What did you see tonight?

[RobertI]

36 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

I'll go for a pair of Celestron 20x70's, or similar. If you think that's a poor choice then please let me know thanks Rob!

I guess it depends on exactly what you want to get from bins, the little 2x constellation binoculars are pocket sized fun but limited, 10x50s will reveal huge amount of stuff, and can be handheld, and also used for everyday use, anything bigger or more powerful will need mounting in some form so less grab and go.

Why not start a new thread in the binocular section to get some further thoughts and advice? Good luck! 🙂👍

[SwiMatt]

14 minutes ago, wesdon1 said:

@SwiMatt My friend, over here in UK, we've had nothing but rain and clouds since late June! So I truly understand your frustration about the weather over in Sweden. I am guessing you are also having to deal with much less dark nights, being even further north than uk UK? 

Here we've had some sunny days, but they never converted into cloudless nights. Basically, since June, whenever the sun goes down (late!) the clouds come out. I'll have to understand whether this is a Swedish coast thing, or just a bad year.

And yes, the light here is a problem. There is no season between June and August really...

[Epick Crom]

Well here in the west coast of Oz we've been having our fair share of cloudy nights as well, but last night was clear as a whistle. Some highlights from my observing session with my 10 inch dob:

Getting a clear view of Mars as a tiny orange disk.

Super view of Mercury, almost at half phase.

NGC 6067 open cluster in Norma was amazing, very rich.

NGC 6321 open cluster in Scorpius was absolutely blazing as it was at the zenith and transparency was excellent.

NGC 6025 open cluster in Triangulum Australe looked great, it has a broken circle of stars close to its centre.

NGC 5139 Omega Centauri was the highlight of the night. A massive ball of countless stars fully resolved. Wow!

Then I got my first glimpse of Saturn this season, 15° up. Nice to see the gas giant again, it's rings noticeably more narrow than last year.

 

Wishing all my northern hemisphere friends clear skies!

Joe

[John]

2 hours ago, Epick Crom said:

Well here in the west coast of Oz we've been having our fair share of cloudy nights as well, but last night was clear as a whistle. Some highlights from my observing session with my 10 inch dob:

Getting a clear view of Mars as a tiny orange disk.

Super view of Mercury, almost at half phase.

NGC 6067 open cluster in Norma was amazing, very rich.

NGC 6321 open cluster in Scorpius was absolutely blazing as it was at the zenith and transparency was excellent.

NGC 6025 open cluster in Triangulum Australe looked great, it has a broken circle of stars close to its centre.

NGC 5139 Omega Centauri was the highlight of the night. A massive ball of countless stars fully resolved. Wow!

Then I got my first glimpse of Saturn this season, 15° up. Nice to see the gas giant again, it's rings noticeably more narrow than last year.

 

Wishing all my northern hemisphere friends clear skies!

Joe

Thanks for posting this Joe - it gives me hope 😀

 

[John]

Yay !! - clear sky, quite transparent and decent seeing as well. Don't know how long it will last but it is SO nice to get out with a scope again 😀

Cygnus is flying high overhead so I've been using my Vixen 102mm F/6.5 with the Nagler 31mm and Lumicon O-III filter to observe the Veil Nebula. With the eyepiece delivering a 3.8 degree true field with this scope I can fit both the E & W portions of the Veil in the same field of view with Pickerings Wisp showing nicely too.

One of my favourite summer views 🙂

Edited August 6, 2023 by John

[JeremyS]

Good luck for a fruitful night, @John 👍🏻

[JeremyS]

37 minutes ago, John said:

Yay !! - clear sky, quite transparent and decent seeing as well. Don't know how long it will last but it is SO nice to gat out with a scope again 😀

Cygnus is flying high overhead so I've been using my Vixen 102mm F/6.5 with the Nagler 31mm and Lumicon O-III filter to observe the Veil Nebula. With the eyepiece delivering a 3.8 degree true field with this scope I can fit both the E & W portions of the Veil in the same field of view with Pickerings Wisp showing nicely too.

