JAC51

Thank you for the reply Mike. I indeed started sketching after someone on CN recommended it as being one of the best ways to improve observing skills. At first I held back through simply lack of skill at drawing but then decided just to accept my drawing badly as something to accept and move on from. One thing it had taught me is the value of patience in observing. I enjoyed your story of the rille that shows some persistence on your part on the face of all apprentice evidence to the contrary. For my next step I am thinking of developing a colour palette for Mars using the wife’s colouring pencils and learning how to shade better than I do now. Late hour for the reply here on a wet cloudy night because I’ve just let out our old Labrador who is now wet and having to be dried off all at 2:30 in the morning. She could at least have chosen a clear night to wake me up! John

Lovely drawing can I ask what size pencil lead you used?

Congratulations and let us know how it goes. There is no harm in being over mounted.

scope spotting duties. My apologies I forgot this part of what you wrote so portable yes carbon fibre yes

That may be a good point the tripod I have has a screw on column rather than an extending one. For travel it also means that the legs can fold up in a more compact package. Originally I had a SLIK small aluminium tripod with a centre column which I would never extend more than about 10cm because it would wobble too much. But to be fair things move on and it is a different mount you are looking at. If I had the space and was not needing to travel I would have chosen a wooden tripod over a carbon fibre one.

I bought as a travel mount a Sirui AM254 carbon fibre tripod with a pillar to use for travelling with a TakFS60 and a Borg 76mm. I thought the Sirui was fine for the purpose and the Sirui has an official payload of 12kg half of the tripod you are looking at.

There was more detail visible on the night than I currently have the skill to draw. Some detail was there which I wish now I had the courage to draw at the time. An example being that at times I could see a darker diagonal line cutting through the North polar cloud. On photographs I’ve now seen it was there but I thought I was imagining it.

My preference was for the Tak Prism over the Baader Maxbright by a narrow margin. Slightly less scatter slightly sharper edge to the Martian disk slightly sharper edges to surface details in those brief moments of good seeing.

I could ask the same of you “when can I come round?” One telescope I’ve always wanted to see is a Tak TSA 120 which I’m sure is no slouch at all. In the picture at the bottom though you can just make out the excellent little Tak prism. John

My attempts at sketching Mars last night between 9 and 10pm GMT in the UK. My drawing skills still need an upgrade I have just learnt that there are other pencils in the world than HB. Started with a Baader maxbright diagonal then worked through a Tak prism then back to the maxbright at the end.

My scaled down version of the high mounted 6” Unitron. 5” refractor you can see the scale from the Skysurfer lll on the right and it’s on a Losmandy GM8.

Similar to above 50% to 60% and in addition small desiccant bags in cap on focusser.

When I first got back into Astronomy I got my first 1.25” eyepieces, two Tak LE’s in fact and I could not believe how huge they where compared to my 70’s eyepieces.

This is very interesting. I have for a while now left the normal outside light on in my observatory for observing the moon to reduce the perceived brightness but never thought of it improving detail seen. I must try it on the planets now. I may take up the suggestion above off shining torch on a white piece of paper. It feels a little awkward after persuading my kind neighbours to turn their outside lights off while I'm observing to then turn one on myself.

It’s a dilworth relay which gives an upright non inverted image when used straight through. https://britastro.org/forums/topic/dilworth-not-cassegrain There is some mention of these on cloudy nights apparently few where made?

APM do two versions of the 70mm right angle a triplet apo version and a cheaper what they call semi apo version which you can find on their web site

APM have 70mm right angle binoculars which are the smallest I have seen

Sirui AM254 Carbon Fibre tripod and SL200 Pillar I bought this tripod to fit in a carry-on luggage for flying. At 44cm in length when fully retracted the tripod fits length ways into the standard wheelie type cases permitted in overhead lockers on flights from the UK. The carry bag that it comes with is much longer than the tripod and the empty end is simply folded over. I assume the carry bag is a common model also supplied with Siruis’s larger tripods. There is also a bag containing screw in spikes to replace the rubber pads on the bottom of each leg as well as a hook to hang weights from the bottom of the tripod. The official payload is 12kg and the mount has both 1/4” and 3/8” connections which you change by simply unscrewing, flipping over and screwing back in again. The tripod itself I weighed as 1040g. The SL200 pillar is 1” in diameter and 20cm in length and extends telescopically to almost double this (I have not done this in use) The tripods legs are in four sections (3 extensions) which open cleanly and lock easily with a half turn of a collar at the neck of each extension. I tried the tripod out with both a Tak FS60 refractor and a Borg 76mm achromat. Both telescopes where used to look at the Sun with Baader Herschel prism and Morpheus eyepieces. The mount used was a small Borg 3101 geared azimuth mount. With the mount and the Borg 76mm the total mass on top of the pillar was about 3.5kg and very tail heavy. Damping times with very hard tap on the end of the focuser of the Borg. 2 leg sections used (1 section pulled out) about 1 second (but looks unstable) 3 leg sections used ( 2 sections pulled out) about 3 seconds 4 leg sections used (3 sections pulled out) about 6 seconds Damping times for Tak FS60CB 3 leg sections 2 seconds 4leg sections 3 seconds Though for both in actually use better than above as I could happily use the gears on the mount to move the telescope which the settled quickly to allow me to see the target drifting across the field of view . Overall I’m pleased with it for small, shortish 60mm to 80mm refractors so much so that it has in effect replaced the Borg SLIK aluminium tripod which I originally used.

The filters I am using are like you ND3 then solar continuum and that is it for my little Tak FS60 which is my most commonly used scope on the sun. For my 130mm frac I’m finding the combination still a little too bright and have been playing around with adding a single polarising filter as well. Eyepieces used are mainly Brandon’s and Baader Morpheus.

Well come to the world of day time astronomy, really enjoyed reading your account. Your use of filters is interesting, logic of try what you have makes sense and it will be interesting to hear you compare what you have already with the Baader continuum when it arrives. I assume that in addition you are using a ND3? which came with the Lunt? Magnification for day time use due to thermals is generally much lower than Night time and in my case in the U.K. while I might have a typical max of x200 at night (130mm refractor) I usual max out at x100 during the day and your x70 would be typical for me. I should add that I’m not an experienced observer and others on this site no doubt can offer more definitive advice. I have found as you have that seeing is better in the morning, I assume due to fewer thermals before the air heats up. What I had not realized is during the day how much you can see of your surroundings while using an eyepiece with peripheral vision a towel over the head is my best solution so far.

Like the picture. I was out at almost exactly the same time in Suffolk trying to sketch Ptolemaeus down to Thebit and it’s good to see again what I was trying draw badly. Especially taken by the sunlight catching on the central peaks and northwards the shadows of the Alpine Mountains.

Good looking picture. I can understand your wind issues, I live in Suffolk as well and in my case decided not to risk pushing the roof off my observatory.

Brilliant , just brilliant.

Thank you for an enjoyable observing report. I was out last night as well with a 5” refractor. Tegmine AB I could make out as binary but with out a clean split at X225. 57Cnc slit cleanly at the same X225 and a lovely sight. I think I was somewhat luckier here in Suffolk as the sky was not as milky as others have reported. John

Great images