Nik271

I'm glad to hear that your 8SE is performing much better. Alnitak is actually a tricky double: the companion is only 2.2'' from the primary and dimmer, so you would need excellent seeing to spot it the first time. Once you know where to look it becomes easier. Rigel and the Trapezium F and G are also highly seeing dependent. I would say Rigel is much easier than either F and G or even Alnitak, look for a much dimmer bluish companion south of the primary. Have fun with these doubles! Nik

An 80mm refractor should be excellent for wide field starry views. Think of the open clusters, notably the Double cluster, Beehive, Pleiades, Andromeda. Advantages I can think of: very easy to set up, easy to travel with, practically no cool down time, the next step in convenience and magnification from binoculars. A bigger scope will show dimmer object but likely if will be heavier, bulkier and have a narrower field of view. From what I understand it's an excellent guide-scope as well if you plan to do astrophotography in the future. And can be used for some imaging as a main scope I suppose if you can live with the CA.

After a week of cloud finally the sky was clear this morning at 6am. I brought out my EQ5 with the 127 SW Mak, a small grab and go combo that just takes 5 mins to set up. Well, actually 10-15 mins because I was fitting my new binoviewer with a pair of the 'dirt cheap' 23mm Svbony EPs with frozen fingers and trying to get the right balance/IPD distance. Finally I got everything right and was able to enjoy the serene Moon. The seeing was poor, with a noticeable 'shimmer' at 80x and I decided to stay at this magnification. The edge of Mare Crisium was the most spectacular feature, like a giant eyelid on the terminator. The crater pair Atlas and Herculis were north of it and looked quite attractive. I could see the smaller crater inside Hercules. Posidonius was also showing well, it's secondary rim well lit and clear. In the south Vallis Rheita was prominent, a dark groove running north-south with the Rheita crater east to it (my Moon maps have directions opposite to the Earth based observers for some reason). On the west of Vallis Rheita was the large crater Janssen. I spent a few minutes observing its floor, covered in numerous small craters and ridges. This an old crater. There were some high clouds by now so I just scanned the face of the Moon before packing up. For the first time I noticed that Mare Tranquilitatis is a shade darker than it's neighbour Mare Serenitatis with a darker band on the boundary. Interesting, perhaps they have slightly different composition. Have to check this up. So that's it, a quick hour of Moon. It was good to use my small Mak too, it's so easy to set up. Thanks for reading and clear skies! Nikolay

I live in Bortle 6 zone (SQM 19.32) so just a bit darker than yours. In my first year I used an Astromaster 130, that's a 5 inch reflector. It showed me so much, any Messier object I tried I could see with the exception of M101. The Orion nebula and the Dumbbell nebula were among the best. My thought is: The 8inch Dob, even factoring the extra light pollution should show you at least as much as the 5 inch, which is a lot. I advise sticking with the 8inch Dob, it will be easier to use and after some time if you decide you want to go even deeper you can upgrade.

Impressive detail! A bit more resolution and If we zoom down we'll see the tracks of the Apollo 15 expedition

Thank you for this fantastic image! I made it my desktop background for this week, to me it looks almost Hubble-like quality.

Enjoyed reading this thread! I will try to have a look at 40 Eridani next time the sky is clear.

The Moon will be indeed very bright in a 6 inch scope under low magnification. As a low cost solution you can use sunglasses But a filter will definitely help: a ND (Neutral density) filter, get one that admits only 20% of the light or less. At high magnifications (above 150x for your scope) you probably won't need the filter as the amount of light entering your eye decreases a lot. The Moon really ruins all kind of faint nebulosity including the Orion nebula, it's basically the ultimate light polluter in the sky. Last night the seeing was not very good but up to x100 the stars were looking fine. If you have bloated stars check your collimation. Newtonians regularly arrive out of collimation. A simple collimation cap (you can make one from an eyepiece cover with a pin hole right in the centre) can help you check if the primary spot is centered. And you stock low power eyepiece is very likely not very good, you should definitely upgrade it in due course. There are lots of possibilities, but you don't need to spend too much for a significant improvement, there is a separate section on this forum with a lot of advice. Enjoy your new scope!

Yes, it was lovely watching the Moon last evening! It was not steady enough for more than 100x here but I got really clear views at low magnifications. There was a noticeable ridge west of Schroters valley, right on the terminator, which was casting a prominent shadow. I was not aware there was anything high there but this morning consulting the LROC map this seems to be Montes Agricola: Something new to see every time

Success! The Moon was making it quite difficult, not so much because of the bright sky but because of the moonlight glare getting in my eyes. I put on a wide brimmed hat and it helped. South west of Tegmine there are three mag 7 stars which point to another mag 7 star, HIP39990. Eunomia was west of it and quite dim at mag 8.6 but clearly visible in 20x80. I didn't see it in my 9x50 finder probably because of the moonlight. It will be interesting to track it as it moves further west away from Tegmine over the coming days. I made a sketch: Clear skies!

