What did you see tonight?

[IB20]

Was terribly foggy around 6pm so decided to have a few drinks. It’s now crystal clear! Have quickly put the Starbase 80 out, I have a no drinking and Tak handling rule! 🤪

Will see what Orion is like compared to the 76DC

[Zermelo]

Well I got some decent views of the moon earlier, but I've just packed up. I had another list of doubles to try, but the seeing was horrible and then it seemed there was a veil of thin mistiness in the area I was looking.
It looks like there might be another chance tomorrow or Sunday.

[Stu]

Just popped out for another look at the Moon. Caught four Plato craterlets and also noticed the quite dramatic lighting on Naysmyth and Phocylides, such a hard transition between dark and light.

Have now popped the 8” f8 out quickly to see if I can see any more with that!

[IB20]

15 minutes ago, Stu said:

Just popped out for another look at the Moon. Caught four Plato craterlets and also noticed the quite dramatic lighting on Naysmyth and Phocylides, such a hard transition between dark and light.

Have now popped the 8” f8 out quickly to see if I can see any more with that!

I really need to spend more some time observing the moon. That Nasmyth Phocylides crater clash looks fascinating. Maybe one day I’ll know the names of some of the more exotic and unknown features.

[Dave1]

Well got out tonight with my Skylight 60mm, part of the night was spent tweaking my EQ3-2 mount to adjust the backlash, I think I am there now, although I might tweak some further. I spent quite a lot of time looking at various parts of the moon tonight. I did do the comparison I mentioned on Stu's thread the other day. Did the comparison with a 20mm Plossl and 12mm Brandon. Was interesting not a great deal of Chromatic Aberration but it was there.

Looked at the Orion nebular could see A B C D components with both my Brandon 12mm ( 84x magnification ) and CZJ Ortho 10mm ( 100x magnification ). Had a quick look at M45 the Pleiades, and Sirius. 

All in all not a bad little session. 

Edited January 15, 2022 by Dave1
Spelling.

[Stu]

Packed up now, seems not great so the 8” wasn’t showing much more than the 4”. Stars pretty fuzzy too.

[John]

Still quite nice conditions here.

Tegmine / Zeta Cancri split well at 300x and 400x with the 130mm refractor. Sirius B showing quite nicely as well at 240x. Dubhe seemed to have a "bulge" on the side of it's airy disk at around the position that it's secondary star is but not a split in any proper sense. 

Getting a bit chilly now so I won't be out for much longer.

 

[HollyHound]

Went out again for another hour. The Mewlon was properly cooled now and the moon a little higher. Only slight issue was that the XW20s in the binoviewer dewed up almost as soon as I uncapped them… need to figure out why 🤔Swapped back to single XW eyepieces.

The DZ still amazes me at the level of clarity it was producing on the moon, but the Mewlon just (very) slightly edged ahead. Both of them showed me detail I’ve not seen before (yes even from that little FOA-60Q!).

Decided to have another look at M42 and saw bit more nebulosity with the DZ, but again much more with the Mewlon.

Finally had a quick tour of some doubles… Polaris, Mizar/Alcor and companion, Rigel (again), Alnitak and then tried Sirius (unfortunately not got this one yet still).

Started to get cold again and things were dewing up a bit, so called it quits. Very happy to finally get a decent long session again and put both scopes out together.

I can see this combo working very well. The Mewlon with the binoviewer was amazing for detailed comfortable views of the moon (just need to sort out the eyepiece dewing). The DZ cools very quickly and can go from super detailed lunar views to widefield 👍

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by HollyHound

[JeremyS]

8 hours ago, HollyHound said:

Went out again for another hour. The Mewlon was properly cooled now and the moon a little higher. Only slight issue was that the XW20s in the binoviewer dewed up almost as soon as I uncapped them… need to figure out why 🤔Swapped back to single XW eyepieces.

The DZ still amazes me at the level of clarity it was producing on the moon, but the Mewlon just (very) slightly edged ahead. Both of them showed me detail I’ve not seen before (yes even from that little FOA-60Q!).

Decided to have another look at M42 and saw bit more nebulosity with the DZ, but again much more with the Mewlon.

Finally had a quick tour of some doubles… Polaris, Mizar/Alcor and companion, Rigel (again), Alnitak and then tried Sirius (unfortunately not got this one yet still).

Started to get cold again and things were dewing up a bit, so called it quits. Very happy to finally get a decent long session again and put both scopes out together.

I can see this combo working very well. The Mewlon with the binoviewer was amazing for detailed comfortable views of the moon (just need to sort out the eyepiece dewing). The DZ cools very quickly and can go from super detailed lunar views to widefield 👍

 

On the dewing eyepieces, did you leave them on the scope when you went inside? On cold nights, I generally take eyepieces inside with me during breaks to keep them warm. 

Any dewing on the Mu? 

[Mr Spock]

The best thing for eyepieces is pockets 

[HollyHound]

25 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

On the dewing eyepieces, did you leave them on the scope when you went inside? On cold nights, I generally take eyepieces inside with me during breaks to keep them warm. 

Any dewing on the Mu? 

Ah, yes I did… I capped all three XWs that were on the scopes (two on the binoviewer on the Mewlon).

I guess they’re going to get cold over those couple of hours and also the end caps aren’t really insulating at all.

I may well have accidentally breathed on them as I moved to observe, so super cold surfaces and moisture wouldn’t help 🤔

The eyepieces normal live inside a hard case in foam, and although I had those closed, I did keep the lid open whilst observing and noticed they were all a little damp externally as I brought them in (I did leave them all open to dry out though).

I think you’re right… will pop them all back in the case at all times when not being used and keep the case lid shut.