One of my favourite summer views 🙂

If i remember well, you have an Ethos 21, John. How does the view compare with the N31 on this target? Difficult to get both components in, perhaps, but otherwise?

Edited August 5, 2023 by JeremyS

[John]

19 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Good luck for a fruitful night, @John 👍🏻

Thanks Jeremy.

Some clouds plus a bright moon are now creeping into view so I'll pack in shortly.

To show the versatility of the Vixen scope I've just managed a really nice split of the A-B pair of Mu Cygni. The Stelle Doppie database has these at a separation of 1.51 arc seconds plus there is some brightness variation between them as well.  At 221x the split was unmistakable. Like a tiny snowman with a thin black belt around his waist 🙂

[JeremyS]

Just now, John said:

Thanks Jeremy.

Some clouds plus a bright moon are now creeping into view so I'll pack in shortly.

To show the versatility of the Vixen scope I've just managed a really nice split of the A-B pair of Mu Cygni. The Stelle Doppie database has these at a separation of 1.51 arc seconds plus there is some brightness variation between them as well.  At 221x the split was unmistakable. Like a tiny snowman with a thin black belt around his waist 🙂

Nice result John. How did the diffraction rings look

I must admit a secret obsession has become fine double star splits associated with fine diffraction patterns 😊

[John]

1 minute ago, JeremyS said:

If i remember well, you have an Ethos 21, John. How does the view compare with the N31 on this target? Difficult to get both components in, perhaps, but otherwise.

I didn't use the Ethos 21 this evening Jeremy but from previous experience it will show the E&W sides of the Veil in the same FoV as well and the additional magnification gives even better contrast plus a darker background sky. The slightly smaller true field that the E21 gives means that the E&W portions of the nebula are very close to the field boundary though. The Nagler 31 just gives that bit of sky around the whole complex framing it in a more satisfying way, IMHO 🙂

[JeremyS]

Just now, John said:

I didn't use the Ethos 21 this evening Jeremy but from previous experience it will show the E&W sides of the Veil in the same FoV as well and the additional magnification gives even better contrast plus a darker background sky. The slightly smaller true field that the E21 gives means that the E&W portions of the nebula are very close to the field boundary though. The Nagler 31 just gives that bit of sky around the whole complex framing it in a more satisfying way, IMHO 🙂

So overall how do you compare (or like) the N31 vs E21, John?
If you had to choose for your 4/5 inch fracs.

Asking for a friend….

 

[John]

2 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Nice result John. How did the diffraction rings look

I must admit a secret obsession has become fine double star splits associated with fine diffraction patterns 😊

I had a neat, thin, diffraction ring around the brighter component A (mag 4.7) but I could not see a ring around the fainter component B (mag 6.2).

 

[JeremyS]

1 minute ago, John said:

I had a neat, thin, diffraction ring around the brighter component A (mag 4.7) but I could not see a ring around the fainter component B (mag 6.2).

 

Perhaps B is a bit too faint

[John]

5 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

So overall how do you compare (or like) the N31 vs E21, John?
If you had to choose for your 4/5 inch fracs.

Asking for a friend….

 

If I had to do without one of them it would be the Nagler 31. It's a great UWA eyepiece but under my bortle 5 skies the additional magnification provided by the Ethos 21 just produces more contrasty views of nebulae and galaxies plus that darker background sky. The Nagler does the Veil plus the N A nebula really well but for most other deep sky targets, the Ethos would be my tool of choice.

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by John

[John]

2 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Perhaps B is a bit too faint

Yes, that is what I am thinking.

[JeremyS]

1 minute ago, John said:

If I had to do without one of them it would be the Nagler 31. It's a great UWA eyepiece but under my bortle 5 skies the additional magnification provided by the Ethos 21 just produces more contrasty views of nebulae and galaxies plus that darker background sky. The Nagler does the Veil plus the N A nebula really well but for most other deep sky targets, the Ethos would be my tool of choice.

