The 12" Dob out again

[Mark at Beaufort]

Yesterday was a very enjoyable observing day which started in sunshine. During the day I used my double stack PST plus the 150P Newt with solar filter to get incredible views of the Sun in WL and Ha.

The forecast looked very promising so I also set up the 12" Dob with an observing session that lasted over 3 hours.

Started with a few favourites M57, M13 and M92. I do find for star hopping I sometimes use my Helios 2x40 star field binos which give a wonderful 24 degree FOV. Using these binos I viewed Scutum and then switched to the Dob using the 13mm Ethos. M11 was a wonderful site so I added the TeleVue Nebustar 2 filter started with M16 then M17, M20 and M8. Over to Aquila and viewed the PN NGC6781. Dropped down to the PN 'Little Gem' 6818 and then tried to observe Barnard's Galaxy. Found the correct location and could see some of the fainter stars in the area although I really could not detect the galaxy - maybe tonight.

When I view Globular Clusters I find that the 6mm Ethos (253x) gives excellent views and this was the case with M30.

Because everything was sharp I set about viewing Saturn and Jupiter and used my 3-6mm Nagler zoom. Saturn was showing 5 Moons and the the Cassini division was very sharp - also I could detect banding on the surface. Jupiter was incredible I have not seen so much detail for some time with banding and barges.

Back to Globs and viewed M2 and M15 again with the 6mm Ethos. I moved down to view the Helix and used the 24mm ES68 with TeleVue Nebustar 2 filter. Lovely image so decided to compare the view using my 20mm Myriad and the Castell O-III filter. The better view was the ES68 with the TeleVue filter.

Finally I went for NGC7814 mainly because of the recent SN -2021rhu. Although I could see the galaxy could not detect the 14.5 star.

Anyway that is my first observing report for a little while but a very enjoyable session.

 

[Stu]

Great to be back out there again Mark, nice report! Jupiter looked good to me too, once it got to a decent altitude. Let’s hope we get a few more clear nights 👍

[Orange Smartie]

Sounds like a great session.  I was looking at Jupiter last night through my 10" dob and found the surface too bright to easily discern detail (the view through my Heritage 150p at the weekend was probably nicer).  Do you use a filter?  Or am I doing something wrong?

[Stu1smartcookie]

Lovely report Mark ... Jupiter is a real WOW at the moment isnt it ? I have just put up a post on EP's and reading your post has already theoretically emptied my bank account as i read about the lovely EP's you have lol 

Looking forward to another clear one tonight ...I do find it difficult to star hop though ... there is so much to see using a larger dob that i wander off course very easily  

Stu

[Mark at Beaufort]

2 hours ago, Orange Smartie said:

  I was looking at Jupiter last night through my 10" dob and found the surface too bright to easily discern detail (the view through my Heritage 150p at the weekend was probably nicer).  Do you use a filter?  Or am I doing something wrong?

I am not the best planetary observer because I am mainly a DSO person. However I found the viewing without a filter was okay. I must admit I should have tried the baader neodymium but forgot. I could also try a baader 0.9 ND. Anyway it's looking ok for tonight so will try both filters and give a verdict.

[Orange Smartie]

How did you get on?  I had a very nice clear evening, probably the last for a little while, so I had a go a revisiting Jupiter and Saturn. I've never made collimation adjustments on Polaris before, but tonight I thought I would give it a whirl and managed to centre the Airey rings a little better. Could be just that the seeing was better, but I definitely fancied I got more detail out of both planets, with the Cassini division appearing fleetingly on Saturn and more banding visible on Jupiter.

Pete

[Mark at Beaufort]

Pete I had another session with 12" Dob last night. I tried both the neodymium and 0.9 ND filters and used the Nagle r 3-6mm zoom.

I found the ND filter a little too dark. The neodymium gave a nice view and  maybe was slightly better than no filter. On Saturn the Cassini division was very sharp and I was able to obtain some nice banding on the planet's surface. The same situation with Jupiter with multiple surface markings.

So perhaps I should use the neodymium filter more often.

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Pete I had another session with 12" Dob last night. I tried both the neodymium and 0.9 ND filters and used the Nagle r 3-6mm zoom.

I found the ND filter a little too dark. The neodymium gave a nice view and  maybe was slightly better than no filter. On Saturn the Cassini division was very sharp and I was able to obtain some nice banding on the planet's surface. The same situation with Jupiter with multiple surface markings.

So perhaps I should use the neodymium filter more often.

I found the Neodymium good on Jupiter and Mars, less so on Saturn but haven’t tried it for a while.

When viewing Mars last opposition, it seemed to help at moderate magnification but with my 8” f8 at x360 it was better without the filter. Probably exit pupil related ie better with exit pupils above around 1mm perhaps?

[russ]

16 minutes ago, Stu said:

I found the Neodymium good on Jupiter and Mars, less so on Saturn but haven’t tried it for a while.

When viewing Mars last opposition, it seemed to help at moderate magnification but with my 8” f8 at x360 it was better without the filter. Probably exit pupil related ie better with exit pupils above around 1mm perhaps?

Yes i found the Neodymium helped out with Jupiter last night and night before. Took away some of the glare and made seeing the finer detail a little easier. But seeing last night was pretty dismal. So just struggled to get anything like the previous couple of nights. 

[Orange Smartie]

Useful info regarding the neodymium filter, thank you.