Pushing 102mm , challenges.

[cotterless45]

After months of barging through faint clusters , deep sky and sub 1.5" separations , I thought of going with the 102 f10. Finding out what it can do gave a session full of surprise and little wonders. At max I got up to x218 , but usually kicked around x44-x100.
 4" long ota gives colour , contrast , easy focussing and sharp views . If you like your diffraction discs like marbles , it's all going here ! Against the 150 frac,it's more interesting to open sub 2"separations and get those dim contrasting companions. A bright moon and a fair amount of light glow , but a wonderfully chill still night and it's all go !

Kicking off with Miriam,η Persei (SAO 23655) and a lovely orange and blue.
Σ162 ( also in Andromeda) SAO 37536 and this lovely triangular triple showed up at x150.
θ ,theta Persei split at x100 (SAO 38288), a delicate +10companion here.
Σ425 gave a clean 2" separation at x180 (SAO 56613), a lovely pair of twins.
ΟΣ59, a slightly uneven , but wider 2.7" split here. (SAO 39031). Really chuffed to see what 4" can do.

Now a few old favourites,
ζ ,Zeta Persei (SAO 56799), yellow and blue , a mini Rigel. Challenging as the primary glare focussed in an out and I wasn't certain. Returning with my sketch board ,I looked again. A clean marble of the primary with a clear speck (+2.9
and +9.2). Same thing happened with the nearby 
ε Persei, (SAO 56840) narrower , with a +2.9 and +8.9, lovely lemon and blue colours here. Wait for them to appear , revisit , these things come with a bit of care ! 
Σ483 gave a wonderfully open split at 1.6",the separation here is increasing .Showing good seeing and super 30 + year old Vixen optics.

Over to Andromeda. Just a touch of peanuts with 36 Andromedae.

Ho 197 showed a right angled triple here at x50.
Es 2725 showed up in a lovely field with the obviously orange 8 Andromedae and the white 11 Andromedae.
Σ3004 gave a wide pair.  The +6.3 primary and the delicate +10.1 make a lovely view.
I tried kappa , but the Moon had bleached out the lovely multiple view. Colour and the delights of Almach and Alpheratz before moving on.

Up to Cassiopeia and the best view of iota yet , open up just three lovely marbly points. Not as bright as β Monocerotis, but lovelier.
Inside and to the top (frac view) of the cluster IC1848, a few doubles here, but it was a surprise to open up Σ306 at 2"(SAO 12470) there is a third fainter component here.
γ Cassiopiaea and a no show, such a violent star !
ψ (Psi) was full of colour and a delightful show (SAO 11751).

Very pleased to have pushed the scope, the 23mm Panoptic gave tremendous wide views. In most cases ,it was easy to pick out binaries. The 5.5mm Meade uwa swept up the finest of splits.

Well aided by a huge brass focussing wheel crafted by a good friend. This greatly eased fine r&p focussing , I am loathe to change anything much on older gear ! 

Time to get out there and pick up some wonderful colour and detail of multiples,under clear skies ! Nick.

 

[wookie1965]

Some cracking doubles there I must try them.

[Stu]

Very nice Nick, a great set of targets for us to try for. Think I might have a doubles session next time out. Let's hope these clear nights continue!

[chiltonstar]

Very nice Nick! Time to look at doubles when the Devil's Light Bulb kicks in....

I must give my 102mm f13 frac an airing again after its lens restoration.

Chris

[Mr niall]

Wow I'd not heard of any of those doubles! Will add them to the list...

[John]

Great report Nick

Vixen do make very sweet optics

 

[David Levi]

Excellent report and great sketches. It's reports like that, that can cost people money - makes me think about getting a refractor! 

[DavidJM]

8 hours ago, cotterless45 said:

After months of barging through faint clusters , deep sky and sub 1.5" separations , I thought of going with the 102 f10. Finding out what it can do gave a session full of surprise and little wonders. At max I got up to x218 , but usually kicked around x44-x100.
 4" long ota gives colour , contrast , easy focussing and sharp views . If you like your diffraction discs like marbles , it's all going here ! Against the 150 frac,it's more interesting to open sub 2"separations and get those dim contrasting companions. A bright moon and a fair amount of light glow , but a wonderfully chill still night and it's all go !

Kicking off with Miriam,η Persei (SAO 23655) and a lovely orange and blue.
Σ162 ( also in Andromeda) SAO 37536 and this lovely triangular triple showed up at x150.
θ ,theta Persei split at x100 (SAO 38288), a delicate +10companion here.
Σ425 gave a clean 2" separation at x180 (SAO 56613), a lovely pair of twins.
ΟΣ59, a slightly uneven , but wider 2.7" split here. (SAO 39031). Really chuffed to see what 4" can do.

Now a few old favourites,
ζ ,Zeta Persei (SAO 56799), yellow and blue , a mini Rigel. Challenging as the primary glare focussed in an out and I wasn't certain. Returning with my sketch board ,I looked again. A clean marble of the primary with a clear speck (+2.9
and +9.2). Same thing happened with the nearby 
ε Persei, (SAO 56840) narrower , with a +2.9 and +8.9, lovely lemon and blue colours here. Wait for them to appear , revisit , these things come with a bit of care ! 
Σ483 gave a wonderfully open split at 1.6",the separation here is increasing .Showing good seeing and super 30 + year old Vixen optics.

Over to Andromeda. Just a touch of peanuts with 36 Andromedae.

Ho 197 showed a right angled triple here at x50.
Es 2725 showed up in a lovely field with the obviously orange 8 Andromedae and the white 11 Andromedae.
Σ3004 gave a wide pair.  The +6.3 primary and the delicate +10.1 make a lovely view.
I tried kappa , but the Moon had bleached out the lovely multiple view. Colour and the delights of Almach and Alpheratz before moving on.

