Kon

Very useful comments from everybody, that' why I love this forum. I do not wear glasses and most of my EPs have been upgraded to ES 82 degrees which have a sorter eye relief and I found that they do get dirty more often than my previous BSTs. Good to hear from @Don Pensack and @johninderbythat you clean your EPs regularly (as they need) without any issues. I did not want to sound that I am paranoid with cleaning, but I was worried that the oily particles might cause more harm if they were left there, thus why I would like to clean them more often as they need.

I thought this might be the best forum to ask my silly question but how often is it safe to clean the EPs with cleaning fluids? I have purchased the Baader Optical Wonder and a Hurricane Blower; I also have the Celestron Lens pen but I prefer the Baader. I noticed that not all small particles are removed after blowing them with the blower so I probably need to use the Baader fluid more often. Would that have an effect on the coatings or is it safe to use it often? Would cleaning every 2-3 viewing sessions be an overkill and just leave some of these dust particles (most likely oily particles from eye lashes thus the sticking)on the EP?

@PeterStudzI agree with you that it can get them (more) interested but the expectations can be crashed when they just see a grey fuzzy blob; my 6 year old loves looking at the easy nebulas and planets. I think the main problem with inner cities is the light pollution but that's a discussion for another topic. I love the visual aspect of the hobby more than the photos but taking photos with my very basic setup satisfies me to have a visual record in a few occasions and as you said it can trigger interest.

Beginning of september the seeing was pretty amazing and I had forgotten that I had taken a shot of the night sky with my Pixel 4a. I used the astrophotography setting that does 4 min stacking. To my surprise Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxy were visible. Persei nice and bright as well. I have annotated in the pic since I am rather impressed what mobiles can do these days. This is the stack pic straight from the phone without any editing. Looking forward to more clear nights and when these objects are above me; my E horizon has a bit of light pollution thus the rather bright bottom.

Excellent report Joe. Some great targets there. Did you use a filter? An OIII might give you a better contrast.

PXL_20210907_222314519.NIGHT.mp4 I was out observing tonight and it was one of the clearest nights in a long time. Milky Way looked amazing and I managed a 4 min time lapse in my Google pixel 4a using the astrophotography setting PXL_20210907_222314519.NIGHT.mp4 PXL_20210907_222314519.NIGHT.mp4 PXL_20210907_222314519.NIGHT.mp4 PXL_20210907_222314519.NIGHT.mp4

During my visual session Milky Way looked amazing from my back garden and I thought to give another try in capturing it when I was done observing. I stacked 18x25s frames at iso3200 and f 3.5. Stacking and editing in Siril and some tiny amount of stretching. Looks pretty good in my eyes.

Beautiful drawings! It is like looking down the EP.

Well tonight may have been my last chance to admire the jewels of the Milky Way with clear skies and no moon. Clouds are predicted for the rest of the week and with the luck we had this summer with clouds it may have been my last chance, plus my SW horizon has a couple of large trees, over 8m each, and getting to observe later will be practically impossible. Having a Dob the first impractically I encountered tonight was viewing right above me, not much room to get things into view easily. I started in Cygnus with my OIII and observed the North America Nebula and Pelican. I then moved to the Veil and great structures in the filaments were apparent. What took my breath away was using my new ES 24mm 68 degree EP. Last time I observed it was with my box standard 25mm plossl (50 degrees?) and I had to move around to see the whole Veil. With the new EP I could just about make either the East or West fit in the FOV and it gave a nicer perspective. Wow! I had a look at the Swan and Trifid with great features. Without the filter I then tried to look at Blue Racquetball which I completely missed last time. This time i was prepared for my star hoping and seeing was better and there it was; a nice vivid blue planetary. I loved it. It took magnification quite nicely. I tried to look at Helix nebula but seeing at my low S horizon was horrible. I was in the right area but I could not make any nebulosity and the stars where barely visible. I had a look at Jupiter and Saturn and for the first time I could make the Cassini division around Saturn . Nice equatorial bands were visible and I think i could see several lines compared to other nights. I finally noticed some of the winter delights coming into view, Pleiades like little jewels and M31. Andromeda galaxy looked great in the 24mm EP and for the first time I could just about frame it together with M110 in the FOV. Some 'dust lanes' where obvious on M31. All in all an excellent night with great views. So it is au revoir of these delights and bienvenue of the winter ones!

That's just beautiful! One of the best MW I have seen. Bortle 1 must be amazing.

Based on @jetstream and others suggestion on this forum, i bought this one: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/televue-filters/tele-vue-bandmate-oiii-filter.html yes it is pricy but once you see the Veil, North America, Pacman and many more it makes up its money; Veil alone was sufficient for me to justify its price. I am at bortle 3/4 skies using an 8" Dob. Have a look at some of the observing reports I have done using OIII and which other targets have benefitted. Several discussions on OIII if you have a search at the forums.

@scarp15I agree. The B142/143 was nicely seen last night. I felt a bit underwhelmed by the lack of details you see on the brighter ones . I suppose the focus should be at the edge with the stars . So far the B85 at M20 is more intriguing in my eyes but I suppose I am drawn to the brighter nebulas there. I definitely want to try again without the moon creeping around the corner.

No yet. The weather has been rubbish here. By the time it comes into view, the moon is quite high up so I hope to try later in the week. I find that area quite hard to navigate thus my failure with star hoping last night especially seeing was ok. It is part of the fun to search, fail and eventually succeed.

