Nik271

Consider a zoom eyepiece for the planets. They don't have wide view but you don't really need it for planets and the convenience of the zoom is that you can pick the magnification that is best for the conditions. The 7-21mm Svbony one is a good performer in scopes over F7, sharp from edge to edge in my experience. I have the 127 SW Mak and it can go above 200x in ideal conditions, I think it's limit is with about 6mm EP (250x). But conditions are rarely that good, especially with the planets being low on the horizon.

At least that is what Stellarium tells me for Oxford, UK. The times will be slightly different elsewhere in the UK. The star should reappear around 00:50. Might be fun to watch. It's a full Moon night, so what else to watch anyway

Good job! I did something similar with an exercise mat. The long section in front is also useful as a hood against stray light. I found that the protection lasts for hours - even after every other part of the scope is dripping wet with moisture in the autumn nights. When leaving it outside to cool before observing point it to the ground. Also don't leave the eyepiece inside, otherwise it will get too cold and mist up too.

Sorry I didn't pay attention to the model number, hence this edit. I have the SV 108 and these are OK. but is a helical focuser. No experience with SV181.

I know the great red spot on Jupiter was recently given a clean bill of health: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/jupiters-great-red-spot-gets-smaller-but-stronger/ But... this morning I was observing Jupiter at about 4:30am in morning twilight and was struck how pale GRS looked. It seems smaller than last year and certainly much fainter than the colour of the north equatorial band. This recent image by @si@nite seems to support this. I wonder what is going on.

I don't think any amateur astronomer is into the hobby because of its practical everyday usefulness. Once upon a time it was indeed very practically useful, for example for navigation and timekeeping. However in order to make sense of the objects we see we need to learn a lot of other sciences, especially physics. So for school students this can be declared very useful. There is also the fascinating history of science in which astronomy plays a very big role so again very useful for it's educational value.

I wonder what William Herschel will make of it. He discovered the double double with his 7 foot reflector which I believe was 6 inches in aperture and in the preface of his catalogue of doubles stars he warns that the closer doubles in it are beyond the abilities of a 3ft achromat. Equipment has improved quite a bit since then

Thank you! I don't have experience with dedicated cameras because I already have a DSLR. The dedicated cameras should produce better results because they save the videos files with very little or no compression at all in AVI or SER format. My DSLR saves video with a very lossy mp4 compression. This will determine how much fine detail you can extract in the processing stage. For this reason alone I think a dedicated camera is the better choice but I just haven't found the cash to go that route yet.

If you mean planetary imaging then yes, the Skymax is very good for that. I did some planetary imaging with it two years ago and was very happy with the results. Recently I tend to use it more as a solar scope. For comparison here are two moon images from a night of good seeing with an attached DSLR. I have used it to image some bright DSOs as well, the Orion nebula and M13. It's not ideal for DSO because of the slow focal ratio, but if you stick to shorter exposures can do some good work on the brighter and smaller DSO, e.g. some planetary nebulae and globular clusters. Give it a try, it will not disappoint!

If you can see specs of dirt inside from the eyepiece this suggests they are very close to the focal plane, otherwise they will be totally invisible. I had similar issue with a cheap 20mm eyepiece and I took it apart, cleaned it carefully and this solved it. But this may not be sensible option with and expensive EP with many elements inside, especially zoom ones. Actually zoom EPs tend to get more dirty with time because the internal movement of the lenses displaces air in and out of them. But they are hell to dismantle and clean safely, best to leave it to a professional cleaning outfit.

Very nice, so much detail! The seeing was excellent last night, I was observing visually with Skymax 180 Mak-Cass and the views were very close to this. Cassegrains really excel in Moon and planetary imaging/observing. I guess Takahashi quality helps too

The next brightest moon of Jupiter after the four Galileans is Amalthea at magnitude 14. I doubt many people have seen it visually. It was discovered by Barnard in 1892 with the 91cm Lick refractor. The magnitude itself is not too dim for a big telescope but the proximity to the bright Jupiter makes is very difficult. A big refractor is needed

I just had a look at this sunspot with a WL filter. The spot has rotated a bit further into the disk with a rather large plage region around it. Surprisingly the seeing was excellent in some moments I could see the surface granulation in my 127mak with a binoviewer.

