SuburbanMak

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

No observing for me. I was in hospital all last week and I'm spending this week and next week recovering. It's forecast cloudy anyway 

Still, I have a few exciting items arriving today from FLO to cheer me up. More in the what did the postman bring thread later 

Get well soon Mr Spock! 

I have written a letter to Santa about an SV Bony 3-8mm zoom, would give a very useful range of higher magnification in the F7.4 Tak 100 DC. Fingers crossed… 

Just in from a fab couple of hours in the local park mainly watching Ganymede transit the S polar region of Jupiter.  Tak 100 DC & Pentax XW 5mm (148x) keeping the tiny disc in view throughout from a pimple on the E limb at around 12:05 to emerging on the W at 01:33 - quite amazing to watch, have seen many shadow transits but a first to watch the actual moon complete it’s transit. Seeing came and went but was treated to a really steady patch as it emerged and moved away to leave a clear black line of space between it and the planet. Lots of detail too at times in both the equatorial and temperate bands.  

Took a few detours to look at M42 - a bit washed out but impressively swirly, Pleiades, Double Cluster and Auriga clusters.  

First outing for the Tak on the AZGTIX in tandem with the trusty ST80 in 2 inch mode, with a Stella Lyra 30MM UFF on board this gives a 5.25 degree field at 13x and makes an Uber-finder as well as delivering very satisfying widefield views in its own right. 

A heavy frost made packing away a finger numbing experience and despite being fully thermaled and North Faced home and a glass of red felt very welcome indeed! 

Good luck and nice catch on M1 from an urban spot! 
Coming up on 3 years in and I am stalled on 99, between weather and work I didn’t get my act together on the last few summer objects this year. 

Still chasing: M30, M55, M68, M69, M70, M72, M73, M74, M75, M83 and M109. 

You’ve inspired me though… 

Just in from a satisfying garden session, dark & transparent. Seeing wasn’t great, split Castor as a test but quite degraded at 148x so not a night for high power doubles.  Enjoyed some more great views of Jupiter and first Tak views of some of the emerging winter favourites - M35, M38 and stunning wider field looks at M45, Double Cluster and M42, greenish glow and lots of almost 3D texture.  
Have got a bit lazy, quick sessions with the Tak 100DC and 3 EPs, Hyperion 24mm, Morpheus 12.5mm & Pentax 5mm -  must try harder, but the views with this set up are great and I can be out in 10 minutes. 
Orion, big coat, frost - winter is coming…

Enjoyed an hour of fine Jupiter viewing this evening with Tak 100 DC & Pentax 5mm (148x).  
Lots of texture in the main bands and the GRS showing well, although not especially red right now.   
Eventually the cloud intervened so switched to the Moon for a while - roaming around the Apennine Mountain region and the bewildering south polar area.   Clouded out now but some super views. 

A lovely session tonight - Jupiter was very prominent and a suggested mount alignment target but once on it I noticed the Io shadow transit & stayed there for an hour or so.
 

Fab views with the Pentax 5mm 5-10 seconds at a time of steady seeing, allowing me to track the progress of a crisp full stop across a disc also showing good detail in multiple bands, especially in the Northern hemisphere. 

After that a highlights tour, with Pleiades and  M42 showing particularly well. A highlight though was picking up M1 from the garden, a testament to the  massive contrast delivered by the Tak FC 100, still figuring out just how stunning this ‘scope really is. 

First time out for a long time last night and enjoyed some at times great views of Saturn & Jupiter - the Tak 100 DC paired with Pentax 5mm delivering as good a view of Jupiter as I’ve ever had with lots of swirly texture in the equatorial bands at the best moments.   
 

Also spent some quality time with M31 & M45 in the Baader Hyperion 24mm.  
 

Lovely warm, dry session with a nice glass of red on the go  

Fabulous report Magnus! 

Sorry to hear of @Mr Spock's frustration but also quite relieved to read this thread.

