Stu

You could consider the Explore Scientific 24mm 68 degree eyepiece. This would give a 2.5 degree field of view, and a 4.8mm exit pupil. You could then buy a UHC filter, or even an OIII which would work very well on targets like the Veil and NAN from a decently dark sky as well as a range of others. Alternatively you could get something higher powered. I have a Televue 3 to 6 Nagler Zoom, bought for other scopes of course, but which works very well in the Heritage at the 4mm setting, and sometimes higher. Despite being a supposedly entry level scope, the 130p performs very well at higher powers on double stars and planets; a 4mm would give you x162, a very useable high power. A low cost mod you can do is to make a shroud to cover the gap where the truss poles are. You can do this will hobby foam quite easily, and it helps reduce glare and also stops your breath from creating tube currents and disturbing the view.

That’s right, the ‘like’ function was added at a previous software upgrade some years ago and hasn’t been there from the start of the forum.

Excellent session @Les Ewan, bet it looks great in that aperture! It was too windy here last night, the scope would have been spinning round and round! Hope things calm down soon.

Fab report Bob, a great night! Mars is excellent at the moment isn’t it? Totally agree about Caroline’s Rose, with LP or poor skies it is underwhelming but wonderful when conditions are good.

Thanks Niall, might have to pop the scopes out later, sunny here at the moment Looking on the web, the AR in white light looks unremarkable but Ha better.

Very nice scope I’m sure. From what I’ve seen Televue scope tend to depreciate more than others, partly due to their higher price over here than in the US I think. That said, I would agree that there should be comparatively little further depreciation since you had it; hard to put a figure on it but the scopes are pretty bomb proof so as long as it is still in good nick I would use your purchase price as a guide.

I would agree, it’s something in the objective of the camera, possibly muck of some sort which is causing a distortion as Jupiter passes through that area.

Excellent stuff Chris! Not totally surprised as it is a really capable scope, but great to see what it can do in the right hands. I might be tempted into a bit of imaging Mars myself!

Excellent! Mine has been running since the summer solstice, I plan to leave it a full six months and see what I get! Hope it’s pointing in the right direction!

Don’t think that is it. It shows as being above Mars, near the square of Pegasus. Might be doable. It is clear here now but likely not by the early hours, quite windy here too.

Anyone got clear skies to have a go at seeing this asteroid? Mag 15 but rising to potentially Mag 13 ish at closest approach. I think it may be better in North America but not sure. More detail here. https://earthsky.org/space/asteroid-2020-sw-very-close-pass-sept-24-2020

Yes, wonderful stuff Chris! We have been lucky with the seeing just recently haven’t we?

Reading Darryl’s excellent post today, I see that he refers to the Northern Polar Hood/Haze which seems to be along similar lines. I guess this is perhaps frozen CO2 as it is winter in the North currently?

Excellent! Sounds like your seeing was better than mine as I had to work a bit harder to see all the detail, but it was there with patience

I would suggest sticking with AltAz for visual, much easier. Perhaps a SkyTee 2 would cope with it on a decent tripod, or an AZ100 but that’s a lot more dosh.