What did you see tonight?

[Saganite]

I have now set the tracking on and I have been able to tweak the focuser while the images are held nicely in the frame and whilst the 3mm setting was still very good, backing it off to 4mm was tidier but another click to 5mm was then textbook which I think was what Louis found in his extensive report.  If it stays clear I look forward to trying it out on Saturn and Jupiter. 

[Mr Spock]

Bagged a few doubles so far. Seeing is really good. Albireo looks amazing in the 60mm at x89; such colour!

[John]

I've been pretending that my ED120mm is somewhat smaller and slower for a while this evening:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/411857-the-60mm-doubles-project-an-invitation-to-collaborate/?do=findComment&comment=4410012

Back to full aperture now. I agree with @Mr Spock that the seeing is nice and steady this evening. Lambda Cygni shows that and Pi Aquilae was lovely even at 450x

Saturn should be a nice show 😁

[Mr Spock]

I've just swapped the 60mm for the 100mm. Just letting it cool a while.

[John]

Despite the thin patches of cloud and the moonlight now starting to encroach I've had some nice views of the Blue Snowball and Saturn Nebulae plus globular clusters M15 and M2 with the full 120mm aperture. 

 

[Mr Spock]

Just having a coffee break  Waiting for Saturn to come round the house - can't be bothered taking the scope up the garden. Also put the 120 out to cool.

Had a really clean split of π Aql with the 100mm at x189.

[Littleguy80]

Fab unplanned session. Started out with the Summer Beehive (IC4665) before hunting down the lovely green planetary, NGC 6572. M2, the Saturn Nebula before Saturn itself. Some nice detail on the planet when hitting good patches of seeing. M71, M27 and then tracking down the trickier Blue Flash nebula. Spent some time with Jupiter before finishing up with the Moon. Tracking up and down the terminator with the 100mm Tak and 5mm Pentax XW was exquisite. I just used the APM UFF 30mm, Docter 12.5mm and Pentax XW 5mm with the Tak for the whole session. Mild but damp evening. Simple but very enjoyable session. 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Littleguy80

[Phillyterp85]

Been off for a few months, but brought the telescope back out this weekend.  Got some great observations.   Great views of the moon.  I saw Jupiter and 5 of its moons.   And, for the first time ever, saw Saturn with its rings!  Was with the family this weekend so they all got to see it too and thought it was very cool.  Unfortunately, couldn’t get the phone adapter to cooperate with me this weekend and couldn’t get a pic of Jupiter or Saturn.   Could only get pics of the moon.

Edited September 4, 2023 by Phillyterp85

[Mr Spock]

Just had an hour looking at Saturn. That's the best I've seen it for many years. Altitude and excellent seeing is the difference with low altitude here being really poor for seeing. I'd have to go back to the old OMC-140 and it being in Taurus to equal it. Cassini was well seen, with obvious belts. It almost looked 3D.

It did give me a chance to compare some kit. The Tak prism is brighter, cleaner and sharper than the 2" Baader - but planets is what I bought it for. The 4mm TOE, 4mm Nirvana and 4mm Circle-T orthos were very similar in sharpness and detail. I thought the TOE was a touch brighter than the other two; the Nirvana was a touch cooler and seemed a more natural colour.

I also put the Helios 120mm on too. Very creditable performance with CA not noticeable and almost as crisp as the Tak (but not quite). It was a bit warmer in tone though. Had a good look at Albireo to finish at x250. Nice airy disks with again, very little false colour; but lovely colour to the stars themselves, especially the pale blue. It can't match the absence of diffraction rings the Tak has, but you would expect that!

Altogether a very good night.

[Space Hopper]

I concur.

Spent around 4 hours enjoying the 4 outer planets, with Lunar and a few of 'the usual suspects' thrown in for good measure.

The seeing was pretty good tonight, possibly thanks to this high pressure system. Nice stable air, certainly a cut above what i've become used to.

Jupiter and Saturn both excellent tonight, a treat to see them so good.

We used a 125mm doublet on a motorised AZ100 and a 140mm triplet on a manual DM6, with me using Baader binoviewers ,Tv Panoptics, with back up from Vixen and Docter / Noblex in mono mode.

A really good night 😁

 

[Mr Spock]

Just finished a long session on the moon and Jupiter. It's well turned 4am and I should probably go to bed. I could have stayed out all night 

[Ags]

2 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Just finished a long session on the moon and Jupiter. It's well turned 4am and I should probably go to bed. I could have stayed out all night 

Glad to hear you got a good session!

[JeremyS]

6 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Just had an hour looking at Saturn. That's the best I've seen it for many years. Altitude and excellent seeing is the difference with low altitude here being really poor for seeing. I'd have to go back to the old OMC-140 and it being in Taurus to equal it. Cassini was well seen, with obvious belts. It almost looked 3D.

It did give me a chance to compare some kit. The Tak prism is brighter, cleaner and sharper than the 2" Baader - but planets is what I bought it for. The 4mm TOE, 4mm Nirvana and 4mm Circle-T orthos were very similar in sharpness and detail. I thought the TOE was a touch brighter than the other two; the Nirvana was a touch cooler and seemed a more natural colour.

