MercianDabbler

Worth looking at http://www.waltonastrogroup.co.uk/ - under 'Helpful Resources' they have some excellent annotated images of the moon in various phases. I've found these much more useful than anything else I've tried because they actually look like what I'm seeing... most other things are 'flat' and don't show how the shadows vary with different moon phases.

Managed to get the FL102 out for the first time in ages. Several potentially promising nights recently spoiled by annoying floaty clouds or other commitments. Had perhaps an hour to 90 mins. Nothing complicated at all - the Moon, Jupiter and M42. As others have said, the Moon was pretty spectacular even to me as someone who is not a big fan of Moon observing, There seemed to be quite a lot of haze reflecting the glow from the Moon so I was quite surprised that I managed to pick up some decent detail around the fishes mouth in M42. Not warm though! Layers were the order of the day. Now studying the constellation Glenmorangie before bed.

Away on the South coast of Devon for the week... lovely dark sky, the main snag being that I was not able to bring a scope. I did manage to squeeze in the 10x50s so that had to suffice. Had a couple of hours out this evening. Was surprised to spot the teapot handle still up and from there M22 and M8. Had a few attempts at the North America Nebula which was inconveniently positioned right overhead and required leaning backwards on a field gate. Plenty of nebulosity. I think I could suspect the outline but no more than a suspicion. Managed the Jovian moons by propping the bins on another gate to get them still enough. Last night on arrival I could see M31 without the bins. Not quite so good early on tonight but by the end of the session I could see it. Had a go at M81 but the North aspect had some glow so a suspicion was the best I could manage. M13 was an easy enough spot in the bins but I think really needed more magnification. Getting cold by now but decided to have a punt at M33. Much to my surprise I had it in under a minute... a huge change from spending ages not spotting it on other occasions. Finished off with the Pleiades and indoors for beer and log fire.

So four nights ago rather than 'tonight' but precious little suitable conditions since then. On Wednesday evening I was out with the FL102. I was hoping to do some AP but was in two minds about it due to the windy conditions but I was close enough to the yew hedge at the end of the garden so I decided to give it a go on the Leo Triplet. This is the first time I've tried AP with the FL102 and the first AP for perhaps a year so I was a bit rusty with my technique. What I've found out is that I get a really strong vignette and using flats in the stacking produced some odd looking rings. Instead I adjusted the vignette manually using a circular mask in Darktable. I think it will be best to stick to the circular area inside the vignette in future. I was quite unhappy with my first attempts at processing the image but I'm now a bit happier. The top left galaxy is up against the edge of the vignette (hence the arc where the background glow falls off) so I'll probably stop messing with it now... FL102 with EOS 70D at prime focus. 65 20 second frames at ISO 3200. 14 darks. Stacked 90% best frames with DSS and processed with Darktable.

A tardy (and short) report from last night. The various forecast pages mostly said that my chances were poor but my windows weather forecasting system (i.e. look out of the window) said things looked good. I headed out before proper dark with the FL102 - first time in ages. The main target was the Moon. I've never been much of a Moon observer but the view through the FL102 is winning me over a little bit (only a little bit though). Armed with a tablet with a bunch of annotated moon phase images I can tell you that the main area of interest for me was the Aristarchus area. I could see three little peaks inside the crater (or maybe the one next to it... I did say I'm not much of a Moon observer) plus various deep gashes nearby. Quite a compelling sight really with the 9mm DeLite and I even managed not to hate the view through the 6mm Starguider... which is unusual for me. After that I wanted to find the field for M104... not a very rewarding job and it took me a very long time because there were no nearby naked eye visible stars to start from so it was a matter of scanning around until a dictinctive pattern of stars appeared in the 32mm Plossl and then doing my best to star hop from there. I got there eventually, naturally I couldnt see M104 at such a low altitude and with the moon so bright but hopefully I have now 'got my eye in' and it will come in handy soon. Work beckoned the next day so I was back indoors by 10PM.

Welcome. You have some great skies down there. On the way back to Cedar City from Zion NP I pulled over and took a Milky Way photo with the camera perched on some screwed up clothing on the roof of the car. It beats all of my efforts to do the same with more time and a proper tripod in the UK.

