MalcolmM

1 hour ago, Stu said:

It was a cracking night here, seemingly similar to the previous night for others. Seeing was pretty good, and transparency excellent. I used the AZ100 Goto and FC100, probably should have grabbed the 130mm f6, but didn’t have too long so stuck with the smaller scope. I do enjoy Goto, whizzed around quite a few favourites just to enjoy the skies, nothing too exotic. Then played around with a Pixel 6 Pro phone I picked up used, and managed to grab this image of M42. My processing skills leave something to be desired, particularly the sky background, but otherwise I’m chuffed with it. Even caught the Running Man 🏃👍

 

Fantastic pics, particularly M42! Love the colours.

Malcolm 

'Heat' with Robert De Nero and Al Pacino. I had the scope all set up and ready to go, and kept looking outside, but am ashamed to say, for once I was really happy to keep seeing total cloud cover! Great film though, even for the second or third time

Malcolm 

Wow! Stunning!

Malcolm 

1 hour ago, Don Pensack said:

As long as your scope is longer than f/8, you'll like it.

At f/5, I could see almost 50% of the field out of focus with astigmatism, so the Masuyama (which has excellent contrast, BTW) is not an eyepiece for the shorter f/ratios.

Thanks @Don Pensack. I had read various reports about this (quite possibly some from you) but thought I'd give it a go anyway. I've a mixture of long and short FL scopes so hopefully I'll have no regrets!

Malcolm 

5 hours ago, Craney said:

 

 

Ok, I was wrong, you can improve on perfection 😂

Malcolm 

1 hour ago, HollyHound said:

I would (now) argue that the 85 degree field (which is all visible to me) does improve the "immersive" feeling too

Now you've got me worried🙂 

I have invested quite a bit in eyepieces that are generally less than 55 degrees AFOV and am hoping for financial's sake I don't get the wide FOV bug 🙂.

I like my existing Pentax's (5, 10, 20) though find them too big and heavy for ease of use.

I'm not so keen on my Nagler 16. It's reasonably small and light, but I find it a little tricky to use (look through). Can't really explain why!

I do love the Tak Erfle which is light but only 60 degrees.

I have a Masuyama 32 on order and will be very interested to see how I like it. I think you have one? It seemed a good compromise between wide FOV and weight. I'm hoping it'll beat the Stella Lyra 45mm; very similar weight, very similar real FOV and the shorter FL will hopefully darken the background.

Malcolm

That's fantastic! Lots of DSOs visible. I like it!

Malcolm 

A tour of my favourites, M35-38 with the 100DC, Maxbrights and Tak Erfles. I spent ages gazing at M42, M43 also evident. The trapezium was easily split into 4 and they looked so steady I thought I'd try for E and F. So I swapped the Maxbrights for a Tak TOE 4mm and started with Rigel, the easiest split I have seen with Rigel. Back to the trapezium and sure enough, there was E, a first for me. No sign of F though. A quick go for the Pup, but unfortunately another no show! Still quite low and a bit of a boiling mess!

Malcolm 

Sounds a great eyepiece. Thanks for the report. It sounds like you think they are an improvement on the 70 degree ones? I think the size and weight would make me think twice before giving them a go, though I do like the few 70 degree ones I have.

Malcolm 

I don't get it! How can one improve on perfection 

Malcolm 

4 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

It will be wonderful to follow your progress Malcolm, especially as you'll have so much spare time on your hands once you're retired.   Seriously though, it's a very good sketch and I'd bet you feel all the better for doing it. 

Thanks @mikeDnight. As you said earlier, I definitely found sketching (however amateurish) makes you concentrate on what you are seeing and therefore you see more. Thanks for the tip!

Malcolm 

I have a little Lunt 50 and experience something similar. I have put it down to features moving in and out of the 'sweet spot' (possibly a feature of the Lunt 50), the large brightness difference between the surface and surface features and proms; it's almost as if you concentrate on a filament your eye adapts to its brightness and you see it 'well'. Move your eye away and your eye is blinded by the surrounding brightness, and the filament fades. I also find when observing with the sun high in the sky there is a lot of heat disturbance which can affect the view.

There is no science behind these thoughts!

Malcolm

Got another quick go at the moon this morning with the 60CB and WO Binoviewers with Tak LE 7.5mm eyepieces before work. Was concentrating on Hyginus Rille (also saw one feint scar of the Triesnecker Rilles).

But I saw one of the most beautiful sights I've seen yet on the moon and just had to try and do a quick sketch for @mikeDnight and @JeremyS 

It's not that I'm not taking your advice Mike about staying away from the terminator but I just had to give this a go. I could make excuses about how little time I had but at this point this is probably the best I can do no matter how much time I had! So here goes ... the first of many I hope!

I could see a dark line of the Ariadaeus Rille, but also, just, a thin bright line of it continuing into the dark beyond the terminator ending in a small bright pearl!

Needless to say, the sketch does not do the visual justice. An absolutely beautiful sight, and in a 60mm scope!

Now to work

Malcolm

11 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

We have it in writing now Malcolm,  so there's no escaping your obligation to deliver a lunar sketch sometime in the near future. 

Coming from you Mike that's no pressure at all 🙂 

My primary school stick person to your Leonardo da Vinci 😂

I got a quick session this morning on the moon before work. FS60CB + WO Binoviewers and 10LE's.

I spent a little while fiddling with the eyepieces, getting good focus and a merged image. It always surprises me when I think I have good focus, everything is sharp, and then I tweak the main focus or one of the eyepiece adjusters and suddenly the focus sharpens even more and 'things' appear as the contrast jumps out!

