Gonariu

Disegno delle Pleiadi. Dati del disegno: uso di un filtro solare in vetro a tutta apertura. Ingrandimenti: 17X, 25X, 33X, 50X con uno zoom Vixen di almeno 10 anni fa. Osservazione in luce integrale. Rifrattore acromatico 80/400 su un treppiede fotografico. Luogo: dal balcone della casa dei miei a Quartu Sant'Elena. Presenza di inquinamento luminoso, ma le costellazioni in genere si distinguono. Osservazione col diagonale stellare, l'immagine poi è stata messa colla giusta orientazione. Disegno eseguito il giorno 31 Dicembre 2021 alle ore 19 circa.

I bought used at the end of May 2020 an achromatic 80/400 (the Konus Vista - 80) which is of the same type as the ST80, I must say that it is a purchase I have never regretted and I use it for practically everything , Moon, Sun, planets, deep sky objects and panoramas. I keep it mounted on a photographic tripod to be ready for use. Taking advantage of the good weather and the mild temperatures of these days, around 7 pm tonight I dedicated myself to the observation of the Pleiades by making a drawing of it. Unfortunately the place is not the best, here in Quartu Sant'Elena (attached to Cagliari) where I am for the Christmas holidays there is the light pollution of the towns; raising the magnification from 17X to 50X darkens the background of the sky, improving both the vision and the perception of fainter stars. Comparing with a map of the Pleiades which shows the magnitude of the components, the weakest perceived star is of magnitude + 10.02 at 50X as the sky background was quite dark at this magnification. The chromatism was not visible On the planets. In August - September of last year some details of the surface of Mars were perceived at 200X (the south poare cap, Syrtis Maior and Hellas), this year observing Jupiter with the Baader semi-optic filter (I think at 100X, I don't remember well) , you could see some bands and a black point that after an hour had moved, you could guess the position of the Red Spot. The Moon at 100X and the semi-opaque filter (but also at a higher magnification) or an orange W21a filter is beautiful with a very low chromatism. Also of Venus at 100X if you have a good vision of it, the chromatism is present but does not disturb (without using any filter). The vision of M8 and M7 from the terrace of Orotelli or not sorry, the nebilosa had many stars in the background of the Milky Way. I enclose the drawing of the Pleiades made tonight and a drawing of the Sun made before Christmas. Happy New Year to all.

@Onikkinen. Your way to not get too cold is interesting, I will put it into practice and thus I will avoid decreasing or interrupting my astronomical observations in the bad season. @Chefgage. In cervesia veritas! (= truth in beer!). Every now and then you need a nice beer !!!

Yes, global warming. Here too there is a heat wave that for this period is not normal, here in Cagliari today I saw from the car thermometer that at 1 pm it was 20º (I have been here on holiday for the Christmas holidays since 28th); my sister told me she never had to turn on the gas heater this month. In the evening I went out to take the dog out for a walk, I saw that you could see some stars, the typical winter constellations, I'll try tomorrow night to see something from the balcony of the house with the telescope, Venus will be in poll position! Before going down to Cagliari I tried to see Venus a few times from the terrace of Orotelli but, besides observing the Sun since it stopped raining (from the end of October to the beginning of this month) I did nothing else because I caught the infection on the 5th with a few days of fever and I got used to staying at home in the heat with the pellet stove that brought me the temperature to 25 °, going to the terrace at dusk at 10 ° to see Venus or to close the terrace door I do not liked it so much. Once I put out the Nexstar 8 SE and in the meantime it acclimatized I looked at the planet with my achromatic 80/400, but then I put everything inside, I didn't like the cold and the "jail" to which I was forced to undergo because I was still positive, it made me fear that my fever might return. Never mind, I will recover from now on hoping that it does not make a winter that is too rainy as it was the second part of autumn and trusting that for some years now it has been having a "winter without winter", often in the winters spent in Orotelli I woke up in the night all sweaty and had to take off my pajama jacket! My father, who was from 1933, said that as a child he saw the ice candelabra attached to the roofs of the houses, they have been there for 18 years (I used to live in Cagliari) and I have never seen them. Of course, almost every winter it happens that at least once it makes a splash of snow, in Cagliari I literally saw it with binoculars when I was a boy: I climbed the hill of Monte Urpinu with my Konus 10X50 binoculars to see the Sarrabus mountains covered with snow when it was cold (a day with a maximum of 8º - 10º when I was a boy was cold for me, I'll make you smile… ....); with the subtropical climate of Cagliari snow is very rare.

