SuburbanMak

Had some visible speckles in the view at high magnification & on external inspection could see particles on what I assumed to be the main mirror. I have been a bit reticent to tinker with the Mak but as they were visible & in case they were fungus decided to take the plunge & remove the collector lens and have a look. To my relief they turned out to be dust (I think from when I flocked the visual back) and on the collector mirror not the primary. A quick puff with a hurricane blower & they were gone. While I was in there though I noticed that both the collector baffle & the focus tube were surprisingly shiny - so spent a couple of hours flocking them. I know that flocking the main tube is not considered an essential mod, but while I had the front off I might as well do that too in the interests of squeezing maximum contrast out. All nice and dark in there & looking forward to getting out & seeing if it makes a difference (& checking I haven’t mucked up collimation

My first year as a (grown-up) telescopic observer so many memories made - a few highlights: - Firstlight with the Mak 127 on M42 & the trapezium, instantly hooked. - Staying out until 4 am in March chasing coloured Doubles finishing with first sight of Alberio as it rose & , frozen by then, with my first sight of M13. - M51, wow. - First humbling look at a Markarian’s chain. - First time at a darker site on the South Downs in May. seeing structure in some of the Virgo Messier galaxies then lots of globulars & M27 for the first time. - A brush with Hampshire constabulary whilst splitting doubles in the park! - A couple of warm Planetary all nighters in July. Watching transits on Jupiter & Saturn’s rings. - M8, 16,17, 20 & 21 from the beach in an ST80 converted to 2inch focuser. - The Moon through my “new” 120 year old Clarkson 3inch (& the joy of old refractors generally). - Many nights trudging back from the park through silent friendly streets for a warm (and occasional wee dram). - All the fellowship, advice & banter here on SGL, a most welcome and unexpected bonus to what I imagined would be a very solitary interest. So not a bad year really

Yes! I Find this too - another hour or two can easily skip by that way.

Thanks @Stu - that is incredible scale.

Thanks for the heads up - got a quick look in yesterday morning with a Prinz 330 60mm f11.8 & snapped the disc with my iPhone, view was much sharper in the EP with some nice detail. This thing must be HUGE! How big do you reckon this is compared to Jupiter etc?

Thanks Stu - I missed your comment earlier in the month. Good tip, have to confess I haven't really got my head around exit pupil and its impact on observation. I'll look out for a 40mm Plossl & give this a go. Typically using a 24mm Baader Hyperion in the Mak as my deep sky hunter & its done good service up to now. Am after the fainter UM galaxies a challenge (M101, M106, M108 & M109 all hiding from me over a few sessions...) so this tip on squeezing out the last little bit of performance is very gratefully received!

Lovely night down South, surprisingly flat calm, great seeing and transparency 4/5. Had expected it to be breezy so elected not to drive up onto the downs (which was my excuse for a glass or two of wine with dinner!). So a session on the rugby pitch - so much less local LP than the garden & well worth backpacking the gear. Mak 127 tonight, mainly with the Hyperion 24mm fixed & Baader Neodymium filter - my fuzzy hunter rig. Dropped in a BCO 18mm & TV 15mm Plossl for higher mags. Finally nailed M76 on my third session looking for it - hopped across from Almach to Phi Persei & there it was, a faint elongated smudge to the NNW. Averted vision gave a narrowed middle section. Played with different mags, but so faint it wasn’t taking much, best view with the BCO 18mm at 83x - not the most spectacular object in the catalogue by any means but made my night. Failed again on M108 & 9, might have caught a hint of M106 but frustratingly elusive - not counting as definitely seen. Lovely look at M81 & M82 - both showing some form & at 100x was catching the dark band in the edge-on galaxy. M51 showing both cores and AV giving some structure. Fabulous object. Leo was by now high & was able to easily pick out M95 & M96 looking surprisingly bright & hop to M105 which is a new one for me! Took a quick look at M65/66, faint but stood direct vision — no sign of the “hamburger” tonight. After all those smudges the Double Cluster looked stunning - it really is one of my favourite views. Also looked at the very pretty Owl cluster (NGC 457 ) and Caroline’s Rose - always take a look at this one as a little personal homage to the incredible achievements of the Herschels. Packed up & enjoyed a lovely naked eye constellation tour as I trudged home. Cracking night.

