Nik271

Nice report! I love scanning idly the sky with binoculars when I don't feel like setting up a scope with all the hassle this involves in winter. Yesterday night was breezy here but very transparent. I can recommend another binocular target:The Christmas tree cluster. Just follow the line from Bellatrix to Betelgeuse and continue about one step. I hadn't observed this one before and it's perfect for binoculars, looks like a small upside down Christmas tree.

Great report! M42 is amazing isn't it? I still remember my first look of it, its like gull wing among the stars. I also tried in vain to find the Flame and the Horsehead nebulas near Alnitak and this is when I realised the difference between visual astronomy and astrophotography At least for people with small scopes in light polluted skies. By the way I don't think Pollux is a real double star but an optical one and the 'companion' is really dim: mag 14, so very hard to see even with big scopes. Another (much easier) double star to try is Mizar (Zeta Ursae Majoris). At x65 you should have no trouble separating the pair. Clear skies!

I second that: a telephoto lens is great for a lot of the larger deep sky objects. The most important equipment needed is the equatorial mount to allow for longer exposures. Here is a modest example taken with camera and telephoto lens: I took this image with Canon 250D and old Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 lens using EQ5 with RA motor. Cost of DSLR: £500, Lens: £300 (second hand from ebay), EQ5 mount plus motors: £350 (from FLO) There were just 10 exposures of 30 seconds at 800ISO (clouds interrupted). I stacked these 10 images in Deepskystacker and then cropped and played with the curves in GIMP. The image is too noisy and there are far far better ones. I just want to illustrate that even with modest and relatively cheap equipment it's possible to capture a lot of stuff in the sky and have fun. Clear skies! Nikolay

I used to do that in the summer but in winter I'm worried that moisture will get inside the equipment. It's been terribly wet recently

Hi, I also started with an Astromaster 130. It has enough light gathering capacity to show you a lot of deep sky objects. You will be limited by the light pollutions in your city but a few of the brighter objects should be visible e.g: The Andromeda galaxy, The Pleiades Orion Nebula, Hey, you are south enough to see the globular cluster Omega Centauri! We don't get to see this one from the UK, it's the brightest globular cluster in the sky. You can check the location of these objects in the free planetarium programs like stellarium https://stellarium-web.org/ I also recommend the book: Turn Left at Orion, with 100+ objects for small telescopes (including the above) and instructions how to find them. Have fun! Nikolay

A lens flare artifact?

Most likely it was the seeing that was the limiting factor. For doubles below 2-3'' of separation the atmosphere is a major player. I had a brief window of partially clear sky yesterday and I looked at Mars but the seeing was moderate to poor, so didn't bother with high powers. The stars were twinkling a lot. I think I've had only a couple of clear spells in the past 2 months and even then the seeing was poor At least I had a good view of Uranus in binoculars as a bonus, so happy considering the conditions. Nikolay

That's good to know! I will try with high power next time. (Considering the weather it may be some time)

Indeed! I couldn't spot this detail visually. I've read about the granulation of the photosphere but it's still amazing how it shows up after processing. To me the level of difference seems similar to the detail visible in DSO imaging vs visual observation. I'm comforted from what Luke said above that a solar camera should be cheaper than a deep sky camera, after all there are more photons coming from our local star

I will not take this story seriously, not everything that Mr Musk says is actually realistic. I doubt they will even try to land at the next opposition, at best it will be an orbital robotic mission.

Sad news At least it proves that the previous assessment that it was too dangerous to fix was correct.

I was afraid so. Oh well, perhaps I should just invest in a dedicated mono camera for astrophotography.

This is my first try of solar imaging. I learned that the Sun is becoming more active recently and yesterday (1 December) was sunny for a change. So I decided to give it a go. I have a Skymax 127 and 120mm diameter (white light) solar filter which I bought last year for the transit of Mercury but have not used since. I took a few single images with Canon 250D and a video of 4500 frames of which I stacked the best 20% with Autostakkert. Then I sharpened in Registax, basically following my planetary routine. So here goes the single frame And stacked region of interest: I'm quite happy how it turned out, did not expect to see so much detail with a basic filter. I think even the granulation is showing up near the spots. Now I have another object to photograph in daytime I have a basic question: if I want to use a H-alpha sun filter do I also need an astromodified camera? Cheers, Nikolay

Beautiful image! I like the dramatic glow of the clouds.