I'd more or less given up hope of getting another look at this area before it became inaccessible to me. Last night I was quite busy but finishing my final visit I noticed that the sky was still clear and no trace of those floaty clouds (or worse) that seemed to be a feature of almost every evening for the past couple of weeks. Having arrived home and done the final chore (putting the bins out) I set up the FL102 at the bottom of the garden again and had an eyepiece in place by 10PM. On this occasion I could see more than one star of the 'teapot' by naked eye but they were by now well to the right of my ideal spot and pretty close to some trees. Once again I lined up on Nunki using the Rigel. I'd intended to skip revisiting M22 but the low altitude meant that my star hopping options were pretty limited so M22 it was. Having found it I felt it would be rude not to have a good look through several EPs up to the 9mm DeLite. The view was nice but of course this burned up some time. Last time I had not attempted M28 so I decided to give that a try. A straightforward star hop with Kaus Borealis and 70 setting the limits to my search area. It was a tough one to spot but after a few attempts I managed to pick it up and again tried a few EPs on it. I then tried a pan in RA to see if I could pick up the Lagoon but it was too late so I think that will be the end of Sagittarius for me this year. The sky was still looking good so I decided to move myself to the other side of the mount and try for M81 and M82. These are never good from my house because the city centre is to the north. I don't think I've ever picked up M82 at home. I lined up on Dubhe using the Rigel finder. From there it was a none too easy star hop in the FL102 with a 32mm Plossl - the gaps between the waymark stars often being a good deal more than the field of view but I managed to get to the three stars around 'EN' without losing my place too much and then across to the region of M81. The galaxy popped into view fairly quickly. Upping the magnification seemed to make things a lot worse but looking up from the scope I saw that those annoying floaty clouds had put in an appearance, this time blowing the opposite way to normal and moving very quickly. It didn't take long to move away so that I could try some more EPs but M81 was not a great view through any EP. I wasn't too hopeful of M82 but gave it a try anyway. If anything I fould it slightly more easily than M81, being a distinct 'slash' in the sky its shape made it a bit more obvious as I panned across it... a first from my garden I think. I then repeated my visit to the M51 area but again without success. By now it was getting past 11PM and with work the next day it was time to think about packing up. Saturn seemed to be presenting itself in a convenient spot to the south so who was I to argue? I had some lovely bright and quite steady views of Saturn and Titan through a succession of EPs and even managed to deploy the 5mm Starguider with some success. I could pick up a band on the planet's disk but that was about as far as it went in terms of detail. After lingering on Saturn for probably too long it was finally time to pack up around 11:30.

Thanks for this. CO's incorrect promise of clear skies during the non-silly hours tonight prompted me to find some other sites for use in future and I found your thread. Skies looked crystal clear here before sunset. Fortunately I went on previous evening's 'form' and interpreted the sight of some wispy clouds around 9PM as a bad omen and started a non astronomy activity for the evening. Sure enough the clouds rolled in. FWIW meteoblue and metcheck both predicted cloud. Not statistically significant I know but they are now on my list. I like Zoom Earth a lot too - I've been looking for a satellite cloud thing that keeps working after dark.

I thought the sky looked promising tonight with just some high wispy cloud so set up the FL102 about 9:30. Seeing looked pretty iffy - Arcturus wasn't just twinkling, it seemed to be moving around. Managed to get Nunki into view quite easily but from there things went downhill - stars just seemed to be there one minute and then gone so I concluded that the clouds were worse than I'd thought. Lyra looked clear so I bisected the two bottom stars using the Rigel finder and got M57 into view in the 32mm Plossl. The 15mm SLV view was OK but things went pretty fuzzy when I tried the 9mm DeLite. The EP was at a very awkward height so I thought of trying a garden chair but found that they were soaking wet. By now things were looking less clear in Lyra so scanning for a clear patch I decided to have a practice on M51 with the Rigel. This went quite well - I used a bit of dead reckoning to find the spot and looking through the scope I found I'd gone straight to the triangle of stars near M51. Couldn't make out the galaxy but that was hardly a big surprise - I've never seen it from home and conditions were hardly great. Lyra had then cleared again so I had another go at M57. I tried the same EPs again with similar results but keeping the 15mm SLV in place for a while I got some very nice views intermittently if I could stand kneeling down for long enough. A dew was starting to form on the tube now so I thought that pointing the scope so high was a bad idea. A bigger blanket of cloud was looming so that was the end of proceedings.

