear glasses. If you prefer planetary views then you may choose a short focal length EP. Conversely for wide views of open clusters etc your 25mm is probably going to do a decent job at first. Do you know its field of view? They usually come with a 50 degrees field of view which is ok. A BST starguider will have 60, so a bit better. Svbony have a red line range of inexpensive EPs with 68 degrees field . Almost any eyepiece will give decent image in you scope because its focal ratio is super slow F12. I have the Sky watcher Mak 127 which is a similar scope and use mostly budget eyepieces in it with good results.

Nothing beats binoculars for speed, just grab and go and within 60 seconds you are observing. Spotted Leonard again in bins at 6am this morning 🙂 By the way I've found that at low magnification cooling is not so essential for my Maks. (I usually keep them in a shed outside and occasionally bring them indoors to dry any trapped moisture). If I stay around 50-80x the views are nice even when warm. Of course low mags kind of defeat the purpose of a Mak, even so views are very nice on many open clusters.

@Pixies we were watching it at the same time at 6 am :-) I found it about mag 6, but was hampered by it's low altitude and hazy sky conditions. I saw a faint longish tail which disappeared quickly with the brightening sky. Tomorrow morning looks good weatherwise but the comet will be even lower. I think for me the best chance will be at 6:30am, when it is a bit higher. It should be visible even in the twilight with scope or big bins.

If only more people get this experience there will be progress to reduce unnecessary light pollution. Christmas is a bit to blame too, whole towns glowing now in silly fairy lights even at the small hours of the morning when there is no one to see it It's so good to go somewhere remote with a dark sky! I agree - just eyes and bins are enough for a whole night of observing.

Saw Leonard this morning at 6am in my 20x80 bins, in hazy twilight conditions. It didn't look much brighter than the previous morning, I will say mag 6. It moved past the 8-th magnitude star SAO 101575 as I was watching it. I estimate it covered more than 5' in 20 minutes! It's practically racing across the sky, unfortunately heading lower and lower towards the horizon for us, just as it get brigher. There may be a couple more days to see it in the morning before it becomes an evening comet.

Observed C/2021 A1 Leonard this morning in 20x80 binoculars from 5:45am to 6:20am. Quite bright (I estimate mag 6) and moving rapidly. Tail at least a degree long, faint. I'm looking forward to another view tomorrow morning when it's supposed to be clear.

I was lucky with the clouds this morning and managed to observe C/2021 A1 Leonard for at least half an hour, from 5:45am to about 6:20am 🙂 I put my Celestron 20x80 Skymasters on a tripod and sat watching it creep southeast on the line joining mag 6 SAO 101379 and mag 8.6 SAO 101352. It has become much brighter than a few days ago, I estimate it at mag 6 so could be possibly naked eye visible in dark skies (but not mine). It has a large tail at least a degree long but quite faint (or so it seemed to me in the brightening sky) and poining north-west. As @ONIKKINEN mentioned above it moves quite rapidly: it changed position noticeably in the 30 mins I observed. Quite a thrilling sight and good start of the day! I wonder how bright it will get.

Some DSO are quite large and either look better or can only be seen whole in a wider field. For example the Double Cluster, the Pleiades, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Triangulum galaxy, the Veil nebula, to name a few. I guess your telescope is F5 and so has 1250mm focal length, You can get a 2 inch 32mm EP with 70 degree field of view and you will have almost 2 degree of the sky visible in the EP. You actually need low magnifications for DSO, say about 50-60x. This is because some DSO are so dim and large that you need wider field and a big exit pupil, i.e. bright image to have a chance seeing them.

I have this EP and use it regularly in 127 SW Mak at F12 for my highest magnification. I'm quite happy with it. Its main defect is 'kidney beaning' on bright objects: unless you position your eye right in the centre you may see shifting bands of backouts at the edge of the field. This is not noticeable on DSO and double stars. There are sometimes ghost reflections when very bright objects are just outside the field of view, notably on the Moon. Apart from that it is very good EP for its price: made well and with generous eye relief even for observing with glasses.