I did some more careful investigation and realized that I have misread the labels of the moon atlas I'm using 😞 The second crater is is not Catena Humboldt but Hecataeus. Catena Humboldt should be a sequence of small craters and I doubt it can be seen at all.

That's right, the ridge was exactly this and it was very bright. I also noticed the crater above it and I wonder what it is. I suspect it it Catena Humboldt but Wikipedia refers to is as a sequence of craters, whereas I only saw one, as in your photo.

Unfortunately I missed it, probably focused too much on Gauss. Now I wish I had spent more than 20 mins observing....

Lovely report! I looked at the Moon last night and focused on the limb only. The other areas were so bright they were blinding. A situation where aperture does not always win This gives me an idea to investigate binoviewers, half the light in each eye seems a good plan for Moon watching!

Last night I observed these two craters on the western limb. I don't recall spotting them before, perhaps because I rarely observe the full Moon. I concentrated on the western limb since the rest of the Moon looked flat. I was using a Svbony 20mm giving 135x on Skymax 180. I quite like this EP, it has wide FOV and does not ghost on bright objects unlike its shorter focal length cousins from the same range. Gauss was a prominent large crater on the limb just north of Mare Crisium, with two smaller craters, Hahn and Berosus nearby. It was very foreshortened with little detail visible but thrilling to see it anyway. Humboldt, south of Mare Fecunditatis was more spectacular - it has a central mountain ridge which was catching the sunlight while the floor was in darkness. Next to it to the north was another oblong crater which I could not identify, maybe Catena Humboldt? This all took about 20 mins. Normally I try to stay a bit longer but there was a lot of high cloud and even the Moon views lacked contrast so I called it a night hoping for better luck early in the morning ( I looked at some double stars then in a separate report). Nikolay

Yes indeed. First I thought it may be an aeroplane, it was so bright around 6am. Only when I consulted Stellarium I realised it's Venus.

I went out this morning (1 Dec) at 6:30am and the sky was clear. The Moon was still up and there were wisps of high cloud so I decided it was going to be bright double stars only. I pointed at Castor first and was greeted by a pair of 'eyes' at 150x. I like this double, because its so easy to find and looks nice at almost any magnification. The separation is now over 5 arcseconds and going to keep increasing for the next couple of decades. Then it was Algieba in Leo, being almost directly south and high in the sky. This pair was a bit tighter at 4.7 and looked orange-yellow. The seeing was poor but at 150x I was happy and decided to attempt something more challenging. Arcturus was very prominent in the east so I tried Izar (Epsilon Bootes). This is where it got harder, at 150x I had trouble splitting at first. I think being lower in the sky the seeing was worse and the star was smearing. I waited a several minutes and eventually there were moments of stillness when I spotted the close blue companion Just to make sure I switched to 260x. It was blurry, not a pretty sight but I could clearly see it most of the time. This pair is closer, at just 2.7 arcseconds separation. Normally Izar should not be difficult for my scope (180mm Skymax Mak) but it just goes to show how important the seeing is for close doubles. I'm very pleased to observe something at last after all this cloud Thanks for reading and clear skies! Nikolay

I have the whole set and they are a very good value for their price. The kidney beaning is an issue for the 6mm and 9mm and only on bright objects but the other two are fine. I quite like the 20mm, it is my go-to eyepiece when finding objects. Just used it on the full Moon last night.

Yes indeed, it looks quite prominent to me. Very nice!

I'm planning to take my 20x80 bins with a tripod to a field nearby, don't fancy carting the mount+scope unless the forecast is 100% solid for clear sky.

To be clear: 150p is ideal for visual astronomy, you can at a pinch use it for imaging but there will be compromises. For astrophotography get the skywatcher 150pds version. Here is a link describing the scope https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p3886_Skywatcher-Explorer-150PDS---6--f-5-Newton---2--Dual-Speed.html A comparison between 150p and 150pds can be found here