What did you see tonight?

[Stu]

Well that was very nice! Managed to duck out of bedtime routine for ten mins to see Io and Europa go behind the limb. SkySafari said 19.09 and 19.13 for my location. I didn’t do a time check but it was about right.

Really nice views of Jupiter too, now the scope has cooled. Plenty of detail beyond the standard stuff.

[Mr Spock]

Show's over. High cloud is starting to thicken. The moon look really fuzzy naked eye. Jupiter not so bad though.

What a great night though. Despite my fingers dropping off in -3.5°... The detail on Jupiter was beyond anything I've seen before.

The 12" is a real lump to move around but it's worth it.

[John]

Given that my scope tonight was smallish, I did attempt a sketch of the Jupiter show. I've added it to the one I did a few days ago with the same scope. I'm developing a bad habit here I reckon 🙄

 

[PeterStudz]

I finished by about 5:15pm after taking the Dob to my daughter’s school Space Club. Between 4 & 5pm, despite the streams of thin high cloud I managed to give a explanation plus beginners lesson on how to use and work a Dob, EQ platform, show them the moon, Saturn (a bit fuzzy & low but clear view of the rings) plus Jupiter, it’s banding and moons. As always Saturn caused much interest. 

Considering this date was organised some time before  and it was so early I  don’t think that’s bad. I had planned for a cloudy sky and just showing the telescope. Happy kids and teacher too. Interesting how much interest there was in just turning the EQ platform on/off too and looking at the planet drift, or not, through the FOV.

It’s clear back at home but I’m exhausted. 
 

Edited January 15 by PeterStudz

[SwiMatt]

That's it for me too. 10 minutes 9n my balcony at -10°C, trying to make out the GRS at 166x, were enough to make me fold. I spotted it at one time when the seeing got better for a second, but it wasn't steady enough to keep going without frustration.

One could notice though that the SEB shows less contrast than the NEB past the GRS, which was confirmed on this thread a couple of days ago. But it was my only useful planet observation tonight...

The highlight of the observing night was without a doubt the beautiful Earthshine that I saw on my way home 5 hours ago

[Orange Smartie]

Jupiter was fab. Also had a nice long look at the moon with my new Stella Lyra zoom eyepiece - not really trying to identify any particular features, just enjoying its mooniness. 

Also managed to see the triangulum galaxy M33, in spite of moonlight, but not NGC 772 in Aries, which is supposed to be fairly bright.

[John]

Still pretty nice here 🙂

Best views of E & F Trapezium that I've seen with the 100mm frac for some time. 6mm-7mm seemed to be the "goldilocks" eyepiece focal length. Above and below that showed E well but really struggled to show F in anything other than sporadic glimpses. The 6mm-7mm zone proved to be spot on tonight.

32 Orionis was split quite nicely but the tighter 52 would not, quite, split. A tiny "peanut / snowman" type image of the pair was as good as I could get with the aperture. That one is given by Stella Doppie as a fraction over 1 arc second currently so a big ask for 100mm.

I changed tack for a while and used an O-III filter to have a look at the Owl Nebula. Not a great night or scope for that one so a faint circular patch of light was all I got. The Eskimo Nebula was a lot better with the central star showing and, after some careful observation, that "double core" look that it's known for.

When I add up the earlier lunar views, very fine Jupiter, GRS transit, double jovian moon vanishing act and the stuff seen since then it's been a good one 🙂

 

Edited January 15 by John

[Stu]

8 minutes ago, John said:

Still pretty nice here 🙂

Best views of E & F Trapezium that I've seen with the 100mm frac for some time. 6mm-7mm seemed to be the "goldilocks" eyepiece focal length. Above and below that showed E well but really struggled to show F in anything other than sporadic glimpses. The 6mm-7mm zone proved to be spot on tonight.

32 Orionis was split quite nicely but the tighter 52 would not, quite, split. A tiny "peanut / snowman" type image of the pair was as good as I could get with the aperture. That one is given by Stella Doppie as a fraction over 1 arc second currently so a big ask for 100mm.

I changed tack for a while and used an O-III filter to have a look at the Owl Nebula. Not a great night or scope for that one so a faint circular patch of light was all I got. The Eskimo Nebula was a lot better with the central star showing and, after some careful observation, that "double core" look that it's known for.