There are differences in the native aberrations from each design. For example RCs have no coma but suffer from astigmatism. SCTs and Newtonians have coma, Maks have higher order spherical aberrations. With correctors you can probably get them all to produce a flat undistorted image circle. Where they differ most from eash other is the difficulty of manufacturing the optical surfaces (which becomes closely related to cost), the need and ease of regular collimation, and of course the practicality and convenience factor ( weight/size ). I think a large fast Newtonian with coma corrector is probably the most bang for bucks equipment you can get but at 10-11 inches aperture they become hard to mount even in an observatory. And you have to live with diffraction spikes. Note that for imaging the size of the central abstruction is not so important. Unless you are doing planetary for everything else your mount will probably be the biggest limiting factor with these large focal distance scopes.

Sadly cloud and drizzle here. There are about 10 days of opportunity to see it in the morningn before it gets too close to the horizon. Should get even brighter hopefully...

I suspect the extra magnification of the 15x 56 may help more than the extra aperture over the 12x50. I've often found that transparency is excellent after rain has just moved away. The downside is that with the falling temperatures and wet ground my telescopes get fogged up easily. Binoculars seem a great relaxing alternative. I had a good look at the Auriga clusters yesterday and they were showing very nice indeed. I use 20x80 and they show a lot of stuff which I just can't see in my 10x50.

Well done Chris! I agree that transparency is just as important as seeing for Sirius B. I've seein it in glimpses but still waiting for that perfect constant view. I was trying some close doubles last evening but decided the seeing did not support my ambitious plans (7 Tauri and Dubhe). At least I got a split of Delta3 Tauri at x250 with the 180 Mak, and then had a relaxing 20 mins with binoculars scanning the open clusters in Auriga and Cassiopeia. For the Pup I think I'll wait a bit more until Sirius is higher at a more reasonable time.

Unless it's made by Isaac Newton

Thanks for the chart! I saw the comet this morning at 5:30am with 20x80 binoculars. It was actually pretty easy to find even in the moonlight. Right now it's passing the magnitude 5 start 37 Com and heading towards M3. I could even see a tail about 10' long. I think the magnitude 7.5 estimate is bang on target. With the Moon waning and the comet getting brigher the next few days should be a treat if it stays clear!

I saw comet C/2021 A1 Leonard this morning at 5:30am!! It's actually quite bright I estimate it at mag 7-8. It's easily seen in binoculars even in moonlight, and has a small tail. Highly recommend it, the next few days it should get even brighter but closer to the horizon at sunrise. I'll add more details in the binoculars observing section.

I stay in the 'practical value for money' camp most of the time, my scopes are all run of the mill Synta products, but I can well understand the attraction of owning a 'best in class' scope even if delivers just 5% more over others. Once you become really engaged with a hobby (or job or anything really) then you start to appreciate the tiny increments more, partly because of the realisation how hard it is to get this extra 5% of performance and the craftmanship required to deliver it.

Hard to beat binoculars for hiking... perhaps bigger binoculars on a tripod/monopod? Something like a 15x70 or 20x80 with a monopod will give similar aperture to a small refractor and will weigh 2-3 kilos only.

Venus is pretty low for us in the north at this time of the year, I've only seen it in binoculars recently when it looks like a 'mini Moon'. Try to use filters to reduce the glare and to see if it is some atmospheric effect. I've found a medium to strong red filter helps with Venus.

That's a great first session! I would recommend not to go beyond magnification higher than 200-250 on the 130PDS and the Eq3: the atmospheric seeing rearely allows it and you will start to notice every little shake of the mount, even when someone is walking nearby. If the image is too bright use filters on Jupiter and the Moon. If you make a record of the time of your observation you can later identify the Galilean moons on Sky Safary or Stellarium by setting it to that time and just zooming into Jupiter. Lots of great targets are awaiting, just wait until you see the Orion nebula!

Last evening there was a very brief clear spell around 7pm and I managed to observe Jupiter and Saturn with quite good seeing at x180. The Cassini division was easily visible on Saturn as well as banding on the planet and several moons: Titan, Rhea, Dione and Tethys. On Jupiter both NEB and SEB were prominent and several white zones. Two of the moons were very close together as @John said, very noticeable difference in sizes between them. I had hopes for more observing after dinnner but clouds had covered the sky by 8pm.