Welcome & great topic! On how I relate emotionally to astronomy I typically go through the following at some point in a session. Mild excited anticipation - as night falls on those rare days where the sky is blue to the horizon & the forecast is good & the moon is down & my schedule allows a late one (you see why they’re “rare” right?) I experience a light buzz. Picking targets, selecting gear, packing it in the car to equalise temperature, all part of the build-up. Nervousness- when I head out to my dark site, which is quite isolated, I still feel an instinctive situational anxiety around being out alone in the open in the dark dead of night. Once I start setting up this quickly gives way to… Focussed calmness - there’s a lot to think about when observing, locating targets, contemplating their beauty, astrophysical properties and sheer scale & distance. I find observing totally absorbing and calming an utter break from the pressures of daily life that brings with it an almost meditative calmness. Occasional elation/frustration based on success/failure in locating long searched for targets. Maybe punctuated once or twice a session with an uttered “Yes!”. Post-session Euphoria - this usually sets in as I’m driving or walking back, returning to earth, the fellowship of humanity & warmth of family after the calm isolation of contemplating deep space. I’ve taken one or two friends observing who’ve been slightly freaked out by facing the scale of the objects we’re looking at - “doesn’t it make you feel insignificant?”. For me it’s quite the reverse. When we look at the 60 million year old fossilised light reaching us from a galaxy that’s not even where we’re looking anymore, the vast majority of the mass, the stuff, that we’re seeing is essentially dead, without consciousness. Huge stars, giant nebulae, whole galaxies separated by unfathomably vast emptiness; none of them can, at least in any way that we understand, do what I can do - consciously perceive, feel, love. Of all the atoms out there mine are unfeasibly lucky to have coalesced into a tiny squashy being living in a sliver of breathable atmosphere on a planet that’s “just right” around a stable star. Makes me feel unbelievably privileged to be here & able to look. A really good session will leave me with mental images of the views I’ve had that persist as I crawl into bed to warm up & drift off. The mild high quite often persists into the next morning - until normal life intervenes & leaves me needing another Astro-fix. (Oh & for the record, sitting to observe helps a huge amount with what I can see! Have also done lots of meteor watching from sun-loungers and binocular observing lying on the kids trampoline just identifying what passes overhead).

I could only get out mid-evening for an hour & seeing was yet to settle down - not bad, around 3/5, but too wobbly for close doubles and with a slightly milky quality that seemed to amplify localised light pollution to North and West, opted for a quick GoTo tour of a few clusters with Mak 127 & Baader Hyperion 8-24 Zoom & 24mm fixed. Enjoyed M35 - sparkling diamond dust at the foot of Gemini. NGC 2264 - Christmas tree cluster. Lovely field at around 100x. No sign of Cone Neb NGC 2392 - Eskimo Neb, nope, needs a proper look from a dark site. NGC 2169 - the “37” cluster. A smaller target than I remembered & the numbers mirror image in the Mak but still very Douglas Adams. M42/M43, NGC: 1973, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1990. - Long tour of Orion Neb, belt & sword areas - looking stunning. Swung to tour NGC 869/884 The Double Cluster, NGC457 The Owl & NGC7789 Caroline’s Rose - the first two not at their best in the LP, Caroline’s delicate rose undetectable. Really do only have S & E usable from the garden. Nice session revisiting some faves from last winter & might get a few hours Saturday, fingers crossed…

Sparkly things in the sky naked eye! ‘scope out to cool.

Short answer - Yes its worth swapping the tripod long term. Longer answer - an uprated tripod made an appreciable difference for me (Berlebach Report 312 vs the standard SW Aluminium job that comes with the Mak AZ GTi combo), the other transformative upgrade to stability was changing the clamp on the AZ GTi to the ADM dedicated version: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-replacement-saddles/adm-dual-dovetail-adaptor-for-az-gti.html I hummed and hahhed far too long over doing this as £54 felt like a lot & I was nervous about tinkering, but have found it worth every penny in added stability and security. Also turns out to be dead simple to fit with a couple of Allen keys. It was only after this upgrade that I noticed there was still a bit of Az play in the supplied tripod, but in terms of impact I'd say it was 70/30 in favour of the uprated clamp. Good choice though, its a great rig .