I also put the Helios 120mm on too. Very creditable performance with CA not noticeable and almost as crisp as the Tak (but not quite). It was a bit warmer in tone though. Had a good look at Albireo to finish at x250. Nice airy disks with again, very little false colour; but lovely colour to the stars themselves, especially the pale blue. It can't match the absence of diffraction rings the Tak has, but you would expect that!

Altogether a very good night.

Which Baader diagonal were you using?

[Mr Spock]

34 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Which Baader diagonal were you using?

This one

[johnturley]

Last night had my best view of Saturn this apparition, and look my first image, taken through my Esprit 150 using a 2.5x Powermate, and processed in AutoStakkert and Registax, and a bit of polishing in Lightroom.

P.S. I have processed another Sharpcap video since this morning, and attach the latest one, which I think is somewhat better than the original.  

 

John 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by johnturley

[Stu1smartcookie]

Played around with the little Starwave , for fun, and of course serious research,  i used my svbony 3-8 with a 2.5 x powermate to try some ridiculous magnification on Saturn . Image was of course quite dim but , nontheless , it was an acceptable view . Back to a more realistic 4mm gave a sharper brighter view , using the AZ-Gti as an ideal mount for this little scope . 

Lovely just to sit outside and watch all the stars "come out to play" . 

This morning i was up at 5am and saw a brilliant Venus rising high in the early morning dawn sky . Also the moon , which is a lovely target just before dawn breaks . 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by Stu1smartcookie

[John]

It was a cracking night for planetary and lunar observing last night.

While I was using my ED120 I tried out loads of different short (6mm or shorter) focal length eyepiece and eyepiece / barlow combinations including, Hutech abbe orthos, Pentax XW's and the Nagler 2-4mm zoom. I got quite bemused by them all after a couple of hours of swapping around 🤪

The one that stole the show last night was the 4.7mm Ethos SX. Saturn at 191x was absolutely stunning with this eyepiece. How on earth Paul Dellechiaie of Tele Vue managed to squeeze abbe ortho levels of performance out of an optical design which has 9 elements and that is held right across a 110 degree field of view is beyond me 😲

Paul sadly passed away in June last year so my little tribute to him was to think of him as I gazed in wonder at that lovely ringed planet last night 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by John

[Franklin]

The seeing was very good here last night as well, maybe it's this high pressure? Saturn and the CD were very crisp at around 180x even in the 3". The good seeing has continued into the day as well as granulation was very visible with the Lunt wedge earlier.

[josefk]

A few greatest hits with the new scope last night recorded over here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/412937-takahashi-fsq-85edx-visual/#comment-4410232

With the highlight of the night - Ganymedes' transit out of Jovian occultation sketched over here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/413336-jupiter-ganymede/#comment-4410080

 

 

[John]

Some great reports from last night 

Another good one to come tonight perhaps ?😁

 

[John]

3 hours ago, John said:

Some great reports from last night 

Another good one to come tonight perhaps ?😁

 

Fingers crossed 🤞

 

[Ags]

Everything is packed away, and every spare space in the garden is taken up by builders' things, so no astronomy for the coming weeks... but tonight I did notice the half Moon and Jupiter rising together, with less than five degrees separation. A pretty sight!

[Whistlin Bob]

Wonderful session tonight. Several obvious targets, but I got really stuck on the Wild Duck Cluster until it went behind some trees. I tried it at 200x and it was fine, but swapped the zoom for my 30mm aero+ cc, giving me 50x in the dob, and that made it really interesting 😀!  Seeing was steady and transparency was excellent, meaning the cluster resolved to very fine detail, despite the low mag. As my eyes adapted I started to see very faint clouds of stars and dark lanes around it- the cluster didn't have a definite border but gradually merged into the stars beyond. A really special "wow" moment, but one that I had to work a bit for. Really don't get many nights like this in a year- just wonderful.

[The60mmKid]

Saturn was a highlight this evening. I don't care that it's low in the sky. It's Saturn. We know the adage, "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." My version is, "When you are tired of looking at Saturn, you have forgotten how to look."

I observe from the rooftop of my building. A young fellow came up halfway through my session this evening, so I invited him to take a peek. Like most people, he hasn't had the opportunity to look through a telescope. Needless to say, he was impressed with Saturn, although he didn't know which planet it was until I told him. We shouldn't forget how lucky we are to be able to observe... My hope is that he turns in for the night realizing that he is part not only of a big, interesting city but, furthermore, of a big, interesting universe.

Edited September 4, 2023 by The60mmKid

[John]

I spent most of my session with my 130mm refractor looking at Saturn. Once it had risen a little way above the roofline 200x and 250x were the optimum observing magnifications tonight. My views were very similar to this outstanding sketch from @mikeDnight:

Saturn's equatorial zone seemed bright, as in Mike's drawing and I could make out 2 cloud belts in the northern hemisphere of the planet and suggestions of one south of the ring system. Note: north is at the bottom in Mike's drawing.

Elsewhere, I had some very nice views of the Blue Snowball and Little Dumbbell planetary nebulae even after the moon had risen.

Really warm out there - shorts and T-shirt stuff ! 🙂

Edited September 4, 2023 by John