Had a spell outside with the FL102 last night. The new wing nuts on the SP tripod were certainly a boon with setup time. Cloud cover was looking like it could go either way though so I got myself ready to start looking by around 10PM. I was hoping for a tour around the Sagittarius area and set up at the bottom of the garden where I have a view to the south. There was still some cloud hanging around in that direction. I managed to spot a star though and lined up on that using the Rigel finder. Closer inspection proved it to be Nunki. I could see another star (Mu perhaps) and tried to do the same with that but at this point the clouds got worse and after a few minutes a big blanket of cloud rolled in so I decided to head indoors for 20 minutes and then see how things looked. Out again around 10:50 PM things were looking better cloud-wise but not entirely clear to the south. I found a star again and once again it turned out to be Nunki - slightly higher and a good deal further to the right than before but my now a neighbour's tree was blocking some options. The session turned out to be a revisiting of some targets from July last year. A short and not too difficult star hop with the 32mm Plossl brought me to M22 which was an easy one to spot and I was quite glad just to have seen anything after so much cloud dodging. From there it was over to Mu and up to the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24), again easy. Panning up from there an open cluster popped into view - I'd found M18 without really trying and from there up to the Swan Nebula which showed immediately as a slash of fuzziness. I could pick up varying amounts of fuzziness and shape through different eyepieces but it seemed to come and go. The obvious next step was the Eagle Nebula. No trouble finding the cluster stars but I can't honestly say that I saw any nebulosity. For the most part I found that the 15mm SLV was about as far as I wanted to push the magnification tonight. The 9mm DeLite was not terrible but didn't really seem to be improving the view. I rounded off the evening by going back the way I'd come to M24 and then Mu and then panning in RA to the clear group of four stars nearby. From there it was downwards by guesstimation to the Lagoon Nebula. With a bit of random panning I managed to bring the Lagoon Nebula stars into view and with the 15mm SLV installed I could suspect some nebulosity. By now I'd pretty much arrived at the nearby rooftops so I decided to pack up. With the naked eye I could see nothing at all in that direction, not even Nunki by now. All in all a pretty cloud limited session just grabbing what targets I could, not helped by being a month later than my efforts in the same area last year and no chance at all to attempt anything new but my streamlining of the setup has definitely worked - I don't think I would have considered going out with the SP and (achro) 102mm scope last year with such unpromising cloud cover. Transparency was looking pretty good overhead by the time I headed indoors but definitely a lot less good lower down.

Spent the afternoon, err... keeping warm... in the shade of the shed yesterday playing with my lathe to make the remaining five replacement bolts for my SP tripod... A 40mm length of B&Q's finest M8 studding, an M8 wing nut and a threaded bush (about 8mm thick) made from 1/2 inch steel bar drilled and tapped M8. All done... no more fumbling around for an Allen key in the dark I still wound't call an SP and 102mm scope 'grab and go' but it's now less hassle and more likely to get out. Now... any suggestions for how to make the original sheet metal 'spider' less annoying? - mine seems to have a penchant for detaching the arms at inopportune moments. It's probably upside down too but that was a previous change to reduce the frequency of it falling apart.

Third night in a row for me. I'm working on streamlining my setup steps so that the 102mm scope gets out more. Today I had a sort through the holdall and turfed out anything not needed for visual. I'm also trying out a new clamping screw for the SP tripod leg to hub joint to cut out the fumbling around with an allen key. The new screw seems to work... just another 5 to make. Main objective was the Moon again. A nice view of Sinus Iridium which is probably one of my favourite areas. The seeing was able to sustain the 5mm Starguider EP today which was nice but I need to practice looking through it without causing the scope to vibrate. Clavius also looked good with its arc of smaller craters inside in ever increasing sizes. I now have my ADM dovetail on top of the FL102 (I think I use dovetails backwards from everyone else) and tonight had the Rigel finder on there so I decided to spend some time practicing with it to see if I could 'hit' targets by getting them into view in the 9mm DeLite. Arcturus was quite obvious and at a convenient height so that was the first target, followed by Mizar and Aloth in Ursa Major. I've used the Rigel plenty of times before (and it does what it should) but it still took a few attempts before I got the hang of it again. Scanning around the sky and looking at Stellarium for another target I decided to try a star hop from Altair to M71. The Rigel got Altair centered in the 32mm Plossl and then I managed the hop to Sagitta without losing my place too many times. It's a lot easier to star hop with the ST80 though so that will probably find its way back onto the dovetail bar soon. M71... yes I saw it... not at all in the 32mm, just about in the 15mm SLV and slightly better in the 9mm DeLite. The Moon was really lighting up the haze and contrails left by planes and casting shadows so definitely not the best conditions for this sort of thing.