In fact, with the temperatures you have in Finland in the cold season, you need to have a lot of courage to go outside. If there are + 3° outside at Orotelli I do not have the courage to take out the telescope or I make a hit and run observation (I must say that I have a slight chronic pharyngitis that does not encourage me to go out on too cold nights, at least according to the concept of "cold" that we have here in Sardinia). In Cagliari which is on the sea and has a subtropical climate "I dare" more .....

I saw that these days even in the United Kingdom the temperatures have risen to 12º - 15 ° even if the cloud cover has remained, at least you have a milder weather.

Not only in the North ..... Here it rained from the end of October to the beginning of December, then at least a week of sun during which I resumed the observations of our star, then since yesterday it rains again ........

Terrible, if it's + 3° C outside I don't dare take the telescope out or I make a very hasty observation.

I saw this topic only this morning and I willingly and joyfully join in too: Merry Christmas and happy 2022, may the new year be joyful for all of us, WITHOUT COVID, with clear skies (and I hope here in Sardinia that the next summer without sand of the Sahara that in July and August of this year created many problems for astronomical observation even if neither a cloud nor a drop of water was seen ... ....). A word of encouragement for all of us: do not be discouraged because it is certain that this situation will end, we do not know when but it will end. I also think of the terrible sufferings of the last war, far worse, that there was nothing to eat; my grandmother used to say in Sardinian: “sa gana de su barantaduos” (= “the hunger of '42”). So take courage and “sursum corda” (= “raise your hearts”)! P.S. for FLO: I read in an Italian astronomy forum that you have excellent products and are well supplied; a very dear wish to you too for a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2022.

Seeing the photograph of this achromatic refractor I was amazed, beautiful is an understatement !!! I read some time ago about the fantastic view of the moon with a 150/2250 achromat, with this 10 ”f / 15 refractor I don't dare think about what you can see with excellent seeing!

Beautiful binoculars!

Post canceled.

Nice battery of telescopes! We have already met in the “Astronomia.com” forum.

I also begin to have a little too many optics and consequently I'm thinking of giving myself a tune, but the temptation is powerful. As refractors I only have achromats, being a visualist I feel less need to buy an ED apochromat or semi-apochromat. I find myself these refractors: Konusuper 120 (lately I have been using it at 90 mm diaphragm due to a side chipping of the doublet); Ziel Gem 60; Konus Vista - 80; Celestron Travelscope 70; Vixen 102 - M vintage bought used; Stein Optik 60/800 vintage bought used (real rubbish, money wasted). Except the last one, I am satisfied with these optics. Used on an online market (Astrosell) I saw an achromatic 70/700 that has some defects (the left knob of the focuser that turns idle, the lack of the lens cap, the locking screw replaced with any one, having broken) that it is sold for € 60 complete with tripod, mount and accessories supplied (new costs € 249), I'm evaluating what to do with it, maybe at school to show my pupils something; for the knob I believe the spare part is found. I now believe that I am ill with instrumentitis.

In the last two days it has had two consecutive beautiful days of good weather while the rest of this month has done nothing but rain! Before going to the gym I made a hit and run observation of Venus with the Konus Vista - 80 (achromatic 80/400 orange). At 23X you could perceive the phase, at 100X with a Vixen 4 mm lanthanum eyepiece you had a good vision of it even if with the inevitable chromatic aberration that disappeared with an orange W21a filter. Yesterday I tried to see Venus with the Nexstar 8, I left it an hour to reach thermal equilibrium but I ended up observing the planet when it was too low and at 200X the vision was a bit ruined by the differential chromatism of the atmosphere . Moral: if you don't make hit and run observations with a small tool, you need to organize yourself in time. Tonight nothing: it has started to rain again, I'm understanding what amateurs in the United Kingdom feel with the frequent rains that are in Great Britain!

In 2011 I bought a Ziel 120/600 achromatic refractor, the Gem 60 which I love. I had taken it as a second telescope when I went down to my parents in Cagliari so as not to "fast" from astronomical observations. On the Sun for projection it was fine, the Moon at 150X is very beautiful even if it has a nice blue halo, on Mars in the autumn of last year for the opposition of October I put from 200X to 300X making some beautiful observations, i drawings I made I put them in a forum in Italian of which I post the link: https://astro.forumfree.it/?t=78404004 (unfortunately I wrote the annotations in Italian, being Italian-speaking). I think both the Skywatcher 120/600 and my 120/600 from Ziel are always made by Synta as they are both made in China. On the deep sky I tried it a little, I can say that I don't mind.

Here in Orotelli (central Sardinia) I observe from my terrace where I have moderate light pollution living on the far outskirts of the town (less than 2000 inhabitants), I intuitively believe that the sky is Bortle 4 or, badly, 5. A a year and a half ago I bought used a small achromatic 80/400 that I love (the Konus Vista - 80, now out of production) that I mount on a photographic tripod, the classic travel setup. For some time I have been thinking of going about 5 km from the village in the countryside to a place that is certainly very dark but I hesitate. The reason is that here is inhabited by "bored" people who if they realize that I go out to go who knows where (according to them), they would make a joke on me in the dark more complete and alone moreover that I would remember for a long time (in the best case ) ... .... But someday I have to risk! When I go down to my mother in Cagliari, I only have slices of sky from the balcony, you don't see much and there is more light pollution than that. The only advantage of Cagliari is that the climate is warmer than that of Orotelli, 5 degrees more (to give you an idea in Cagliari it snows every 30 years, in Orotelli a sprinkle of snow almost every year ago, I think that in winter it is a little warmer than London).

I saw it a few weeks ago with the Vixen 102/1000, not very high in the sky but they were windy days when the air was agitated. However, the phase stood out well, practically a half moon.

Beautiful image, much more beautiful than the one made with a Takahashi 100/900 that I saw today in an astronomy forum in Italian. Also interesting is the raw frame for comparison.

Very nice and interesting review. The beauty of these small telescopes, unjustly snubbed, is that they are ready to use, easy to use and ultra-portable. Surely this Newton 76/300 would have caused furore in a place where I went to dinner a few years ago in the countryside of Dorgali (Sardinia): there was a sky so dark that you could see a sea of stars and that I no longer recognized the constellations, just fantastic! What is the mistake that many make regarding these telescopes? It is the expectation that they reach certain results in fields that are not theirs, certainly on the Moon & planets a Maksutov 90/1250 is much better, but the latter to see vast star fields and deep sky objects trudges in front of this Newton 76 / 300 or in front of an achromatic 80/400. @assassincz. When did you buy it and where? 24 pounds is about 28 euros which is an exceptional price, seeing quickly on the internet a Dobson 76/300 costs at least 80 euros!

Welcome to SGL!

Are these filters made of glass?

A few days ago I saw it too with my achromatic 80/400 and a glass solar filter. Yesterday and today I was unable to see the Sun both for an afternoon meeting for school (yesterday) and today between cloudy skies and a 170 km descent to Cagliari in the afternoon. We hope for good weather in the next few days ... ..

I had put my drawings on Mars in an astronomy forum in Italian to which I am posting the links: Drawings of Mars with achromatic 80/400 and 120/1000 diaphragm at 90 mm: https://astro.forumfree.it/?t=78477104# Drawings of Mars with achromatic 120/600: https://astro.forumfree.it/?t=78404004 If you want and time to see them, give me an opinion, consider that drawing I have never been much.