When I add up the earlier lunar views, very fine Jupiter, GRS transit, double jovian moon vanishing act and the stuff seen since then it's been a good one 🙂

 

Very similar experience to me with E&F John, a 7mm ortho really did the trick, I was surprised how much difference it made.

Best night for ages here in terms of detail on Jupiter and E&F.

[John]

51 minutes ago, Stu said:

Very similar experience to me with E&F John, a 7mm ortho really did the trick, I was surprised how much difference it made.

Best night for ages here in terms of detail on Jupiter and E&F.

I spent a lot of time using the Svbony 8mm-3mm zoom tonight. From time to time I changed to an XW or Ethos or Nagler zoom but the Svbony zoom seemed to be doing as well as anything else this evening 🙂

[Stu]

3 hours ago, John said:

I spent a lot of time using the Svbony 8mm-3mm zoom tonight. From time to time I changed to an XW or Ethos or Nagler zoom but the Svbony zoom seemed to be doing as well as anything else this evening 🙂

Praise indeed John, the SvBony certainly seems to be an excellent bit of kit, might have to try one! I was surprised how much difference the Ortho made vs the XW, glad I hung onto them 👍

 

[Mr Spock]

I suppose it's what you are comfortable with. Most of the top name eyepieces have excellent performance with nothing much between them technically. For my 12" Jupiter viewing I've tried all sorts and the 8mm LVW at x190 is the one I chose. I just seem to be able to pick out fine detail better. Even better than the orthos.

Speaking of the session earlier, I haven't quite gotten over it yet. I've not seen Jupiter like that before. I've had a look at some of the recent images on here and they aren't showing any more detail than I was looking at.

I think next year I'm going to make the effort of taking the 12" up to the top patio so I can start viewing earlier in the season. With the patio next to the house (and the cloudy weather) the last couple of sessions are the first I've had with the 12".

Same time last year it was before my stent fitting so I had too much angina to attempt moving such a big lump. I had some incredible views of the moon in the spring of that year before my problems started.

[Stu]

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

I suppose it's what you are comfortable with. Most of the top name eyepieces have excellent performance with nothing much between them technically.

It wasn’t a case of comfort Michael; I was comfortable with either the XW or the BGO but the BGO definitely showed the F star noticeably better last night after repeated swaps. I use binoviewers on Jupiter using 25mm Orthos heavily barlowed which works very well indeed. Took me a while to find the best results but I’m settled on those for planetary, lunar and solar observing.

[John]

6 hours ago, Stu said:

Praise indeed John, the SvBony certainly seems to be an excellent bit of kit, might have to try one! I was surprised how much difference the Ortho made vs the XW, glad I hung onto them 👍

 

I had a nice set of Astro Hutech HD orthos recently - the 7mm, 6mm, 5mm and 4mm. My plan was to have them for the nights of best seeing, toughest targets etc. After I got the Svbony zoom I compared the views carefully a few times on the moon, Saturn and Jupiter and could not see any differences at all. As the zoom was a more comfortable eyepiece all round, and the orthos quite hard work, I let them go to an ortho collector and he is very happy with them 🙂

The sketches that I posted recently were both done using the Svbony zoom. 

Edited January 16 by John

[Stu]

19 minutes ago, John said:

I had a nice set of Astro Hutech HD orthos recently - the 7mm, 6mm, 5mm and 4mm. My plan was to have them for the nights of best seeing, toughest targets etc. After I got the Svbony zoom I compared the views carefully a few times on the moon, Saturn and Jupiter and could not see any differences at all. As the zoom was a more comfortable eyepiece all round, and the orthos quite hard work, I let them go to an ortho collector and he is very happy with them 🙂

The sketches that I posted recently were both done using the Svbony zoom. 

I don’t often use the orthos, but am glad I did on this occasion. I’ll certainly try them more for doubles. I doubt there would be any difference for lunar or planetary to the XW or Leica, but in this instance the difference was clear.

Incase I decide to try a SvBony Zoom, where is the best place to source them?

[Stu1smartcookie]

28 minutes ago, Stu said:

Incase I decide to try a SvBony Zoom, where is the best place to source them?

Amazon sometimes have a sale ...also on E-bay SvBony have their own "site" . I had one of these and regretted selling it as soon as it was posted ! Apparently they are on par with the TV version at a lot less cost . ... Just checked Amazon , they have 11%% off at present 

Stu

Edited January 16 by Stu1smartcookie

[cajen2]

46 minutes ago, Stu said:

I don’t often use the orthos, but am glad I did on this occasion. I’ll certainly try them more for doubles. I doubt there would be any difference for lunar or planetary to the XW or Leica, but in this instance the difference was clear.