I was looking for the Hyginus Rille, not immediately obvious, so I crater hopped starting at Hipparchus. Took me flipping ages to find Hipparchus in the first place! I had convinced myself that Ptolemaeus was Hipparchus and of course from there, nothing seemed to correlate!

Eventually found it, Horrocks on it's limb giving it away. Then to Pickering, Lade, Godin and Agrippa. Across to Triesnecker (no rilles visible) and then used a kite shape of Triesnecker, Ukert, Chladni and Hyginus to figure where the rille was. Hyginus itself was not really visible as such but the shallow V of the rille was discernable.

It was then that I noticed a very thin, very bright line coming in from the terminator. I poured over my lunar atlas trying to figure out what this 'very obvious ' feature was. I could see Theophilus and from there the elongated Torricelli and then Maskelyne with it's little crater just beside it (Maskelyne B). Sinas and Sinas E then put my bright line where the Cauchy Fault was. Now I had looked for the Cauchy Fault a number of times with bigger scopes in various phases but had never seen it and had come to the conclusion, in true 'Jaws' fashion, "Malcolm, we need a bigger scope" 🙂 

So I was very pleased and surprised to have seen this feature so easily in the little 60CB.

If I had had more time I would have tried a simple sketch, it really was a lovely sight! Speaking of time, I handed in my resignation last week for early retirement, so in 3 weeks time I'll have no excuses! Sketch away!

Malcolm 

This is a natural mechanism, according to "Observing The Sun" by Jamey L. Jenkins  (now there's a coincidence!) 

The 'bands' start towards the poles at solar minima and move towards the equator as the maximum approaches if I remember correctly.

'Butterfly' diagrams are used to show this.

As to the 'why' ... I'm afraid I can't remember if the book explained this.

Malcolm

I love binoviewing but those must take it to a whole new level! Fabulous (very envious 🙂 )

I'm sure deep sky stuff will look amazing too, particularly open star clusters.

Malcolm 

51 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

A moon halo. There's an explanation here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22°_halo

Thanks @Mr Spock and a  bit of maths too ... fantastic 🙂

Malcolm

3 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

I stand corrected, as the man said in his new orthopaedic shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll get my coat.

I'm standing corrected in my new 'toe rocker' shoes but they make me walk like a Thunderbird's puppet!

Malcolm

Hi @Stu that looks a great job.

Could you share your technique/process please?

Every time I look at my objective it seems to get dirtier!

Malcolm

8 hours ago, Floater said:

Not sure this is accurate, Peter.

It would be a 22° halo, caused as you describe. But a moondog/moondogs would be one or two bright spots at the side(s) similar to sundogs which often appear along with such a halo. I think moondogs are rarer than sundogs but the 22° halos on the Moon are common enough, given the required atmospheric conditions.

Always willing to be corrected, though. 

Thanks for the replies. This was definitely a full continuous halo. No obvious bright spots.

I was out walking this evening, light cloud and a fairly full moon up quite high.

There was a large bright halo round the moon. It was roughly the thickness of the moon, maybe a bit more and it's radius was about twenty degrees (thumb nail to little finger nail of spread hand at arms length).

Anyone know what this is, what causes it and how common it is?

Thanks,

Malcolm 

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Interesting! I had a look for Hadley Rille and couldn’t see more than the most obvious parts. Perhaps the seeing dropped off when I was looking for it but it’s strange because otherwise I was getting some lovely detail coming through. Glad you had a good session 👍

Potentially our definitions of detail for Hadley's Rill are different  My novice expectations against your seasoned ones 🙂

Malcolm 

I too had a good session on the moon last night. I saw at least one easy craterlet in Plato and was convinced others were occasionally discernible.

Hadley's Rill was very evident to the South of Hadley, but nothing to the North. At lower magnifications it appeared as a curved line. At higher magnifications I was sure I was able to see/sense the jagged turns.

Strange how simple things can fascinate but I loved the sharp triangular shadow of what must be a large mountain at Promontorium Laplace.

Like @mikeDnight, I spent a bit of time 'touring' the landscape. There was so much detail I really didn't know where to start or stop or go to next! I always mean to observe with more discipline but generally just get carried away!

I was mostly using the 100DC + Maxbrights + 1.25 GPC + 7.5mm Tak LEs which must give about x125 but seemed higher.

The big wow moment for me though was replacing the 7.5 LEs with Tak 12.5 Abbes. The decrease in magnification may have had something to do with it but wow! Never have I seen such contrast and sharpness. The moon was like an etching! Quite breathtaking.

I agree with @Stu, the Maxbrights are excellent and a joy to use.

@F15Rules, I took a couple of phone pics through the eyepiece last night. I was very pleased with them. Then I saw yours above. If you get a new phone, send me your old one 🙂 Great pic!

Interestingly I also had the Mewlon out last night and even though I think it had properly cooled, the views were not as good as with the 100DC. Other times it has provided much better views; not sure if it was the atmospherics or eyepiece/binoviewer combinations.

Malcolm

A curved ball! Does it have to be a refractor? And I fully understand if it does. I chose a Mewlon in order to get more photons. It's a stunning scope, but gotta admit it does not do pinpoint stars like a refractor. What it does have is portability and ease of use (thanks to the finder @JeremyS handle ) and definitely a step up in planetary/lunar detail from 100mm. The extra light gathering is also very obvious. It's also less of an outlay than a 5" refractor. But it's not a refractor 🙁

Malcolm