Stu

Some fun ones:

Seeing all seven planets in one session

Observing a close passing asteroid which can be seen moving in the eyepiece

Spotting a SuperNova

This is a useful visibility calculator. That said, it indicates 12.2 mag for a 5” scope which doesn’t tie up with 10.3 being an issue. There is the nebulosity to take into account too but not sure how much impact this has.

https://www.cruxis.com/scope/limitingmagnitude.htm

It’s a complex issue with many factors involved.

Here comes the stuck record again…

Seeing….

Seeing….

Seeing….

Seeing….

Seeing….

with a bit of sky brightness and scope aperture/collimation/cooling thrown in. I think scope type is lower down the list.

Best views I’ve had of E & F have been through an AstroPhysics 130GTX (not mine unfortunately as it was/is a gorgeous scope) and more recently my 16” truss dob. Couldn’t be more different but both views were excellent with the two additional stars visible easily without any effort. The common factor was excellent seeing. On other occasions when seeing is less good the results are quite different ie E is normally easy enough but F can be much more difficult or impossible. It’s all related to seeing. I’ve seen them in the 128mm apo though yet to catch excellent seeing with this scope, and also the 4” but I find this much more difficult.

I think light pollution does play into this aswell and as a result, aperture/limiting magnitude, possibly even transparency. The E & F stars are mag 10.3 and 10.2 respectively and are embedded in the nebula so if your limiting magnitude is below that level then you won’t see them whatever the seeing conditions are like.

My 8” f8 is more than capable of catching these, and Sirius B but to be honest I have never knowingly seen the Pup in any scope in over 20 years observing and haven’t caught E and F under excellent conditions with the 8”.

So, again, I think your questions are good but without definitive answers. My lack of success with the Pup is as much about patience and perseverance (or lack of) as anything else. I don’t particularly enjoy looking for a tiny speck of light amongst the mess of seeing around Sirius, so I don’t put the hours in on it. I feel differently about trying to spot a faint star or galaxy for some reason.

Do you have any possibilities of getting to a club and trying out some different scopes? So much depends on your preferences which will potentially only become obvious with experience.

48 minutes ago, Chaz2b said:

Currently at this time, all the planets are between east and south in a line, with the sun middle-ish, yes, my astrological gibberish at its finest. Saturn and Mars are in conjunction, even the plaides is coming up close behind.

So can someone kindly switch off the Sun and pull the clouds apart? It’s not like this happens everyday and I can only watch it presently on my iPad via Starynight.

Oh! The frustration of it all.

chaz

I think someone did, in the USA yesterday 🤣

38 minutes ago, Kon said:

My 'youngest' new moon at 0.9 days and 1.45% illumination. Captured at daylight. The earthshine was captured at 7 degrees elevation when it was starting to get dark; 20 frames were stacked. I am really surprised how well it came out considering I could not see any details in the raw images apart from the overall moon shape. Skywatcher 300P FlexTube GoTo, Nikon D3200.

Fantastic! I tried for it last night in binos but too much patchy cloud low down to pick it up. Great images 👍

Binoculars only for me tonight, a touch windy plus too tired.

Had an unsuccessful look for the comet Pons-Brooks, so settled for a few other targets. Jupiter is never great through binos but Europa and Ganymede showed up nicely close to the disk.

I had a look at the S asterism between Mintaka and Alnilam, framed well in the 4.5 degree fov of the Canon 15x50 IS binos. Similarly the whole of Orion’s sword, with some nebula showing and the Trap just about resolving into two or perhaps three stars.

M38, 36 and 37 were easily found in that order, 38 showing slight arms to justify its Starfish name. Then a hop over to M35 in Gemini.

M45 was as lovely as always, perfect in this field of view. Then on to a few galaxies; M81 and 82 easily found with my usual star hop, and showing their trademark shapes. I didn’t expect to get M51, but there it was, a small faint smudge, but definitely there, unlike M101 which was a fail.

Lastly, the Double Cluster, and that lovely loop of stars which leads across to Stock 2.

Enough to keep me going til I can finally get a scope out!

Absolutely fantastic images Luke, quite amazing.

Very nice. I remember Moonshane’s thread, he built some excellent stuff 👍

43 minutes ago, Zakalwe said:

I've had my moments.....

 

Errr, wow! V nice 👌 

Sounds like one of my sessions, although you didn’t knock the scope over so probably slightly better 🤣

Sometimes things go that way, and remind me why I too am a visual astronomer! Far too much like hard work this imaging lark!

2 hours ago, Grant said:

It is essential to use flats with the Quarks to ensure a nice even field of view - DayStar themselves recommend their Flat Caps which work really well to diffuse the sunlight and get a good flat alternatively, just move your focuser so you are fully out of focus and take your flats that way - Sharpcap has a great tool for doing that.