I had a very clear evening yesterday and noticed the new Moon was 5 degrees from Venus. This year Venus is hard to see, pretty close to the horizon at sunset.

I tried with my 127 SW Mak at about 11pm. Sadly the air that low was very turbulent, Antares was sparkling in all colours of the rainbow. I checked Izar and the Double Double and got superb clear views even at 250x, so the seeing higher up was good. I think Antares requires a vacation in middle East or thereabouts. Some dry desert air and no light pollution. We can dream

I wonder if a blue filter will help, it will dim the orange primary while (as far as I know) the secondary is blue.

Excellent! Every time I tried Antares last year the seeing was hopeless, but I should give a try this weekend, it looks like a good calm spell. I'm thinking to use the 127 Mak, instead of my 180 Mak, it's more resistant to seeing and the 120mm aperture should be sufficient. Antares reaches only 11 degrees altitude for me, so it will be all down to the seeing.

Managed to take a few shots around 10:40am Then the clouds closed in.

Being a cloud feature the GRS is not 100% predictable, it has been known to do strange things, even (slowly) fade, change colour and size, so any software needs updating with an actual observation on a regular basis. Project Pluto page says it's updated at the beginning of each year.

I have found that the desktop version of Stellarium is quite accurate for both transits and GRS, while the mobile version gives moon transits accurately but its predictions for the GRS are off by more than an hour. As a quick reference Project Pluto is very good: https://www.projectpluto.com/jeve_grs.htm Today I overslept and only got at the scope at 4:45am by which time Jupiter was no longer prominent with naked eye. It took me some time to spot it in the finder, but eventually I managed it (I'm using EQ5 in manual mode, very quick to start observing but hard to find objects you can't locate approximately at least with naked eye.) In the telescope at x180 the view of Jupiter was very sharp and the shadow of Europa was easily visible between the two main bands. The GRS had rotated out of view. The contrast was not the best, because of the daylight, but the seeing was excellent. I could see multiple bands and even a hint of festoons near the equatorial belts. I just wish I started 40mins earlier, looked like a great conditions for high magnification planetary observing. As Jupiter rises earlier every day, in a few weeks we can see it higher in altitude in the darkness for best views. Clear skies! Nik

There will be another moon shadow transit on Jupiter tomorrow morning starting at about 4am: the shadow of Europa will be visible and the great red spot. 4am is already quite light, but say about 150x the sky background is dark enough for good contrast and Jupiter is high enough to good seeing. I am planning to get up for this, an hour of observing and then can start the day early

PS, Just realized that @CentaurZ plot above is for 42 degrees latitude, in the UK it will be even worse - Venus will not even reach 10 degrees

This post by @CentaurZ plots the position of Venus 30 mins after sunset for the rest of the year. Most of the time is only at 10 degrees altitude rising to about 15 degrees in October/November/December. That's when it will be larger and best to see this year. Nik

Hi Chris, welcome to SGL! Some very good advice above. I don't know if you've done this already but if you haven't: a dew shield is very useful on cold nights, that is all nights except maybe midsummer. I have two Maks, one of which is the 127 Skymax. I made dew shields for both from a single foam exercise mat. Its very cheap and with Velcro straps works just as well as the custom made dew shields. I still use the supplied diagonal after more than two years. In my view the improvements with more expensive diagonals will be very small, I've compared with a dielectric but did not find great difference. One word of advice for the diagonal: when dusty clean it only with a blower and avoid touching the mirror at all. Its not coated with anything protective and scratches very easily. Enjoy your Mak, it's a great scope! Nik

Very nice to see sunspots in action, thanks for the video! This proves long summer days of sunshine are good for something after all