Ah well... fairly meh. Seeing was poor. I could make out a couple of bands but the planet seemed to be having a difficult time staying circular. The moons were spread out in a nice line though.

Scope out again tonight. Part 1 was looking at the Moon - somewhat delayed by family, err... happenings but I managed to catch it for 30 minutes or so before it went behind the houses. Copernicus was the most notable feature with its crinkly edge and twin peaks in the middle. Wobbly seeing probably more noticeable than yesterday. Wispy clouds also in evidence again. The other notable sight was a star nearby... which I've now found is delta Scorpii. I wasn't sure if it was going to be occulted before I lost the Moon so I kept watching and sure enough it winked out at about 22:43. By that time the lower edge of the Moon was already lost to me so it was just in time. Learning from last night... scope moved to the Patio now for Jupiter... which has just popped up now so I'll be off.

I managed my first observing session for ages this evening. I should admit to being the latest custodian of the Vixen FL102 formerly in the custody of @Franklin and it has now taken up residence on my SP mount. I did have a quick look at the Moon through it on the evening after I bought it but since then clouds and general hecticness have combined to prevent any more playing. After initial promise last night followed by cloud before I could get the scope out, tonight I was out around 9PM to look again at the Moon. Things started out a bit hazy due to high cloud but it did not intrude too much. Until now I've tended to treat the Moon as a last resort but I'm definitely a fan of the view through the FL102 - it seems much more involving than the achromat view. The edge of the Moon looked like it was boiling away so clearly the seeing was not perfect. Armed with a set of images on the tablet (the 8 1/2 day one seemed about right), I managed to identify Mt Pico as looking rather striking with a long shadow reaching into the terminator. On t'other hemisphere there were plenty of craters to admire. The straight wall seemed the most noteworthy feature. On switching to the 5mm Starguider EP the view became rubbish. At first I blamed the EP (which I often find makes the view too 'thin') but then I looked at the moon and saw that the cloud was much thicker. I adjourned the session in favour of pruning back some holly and yew that was starting to intrude into my telescope space. I'm thinking now that I need to get slicker with my setup and packing up of the whole 102 setup when I'm in purely visual mode. Tonight I just eyeballed North and level and got on with more actual looking. I also shifted the whole rig (after removing the OTA) to different places in the garden a couple of times. There is still scope for improvement - I need to think about replacing the Allen screws that attach the tripod legs so that I can avoid the need to fetch the Allen key out to tighten them and then loosen them again when packing up or moving. After the Moon was heading for the nearby houses with no improvement in the clouds I shifted the whole rig to try for a view of Albeiro. Stars were still hard to pick out with the naked eye so I initially started at Deneb and star hopped as far as Sadr before deciding that it was a bad idea and that I really could see Albeiro if I tried a bit harder. As a bonus, the EP was at the right height for me to use while sitting in a garden chair. The colours of the two stars were very obvious... although I felt that the longer I looked at them the less obvious the colours became... or maybe it was the high hazy cloud messing things up. By now Stellarium was telling me that Saturn was up. Wandering around the garden I found that I needed to shift the rig again. Having done that I had some nice views of Saturn. The 9mm DeLite and 15mm SLV seemed best. With the SLV the image was smaller but I think I could intermittently glimpse Titan as well which is a new one for me but I couldn't see it in the DeLite. I'd been hoping to have a look at Jupiter too but it hadn't popped up when I decided to pack up. Naturally as I was heading indoors with the gear it just peeped over the top of the nearby houses.