Looking back over a year with a Mak 127 I found that my biggest buzzes came from locating galaxies - something about the humbling distance and scale, amazing. Whilst the Mak does creditably well on these targets (much better than most's designation of it as a planetary/lunar scope for sure), even showing some structure in a few galaxies from a dark site, its still a Five-inch. So I am considering getting something bigger for the Spring galaxy season. This will be something to give me more light gathering power for dimmer Messiers and galaxy hunting, will still need to be portable as I will need to take it out of town to get a decent darker sky. My observing site is 100m along a well made track from where I park so not too bad & not onerous if it has to go in two trips. I have no aspiration toward astrophotography at this point, my interest is purely visual. Owning the Mak 127 on an AZGTi and Berlebach 312 Report, and doing a fair amount of observing over the year has made me happier with manual star-hopping (helped by a Telrad/9x50 RACI combo), in fact I use the mount more in manual mode or for tracking only than I do in its GoTo guise. Alongside the Mak I've also acquired an ST80 & fitted a 2in focusser for widefield and developed a "classic" long refractor eBay habit (currently f11.8, f13.3 60mms and 2 x 3inch F15s). The f15 'fracs in particular would be more stable and enjoyable to use on a heavier mount. So I am thinking of going for a Skytee2 + ADM saddle upgrade for the main load & imagine the ST80 or a small 60mm would be fine sitting on the second saddle as is. Then I can rotate pea-shooters in and out next to a widefield instrument and enjoy the best of both. This upgrade would also allow for heavier OTAs to meet that increased aperture need. After lots of enjoyable browsing of CC8s, SCTs, Mak 180s etc - I've concluded that given the very few moonless, clear nights when I am free to jump in the car and lug gear about, its not worth spending thousands - cost-per-view likely to be pretty high. So I have been leaning toward adding an affordable 8" Newt on that Skytee2 (ADM up-weighted) to the stable - thinking SW Explorer 200 or if one comes up, an OO VX8. Around the 7 or 8kg mark these should be well within the stable range on the Skytee. My question is whether the 8 inch will show me enough of an improvement in galaxy targets over the Mak 127. On the right night will I be able to see any texture in a few? Will more reveal their form? If not, would going up to a 10 inch make all the difference? If so, it becomes a practicality question - could I safely and stably run a SW Explorer 250 or VX10 on a Skytee /Berlebach 312 Report combo? Weight would be 11-12kg, + maybe 1kg for accessories, so its above the 10kg lots of people talk about at the max load for a Skytee but under the 15kg manufacturer specs so borderline case there. (Or do I just buy a 10inch Dob and get the SkyTee for my other scopes anyway at some point?) Interested in all views and suggestions of course, but especially from those who have experience of running heavier scopes on the SkyTee2, or have a view (literally) on the 5" vs 8" inch vs 10 inch from comparing 'scope's they've owned.

Entering this backyard observing scene under category one. Taken on Jan 13th - a night of exceptional seeing in Winchester delivering a memorable tour of Orion’s doubles. (iPhone 12 long exposure mode + PS Expresss).

I have the Mak 127 on an AZGTi & love it. Super scope for planetary & lunar, doubles down to 1” separation and a better performer on DSOs than its sometimes given credit for (I’ve had mine a year and have used it to track down 80/110 Messier objects - it’s good on planetary nebulae, the brighter globular & tight open clusters and galaxies (showing some form in half a dozen or so), especially from a darker site. Dimmer targets can be detected and “ticked off” but not much more / e.g. fainter globs, elliptical galaxies. Crab Nebula, M33 & Owl Neb required a moonless night from a good Bortle 4 location. Only the biggest targets fail to fit in the just over one degree FoV - Andromeda Galaxy, The Beehive, Pleiades etc - still gives great views to pan around, but if you’re into wide star fields it’s the wrong tool. Under a dark sky performance is transformed - as with anything. Great optics, portability and bomb proof construction. Have found the AZGTi a good performer - particularly the Point & Track feature that keeps objects in view. SynScan app easy to use, minus a few user experience glitches on more recent iPhones. Also can easily be linked to SkySafari app to drive the scope directly from the map or one of the many free downloadable observing lists (I do this sometimes when feeling lazy!). I am a year in and don’t have experience of the other scopes you’re considerIng but the Mak has got me well & truly hooked as an observer. Whatever you choose, have fun & clear skies!

