Kon

My first EPs for my 200P Dob were BSTs (8, 15 and 25mm). The 8 and 15 were the best and marginal improvement of the 25 over the provided one. There are some BSTs on sale in classifieds at the moment. I have seen then moved to wide FOV EPs. Regarding the dust cup, you can leave your 1.25" extension focuser in there since it comes with a dust cup as well (that's how I have my Dob set).

This event might be of interest ot some of you: https://marsday.org.uk/sessions-and-stars-2022/

I am buying one of these telescopes....it can see into the future, March 2023?🤣 Nice pics.

Interesting comment about 'filling in information'; we (the brain) could potentially be influenced by the APs and it's trying to make them up?...I would like to think not. From personal experience, when the seeing is not good, I see greyish/greenish but not the reds in the wings or teal in the trapezium, so it has to be a real phenomenon/observation; under that assumption the brain would still try 'add' the colours? (your blues have me intrigued!). In my 8", Eskimo is greyish. Regarding the sun, it could be down to exciting the green/red cones; green and yellow are very close to each other in the spectra with the red and greens overlapping, so saturating one over the other could potentially have this effect. At 540nm you only need some bleeding at 550 to get the yellow through and these filters when I look at the spectra do allow some 550 through.

I managed a quick imaging session of the AR2960 and AR2957 mostly through passing clouds. 8" Dob, Baader solar filter, ASI120mc-s (600 frames, stacked the best 20), PIPP, AS!2 and Gimp. I wish the weather had cooperated for longer movies.

Excellent report and it seems conditions were ideal! With your 15" and under your skies, does M42 show nice colours? I seem to be getting them with my 8" under excellent seeing but it is not reported very often. I think you should, I always like getting ideas from others 😉 Kostas

Amazing! The third one has a nice 3D feeling to it.

Nice report! Your sketches are excellent and they appear like EP photos.

Your sketches have capture it very nicely; very similar to what I saw, very briefly, yesterday in white light.

I think you should write a report so my jaw can drop from the description as well 🙂.

Thanks Malcolm. My 8" Dob is really delivering very well and I have fairly dark skies that also help. Seeing conditions will also affect what I see. A few weeks ago I could only see galaxies up to mag 10-10.5, so it is really a game of catching the right weather which is rather rare in UK.

Thanks Joe. I think if transparency was better it would have been even better. You know, I would trade them for your Eta Carinae any time 😉. What constellations are you limited for galaxies?

Good job Magnus! Your description is how I saw it in my 8" with an Hb a couple of months ago. I agree, it is rather underwhelming considering the effort and conditions it takes to see it.