If that example image is from your Quark then it's working A-OK and you are getting some lovely results, don't be concerned - enjoy! 🙂

Thanks Grant.

@Mark_C incase it’s not clear, Grant is FLO so hopefully that is reassuring 👍

17 hours ago, Jim L said:

What I found most interesting was that we could see mountains in profile along the perimeter of the moon that was backlit by the sun.

I saw that during a partial eclipse in the UK some years back, fascinating as it wasn’t something I expected to see.

Example picture here shows the effect although not as clear as it was visually.

8 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

No-one has ever regretted owning a Starfield. My only regret is selling mine and replacing it with a scope costing three times as much for next to no increase in image quality. I remember pointing them at the moon in excellent seeing and trying my hardest to find a difference. Both showed exactly the same detail.

If you are getting a Starfield I'd recommend partnering it with a top quality diagonal and eyepieces. It can get the best out of them.

Out of interest, why didn’t you sell the Tak, or send it back, and keep the Starfield?

I would certainly speak to @FLO to check whether there is a problem or not. I’ve tagged them, so hopefully they will reply here but if not, do get in touch to get it checked.

Any luck @Captain Scarlet?

50 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

When it went total there were several prominence visible.

One so big it was naked eye!!

Yes, I saw that one on the live feed. Looked amazing!

2 minutes ago, maw lod qan said:

Looks like the Astro God's have smiled on me again!

Wow, looks beautiful! Good luck, and hope you have great views 👍

14 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

I think for us in Baltimore Ireland (51.485N 9.346W), we might see the first bite, but totality happens when the Sun is nearly 5 degrees down. However it should mean that civil twilight will essentially go straight to full darkness not long after sunset, so we might see some effect of it. We're not quite far enough West.

Cheers, Magnus

Looks like it could be lovely with a sea horizon Magnus. Hope the weather is kind!

Looks amazing, though it seems like weeks since I last saw the Sun ☹️

If I only ever used my refractors at 1mm exit pupil then I would have missed out on a huge part of their performance capability. I don’t really care what theory says, or that you don’t see any more detail over that, to me the additional image scale helps me to see what is there. So, I with happily use x200 or more in my 100mm fracs if the conditions allow, particularly on the Moon. Mostly on planets I use less, Jupiter x150 to x200. The limiting factor is often the exit pupil meaning floaters become an issue below 1mm and intrusive below 0.5mm which is why I use binoviewers.

Trouble is, the questions you ask don’t really have any fixed answers, because so much depends on the seeing conditions. In perfect seeing, all bets are off ie you can use what seems like crazy high mags, then the next night you might struggle to use much over x100 if the seeing is poor.

To more directly answer your question, I have an Orion Optics 8” f8 with 1/10th wave optics. It is a lovely scope and, in the right conditions can give amazing views. The best views I’ve had were probably of Mars when at opposition in 2020. I used x360 that night as the seeing was very good and Mars was at decent altitude. Not a common occurrence but nice when it happens. So, in larger scopes, the x1 mag per mm rule makes more sense, particularly for scopes over 300mm say but still, seeing conditions tend to add a layer of variability over this.

I guess what I’m saying is that theory is theory, but we observe in the real world. Even very modest scopes can give fantastic views when seeing is excellent, whilst top end scopes can be humbled to the point you think something is wrong with them when seeing is poor.

2 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

I know you won't want to hear this, but cutting a cm off the length of the tube may help. At the focuser end of course!

😬😬 given Paul’s run of bad luck, let’s not go suggesting that please!

Agreed. One of the joys of these scopes are the widefield views, so having a 30mm eyepiece and 2” diagonal helps you maximise those.

It’s funny, every day when I look at my handsome visage in the mirror, I don’t think it looks false 🤪

I’d rather see maximum detail personally but if slightly less but the right way round suits you, that’s fine of course.

10 hours ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Postie brought an eaglemoss tellurium bought from fleebay. Nice little orrery of the Sun, Moon and Earth. Really smooth rotation. Nice addition to my astronomy collection, lol. 

 

 

 

 

Very nice. I have one unbuilt in a box somewhere, must get round to putting it together 🤪

5 minutes ago, woldsman said:

OK so I tested an adapter for a household applicance plugged into the mains supplying 14v. Black probe in the pin and red probe on the side. The reading was -14. On the plug itself there is printed a minus in a circle, a C sign and a plus in a circle. So now I’m thinking that a minus sign on the readout denotes centre positive, in which case both the 12v battery pack and the 9v step up are centre negative.  Confusing!

Normal centre positive means putting the black probe on the side, and red probe in the centre part should give a positive reading. If it is centre negative then you would get a negative reading.

The symbols are as in these diagrams: