badhex

Hello all, Very happy to report I've finally had my first proper observing session this year! Observing report to come - however until then, I have made a properly head-scratching observation and need some help figuring it out. Observing from the Italy in the bay of Naples last night (Bortle 5) I managed to catch Saturn as it plummets away from us with my ZS73 and APM Superzoom at 7.7mm / 56x. I was using stellarium to figure out the configuration of moons; Titan was easy, and also I caught Iapetus since it is so far out, but the remain points of light were very confusing. Stellarium says that this was the configuration at the approx time: However, what I saw and initially wrote in my notes ("looks like Sagitta with Saturn in the middle") before checking stellarium was more like this (slightly edited to remove moons etc I could not see): The problem is that this is what Saturn looked like at about 2030 - not 0100, 4.5hours later. I checked for settings/location issues, and I checked with different EPs but I was definitely seeing a Sagitta shaped configuration of light points like the above. I have zero doubt about that. What's going on here? There is another star on the first image ie the correct time, below Rhea, but that star is mag ~20 and I cannot believe that this is what I was seeing. Circled below for reference:

Lovely report Paul! Glad you got the optics issue solved.

Not exactly the same thing but last year I did a an outreach thing and intended to take two scopes plus finder set up on the Skytee, but ropey weather on the day meant I downsized significantly to just the ZS73 on scopetech mount zero. Ultimately even though the weather wasn't great and it was only a small scope, there still must have been several hundred people having a look and asking questions, and being completely amazed by stuff we more regular astronomers sometimes almost take for granted, like the double double etc. (one of my faves to be fair). Point is, if there's a scope and some good targets, I don't think it matters too much if the kit is not your dream setup 🙂

Oh yes, I have the 24mm and spent many an hour reading about the 30mm trying to find reasons not to buy it but it's beginning to seems like a foregone conclusion!

It would also mean I'd have 41mm, 40mm, 35mm, 30mm and 24mm EPs... Guess who likes WF views 😂

The more I read this thread the more I realise that the APM/StellaLyra 30mm UFF is not just a want but a need. 4.9° TFOV at 14x with a 5.09mm exit pupil in my ZS73 seems like a perfect combination (for everything except my wallet) 😂😱😭

My beloved F5.9 ZS73 in max TFOV mode, just shy of 6.5° with a Pan 41mm. As mentioned recently in another thread, this scope has given me access to way more dark skies than any other and it travels very well. Admittedly, don't usually use the Pan 41mm often with this scope, going for the Lacerta (Aero) ED 40mm, due to weight and partly because LP in my home skies gives a distinctly grey background at this exit pupil size. I also have the sneaking suspicion that ~7mm exit pupils may not be working well for my eyes any more 😭

Glad you got on well with it, apologies for spending your as-yet unearned money for you!

Still no decent opportunity for a good session at my end due to weather and other commitments, (total cloud cover for the opposition obviously) but I have a holiday coming up eventually and will take the ZS73 with me. I'm really looking forward to it as I suspect it will be the first proper observing I'll have done since last year really, for one reason or another. I had actually planned to take my ultra-light converted Skywatcher 50ED which was designed to be a holiday scope and has not had a proper workout yet, but where we are staying looks like it will be basically perfect for observing, so the ZS73 will go instead. Bit off topic, but just following on from the earlier posts about small scopes. Although they obviously have their limitations, the portability of this class of scope (70mm-ish) means it has allowed me to observe from various locations around the world that just wouldn't have been possible with anything else. This in turn means there are objects I have only ever seen through this scope, despite—or indeed because of—the extra aperture of my other scopes.

I too started with a 6" newt and then a Mak 102, and at the time looked at fracs, thinking "too expensive and heavy for any decent aperture, so why bother?". I couldn't really have been more wrong - my 102mm and 73mm doublets are by far my favourite scopes at this point!

A (synta?) Cheshire for collimating my refurbished Bresser AR-152S. Actually the first cheshire I've ever owned.

I too really enjoy panning around starfields with my ZS73 and the Aero ED when in darker skies, just because so much is visible and I feel like you almost see more stuff this way (obviously you literally see more stars but I mean somehow you observe more, if that makes any sense). Also another vote for using Oiii and UHC filters in small aperture (and especially fast FL) scopes. I can't remember who convinced me a few years ago (maybe @jetstream and possibly also @Stu who is also bad for my wallet 😂) to get an Oiii - but I don't even own an 8" scope; I first observed the Veil with a 4" and it was breathtaking!

Lovely write up, sounds like a great session! Further to what @Stu said, I also like to write up my sessions long form sometimes, so I'll usually write up a separate post and then post a short precis here with a link to the full post, which has worked pretty well! Please do keep posting your reports, a pleasure to read!

Sorry I missed this, great news!

He's a smooth operator

I've barlowed the 17.5mm a number of times and it has no issues whatsoever, aside from looking a bit weird on top of a 1.25". Works very well in a 2" Barlow and looks less weird 😂 I have even—in a moment of "let's just see what happens"—Barlowed the 4.5mm giving me 397x on the moon in a 102mm scope, with surprisingly good results. Naturally it must have been a rare fluke of good conditions but I took a shaky handheld phone pic because I was very surprised at how sharp bit was!

The caliper of these jokes is getting worse with each post

I have pretty much exclusively used a 40mm 2" EP for finding/star hopping for the last few years, giving me around 4° TFOV and 6° TFOV in my two most used scopes, all on undriven manual mounts. Having no additional equipment to set up, attach and align does simplify things somewhat and helps with potential balance issues, and in general that has been why I've tended to stick with just the widefield EP approach. All of that said, that approach is not without its drawbacks so I have experimented a little with a 50mm RACI and also a reflex-type RDF. There are times when in an unfamiliar bit of the sky where I've switched EPs, only to be confused about what I'm seeing, and then had to drop back down to the 40mm to re-find where I was, which is a bit of a faff, especially since its possible every time you switch EPs that you might knock the scope out of position. It's useful in those circumstances to just be able to look directly in the finder and compare the view with what I'm seeing in the narrower EP. I would say that the "best experience" for finding, especially under non-ideal LP, is probably something like @Mr Spock's approach, where you have both RDF and finder, but obviously it's extra stuff to have to do, extra weight etc. The "simplest setup" approach is just using widefield EP. Then there are the in between options such as just an RDF or finder. I've opted in the end to keep an RDF to hand so that I can set it up if I want, or not, without too much extra weight or effort, depending on sky conditions etc, but I often don't use it.

It's a very good off topic though!

Like others, I have a variety of hard and soft cases for telescopes, a couple of small hard cases for EPs and and some cantilever cases for other bits and bobs that don't easily fit into the other categories. For more inspo, I suggest you check out the below thread, although I should warn you there are 178 pages of it!

Genuinely curious to know the answer to that! If the optical components of a given item are installed backwards? Bit off topic, but joking aside I do feel it undermines trust somewhat when known excellent products and distinctly average products both get 4/5, sometimes in the same review. It's not even as if the reviewers are just random people, some impressive names in there often. Edit: I should add, that I am nonetheless very grateful for the existence of S@N and there is plenty of excellent content in the magazine.

Honestly, no joke - I wrote this yesterday without reading the review. Have now seen the review itself - 4/5 score 😂

Haha, they of the universal 4/5 score 😂

Has our friend Ernest on astro-talks.ru covered these before? I looked for details but I can't find anything, unless they go by another brand name and I've missed them.

Lovely. I suspect once you've used the clicklock adaptor it won't be long before you start thinking about going full clicklock 🙂