Kon

Two quick pics on the eyepiece .

@Nik271thanks for the tips earlier. The seeing is super good tonight that with my 6.7mm and 2x barlow I just managed to see the Gassendi rilles; nice fine lines within the crater. The more I observed, more little craters within were appearing. Gruithuisen domes looked great, and I agree they have a mushroom like appearance (a bit like the Nintendo Mario houses). Schiller is showing some interesting features around it as well.

It must be something in the water. I am hallucinating too.🤣

Moon is looking even sharper tonight. No light haze as last night.

Don't jinx it, last night was amazing seeing! 🍀🍀🍀🍀 Yes it made life a lot easier.

A question for the more experienced observers than me, what moon features are worth trying to look tonight ( i have 8" Dob) if the skies stay clear and stable as last night? I was thinking that Sinus Iridum and Schiller should have some nice features.

Thanks, it will be on my to-do list for the next cloudy night

Thank you!! Star test last night looked great and I also finalised my primary as well and it is dead centre as well. I think I have a much better feeling/undertsanind over collimation now as a result of playing with my secondary's movements; I think beginners like myself should be advised to 'play' with the secondary so they can feel how everything moves. The primary adjustment was just a piece of cake as everybody else says. In the end I got the FLO Premium Cheshire and it made huge difference not having the play in the focuser.

The moon looked at its best after a long time last night, super sharp at the eyepiece. I managed a few shots on my DSLR on prime focus (8" Dob). I stacked 20 out of 100 frames in Siril; iso 200, 1/400s. Some basic editing in Gimp with wavelets but nothing more. It is the first time my pics look so sharp without blowing them with sharpening etc. Very pleased with the outcome; it shows that seeing is really key to sharpness with asuboptimal setup. I think these are the best I had so far. A more natural colour pic and a false colour mineral (I love getting these colours out).

Great you sorted it out. I have the 200P and it is a fantastic telescope.

Great report and an epic session. You really made the best of the clear weather.

I agree it is very stable; i managed to use my 6.7mm with a 2x barlow and the moon was still no boiling. Let's hope for more of these conditions.

First time to pay attention and see Rupes recta, it appeared as a thin grey line.

Moon is looking great tonight, very sharp despite the thin haze. My eye was drawn in Euklides and in particular the Montes Riphaeus. Bullialdus was showing nice details with its central peak.

In Gimp I duplicate the image as a layer and then adjust the new layers hue saturation to 100%. I then duplicate the edited layer as a new one and repeat the procedure. You can stop adding layers when you feel that the colour is getting too much and merge down. I think a full moon will give you better colour contrast. I have not managed to replicate this with mobile shots but with my DSLR it works nicely (single frames also have colour).

Moon looked pretty good last night. A few shots using my Pixel 4a (NexYZ holder) and ES14mm EP on 8" Dob. Single frames with post editing in snapseed.

I was out observing the moon last night. I took a few photos at the end with my DSLR on prime focus, 8" Dob. I stacked the best 25 frames out of 100 (somehow movies always come out awful for the moon with this camera). I did some post editing in snapseed. I used the pop details option and quite like how it brings up some of the smaller craters (it may not be to everybody's taste). So, moon in 3 ways, 'natural', inverted and false colour mineral.

Think of your finderscope as mini-telescope, so what you see there, you should see from your main telescope as well. There are 3 little bolts that will allow you to adjust it. Best done at daylight; pick a target such as a tree or an antenna over 50m away and observe from the EP of the telescope and then try see the same with the finderscope. For finer tuning do it at night using a high mag EP and focus on a bright star and try bring this star in the finders cope as well.

Is the light you see in the shape of the moon out of focus or just light? If it is later, you may want to check if the finder scope and main telescope are aligned properly. You can easily miss the moon by a few degrees but the glare will come through.

I found it quite scary but in the end i decided to start messing with the secondary and get a feeling what moves. Quite happy to have gone through the process; the real test is if I can still see the faint fuzzies 😀

Star testing my 200P after my first ever collimation. Everything looked good. Then a look at the moon. Wow super sharp! The craters were showing nice features and the shadows were nicely distinguished. I think my collimation went well. This is an unprocessed image through the eyepiece.

I had another go this evening and I think it is better. I did a star test and all looks good, primary is tad off but I can live with it until seeing is more stable to correct.

Beautiful sketches!

Thanks @PeterStudz. I feel it looks similar to what I had before but good to get the thumbs up from others. Star test might be possible tomorrow night. I love your base you made for your Dob, I have seen your thread. Scary staff to take the whole lot apart but I am sure it will be worth it. What is the milk carton mod for the secondary, I am not sure I have heard it before.

I have a Skywatcher 200P Dob for just over a year and it had heald collimation from the factory very well, until my son kicked his soft ball at it. I noticed on a star test and Cheshire eyepiece that it was off. I have never done it and I followed astrobabys website. Pretty straight forward and it seemed my secondary was far more off than my primary. I used a Cheshire eyepiece with side view. As a first attempt how does that look until the skies clear for a star test? I found it hard to hold my mobile square to the focuser but that's the view from the Cheshire eyepiece. Prior to collimation the primary mirror clip at 8oclock was hardly visible.