Show us your set up in action at night.

[Deadlake]

5 minutes ago, Stu said:

The Mewlon has moved on now, but I would certainly consider another in future. It was/excellent optically and I used it more than most of my larger aperture scopes. It was great when used on the AZ100 having push to to find harder targets.

Ultimately I think my heart lies with a 130mm apo for the reasons you mention, cool down and pure simplicity of use. You will lose out a little in resolution and light obviously but should still get cracking views.

The magnitude of the 210 Mewlon is around 14.9 and a 130 mm APO is around 14.2, I suspect split the difference due to seeing conditions, the other consideration is cost.  Looking at a DOB for more light or maybe the answer is EAA.

[garryblueboy]

Some fantastic views of the planets tonight with this set up 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

The Meade SN6 and ASI183MC on my Vixen Great Polaris mount in action, grabbing data on M27 

 

[Telescope40]

Hello. My 150 ED chasing Curly, Larry and Mo - I mean Jupiter, Saturn and Mars a few minutes ago. 
 

John 

[John]

My 12 inch Orion Optics / Moonshane dobsonian is out tonight. Here it has Neptune and Triton in it's sights. Note the eyepiece - Nagler 4mm-2mm zoom. High powers help to tease out Triton

[markse68]

Mars is looking great again tonight and a comfy chair makes it so much nicer!

[tooth_dr]

I decided to grab the camera for a few shots around and inside the dome as I was heading to bed after midnight last night.

 

 

[Adreneline]

My first "serious" use of my new GSO 6" RC. Manual filter changer and no guider fitted. Some refinement needed on cable management but it still produced a satisfactory image of the The Bubble.

The photo is interesting to me because it is a 5 second exposure using an iPhone 11 in complete darkness - handheld! The camera steady software feature works really well. I was also impressed by the stars - not too bad for handheld - you can even discern the Pleiades just above the tree.

Adrian

 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Ready for Mars later, some AZGTi fiddling and eyepiece comparisons...

Cadet's corner. A small paved area with a path leading to it for those muddy winter nights. Oversize fencing to the west blocking out the LED street light and home made tarp light shield to the north blocking a neighbour's laser beam security lights ..

Edited September 20, 2020 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[geordie85]

Adding data to vdb141 whilst trying to block my next door neighbors kitchen light.

[Sunshine]

Photo is not new but, a nice image regardless.

[John]

Takahashi FC100-DL tonight. Jupiter and Saturn were quite nice compared to other recent sessions. Fingers crossed it stays steady for Mars

[Highburymark]

Out tonight for a bit of nebulae hunting with PVS-14 night vision eyepiece, TV55 plossl (stretched to 67mm with TV conversion lens), and Chroma 3nm ha filter. System operating under F/1.5 yet stars pretty well corrected to edge. Lovely views of the North American, Pelican and Gamma Cygni nebulae - also meant more challenging targets like Crescent and Veil more distinct from my extremely light polluted location. All makes for a fairly hefty eyepiece stack but pretty lightweight - and the Epsilon focuser is very robust. 

[Robindonne]

36 minutes ago, Highburymark said:

Out tonight for a bit of nebulae hunting with PVS-14 night vision eyepiece, TV55 plossl (stretched to 67mm with TV conversion lens), and Chroma 3nm ha filter. System operating under F/1.5 yet stars pretty well corrected to edge. Lovely views of the North American, Pelican and Gamma Cygni nebulae - also meant more challenging targets like Crescent and Veil more distinct from my extremely light polluted location. All makes for a fairly hefty eyepiece stack but pretty lightweight - and the Epsilon focuser is very robust. 

Its maybe more solid to mount the eyepieces, and let the scope hang

Edited September 20, 2020 by Robindonne

[Stu]

Cracking views of Mars tonight at up to around x275 in the Vixen FL102S. I popped it on the Vixen GP so I had tracking, and am enjoying the relaxed observing that provides.

[Highburymark]

15 minutes ago, Robindonne said:

Its maybe more solid to mount the eyepieces, and let the scope hang

Radical - but I like your thinking......

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Just come in... The AZGTI seems to have stopped tapping and vibrating all by itself. Tested for four nights in a row. Six hours with the 150p mounted and three hours with the 102mm Mak and not a sound. Tracking and gotos not too bad either. Are there Astro Pixies I should know about?!

Mars was the same as the last three nights, an obvious southern polar region and albedo features popping in and out. The Mak not providing as much detail as the 150p, but without diffraction spikes, the pole was more distinct.

To finish the session, the little Mak picked out Uranus and a very faint Neptune. 😀

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Les Ewan]

My set up is in inaction at the moment. Had some great views of Mars earlier but the cloud has moved in.🤬

The observatory  roof is not completely shut and the wall flaps are still down just in case it should clear again before morning.

[Geoff Barnes]

Out on one of my all too few viewing sessions tonight with the SW 12 inch Dob, having a look at Jupiter. Seeing is a bit iffy but managed to see a wonderful sight of both the GRS and a shadow transit of Io crossing the planet together.

Here are a couple of photos to show how high Jupiter is here at 75 degrees altitude and also my hopelessly low view of the double double  at 10 degrees which makes splitting them very difficult indeed...

 

 

 

[markse68]

The double double’s easy! you wanna try Antares- oh wait 🤔😂

[Saganite]

Andromeda again, tracking Jupiter with Io and Callisto very close, and the GRS. I thought that, as the Pier is so high ,I would bino straight through tonight and it is actually very comfortable. I may change my mind later of course as Mars climbs ever higher into the sky.

The seeing is much better than it was on Saturday.

Edited September 21, 2020 by Saganite

[John]

7 hours ago, markse68 said:

The double double’s easy! you wanna try Antares- oh wait 🤔😂

I've split Antares twice. Once with my 12 inch dob and once with my 5.1 inch triplet frac.

Harder than Sirius IMHO.

Skywatcher ED120 tonight on the Ercole mount / Berlebach Unit 28 tripod:

 

[markse68]

45 minutes ago, John said:

I've split Antares twice. Once with my 12 inch dob and once with my 5.1 inch triplet frac.

it was my silly little joke John- I think Antares is fairly straight forward for Geoff down under 😉

[John]

14 minutes ago, markse68 said:

it was my silly little joke John- I think Antares is fairly straight forward for Geoff down under 😉

Ooops !

I was thinking with my "northern hemisphere" slant !

Galling to see where Geoff's dob is pointing to see Jupiter. My scopes are practically horizontal when viewing it from here

 

[Greymouser]

Thought I would have a quick little session, with a super light tripod, but only using the ball head thing that came with it.

Again with torch on, but not a lot better pic...

Like the new scope I think, very, very lightweight, but not very stable and the ball head is completely inadequate, so will have to try again with a better mount. Maybe just lose the ball head and try an alternative. I think buying that tripod was a mistake and not a very cheap one at that... ( Three legged thing/ Corey. )

The scope seems to be very sharp and very little/no CA, again a steadier mount will allow better judgement. Ah well, even a very short sesion is better than none at all.