cotterless45

Orientation of drawings spot on for a frac with a diagonal.just switch off tracking , field of view heads west. Or press left RA button on Synscan handset. Mark west. Count your mirrors, frac with one mirror is uneven number of mirrors, north is 90 degrees clockwise from marked west . Newts have two mirrors ( even number) , north is 90degrees anti-clockwise from marked west. Useful when comparing with other's drawings or checking PA in a complex view, keep safe , old Nick.

''Tis thé joy of refractors , getting marble like stars. For those with large apertures, closing down using a simple aperture mask can provide superb views . Don't leave it in place though like I did the other night !😳 Keep safe , old Nick.

Loving to use refractors , I'll give it a go. Firstly ca, don't bother looking at it , ignore it . You can fit a semi apo filter or fringe killer filter into your diagonal that'll fair control it , not eliminate it , it'll remove some of the light coming through . For me , ca may be a big issue on bright binary stars at high magnification. Focus becomes harder with old age , if you're a certain age you might find this. Dual speed focusers are a great help and long refractors give you a greater range to snap into focus , more than short fast refractors. You also have to train your eye to relax and get accustomed to observing . Don't squint or use one eye . Use an eyepatch or a handy hand to cover the non seeing eye. Else you'll be straining your face muscles and will get tired pdq. Sitting comfortably helps , adjust chair to relax at the scope. Don't be climbing up step ladders in the dark or squatting down to get a view. Adjust your tripod first , avoid full leg length . A pillar extension on the mount will aid getting the right height. Spikes and wobbles : you're not actually seeing marble stars. What you're seeing is a diffraction ring which is how your Optics collect light to focus.If you go out of focus either side of focus you'll see great Airy discs that'll give you an indication on how good your Optics are , https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airy_disk Spikes and wobbling are caused by the atmosphere. Low down you'll be looking through 90 miles of it . in addition any thermal differences produce air movements , often the air settles after midnight. Don't think there's anything wrong with your eyes or scope , it'll be the atmosphere. This can be bad on a hot day followed by a cold night, or over buildings where heat is rising . Collimation: yep , unless factory set , they can be out . Use a Cheshire to check. That applies to diagonals as well. It's not critical unless you are using high magnification on planetary features or tight binaries. Not a big issue unless you drop the scope. I hope others add to this and get your queries answered . Anyhow refractors are proper telescopes ! Enjoy the purity of views , Clear skies ,Nick.

Milky skies here , but what lovely views of earthshine and the terminator. Great post as usual, stay safe , old Nick.

Just can't beat the 130 Heritage for its size and sheer basic pleasure. It's the scope that I'd recommend for beginners and for travelling . Ace report Mark, Nick.

Our light pollution has got worse with new builds here. It's lovely to be out without East Midlands air traffic though. The Herschel list is well worth studying to pick out accessible targets , Nick.

Super report , we're bring spoilt with great weather ! keep safe , Nick.

Excellent , great way of self isolation! Keep safe , Nick.

Bravo ! Sharing views brings rewards to all. The double cluster always goes down well. Great for showing folk we're not wasting time and money in the dark ! keep safe , Nick.

Lovely full report. NGC 2392 , the "Eskimo Nebula" is a fabulous planetary nebula. Even with poor skies , the central white dwarf is visible at high magnification. From dark skies , the fuzz resolves into a lovely hood with different areas of brightness. That was on North Skye with a 10" Dob. Stay safe , old Nick.

Tegmine is a favourite , nice to compare it with the brasher beta Monocerotis and the gentle sigma Orionis. Tegmine is a great tester for seeing and Optics. Stu sent me this , interesting to see how binaries open and close . Porimma is super wide and almost glowing , I remember it being very tight.

Try " Hagrid's dragon", NGC 2301 in Monoceros. Grandchildren love it , it's a dragon ! Nick.

Wow ! A run of clear skies, silver lining on this dreadful dangerous cloud that covers us all. Nice to leave the mount out covered up. Sky got a bit milky by midnight so packed in. More clear skies coming for middle England. Tried and tried for galaxies , but just smudges with our light pollution. Most awful was NGC 4449. This is one that really resolved with a galactic halo and dust lane in dark skies. Just smudges from the Virgo , Coma Berenices and Leo galaxies, although M51 did give two faint cores.Better luck with M53 and M3. About x90 and some resolution. But what a surprise with binary stars, don't think I've had a finer night for ages. Stars were beautifully coloured with a 4" aperture mask and really tight lovely diffraction discs. A 10mm old school Vixen SP gave absolutely jaw dropping views. Ursa Major.h2682 and a beautiful triple with the third element clearly visible. "Alula Australis" (53 UMa) and a really bright pair . 65 UMa and a wonderful view of the split secondary. Σ1559 and a jaw dropping view of this teeny faint companion. Sextans. Now beneath Leo is Sextans home of a couple of specials, 35 and 40 Sextantis. Packing up, I heard familiar rustling , our hedgehog was back and heading for a few treats that we'd put out. Stay safe , Nick.

