Light night.

[cotterless45]

Varying forecasts gave clear sky or thick cloud. By 11 the sky was useable and the Summer Triangle dominated the sky. Just for a warm up I compared a 24mm Panoptic with an ancient scarred 26mm Plossl from a boot fair. I tried the double double using a x2.5 Barlow. If anything the Plossl was better ,it's dark bronze with a non remove able eye shield. I tried it later on star fields and found it very pleasant and a relaxed view.

M11 was quite high in the south, I kept returning to it. Don't forget to add this wonderful sight to your lists.

The sky quickly went with long fingers of cloud clawing away the view. Not before I had some lovely views in Cassiopeia including the lovely colourful triple at x200 of Psi Cassiopeiae. Nice to compare it with the colourful binary , Psi Cygni.
17 Cygni and S 726 form a lovely and colourful sight at x50. I scanned around for more, but the fingers of cloud now spread out and thickened.

It was good to get out and I won't be jumping on the green and red bus just yet.
You can pick up old Japanese eyepieces cheaply and they're worth giving a home to , under 
Clear skies ! Nick.

[FenlandPaul]

Nice to steal a few moments when you can at this time of year, Nick.  The moon and double can always entertain even in dusky skies.  No planets though?

[faulksy]

nice to see your reports coming back nick

[Davesellars]

Agree about quality Plossls at around 25mm are really comfortable to view through with nice eye relief and lens size.  A 15mm Plossl is about my limit though I certainly would not want to go any lower than my TV 15mm Plossl.   I don't know how much of a difference there is between the 19mm and the 24mm Panoptic but my 19mm Panoptic is optically a real pleasure to look through with an f/5 achromatic.

I was viewing the Moon and the Double Cluster last night.  Although the Moon was rather washed out by a layer of haze it gave me a decent opportunity to try out my new 24mm Explore Scientific 68 series.  The double cluster was really something through it and optically not far off the 19mm Panoptic.

[laudropb]

Nice to see you back out Nick. Not much chance here. Skies are permanently cloudy and even on the few occasions they clear it is never properly dark. Thank goodness for solar observations. They are keeping me sane.

[alan potts]

Nice report as always Nick. I have a couple of TV Plossl's 15mm and 11mm but that is it, I enjoy them for planets mainly and normally in the 12 inch SC. I have forecasts that do not agree with each other. The one I tend to use the most said wall to wall sun and clear skies. The telly said 3 days of rain with weather to  buy a boat, at the moment there are about 6 storms rumbling away all around and slight rain, looks like the telly was correct for the first time this year.

Alan

[John]

Nice report Nick

 

[Marki]

A good read, Nick. I love a good 25mm Plossl. The TAL one that I have is an excellent ep, and one of my most used too. Could really do with some clear nights when I don't have a 6am start the next day though.... .

 

[johnfosteruk]

Lovely report Nick, I love the double double, I'm glad you had a good night. 

One thing though - please send your local car boot sellers down to Plymouth. I've scoured the local ones for astro bargains - nothing.