Tonight the skies were predicted clear and with the moon not coming up until later, I got my 8" Dob out. Seeing was ok for the most part of the observation but high clouds came after 2 hrs. I wanted to try the dark nebulas that @jetstream and @scarp15have been discussing. My first attempt was B168 near the Cocoon. I had seen the Cocoon before but never paid attention to the dark part. I could make a dark lane 'north' of the nebula. My next attempt was on B142/143 near Acquila. I could easily make a nice dark patch of the sky, a bit like empty space surrounded by hundreds of stars. A lot more impressive than B168. That was a great seeing but somehow I felt underwhelmed. I love searching and observing nebulas but the lack of features of the dark nebulas kind of made me not appreciate them as much. After that, I had a look at some clusters at my southern horizon, M71, IC4665 and M10. I was after the Blue Racquetball nebula but I completely messed up my navigation ( I only found out after I came back in). Somehow my star hoping was off and I ended up in M11 (looked like a fuzzy ball in my finder scope). It caught my attention since I could make a nice bright star in the middle of it; at higher mag the stars almost made a regular/aligned pattern which I have never seen on clusters before, quite fascinating. Again looking at my books, I observed IC1287 a nice fuzzy nebula; it was at this point I realised that I am not observing the Blue Racquetball. Oh well it will have to be next time. I then had a look at Saturn and Jupiter. I could make the Cassini division at the 2 o'clock relative to my Dob observing but not all the way around. I looked at Jupiter and I noticed that Io was going to transit Jupiter. I saw it disappearing but I could not see a shadow as with Ganymede before but it was exciting to see it 'disappearing'. Jupiter was displaying nice brown and orange bands; i think tonight was the best seeing I had on Jupiter with nice defined bands rather than fuzzy/thick ones. I finally tried to find Neptune but high clouds were coming in. I just about managed it, a tiny blue speck of light, that was very exciting considering how far it is. I tried to up the magnification but seeing was terrible. As I was moving things back in the house, I thought it will be nice to have a quick peak at Andromeda galaxy (it was the first thing I saw when I got my Dob back in December). Although the moon was rising, it looked ok. I could not make much features but a nice elongated fuzzy disk was apparent. M110 was also showing nicely. I tried M33 but by now clouds had completely covered by eastern horizon. Overall, I had a fantastic 3 hrs of observing with a mixed bag of targets. Looking forward to some moonless nights for more nebula observing.

I thought I would update this post on my 25mm EP choice. I was planning to get the ES 68degree 24mm EP but with no supplies available for a long time, I acquired a second hand 25mm BST at a good price over the summer. As it was mentioned earlier in this post it does suffer at the edge (stars appeared as seagulls) and I did not enjoy it. I finally took the plunge with Aliexpress (what could go wrong?) and I ordered the ES 68degree 24mm EP (at a very good price and in stock compared to other UK suppliers) last week and it arrived today. Total game changer. Sharp stars to the edge and the slightly larger FOV compared to the BST made the experience even better. Clouds kept coming in and out so I only had a quick look at Cygnus area tonight. The stars really sharp on the ES but the BST did suffer. I also had a quick look at M27, and I felt the ES was providing better details and it was amazing seeing it with all the stars around (last time i saw it was with the basic 25mm EP that came with my Dob). Thanks to all of you on the excellent suggestions and I have felt in love with the ES EPs (I also acquired an ES 82degrees 6.7mm EP which has been amazing on Jupiter and Saturn, so planning to upgrade the rest of my BST EPs on the 82 range (1.25"); i love the wide FOV of the 82.

I just got back from work and the postman had left me an Explore Scientific 68 degree 24mm EP. It feels really substantial compared to my BSTs. The skies are looking ok for a test tonight.

It sounds like an excellent night to me!

If I mind?......That looks amazing! Thank you very much for taking the time to do it!! Very briefly, what did you do to it? I struggled to get anything better with stretching (I think i did all channels together).

Yes it was my first transition as well. I posted a report in the Observing Planets section. It was great seeing the shadow.

I was out observing the Jupiter Ganymede transition which was an amazing moment for me. I managed a 2min video with my Dob and eyepiece projection. I love the little Ganymede shadow coming through and the GRS is pipping through. This is with my 8" Dob, 2x barlow ES 82 degrees 6.7mm EP and a Nikon D3200. Resolution is not great with my setup but excited to have captured the moment.

As a beginner, I wanted to see a Jupiter transition with its moon. I had seen in Stellarium that Ganymede will be transiting Jupiter tonight but the skies were cloudy all day.The skies cleared around 2200 and I managed a quick observation tonight. I was out between 2215-2245. Jupiter showed some really nice orange brown bands and behold at ~9 o'clock (Dob position) I could make a small circular shadow on Jupiter's surface. What an ecstatic feeling! I had seen photos/animations in this forum but it was the first time to see the transition with my own eyes! Amazing! I spent 30 min and the shadow was slowly moving away from the surface towards 9oclock. The clouds spoiled the rest of the fun. Not bad for 30min observation!

Excellent report, thanks for sharing.

Thanks. I am afraid I have not had the chance to see the nova yet, but this week the skies seem clearer.

M31, a couple of open clusters C28, M39 and Persei, no details apart from looking as smudges (not sure that’s the best description).

With averted vision it is a smudge, but only on new moon and very good seeing.