I'd felt like I've lost my astro-mojo recently but reading this realise a lot of it is about lack of opportunity. My longer, planned sessions tend to take place on clear Friday/weekend evenings which on reflection have been in short supply of late!  Off on holiday down to Cornwall in a week or so (Bortle 3) and will pack the IS Binos, you never know... 

23 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Sadly I'm out of action for a week following my (successful) angioplasty. I can't drive for 7 days and I'm absolutely not to pick anything up - including mounts and scopes 🤕

Clear skies too 😭😡

Get well soon sir!

First time out for a while due to work and you know, life. 
Lovely night, out with the Tak 100DC & just a Baader Zoom & Pentax XW 5mm. 
 The rising full moon although low was creating a huge sky glow so confined to some bright favourites. 
Looked at the Double Double - confirming that seeing is very good, although some shake from a gusty breeze from time to time.  

On to the Ring Nebula, M57, resolving well at 8mm (92x) despite the moonlight. 

Lovely colours on Alberio - and at 24mm showing in a rich starfield - still blown away by the Tak’s pinpoint stars. 
M27 - just, nice to pull out low down from the garden but no real form visible. 
M29 - showing a good number of stars with the 5mm (148x). 

Izar - a beautiful sapphire & gold ring in the 5mm (148x) between breeze shakes. 

M13  - showing some sparkles in AV from about 100x on up. A stunning object in all eyepieces. 
 
A short session on the usuals suspects but lovely to be back out there in a cool early summer’s evening. 



 

Good Lord so it does! 
Thanks @John can’t believe I missed that   That will make all the difference, just need some more clear skies now. 

2 minutes ago, John said:

The topmost tapered part does just unscrew but that is not the eyecup adjustment. It is the whole top section of the eyepiece, the whole of the rubber coated part, that will turn and move either upwards or downwards. The travel is about 15-16mm taken from my XW 5mm.

 

Now this is a revelation - thank you! 

5 hours ago, Mike Q said:

My goodness ... How do you see anything with all that light pollution.  That is insane 

The photos massively exaggerate it and are quite long exposures, shows the light is there but above about 30 degrees things were not too bad and good higher up and to the N round to E. 

48 minutes ago, John said:

Very nice report - I enjoyed reading it 🙂

As others have said, if you don't wear glasses then the top section of the XW eyepieces need to be well towards or at their highest positions to avoid eye positioning issues. If you wear glasses then the opposite is often the case.

 

Thanks John - I’ll have another play with it, looked to me like the rubber section just unscrews without delivering much in the way of increased height, could entirely be user error! 

4 hours ago, Littleguy80 said:

I just checked and eyecup on XW 5mm is twist up so you can adjust to whatever’s comfortable for you  

Interesting - I just seemed to completely unscrew something, I’ll have another look. 

19 hours ago, Enceladus Dan said:

 do you need to ask anyone's permission for the farm track? 

No permission required as it’s on a public bridleway called Kings Way.  I’ve had no real security concerns bar that one chap looking at my car the other night.  

I’ve once met a fellow astronomer up there looking for the recent comet, one couple enjoying the, ahem, view and once a radio amateur parked up in the lay-by.  That plus my chat with the police this time is the sum total of people spotted in 20+ outings over two years. 

The actual Cheesefoot Head car park attracts a bit more activity but I’m a few hundred yards further on and even that tends to die down along with the volume of passing vehicles by midnight or so.  

A little late in writing up Friday's session on the South Downs above Winchester but wanted to record it here as it was good night! 

Although Clear Outside was showing less than promising local conditions, a look at the Met Office Cloud Cover and Jetstream forecasts on Friday afternoon convinced me that there was good chance of a few clear, stable hours from darkness onward so I carefully packed up the Tak and checked Stellarium for what I'd be able to hunt down off my remaining Messier list. The Messier tally has languished at 97 for some time and with just a sliver of moon I was hopeful to fill in a few gaps on the Virgo/Coma galaxies and maybe have another hunt for M109 which has eluded me to date!  This was to be the first time out to my dark-ish spot (a decent Bortle 4) with the Tak 100DC so I was excited to find out what it could do. 

