Nik271

I managed to see the secondary on Monday night with my 127mm Mak at 250x but it was very subtle and I could only see it for brief moments. It was breezy and a bit hazy so I will try again in better conditions. Hopefully this weekend we'll get some clear spells again.🤞

Yes, a zoom for planetary works very well: The narrow FOV at lower mags is not an issue for planets and the ability to switch magnification at a twist of the barrel is very convenient. You can try the SVbony budget zoom 7-21mm for about 50 quid without investing too much.

Very nice sketch, Ade! I went out to observe them now and indeed they do look very much like Cassiopeia.

Last night I managed to see Vallis Inghirami for the first time. It was well placed near the terminator and was easier that I expected, I guess I lot depends on the lunar libration. The seeing was moderate to poor, I stayed at 100x with my 127mm Mak. I found that most lunar maps don't represent the extreme edge of the near side very well, probably because their appearance changes from month to month. I played with the LROC map to get an angle which represents what I could see at the scope: Other highlights were Grimaldi and Riccioli, Rima Sarsalis (just glimpsed in moments of good seeing) and Pythagoras in the north. Tonight is supposed to be cloudy, I was hoping for more extreme edge of lunar limb stuff. Mare Orientale maybe... well the clouds will have the final word. Clear skies (hopefully)! Nik

Mons Rumker was also quite dramatic in the north with a big shadow. For a change I tried the orange filter No 21, I saw this recommended for full Moon somewhere on the net. Seems to work on the bright parts of the Moon, not entirely convinced if the orange was making the difference or just any filter cutting out the glare. But my seeing was poor, I stayed below 150x.

Looks very good! You also got Rima Hadley on top, Rima Ariadaeus and also the Triesnecker rilles below Hyginus, they look like an elongated letter K. Excellent result!

Excellent detail and a very natural look, well processed!

I was curious how the little Mak will do in good seeing. These were from yesterday when it was windy but the seeing was still quite good. I could visually spot the southern part of Rima Hadley at x170. I think I'm getting close to the limit what a 120mm catadioptic can show with a DSLR. Not sure what is main limiting factor here, is it the scope or is it the camera. For info, a 3 minute video in highest resolution mode (4k) with my Canon 250D gives files of size about 3Gb, which surely compresses too much. Still I think its not too bad for 120mm aperture: Look at Huxley at the base of Mons Huygens. This crater is only 4km in diameter, so about 2 arcseconds and it appears well resolved. And these are the Southern highlands. I have been neglecting my little Mak for the past few months but now I'm back in love with it

Nicely done! The 1500mm focal distance of the 127 Mak is perfect to fit the whole of the Moon or Solar disc onto an APS-C sensor.

Thanks for the review! It does look a nice planetary scope and 90% of the time the seeing does not need more than 150mm of aperture. If I didn't have two Maks already I will be tempted to get one of those. Here in the UK there is also the StellaLyra line which is I think very similar. By the way you got the 'eyes of Clavius', great! I was looking for an image of this from last night, exactly what I saw visually.

Well if you stay at low magnifications a sturdy photo tripod is not too bad. Actually my main worry with the Heritage will be collimation, is it going to hold it well when shaken about? Then again if you don't use it above x100 even collimation is not such a big issue.

Superb images! These long tube Newtonians are really good, at F7 or F8 I guess? They don't make make many slow focal ratio scopes like that any more, which is a shame, they seem to be excellent for planetary work. By the way did somebody get the 'eyes of Calvius' last night, around 9pm? Clavius C and Clavius D were the only craterlets illuminated and they looked like an owl staring at me. I was doing only visual and was too tired to fiddle with the camera, focusing etc. Still was rather hoping somebody took an image of this

Indeed Walther has a spectacular shadow of the central peak when on the terminator. I enjoyed looking at that too. Here is my image. This one is with a 7 inch Mak and a DSLR camera attached to the telescope in prime focus. You need a T-ring and a Barlow and some processing and your 8 inch Dob can get similar results.

Hi! I decided to share this. Could not fit all of the Sun onto my DSLR sensor Taken with 127 Skymax and Canon 250D. Best 10% of 3000 frames stacked in AS1!.

Nice! You are lucky down south, here in the UK Saturn will barely make 20 degrees above horizon But last year was worse, so not complaining too much

There are many sunspots visible today, in 3 different groups. Definitely worth a look if you can make it! Nik PS. Thought I should add a link to the latest SDO white light image. This is exactly what I can see with my white light filter right now.

I too had a look at the Moon last evening and agree the seeing was excellent. I used the small 127mm Mak which was still on the tripod from the solar session earlier and was pleasantly surprised how much it showed. I started to enjoy more the full picture Moon viewed at less than 100x with binoviewers than 'the zoomed in' experience.

Beautiful! Every time I'm tempted to get a big Dob I look at some images in this forum to remind myself that great results too can be obtained with modest apertures.

In principle you just need a t ring with either 2inch or 1.25inch adapter that goes in the focuser similar to an eyepiece. The complication is that often the focuser may not have enough inward travel to bring the camera sensor to the focus plane. It really depends on the individual telescope model. Thus can be solved with a Barlow, you probably won't fit all of the moon in the frame but it's worth trying a 300mm scope can give superb resolution.

Apologies if this has been done a 100 times before, but I just couldn't resist. Last night the seeing was so-so. I shot a few minutes of video of the Moon with my Skymax 180. This morning I realized I have the area around the Apollo 11 landing site. Armstrong Collins and Aldrin craters are visible and staring at the pixels I think I can just make out a faint smudge where Cat's Paw is supposed to be. I put a cross where Apollo 11 landed (I think.) Quite thrilled to be able to spot something like this from my back garden

Great report, Mark and well done on the M51. Its become one of my favourite galaxies, especially at this time of the year when it gets high. I found that 2mm exit pupil with my Maks works best for galaxies in suburban skies, because it darkens the background sky enough to start to spot the faint fuzzies. On a good night you should be able to spot the Hamburger in the Leo triple as well with averted vision. I recently made it out and was surprised how big it was, double the length of the other two.

This is a pretty decent image of Markarian's chain of galaxies. See this excellent recent image of the same region by @Rob63 with annotation showing which is which.

Stunning, Rob, what a fabulous image!

I quite like this one, from this winter. The moon was overhead and creating a halo in the clouds. I snapped a few shots handheld with my DSLR and a telephoto lens. Had to make a composite to get both the clouds and the moon details.

You can try putting a towel or a small bean bag on the horizontal bar and rest the binoculars on it. It should work up to elevations of 60degrees I think. People also use broom handles, so low tech option is definitely worth trying first.