Incase I decide to try a SvBony Zoom, where is the best place to source them?

I got mine from Amazon too.

I find it an excellent, sharp EP as long as its limitations don't put you off. That is a very small eye relief (which I dislike and am not used to) and a tiny FOV (similar). For the price, I can put up with those problems, especially since its 3mil setting constitutes my max native mag.

[Ags]

The Svbony 3-8 has a 60 degree FOV, I wouldn't describe that as a tiny FOV. 

[JeremyS]

8 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

I suppose it's what you are comfortable with. Most of the top name eyepieces have excellent performance with nothing much between them technically. 

And there’s the nub. Nothing much between them, but the little there is can make all the difference on the best nights on certain targets. Much the same argument for scopes.

[Mr Spock]

2 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

And there’s the nub. Nothing much between them, but the little there is can make all the difference on the best nights on certain targets. Much the same argument for scopes.

But there’s the thing. You can have three people and three different eyepieces. One will say they prefer A over B, the next will say they prefer B over C, and the other will say they prefer C over A and so on. 
You only have to read some eyepiece threads to see all the different preferences. As long as you are happy with what you have 🙂

[Stu]

29 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

But there’s the thing. You can have three people and three different eyepieces. One will say they prefer A over B, the next will say they prefer B over C, and the other will say they prefer C over A and so on. 
You only have to read some eyepiece threads to see all the different preferences. As long as you are happy with what you have 🙂

To me it’s not about preference. I have Nag Zooms, BGOs, XWs, a Leica Zoom and Zeiss Abbé Barlow to play with at these focal lengths and rate them all. I was switching between them last night and the BGO consistently showed me the F star steadily, whereas the others did not. I don’t prefer the BGO over the others, it just showed me the best view of that object last night. Whether other people would have preferred different eyepieces I don’t know, but with those specifics, the 7mm BGO was the best option.

I’m not trying to cause disagreement, but I do push back against being told something along the lines of ‘oh he likes BGOs so of course he thought they gave the best views’. FOR ME, it did, period. If that isn’t what you were saying, my apologies.

[Mr Spock]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

If that isn’t what you were saying, my apologies.

No, it is not what I was saying.

[John]

I have just reminded myself of one of my new years resolutions - don't get involved in equipment performance discussions 🙄

As long as we find stuff that we are happy with and the clouds clear occasionally to let us use it, that's what really matters 🙂

It's great that we have some clear skies and that observing reports are rolling in 👍

[Stu]

38 minutes ago, John said:

I have just reminded myself of one of my new years resolutions - don't get involved in equipment performance discussions 🙄

As long as we find stuff that we are happy with and the clouds clear occasionally to let us use it, that's what really matters 🙂

It's great that we have some clear skies and that observing reports are rolling in 👍

I agree John! All I was trying to do was communicate what I found to be best on the night, not trying to convince anyone else!

Anyway, @Zermelo has kindly lent me a SvBony zoom so if the skies play ball I can throw that into the mix and see if I get the same result as you. 3mm to 8mm is a great range so if it’s as good as reported it will be a definite addition to the eyepiece case.

[Ags]

I have a simple system for evaluating eyepieces. I read all the positive reviews before buying the eyepiece, and all the negative reviews after buying it.

[Ed in UK]

Well, I managed a session last night. 

I started on Jupiter and just missed the Io & Europe Occult, for me Jupiter very washy again although occasionally got a clear view and could see more banding/detail on the planet. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of the GRS Transit, but unfortunately it wasn't to be. 

Some may call it optimistic, some may call it stupidity but my second target (and fail I may add), was the 12P/Pons Brooks, but everyone loves a tryer...... I was in the right area looking at the stars in the eyepiece but noting seen. 🙄

Next onto M29, managed to bag that one quite easily to kick start my Messier Marathon.

I tried to get M33 next, although the star hop seemed to have me scratching my head a little for some reason I arrived in the area to see no M33. Again stars pointed to being in the right area. Later read it can be very easily affected by LP.

Over to M42 next and a good look again at the Trapezium, A to D showing really well, but no E or F for me.

I was going to move on to M45, but have read a magazine article about some other stars in the area worth a look so thought I'd save that for another night.

High level cloud started to roll in about 9pm so called it a day.

Very happy Bunny. 🐰