Clear skies at last?

[DRT]

I think it has been around three months since I managed a proper observing session and have yet to spend more than an hour with my OO UK VX12 F4 since picking it up from the factory in the summer.

I am now more or less finished work for the holiday season so when I noticed the clear sky forecast for tonight and the twinkle of stars on a dark, black sky I rushed out to set-up the VX12 on the patio complete with its upgraded FeatherTouch focuser, Paracor Mk II and an Ethos 21mm EP. It took only ten minutes to set up, which was exactly the same amount of time as it took a blanket of cloud to cover the sky          

More later (hopefully!)

[Charic]

13 minutes ago, DRT said:

twinkle of stars

I never bother if their twinkling, too much turbulence!
But  its the effort that counts, and sometimes  when you make the effort you can be rewarded?
However,  with the kit you mention! don't you  have to wait longer  before you can use it, according to the rules, the better the kit, the worse the weather conditions?

[DRT]

13 minutes ago, Charic said:

with the kit you mention! don't you  have to wait longer  before you can use it, according to the rules, the better the kit, the worse the weather conditions?

Yes, apparently these Dobs are like a fine wine - best left alone for a decade until the sky settles

I've just been out for 15 minutes having my first look at M42 through this set-up - wow!

The skies are indeed turbulent but the nebula was sitting beautifully in the centre of a blanket of sharp stars across the huge field of the E21 with not even a hint of coma all the way to the edge.

Now I need a bit of time browsing Stellarium to find a few targets for later this evening

[Timebandit]

Well no twinkle twinkle here?

Sky's clear of clouds,"Hurraaaaay" but atmosphere bit moisture like, but cannot be to greedy in this hobby.

Got the Vx14 out of hibernation. Have done some of the lovely star clusters in Cassiopeia , always delivers nice views to warm up. Then over to pleiades for a quick look there. And of course old favourite Orion, to Betelgeuse and down to Orion's belt and M42,M43 and up the power for trapezium 

As on limited time tonight I went minimalist with the eyepieces and kept it to the 55mm tv big plossl, the old favourite tv 20mm nagler and the quality Pentax 10mm xw.

[Charic]

.....I still  may be tempted if a 12"  fixed tube  comes my way, you don't hear many folk complaining about them.
For me the crux is this, if a side-by-side test gives a marked improvement over my 8"  from the present site/conditions  then I would buy, but it really needs to be a noticeable improvement!
The difference I`d like to see  is a  much larger image, If Jupiter was twice the  size I see now, I'd be happier. 
Away from home,  the 8" provides the detail, and is comfortable enough to lug around. The bigger scope could be awkward.
I only need to go a short drive, less than a mile to lose Cassiopeia in a sea of Stars, so my conditions are not as bad as some folk have to endure,   I just want to improve  on what I see now!

[chiltonstar]

Hmm. Not too much twinkle here either, so Sirius B was fairly easy and the E and F stars in the Trapezium were readily spotted, but the dew! I had water literally running down the outside of the scope tube.

Chris

[faulksy]

pretty good here as well derek -3 and white all over, could see the E+F stars in the trapezium with the 21e

ngc 1535 looks ace and the eskimo tonight

[DRT]

The moisture and high winds in the air won the evening so I decided to go to bed and get up early for a look at Jupiter and the Moon. I woke up an hour too late and they had just disappeared behind the house

Grrrrr

[alan potts]

I would normally add a Like to any decent post on these pages but it would appear that I was enjoying your pain. We had clouds last night and a tiny amount of snow but we need rain, please send as much as you can.

It is very annoting when that happens and it has happened here more than once.

Merry Christmas to you Derek, Alan

[DRT]

Thanks, Alan - Merry Christmas to you too - let's hope for better skies in 2017

 

[DRT]

Clear sky forecast again tonight so I kept the scope out all day and applied a little upgraded finder to cheer myself up...

I have just been out looking Pleiades and the Double Cluster through both scopes. Wowzer!!!!

Hoping for a bit more success than last night!

 

[cotterless45]

Milk bottle skies again ! 

[faulksy]

7 minutes ago, cotterless45 said:

Milk bottle skies again ! 

same here tonight nick, left the dob out from last nights session but well milky skys

[DRT]

Same here now. I got some good views just after dark but it is now horrid. Will be packing away soon in case Barbara turns up a bit early

 

[wookie1965]

Same here at least i got out and tried different power supply which works.

[laudropb]

Gales and torrential rain here and storm Barbara hasn't arrived yet. Looks like it will be 2017 before I get the gear out again.

[DRT]

Despite the very short session tonight I was able to verify one very important thing...

I had a look at Pleiades and the Double Cluster through each of the following set-ups:

• OO UK VX12 1/10th PV F4 Dob with Ethos 17mm & Type II Paracor
• Tele Vue 60 Apo with Panoptic 24mm & 15mm and Ethos 8mm
• OO UK VX8 1/6th PV F6 Dob with Panoptic 27mm

Although all three gave stunning views the VX12 was in a completely different league to the other two. The contrast, sharpness and the sheer volume of stars visible was quite incredible compared to the smaller scopes.

In short - Big Dobs Rule