I was at my usual spot on a farm track just beyond Cheesefoot Head on the A272 by around 10pm and immediately struck by the stillness. Its a blowy spot up there typically but Friday night was magically still, a thin crescent moon dipping in the West with Venus hanging above - a magical night.  Looking more critically I could see all the main stars in Ursa Minor and pick out the Beehive and Coma Star Cluster (Melotte 111) quite easily, also light extinction from the port at Southampton and along the Solent toward Portsmouth was at this point less intrusive than it often is. There were some bands of slightly reduced transparency from high mist but good in between and seeing above about 30 degrees looked stable, at least up to the 140x I had on board with the Pentax 5mm.  EPs for the night were a Baader Hyperion 24mm giving 31x, Morpheus 12.5mm - 59x, Pentax XW 5mm giving 148x and a Baader 8-24mm zoom, which mainly stayed on the tray after aligning.  

I planned to "cheat" and use GoTo so really took my time levelling the tripod and aligning at high power to get things as accurate as possible, aligning on Venus and Arcturus. 

Venus itself was a little low by then to take any real power but I did have a play with my new Pentax XW 5mm and, although slightly swimming, was pleased to see a good sized gibbous disc with a hint of gradation around the terminator. Made a mental note to have a proper look at Venus earlier in the evening one night soon if I can.  

Took a quick look at Algieba's lovely golden headlights and then dropped to the first galaxy of the day, the Leo Triplet - M65 & M66 immediately visible with some extent to M66 that grew when I looked directly at M65.  Of NGC 3628 there was no sign at this point but then  I wasn't yet fully dark adapted. A good start though and a sign that galaxy hunting was worth pursuing. 

At this point I was bathed in light from a car pulling in to the gateway where I park about 150m or so away.  I could see a torch being played across my vehicle and then a flash of reflective yellow and blue, I was receiving a visit from Hampshire's finest.  I walked over to explain that it was my car and couldn't pass up the chance to introduce myself with an "Evenin' all...".  The officers were quite interested and I pointed out Venus & a couple of things for them and they wished me a good evening and went on their way. Nice to know they're out there. 

I used their headlights to take a photo of my rig in the field and then started dark adaptation all over again! 

Looked at M105, immediately apparent as a fuzzy oval, with NGC 3384 dimly visible as a nearby smudge, a good test for my main targets in Coma Bernices.  

On into virgo and M86 and M84, well seen, panning East along Markarian's Chain marvelling at the field with multiple galaxies - NGC 4461, NGC 4473, NGC 4477 positively identified, other nearby smudges on the limit of vision. 

Next up M87 and probably the best view I've had of this one so far with a noticeably brighter core and wider nebulous oval than I remembered. 

Confident that I was now properly dark adapted and with my "fuzzies eye" well in around the right magnitude, I made the hop a degree or so NE to look for M88 - which to my delight was found quite easily amid a triangle of c.Mag 10 stars. More an oval than a fuzzy star and certainly with reasonable luminosity.  

Then dropped around a degree SE to, hopefully, pick up M91.  This one much fainter and it took a good 10 minutes of peering, panning and 'scope tapping to convince me that the faintest of grey patches I was seeing at the end of a dog-leg of c.Mag 10 stars was in fact the target. No sign of that barred spiral shape from the photos but a faint grey cloud, vaguely round, reminded me of how it felt the first time  I confirmed M33, only smaller.   

I had a quick look at M100 which although very faint had revealed some spiral form in previous sessions and I could certainly see some dim shape, so vague that it almost appeared to be moving in averted vision. 

In the 4" Tak these were not objects that will immediately make my "greatest hits" list but very satisfying to move the Messier tally on by 2 to 99 after a long pause! 

I'd thought about trying for M109 but Phecda in Ursa Major was almost bang overhead at this point so picked off a couple of favourites instead. 