Up to Cassiopeia and the best view of iota yet , open up just three lovely marbly points. Not as bright as β Monocerotis, but lovelier.
Inside and to the top (frac view) of the cluster IC1848, a few doubles here, but it was a surprise to open up Σ306 at 2"(SAO 12470) there is a third fainter component here.
γ Cassiopiaea and a no show, such a violent star !
ψ (Psi) was full of colour and a delightful show (SAO 11751).

Very pleased to have pushed the scope, the 23mm Panoptic gave tremendous wide views. In most cases ,it was easy to pick out binaries. The 5.5mm Meade uwa swept up the finest of splits.

Well aided by a huge brass focussing wheel crafted by a good friend. This greatly eased fine r&p focussing , I am loathe to change anything much on older gear ! 

Time to get out there and pick up some wonderful colour and detail of multiples,under clear skies ! Nick.

 

Great report Nick, what do you use as the template for sketching please

[cotterless45]

Cereal bowl that fits Wilko's A4 card cut in half. Chinagraph pencil from Ryman's gives a soft line drawing around the bowl, also useful for nebulosity and galaxies.

Stars spotted by a Pentax hybrid gel pen. £1 shop A4 clipboard holds the card in place for drawing .All high tech gear that won't break the bank !

Nick.

[Paul73]

It sure beats sitting inside cursing the moon! Errr. Like me...

Good session Nick.

I shall pull on my hat and drag out the frac!

Paul

[DavidJM]

On 01/11/2017 at 06:09, cotterless45 said:

Cereal bowl that fits Wilko's A4 card cut in half. Chinagraph pencil from Ryman's gives a soft line drawing around the bowl, also useful for nebulosity and galaxies.

Stars spotted by a Pentax hybrid gel pen. £1 shop A4 clipboard holds the card in place for drawing .All high tech gear that won't break the bank !

Nick.

Simple but brilliant! Cheers

[cotterless45]

I put this on our club website , might be of interest ,

Let’s sketch !

Posted November 27, 2016 by Nick Cox

Sketching at the eyepiece will give you a record of what you see and share the views. It’s pretty quick and easy , a simple dot becomes a star and a bit of shading , galaxies or nebulae. In addition, relaxing your eye and sketching will let you tease out more details .
This is especially so with planets. Very often you can just leave the focus and let the details come in and out of view.
A dim red torch and a clipboard are the essential bits of gear , if you can find a comfy seat , it helps relax and enjoy the view.

Pencils and pens.
A white Pentel hybrid gel pen will give you controllable points , either slight or a big more for brighter stars.
I found that white chinagraph pencils are soft enough to give shading without lines. Keep it in your warm pocket in winter and it’ll be nice and soft.
A black marker is useful for mistakes, make sure it doesn’t show up on your card.

Card.
Black A4 , you can cut into two A5 pieces .

Marking the circle fov.
With your chinagraph pencil , lightly draw around a cereal bowl which fits your paper. Leave a bit of space each side and top for notation.Marking a circle both sides will let you flip over if you’re not happy first go. You can add a smaller circle around any higher magnification details that you have drawn .
Let’s start !
Get comfy , put your card on a clipboard and keep your head light low.
Choose something simple to begin with, a galaxy such as M81 + M82 or a planetary nebula such as NGC 6543. Double stars are ideal to draw.
Put this in the middle of your fov with enough space around it to show some field stars.
Draw your target first. Then note the position of the brightest stars and dot these in. Then fill in around your target and the star fields. Use angles and shapes to get their position. Light edges and fuzziness can be edged by rubbing your finger over these areas. A blue pencil can be useful to add the colour of some bright planetary nebulae such as “The Eskimo nebula”. Similarly with coloured stars.
Try to avoid a picture of just a double star alone in the fov. Most stars have companions , even if this means drawing a widefield view first , then add a smaller circle.

Let’s finish !
You’ve got a sketch. Before you move on , you can add the cardinal points , west and north. This’ll help compare it with other drawings.
If you turn off tracking or note where the fov is drifting towards , this is west. Everything in the northern hemisphere drifts west. Look at a star at the edge of the fov and see which direction it exits. Check where your central target is heading , the exit direction is west.

If you are using an odd numbers of mirrors ( one for a refractor diagonal) , then mark the direction of drift “W” for west. North will be 90 degrees clockwise from west.
If you are using an even number of mirrors (Newtonian) , then mark west. North will be 90 degrees anti-clockwise from west.
You can find similar drawings from other observers and compare yours with their alignment . Or if you’re that bored , take up golf !

Include the name and constellation at the top. Below make note of the date and time. You can add the scope and magnification and anything else noteworthy . It’s your individual record .It’s quick and instant . It doesn’t matter if you can’t draw , it’s points and shading.

Improving with editing.
Scan your sketch . You can then darken or monochrome it with a basic editing app. There’s no point in changing any drawn details , as what you saw was at the eyepiece.

Drawing on white paper.
It’s better with a very bright target to draw planets on white paper. Some 4b and 6b pencils will give you shadings and a soft line. Don’t worry about getting the shape of Jupiter’s disc right. Simpler to draw some circles with compasses before heading out. With lunar views , try to just draw one or two craters, keep it simple to begin with.
I’ve tried astrophotography and it’s a quite involved compared to the quick and individual record of what you can sketch at the eyepiece. It’s also much cheaper ! It never fails to amaze me the number of folks at star parties who have absolutely no record of observing and who are similarly amazed when seeing simple sketches. 

Nick.