Stu

Clear here, although although there is a fair amount of high haze around. Pretty stable though, and the best views of Jupiter I’ve had this apparition.

Lovely sketches John, amazing the detail to be had in a decent 4” scope 👍.

Well that was very nice! Managed to duck out of bedtime routine for ten mins to see Io and Europa go behind the limb. SkySafari said 19.09 and 19.13 for my location. I didn’t do a time check but it was about right. Really nice views of Jupiter too, now the scope has cooled. Plenty of detail beyond the standard stuff.

Phyllis is out tonight on the AZ75/Uni 28. A very quick and easy setup to put out, much lighter than the AZ100/Planet, and still very stable.

Just been looking at it in the 128 John, after seeing your post. Nice illumination tonight. GRS visible as said, plus the two moons very close in. Might be able to pop out at 19.10 to see them go behind the planet🫰

Up at 6am to get an early start. Letting the dog out showed me a very different sky to last night. Leo over in the South West, still quite high. Arcturus and Bootes high overhead and Hercules over further East, again pretty high. Worth getting up for!

That sounds right. Both those things help me with binoviewing as it gives more infocus and also helps offset the weight of the binoviewers.

There are some 4” scopes which are carry on portable, but in the main I agree they are just a bit too bulky for carry on.

Lovely clear skies out there now, although there were a few clouds lurking around. The Moon looked lovely earlier on, with Saturn nearby. I stepped just now, and Orion was beautifully placed. I counted the stars within the four boundary stars and got to sixteen, not bad for zero dark adaptation. The Milky Way was just visible as was the DC. Pretty sure I could see seven stars in the Pleiades too, normally I max out at six. No scope out again, but that’s enough to keep me going.

Because you are not looking along the scope with a RACI, getting it near enough the target star/object can be tricky. A Rigel or TelRad easily gets you in the right area, then you switch to the RACI to refine the position or star hop etc.

I obviously live in the wrong part of Somerset John, cloudy here all day, and remains so this evening ☹️. Enjoy your skies anyway 👍

Never tried that I must say, but might now give it a go if it works.......in the dark of course!! 😬😜

Very nice! Can't beat a Feathertouch!

Wonderful Neil, I enjoyed reading that 🤓

Thanks Dave. It’s been an interesting journey, a long time in the making but very interesting to do. As @Sunshine says, you should give solar a go, it really can give you quite remarkable views. I’ve been a very keen white light solar observer for years, and find that with a decent setup (good refractor and Herschel wedge) the views can be quite jaw dropping when the seeing is good even in only a 4” scope. Hydrogen Alpha has always been second best for me, due to the sheer contrast and vivid nature of the white light views I’ve had, however that has started to change with my 102mm PST Mod, and I’m sure will evolve further with this new acquisition. The best experiences are few and far between, but when they happen they stay with you. I well recall viewing, in the 102mm, an arcing prominence moving in real time, and watching three plasma ‘bombs’ (as I described them) raining back down to the surface. Quite remarkable, given the speeds that must have been involved. The thing this new scope gives over the 102mm are the additional resolution of course, but also much more brightness and contrast which makes the views much more dramatic and rewarding. The surface detail I saw was quite amazing! As said, at some point I would hope to get the scope to a star party to share the views.

Indeed it is! Yes, I suspect the best moments will be few and far between, but I can’t wait to see what this thing can do under good or excellent conditions 👍

Wow, that’s impressive 👍

Excellent! Glad you have decided to make a change which will hopefully keep you enjoying the hobby Lee. Visual Astronomy, it’s the future I tell you! 😊

I weighed the scope today, and it came in at 13.65kg fully loaded with rings, dovetail, binoviewer and eyepieces. Surprisingly light I think. It is around 1.5m long however, so is quite demanding on the mount. Years ago, I bought a car wheel bearing, plus some other heavy duty bearings and intended to build a mount from it. I suspect that if the scope is supported both sides in the style of a Panther TTS or Peter’s home made variant then the vibrations would be reduced for such a long scope. Anyway, that’s a project for another day. I’ve just built myself a decent workbench finally so I’ll be able to do some proper DIY stuff now, rather than the wood butchery I’ve done to date 🤣.

Apologies if it’s in your signature, I can’t see that on my phone, but knowing the scope you are planing to use it in would help to give best advice. Also what targets are you going to focus on, or just a broad range?

To be honest, that was exactly what I was expecting so it was a nice surprise to be able to see plenty of detail 👍. A lot more to come this year hopefully for Solar observers.

Actually now I have the rotatable focuser I’ll be able to fix that! 👍

Should the title say 9th David? I can change it if you can’t, let me know.

@DJ N I remember being really surprised (in a good way) at just how compact the AZ75 looks and feels relative to the AZ100, yet still appears to have similar weight capacity. Like the AZ100 it remains smooth when fully loaded unlike some other AltAz mounts which need a counterweight. There are a few videos on my YouTube channel which just confirm its capabilities which might be of interest.

Didn’t have much time or energy last night after a busy day, but I popped the Tak out for a brief couple of looks at Jupiter. When I had my first look at around 8.10pm Io was still just visible as bright dot in the limb darkening and positioned over the SEB. There were also a couple of nice festoons hanging down into the equatorial zone. Later on at about 10pm, I got my best views; the planet looking reasonably sharp and Io’s shadow very prominent. I was hoping for better later as GRS transited but by that time the seeing seemed to have dropped off and the views were very average, GRS and shadow visible but far from distinct and with not much detail unfortunately.