Not literally a Lion or a Bear but galaxy observing in Leo and Ursa Major. I realise that I have not written any reports for a while despite I have been out observing quite often. After the kids went to bed last night, I got my 8" Dob out with the aim of some galaxy spotting. I started with a few winter favourites before Leo and Ursa Major were in good place. M42 will soon disappear behind trees so I gave it a quick view. Surprisingly the greenish nebulosity was extending much more beyond the wings which is a good sign of decent transparency (although no reds or teal colours when I know transparency is at its best). I then looked some open clusters around Canis Major; M47 and NGC2423 showed a nice spread of stars. I then moved down a bit to look at M46 but somehow I could not spot the planetary within M46 (I had in the past) despite trying with OIII as well (I wonder if my magnification was too low, I used my ES 68 24mm EP and ES 82 14mm); either way the clusters looked great in these wide FOV EPs. Leo was positioned in good place in my SE direction. I started with the Leo triplet; M65/66 and NGC3628 looked great in the same FOV. M65/66 smudges without much structure but NGC3628 showed a nice elongated shape. I then moved to k Leonis and spotted the NGC3377; the nearby NGC3367 was not visible. Moving downwards I spotted M105 and the accompanying NGC3384. M95 and M96 were easy to spot. Using my Rigel I got at the Algebra and looked for NGC3227 and there it was a nice smudge of light. Further up, I managed to see the Leo Quartet; that was the first time to observe it and although I could not make any structure, it was great to see them in the same FOV (I realised that transparency was getting a bit worst.); NGC3187 was not visible so i should probably call it the Leo triplet 🤣. After a tea break to warm up, I hopped to Ursa Major. I started with two old favourites, M108 and M97 (Owl nebula). M108 showed a nice elongated shape and the Owl a bit fearless tonight (a sign of not so great transparency). I moved Phecda and spotted M109; quite bright and a nice disc shape to it. NGC3953 was barely visible. My star hoping was messed up and I could not find the nearby NGC3893. I moved on Alkaid. I got my first sight of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) for the first time. That was an OMG moment! I could not believe my eyes seeing M51 and the NGC5195 together. At low mag the two galaxies did not show much details apart from a darker notch between them but when I moved to my 14mm EP, some arms could be distinguished and the arm connecting M51 to NGC5195 was apparent. I kept swapping the 24 and 14mm EPs since they brough different details. I loved it! I was buzzing with excitement! I tried higher mag but the seeing was not taking it. After that excitement a second OMG moment was when I found the the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101). A lot larger than I thought for a galaxy. It just stood out from the background as a smudge of diffuse light. I have read other reports here taking about arms/dust lanes but I could not make any features and I want to revisit when seeing is better. I finished with M81/M82. I had seen them last year but this time I felt that I could make more details; M81 with its disc shape appearance and the M82 with its elongated cigar shape (thus the name) looked fantastic in the same FOV. I wanted to stay out longer but I knew I had to be up early with the kids so I had to call the night. It will be on top of my most memorable observing sessions. The highlight it was for sure M51/NGC5195 and I want to revisit for sure. As I am writing this report, I am still buzzing with excitement and I can recall all these galaxies very vividly. I realised that in my excitement I forgot to take a look at Markarian's Chain which is an awesome sight (I saw it a few weeks ago); it was supposed to be my last target before packing up.

Nicely captured and processed at your high standards Neil! Kostas

@Geoff Barnes what Joe said. I also found when I take my photos you need the finderscope to be bang on with the EP. Additionally, I tend to move the finderscope ahead of the ISS and you should be able to see it at the EP as it is coming in the FOV.

Fantastic! It must be cool to see the panels. I have to admit that I have never observed it through the EP since I always tend to take photos of it. I should try at least once.

I just got back in from galaxy observing in mostly Ursa major and Leo. I will write a full report tomorrow but the highlight was my first sight of M51 and NGC5195! An omg moment seeing the two galaxies together and I am very confident I saw the arms between them. Buzzing with excitement!

I have tried to capture as many of the moon phases over the past two months and put them in animation; Up to the full moon I have nearly got every phase but waning crescent has been harder to get due to the weather and work commitments. 8" Dob, prime focus Nikon D3200, various exposures and iso. Gif was put together in PIPP.

You lot are not helping. I am supposed to have an early night and yes the sky does look really good again 🥱

What a session you had! I really enjoyed reading your report. The 200P is excellent for these fuzzies, I love mine.

Last night I had a quick session on pleiades, M42 showing some nice nebulosity, Rosette with the OIII filter, Christmas cluster, a few Leo galaxies (mostly the same as previous reports). I was up at 5am to image ISS and I also managed to see Venus, Mars and the crescent moon (eyes only, it was too low for the Dob) and a gorgeous sunrise. I think the last few nights we have been spoiled with clear skies (despite the awful transparency at least where I am) on moonless nights. I think i need an early night tonight 😴.

Thanks Nik. I spent nearly 1hr aligning my camera to the finderscope this morning (I realised that it is perfectly aligned for my EPs but with the camera i had to offset a bit).

Thanks for the heads up. I was out imaging ISS this morning and it was great seeing Venus and the Crescent moon naked eye (Mars through the finderscope).

ISS fly overs are at either 5 or 6am these days and I should be sleeping at that time on a weekend but....... I have been experimenting with my ASI120mc-s camera and my Dob over the weekend to capture it. I think I got some nice results in the end. I feel the 70fps is still low and I find that my DSLR is giving me better results since I can have the shutter at 1/4000s of a second. Captured at 0.7ms, gain 24. Used PIPP and AS!2 for stacking. Some editing in Gimp. Capture rate not bad; 11000 frames and over 8000 had it so quite pleased with that.