Yep, on my favourites list. We had a faint sparkling at SGL which was very much enjoyed by those observing when the distance and history were given. Wonderfully informative post John. Always worth finding this fish hook of stars and watching for a sparkle at the end, Nick.

Another convert and I must say you have a fine pet there ! old Nick.

What a night to be out in self isolation, stargazing rocks ! Turned into a right milky sky , later only the brightest stars were on view. Very few signs of galaxies , but the stunning "ghost of Jupiter in Hydra " NGC 3242 was glorious. When we look at these , just think how amazing it must have been to have discovered them. Up to Leo and for any beginners , a lot of the named stars are glorious doubles , such as the lovely Regulus ( particularly stunning),Algieba and Denebola. Σ1447 gave a wonderful ghostly speck of a secondary ( SAO 81415). Up to Leo Minor and another speck at Σ1374. There are binaries galore in Ursa Major . Σ1831 gives an arc of three stars , look at the last one and by averted peek , the delicate companion pops out. As does the companion of Σ1695. Both ι Leonis ( SAO99587) and 25 Canum Ven. (SAO 63648) similar separations at 1.7" . Righto , enjoy the skies and Stay safe , Nick.

From being up from 2.30am and taking an hour to get my kite down out of the wind at PSP, I was pretty tired before setting up. But sky lovers , clear skies always beckon. Good view of the comet in Cassiopeia and a lovely view of the ghost of Jupiter , rightly named as when you look at it directly , it's gone ! Quite usual for planetary nebulae , but a bit shocking with this one . Had a light blue tint to my eye. Superb forecast , ideal for self isolating viewing ,stay safe , Nick.

Superb report John , thanks for posting , keep safe , Nick.

Pic of the last star party this spring . That's Peter recovering from fighting to put up his tent ! The farmer cut the site for us as it wasn't officially open. Embodied the very spirit of meets, lots of help , tips and generosity. New friends are made , old ones caught up with . Shallow Grange is a wonderful family site , very worthwhile stay for the attractions of the Peak District. That's when this terrible situation has safely passed. Keep safe , work on those observing lists ! Nick.

Pleasure to be there and meet everyone. Managed to drink so much beer last night, lot of "dead soldiers " about. Great to meet Peter , Paul , Karen, Duncan Steve (again, full of brilliant ideas , including buying his own beer cask from the pub, "its beer o'clock".) up at 2.30 am, Duncan's tent was shaking with snoring . Lovely deep sky zenith , Got what I came to see , the Canes Venatici galaxies. star meets rock ! clear skies , stay safe, old Nick.

5 turned up. All very conscious not to be hugging each other. Although it's been cold enough. The farmer came up and thanked us for coming. He's had so many cancellations. Not much clear sky last night. Between the clouds got a fine M51 and NGC 2392, lovely hood and central white dwarf. Just a cg5 manual mount and 8" f6 OO Newt. Happy days ! Keep safe everyone , oldK.

I think that it would be a nice gesture for those attending to give some money so that we can buy a small of appreciation for the site owners. It was more than kind of them to open up the site just for us, old Nick.

Brilliant , look forward to seeing you ,

Spiced rum and coke definately works. Due to daily doses we're completely virus free and very jolly. Forecast looks excellent , here's to hoping , Nick.

Wow, lovely crisp evening , clouds came at midnight , but a glorious full sky. Kicked off with some carbon stars for colour . Then a tour of highlights . Something kept niggling , that lone star straight out from Leo's front legs. Eventually twigged , it was Alphard at the head of Hydra. Some new to me views of binaries. These two are well worth finding , Σ 1474 gives an amazing low power sight of triple clear stars in a line . Σ1348 together with Σ1355 give two identical binaries , that's magnitude and separation. Split these pairs at x92 with a 13mm Nagler. Some carbon star views. I used an aperture mask to close down and get colour. W Orionis (SAO 112406) was bright orange. Orionis RT (05h34.3 +07 10') was dim. Y Tauri (SAO 77516) was dim. Tu Gem.(SAO 78066) gave a glowing bright coal. RCMi (SAO 96548) dim. X Cancri (SAO 98230) gave a glowing bright coal and VY UMa(SAO 15274) was very bright. A tour . Wonderful cone of " Hubble's variable Nebula" NGC 2261, brighter at x92. Always worth a shot from town , as is the lovely dragon of NGC 2301. Followed by M3, M51 also giving the core of NGC 5195 and a bright M94 all in Canes Venatici. Over to Coma Berenices, galaxies aren't great from here. Usually there's a blackbird singing under the light sky most nights.M64("Blackeye") by averted.M63 gave a bright core ("sunflower galaxy). NGC 4565 is a bright side on streak. M85 is the brightest in the Virgo cluster, nice ! Over to the Leo groups. Hardly a sign of M65 , but M66 was brighter.No M95 , but a brighter M96. A low power view of Porrima split this apart very easily , really opened out. Wound up with 24 Com.Berenices (SAO 100160) , another colourful winter Albireo.32/33 com.Berenices (SAO 100311) gave a lovely orange primary.Finished with 36 Com.Berenices (Σ1687) giving a lovely triple. Rare night , lovely to be out under , clear skies ! Nick.