Has anybody observed this one? It's at opposition now at 8.5 magnitude and pretty close to Tegmine, so should be (relatively) easy to find even with the 90% Moon. I'm going to give it a try tonight in my 20x80. Clear skies! Nik

While in Orion try Sigma Orionis, it's a quadruple star system and does not need high magnification. (Ignore the separation data from Stellarium, it refers to the separation of the primary component AB, which is also a double).

The Double Cluster looks good even in full moon. The Hyades and Pleiades are also a good choice provided the moon is not too close to them. Also can check out the red carbon stars: Hind's Crimson star in Lepus and the Garnet Star in Cepheus.

Nice! This is definitely a 'resolved' star. A 'split' means you also get to see a black line separating the Airy discs. I think this is a very good result for your scope - the separation according to stelle doppie is 1.11'' The big advantage of refractors is that the diffraction rings are less bright and this helps with splitting close doubles. This helps refractors up to a point. In principle a well collimated 8nch Newtonian even with 30% central obstruction has the resolving power to beat most refractors up to 120mm.

Wow, that is serious observing! I can't last more than a couple of hours in subzero temperatures., and my Mak eventually succumbs to the dew. The seeing was mediocre here, I just could not get anything steady above 200x. But had great views of the Moon.

I would guess that because the Moon orbit is not perfectly circular its angular speed varies a little over the month, so over longer exposures there may be some error with the Lunar tracking speed set in the mount.

Thanks for the report! I'll make a note to check these domes next time. I was also using binoviewers on the Moon last night and I'm very happy with my new purchase (BST starguider). There is definitely more clarity to the view, I'm sure I'm seeing more detail compared to a single eyepiece. Wish they were a bit wider angle though they give have only about 45 degrees FOV with 32mm Plossls. Sinus Iridum was also great on the terminator, and all the small outcrops around Plato. Clear skies!

It's interesting how blue Uranus looks on photographs, to me visually it looks sort of pale green/yellow. Neptune definitely looks blue though.

You've captured good detail on Mars, it is tiny now, less than 9'', and Uranus is just over 3'' so great images for these conditions!

Very nice image! If you are going to stack then getting a lot of frames ( a few hundred) is more important than lack of compression because you are trying to capture the moment of good seeing, and 8 bit colour is sufficient for the Moon. RAW files are quite slow to record on average camera but JPEGs are smaller and faster. So if you are stacking juts take, say 100 jpegs and stack them in Autorsakkert. Or if you prefer take a short 1-2 min long video and stack the frames.

I'm not familiar with the Klevzov-Cassegrain design, but it looks like it has a biggish central obstruction. The TAL looks more like a general purpose scope, capable of at least some widefield views, whereas the CC is more specialized towards high magnification. The CC will very likely beat the TAL on the Moon, planets globulars and double stars. There are some very good reviews of the GSO CC, to me it looks like the better choice.

Finally I got to see the sun today and I'm testing my new BST Starguider binoviewers with a Skymax 127. There is a group of sunspots east of centre of the disc, a pair of big ones in a north-south orientation and trailing them another group of (three?) small ones aligned east-west. The binoviewers work well on the small Mak, with the supplied 32mm Plossls the solar discs fits entirely in the field of view. I found it very comfortable to observe and an improvement on the cyclops view. Hopefully we'll see more activity soon with the new solar cycle picking up!

In my first days observing I also tried the Flaming Star Nebula in Auriga, with a 130mm Astromaster reflector. I found the correct location, consulted Stellarium again and again but no luck, not even a hint of the nebulosity. I decided it was my light pollution Bortle 5/6. Since then I take all these nice pictures in Stellarium with a pinch of salt, maybe it is possible with a big Dob in deep darkness. No such thing in Oxford. No big Dob either Open clusters on the other hand are great with binoculars and Auriga has three very good ones : M36, 37 and 38, roughly in a line bisecting Alnath and Theta Aurigae. I love looking at them both with binos and a telescope. Have fun with the Celestron binos! I have the same pair for a quick look around. Ideally they are for a tripod but many people, myself included manage to handhold them, especially propped on something, e.g. on a fence post.

For me the highlight of the evening was splitting 32 and 52 Orionis that John suggested in an earlier post. First I bagged 32 Orionis which was easier, I used 9mm eyepiece at the Mak giving 300x and the pair were clearly split in roughly SW-NE direction. With the same magnification I could only get 'elongated egg shape' from 52 Orionis due to unsteady seeing so I went down to 6mm and 450x, crazy magnification but it worked. They were clearly separated at the first diffraction ring in moments of steady seeing. What makes it possible is that both components are of equal magnitude. This was my first 1'' double, very happy! I think I got a hint of Sirius B, north-east of the primary but the heat plumes of the houses were making Sirius a rainbow blob and I was freezing and had trouble keeping still at the eyepiece at that stage so this will be continued on another night. Saturday looks good here!

I have a 127 SW Mak and frankly I don't think converting to 2inch visual back is worth the extra cost in diagonal and eyepieces. The opening at the back is less than 30mm, i.e its optimised for 1 and 1/4 eyepices. Sure you can put 2 inch accessories with adapters but there will be vignetting as people have pointed out already. This only makes sense if you have the gear already, so it does not come at extra cost.