Another fruitful browse in the Oxfam shop, should see me through this cloudy spell. The Collins guide has a really nice month-per-page & constellation per page charts format that I can see using at the eyepiece.

W Orionis is I think the reddest thing I’ve looked at in the sky. Most stars referred to as red look a shade of oange to me, maybe brick red at a push. This one however I see as a full ruby-red. Beautiful and fascinating.

You are most welcome - if you haven't looked at it before you might find this site useful: https://stellarium-web.org/ This is a web version of the Stellarium software, like a virtual night sky where you can control the clock. I use it a lot for working out what to see when and planning star hops.

Nice work on both! Orion is packed with great doubles. You’ve not started with the easiest either Rigel is a really good example of what a big magnitude difference looks like - worth a look at Polaris too, similar secondary & some nice colour contrast.. Back in Orion, Eta Orionis (just W of the main constellation outline on a level with the middle belt star) is a rewarding closer pair at 1.7”. Next time you’re on Alnitak it’s worth dropping a degree and half SW (about 1/5 the way toward Orion’s sword) to look at Sigma Orion’s, a fantastic multiple system - an easy triple and more subtle quad with another faint triple thrown in for free (Struve 761). Clear (& stable) skies!

Seeing not great here in Winchester, and transparency mixed with swathes of thin high mist - sweet spot for me in the Mak 127 around 100x tonight. Some leisurely doubles then: Mesarthim - Gamma Arietis, 1 Arietis, 30 Arietis, Miriam in Perseus & Rho Orionis. + a rather wobbly moon.

Lovely read about some lovely ‘scopes, thank you!

I own both an SW 127 Mak and an ST80 f5. Both fantastic but not an “either/or” in my opinion as they fulfil different roles. If I had to choose only one it would be the Mak - optics are superb with enough aperture to reveal many DSOs and give great views of the brightest, a doubles machine down to 1”, good planetary detail and fabulous on the moon. Mine lives in a (padded) backpack in a cool spot in the house (although cooling time at this size is typically on 20mins at UK temp differentials) and is an easy one-trip carry, tripod in hand, down the stairs and into the garden or from car to observing site. Haven’t used one but the 102mm version would be even smaller and lighter whilst still packing a punch.

More Orion Doubles tonight. Seeing good, slight slow swimming - not quite Thursday. Rigel, Sigma, Iota (superb star field), Eta all warming up to try something at the limit of the Mak 127. Spent quite a while trying to split 55 Orion, before remembering the correct 0.99” star is 52 Ori! Was seeing this as notched at 224x (TV 15mm Plossl, 2.25 Barlow) and deeply notched at 341x (10mm BCO, 2.25 Barlow). A thin-waisted peanut swimming slightly in the seeing - one to come back to on the next perfect night. Looked at 32 Ori which is just below the res limit for the Mak and could see notched at the highest Mag as above. Finished with a couple of Carbon stars - BL & W Ori. W in particular is a beautiful ruby red. Lovely out there in the moonlight.

Looks superb - imagine it’s rock solid on that mount too!

Thanks Nik - looks the perfect test subject, I’ll definitely track that down next time seeing allows!

Thanks Nik - I was in full winter mountaineering garb so mainly fingers & feet that signalled the end of the session. Tegmine is at 1.1” I believe - and it showed as a good clean line, I reckon it would go a shade closer with an equal pair. Need to find a candidate at exactly 1 arc sec separation for a test. As for skill, you’re very kind but honestly think it’s a testament to the extraordinarily good seeing. More of that please