M3 and M13 both looked great as always and I got to spend some time on them with my new Pentax XW 5mm (148x).  M13 in particular was spectacular with skeins of stars spreading out from a dense glittering ball, dark veins visible in AV.  I am taking a bit of time to get used to the eye placement with the Pentax XW, eye relief seems more than I am used to, feels almost like a "screen" that you look at rather than into. If I get to close I am getting a bit of kidney-beaning, this makes it challenging to use in the garden where there's ambient light, but enjoyed much more success with it out here in a darker spot.  The images themselves are very crisp and flat to the edge so I will definitely stick with it, for other focal lengths though I might pick up more of the Morpheus range, certainly the 12.5mm I find a joy to look through and proved a superb galaxy hunter. 

Fingers and toes were beginning to numb by this stage so I briefly swept around the Double Cluster and NGC457 the Owl/ET before starting to pack up. As I back from the 'scope a bright yellow fireball crossed from the N, westward across Cassiopeia leaving a trail that persisted for a couple of seconds, a magic end to a great night!  

(One final event, as I was packing away I noticed someone else poking about the car - not a lot of walkers up here after midnight so I packed away in stealth mode, popping the counterweight in my back pocket for reassurance, but there was no further incident).  As I drove back down the hill, I met the rising mist building in the valley and creeping along the Solent, I reckon I'd had the best of the night. 

A super session tonight - my first on the Downs with the Tak FC100 DC.  Almost completely still up there which is rare and for a couple of hours transparency was good above about 30 degrees. Packed up in the end due to rising mist and numbing extremities.
 Full report to follow but some spring galaxy firsts and revisits plus a host of favourites and a bonus fireball through Cassiopeia as I started to pack away. Magical night. 

It’s been a while so nice to get out for a “quick” session with the Tak 100 DC that turned into a pleasurable 2 hours. 
Switching between Baader Hyperion 24mm, Morpheus 12.5mm and Pentax XW 5mm. 
 Good seeing and transparency better than expected. 
Looked at M3, M13 both of which were looking sparkly. 
Some doubles: Polaris, Algieba, Iota Cancri, Porrima, Cor Caroli,  Epsilon Boo & the Double Double - loving the Pentax on these combined with the Tak’s tight, contrasty & colourful stars. 
Even bagged a few galaxies which from my light polluted garden is a testament to that contrast - M94, M63, M81, M82 & a slew of smudges in Markarian’s Chain. Fab! 

The postman brought a Pentax XW 5mm,  which was nice of him. 
 

Quickly despatched from @FLO as always and remarkable packaging by Ricoh/Pentax.  Just need the clouds to clear… 

At six inches you have a very capable ‘scope there!

 Lots of good targets suggested above especially M81&M82 - a pair of galaxies which with a bit of patience are relatively easy to find (track diagonally across the bowl of the Plough from the bottom of the “pan” nearest the handle, just over the same distance again and you’ll be in the right area).  

Also check out the Great Hercules Globular cluster (M13) which is roughly half way along the top of the Hercules “keystone” shape. Will look an amazing fuzzy, glittering ball of stars with your scope and will take some magnification. 
 

Another I look at almost every time I go out is the Double Cluster - half way between the prominent W/M shape of Cassiopeia and the curving top of Perseus. Fabulous object for that “lost in space” feeling.  

All we need are some clear skies! 

Windy here tonight but a biggish gap in the cloud as I was about to turn in. Nipped outside with the Canon 10x42 IS and had a nice half hour or so - M3, M13, M81 & M82, Alpha Persei cluster, Double Cluster & Stock 2, M39, Alberio, Coma Berenices star cluster & general sweeping around. 
Lovely to see some stars! 

Thanks @John - it’s quoted as 29-35mm & I measure the Tak part at 25mm so an additional 4mm.  Just had a church spire test and to the extent that I can achieve focus through my bobbly old windows it all appears fine with all the EPs I regularly use, with & without Barlow. 
 

@mikeDnight - good point, I think this will be mainly locked, those extra few MM of back focus might be needed on the 18mm Ortho but otherwise can’t see me touching it.