Thanks for the suggestion Jeremy 👍

[HollyHound]

3 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

The best thing for eyepieces is pockets 

As it happens I have done some short sessions where I keep my few eyepieces in the large coat pockets… another very good suggestion, thanks 👍

[HollyHound]

33 minutes ago, JeremyS said:

Any dewing on the Mu? 

Good news on this… no dewing at all on Mewlon 👍

The DZ was starting to “mist up” a little towards the end, but Mewlon didn’t. It’s finder was a little though! I did put objective covers on when I left them for those few hours between sessions.

As soon as I brought it indoors however then yes, some condensation formed on the mirror and I needed to leave it (open) for a few hours until clear (same for DZ).

I need to invest in a 4” dew strap… I have a 5” for the C5 and the controller to go with it, but rarely ever use it 🤔

 

[JeremyS]

13 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

Ah, yes I did… I capped all three XWs that were on the scopes (two on the binoviewer on the Mewlon).

I guess they’re going to get cold over those couple of hours and also the end caps aren’t really insulating at all.

I may well have accidentally breathed on them as I moved to observe, so super cold surfaces and moisture wouldn’t help 🤔

The eyepieces normal live inside a hard case in foam, and although I had those closed, I did keep the lid open whilst observing and noticed they were all a little damp externally as I brought them in (I did leave them all open to dry out though).

I think you’re right… will pop them all back in the case at all times when not being used and keep the case lid shut.

Thanks for the suggestion Jeremy 👍

Occasionally, when very close to the dew point, just bringing my eye close to a cold  eyepiece can result in dew in seconds. If find it worse with binoviewers. Maybe because the unit traps your breath a bit, whereas cyclops allows more rapid dispersion.

[JeremyS]

9 minutes ago, HollyHound said:

 

I need to invest in a 4” dew strap… I have a 5” for the C5 and the controller to go with it, but rarely ever use it 🤔

 

You can probably get away with the C5 dew strip. Shouldn’t matter if the ends overlap a little

[Mr Spock]

I briefly had an eyepiece table to store eyepieces not being used. A few nights ago they all dewed up so I went back to the old pocket storage method.

[Stu]

I do use dew strips on scope and eyepieces quite regularly and it does help. I try to keep them to a minimum setting when observing, but whack them up high if leaving the scope for a while. With a binoviewer you can wrap a longer strip around the whole body and it generates heat into the body which conducts up to the eyepieces so keeps them clear. Again, keep at the lowest level possible.

[John]

If eyepieces get really cold, even the heat from your eyeball can cause them to fog / mist up. Eyepieces with long eye relief  and deep eyecups are more resistant to this - the Pentax XW's do quite well for example.

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by John

[HollyHound]

Thanks for all the great tips and suggestions everyone 😃

I can see now that it was a combination of long cold session, leaving the eyepieces (and binoviewer) on the scopes between sessions, and I suspect my face/breath being enough to just tip them over the edge.

So will definitely put them back in their case (and bring them indoors) during observing gaps, be a little careful breathing near them and perhaps sort them dew prevention out too 👍

[Surfer Chris]

On 13/01/2022 at 22:24, Stu said:

The Tak is out, but seeing a lot more variable tonight. Still plenty of moments of clarity though. 3 Plato craterlets (effectively 4 as two are close together), and very strong hints of the Alpine Rille; a broken white line showing when the seeing stills. Won’t do much tonight, but will pop out again before bed.

Which Tak did you have out Stu?

I took the FS-60Q out to have a quick look at the moon last night. I was trying to spot the Plato craterlets, but despite the image looking nice and crisp, I could only every now and then just about see the white ejecta marks of the central craterlet (using the 7mm Delite). I also took a look at the Trapezium in M42. I think I was hoping I might spot E or F...but think that's being a bit ambitious!!!! Maybe save that one for the FC-100DC.

 

[HollyHound]

44 minutes ago, Surfer Chris said:

I also took a look at the Trapezium in M42. I think I was hoping I might spot E or F...but think that's being a bit ambitious!!!! Maybe save that one for the FC-100DC.

I couldn’t see E or F last night in either the DZ or Mewlon… I think the moon being close and fairly bright didn’t help.

I think it should be feasible to see them in the FC-100DC, but the only scope I’ve seen these in so far has been the 10” Dob… loving the moon, but once it’s gone again and clear, I’ll wheel that out for another look 🤞

[Whistlin Bob]

I'm another fan of the pocket method. If you put caps on and swap eyepieces regularly then it works great. 

Fails a bit if you're using one eyepiece persistently though- such as the other night when I had my 4mm nirvana in for ages whilst lunar viewing (also a short eye relief ep, so suffers from proximity of eyes). When this happens I've got a little 12v travel hairdryer that I use. It's quite feeble, so I doubt it's much good at its intended purpose, but does very well for this.

[Stardaze]

28 minutes ago, Whistlin Bob said:

I'm another fan of the pocket method. If you put caps on and swap eyepieces regularly then it works great. 

Fails a bit if you're using one eyepiece persistently though- such as the other night when I had my 4mm nirvana in for ages whilst lunar viewing (also a short eye relief ep, so suffers from proximity of eyes). When this happens I've got a little 12v travel hairdryer that I use. It's quite feeble, so I doubt it's much good at its intended purpose, but does very well for this.

What do you plug the hairdryer into out of interest?

 

[Whistlin Bob]

12 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

What do you plug the hairdryer into out of interest?

I've got a 12v battery with a socket on it.

[Stardaze]

52 minutes ago, Whistlin Bob said:

I've got a 12v battery with a socket on it.

I think I’m going to have to get one with the socket. I’m currently just plugging in my dew heater directly into a 12v battery, but need something for a hairdryer really. Just need to decide on whether to bite the bullet with lithium. 

Edited January 15, 2022 by Stardaze