 

If I were to factor in my friends astigmatism, that might be the clincher against the N31.

But the E21 is quite close to my E17. And heavier…

[John]

Just now, JeremyS said:

If I were to factor in my friends astigmatism, that might be the clincher against the N31.

But the E21 is quite close to my E17. And heavier…

I had the E17 and it is a very fine eyepiece. For some reason though I've never found 17mm a frequently used focal length. I tend to jump straight from the 21mm to the 13mm. I've owned and let go 3 really good 17mm eyepieces over the past 5 years - the E17, the ES 92 17 and the Delos 17.3 so it must just be an FL that does not quite suit how I observe. Nothing wrong with the eyepieces at all - they were all superb.

 

[John]

31 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

....I must admit a secret obsession has become fine double star splits associated with fine diffraction patterns 😊

I enjoy these very much as well. I have to say that the Vixen delivers more than my Tak on this. The Tak objective is probably a little better overall and the diffraction rings are that much thinner and fainter. One of my favourites for diffraction rings with the Vixen is Gamma Virginis (Porrima) - two very similar stars close together and fully framed with delightful overlapping diffraction rings 😁

Edited August 6, 2023 by John

[JeremyS]

35 minutes ago, John said:

I had the E17 and it is a very fine eyepiece. For some reason though I've never found 17mm a frequently used focal length. I tend to jump straight from the 21mm to the 13mm. I've owned and let go 3 really good 17mm eyepieces over the past 5 years - the E17, the ES 92 17 and the Delos 17.3 so it must just be an FL that does not quite suit how I observe. Nothing wrong with the eyepieces at all - they were all superb.

 

Did you ever have a N26, John?

My N26 has about the same TFOVas the E21, though the E21 will likely have a darker background 

[John]

53 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Did you ever have a N26, John?

My N26 has about the same TFOVas the E21, though the E21 will likely have a darker background 

I have not owned / used a N26 Jeremy but I have read some great things about them.  I have owned the Nagler 20mm T5 and 22mm T4 and enjoyed those. 

 

[wesdon1]

On 04/08/2023 at 11:24, RobertI said:

I guess it depends on exactly what you want to get from bins, the little 2x constellation binoculars are pocket sized fun but limited, 10x50s will reveal huge amount of stuff, and can be handheld, and also used for everyday use, anything bigger or more powerful will need mounting in some form so less grab and go.

Why not start a new thread in the binocular section to get some further thoughts and advice? Good luck! 🙂👍

@RobertI Thanks Rob! I'll start a thread on Bino's section and go from there! 

On another subject, tonight I have a fair chance of getting outside to image for first time since mid June! Fingers crossed! LOL

[wesdon1]

On 04/08/2023 at 11:54, SwiMatt said:

Here we've had some sunny days, but they never converted into cloudless nights. Basically, since June, whenever the sun goes down (late!) the clouds come out. I'll have to understand whether this is a Swedish coast thing, or just a bad year.

And yes, the light here is a problem. There is no season between June and August really...

@SwiMatt It's sooo frustrating isn't it! Here too in UK, between June and August, we don't have true dark night skies, and even in May before and September afterwards, the nights aren't truly dark for very long. very frustrating!

[josefk]

Banked a short clear moment between clouds with a daytime observation of Venus just now. A beautiful bright white silver sliver at just 2.4% phase. A few recent scribbles over here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/412389-venus-what-a-show/#comment-4400782

 

[Mr Spock]

Don't hold your breath, but, It's clear! The Tak is out cooling ready for a few doubles.

[Mr Spock]

Just come in for a warm. Thermometer says 11.9° but my fingers are freezing! Just drawn 3 doubles in Hercules - ζ Her, quite challenging but split; very similar Σ2107 not split so not drawn; Σ2098, a nice wide triple, if a little faint; Σ2095, a little easier than the first two.