What did you see tonight?

[badhex]

Honestly, maybe I'm a total fool but I have always assumed that one would want all optical equipment to be cooled, including EPs - so I've always done that! And I have in the winter months often been plagued by EP fogging from eye warmth, but mostly only in the early part of the session. I had assumed my eyes dispersed their annoying warm air after a while of being in out in the cold. 

Looks like I might need to change my methods! 

[Stu]

4 hours ago, Surfer Chris said:

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.

 

It was the FC100DC Chris. Don’t think the craterlets would be doable with a 60mm, and probably margin with the 76. Likewise I don’t thing I’ve seen E & F with less than 100mm but to be fair I haven’t tried the 76mm yet this time round.

[John]

2 hours ago, badhex said:

Honestly, maybe I'm a total fool but I have always assumed that one would want all optical equipment to be cooled, including EPs - so I've always done that! And I have in the winter months often been plagued by EP fogging from eye warmth, but mostly only in the early part of the session. I had assumed my eyes dispersed their annoying warm air after a while of being in out in the cold. 

Looks like I might need to change my methods! 

I'm sure you are no fool

I can't recall how I learned this (possibly through some annoying experiences) but I've always tried to keep my eyepieces at just a few degrees above the outside temperature to stop them misting / fogging up.

When out in the field this can be a challenge after a few hours. The foam in the cases seems to retain a little warmth if I remember to close the lid after swapping eyepieces.

When observing at home my eyepieces are indoors, so quite warm, between each use.

 

 

[badhex]

3 hours ago, John said:

I'm sure you are no fool

I can't recall how I learned this (possibly through some annoying experiences) but I've always tried to keep my eyepieces at just a few degrees above the outside temperature to stop them misting / fogging up.

When out in the field this can be a challenge after a few hours. The foam in the cases seems to retain a little warmth if I remember to close the lid after swapping eyepieces.

When observing at home my eyepieces are indoors, so quite warm, between each use.

 

 

Thanks John. I know you can get EP dew heater bands but always thought it would be a bit of a faff having to swap the bands every time you change EPs. I'll try the slightly-warm case approach! 

[mikeDnight]

What did I see tonight? Street lights across town through double glazing. I know it sounds silly, but it was cloudy and I wanted to try out various eyepieces  in my vintage F5.4 Genesis SDF just to see if everything reached focus.  I only currently have one Nagler eyepiece,  a  31mm which gives 4.8° true field. All my Morpheus come to focus as do my collection of pseudo Masuyama super plossl's. A mini wow moment was when I used my 3.4mm Vixen HR, which is narrow field but stunningly sharp even in the SDF. Surprisingly the masuyama's are excellent in the SDF too though they aren't wide field. I have to say the Morpheus are quite a revelation even at F5.4, with the 17.5 and 12.5mm giving superb views. I just need a few clear nights without a moon on view to get the most out of this scope. I must have particularly good glass in my double glazing as the diffraction pattern both inside and outside focus was excellent, while in focus even with the 3.4mm HR it remained wonderfully sharp.

Edited January 16, 2022 by mikeDnight

[Voyager 3]

The 31mm Nagler in the Genesis is THE widefield setup .

Are you sure the Genesis is F/5.4 ? If I remember correctly , I think it is F/5 ..

[mikeDnight]

4 hours ago, Voyager 3 said:

The 31mm Nagler in the Genesis is THE widefield setup .

Are you sure the Genesis is F/5.4 ? If I remember correctly , I think it is F/5 ..

I had to check, but yes the Genesis SDF is definitely F5.4.  I think the original Genesis was F5. The SDF was the second incarnation of the Televue 4", which I believe was released in 1993. Im uncertain as to whether the original Genesis F5 used fluorite, but perhaps the slight increase in Fratio helps with colour correction?

 

[jock1958]

18 hours ago, badhex said:

Honestly, maybe I'm a total fool but I have always assumed that one would want all optical equipment to be cooled, including EPs - so I've always done that! And I have in the winter months often been plagued by EP fogging from eye warmth, but mostly only in the early part of the session. I had assumed my eyes dispersed their annoying warm air after a while of being in out in the cold. 

Looks like I might need to change my methods! 

I have exactly the same problem especially with 15mm TV plossls in my BV’s.
I’m sure I read somewhere on this forum that either removing or folding down the eyepiece cups helps by dissipating the warm air currents, I haven’t tried that yet as I find the cups are crucial for my eye placement so I tend to give it a break for few seconds while the fogging clears. 

I think multiple dew bands on a pair of eyepieces is a non starter for me, I would hate all those cables and the faff and the thought of swapping eyepieces 😩 I might try @mikeDnight method of wafting my hand over the eyepieces method next 🤔

[Kon]

Unexpected clear skies tonight. Looked mostly at the moon but not that many features tonight.

 

[John]

1 hour ago, Kon said:

Unexpected clear skies tonight. Looked mostly at the moon but not that many features tonight.

 

Me too, plus doubles in and around Orion so far

Seeing seems quite good here. Misty bands of cloud here and there to keep me on my toes

 

[Kon]

3 minutes ago, John said:

Me too, plus doubles in and around Orion so far

I have not got into the doubles, yet,  so my session has been cut sort due to everything else been washed out. Enjoy the rest of the night.

[John]

Currently enjoying views of the Mare Procellarum and in particular the craters Krafft and Cardanus with the crater chain Catena Krafft running between them. The oddly "tadpole" shaped pale feature called the Reiner Gamma is not far away and showing well too.

Image credit: Vaz Tolentino Lunar Observatory, Brasil:

 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by John

[Xgaze]

Just back inside after a 25-30minute session.

Not really viewed many doubles before so, had a go at the following with my 6" Dob using 8mm BST E.P 

- Beta Monoceros

- Lota Orionid

-Meissa

- Alnitak & Mintaka

Not sure if it's the capabilities of my set-up? but I thought they were a bit underwhelming. Nice to see the colour differences in some and being able to split them is satisfying.

Put a 32mm Plossl E.P for a quick look at Pleiades its amazing how much the moon effects viewing; it seemed to thin out each star as though they'd been on a post Christmas diet! still great to see this cluster in a wide view. 

Back in with the 8mm E.P I spent some time in the Orion Nebula. This is always amazing! but a little high for me to be able to sit down comfortably and view it a length.

Spent the remaining time looking at Sirius, what a beautiful view with 'pulsing' colours and perfectly crisp refraction spikes. Had a play around and completely de-focused (as one might check collimation creating the 'donut' shape) and the hues were even more spectacular all colours of the spectrum, shimmering away looking almost like an LED light feature! Great fun ! I'd recommend giving it a try!!

Best,

T 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Xgaze

[bomberbaz]

25 minutes ago, John said:

Currently enjoying views of the Mare Procellarum and in particular the craters Krafft and Cardanus with the crater chain Catena Kraft running between them. The oddly "tadpole" shaped pale feature called the Reiner Gamma is not far away and showing well too.

thought it was an entire 100% moon tonight so didn't even both. Had I known I would have either got the big bins out of the ED 102 and binoviewers. 

If your views were anything near the image then you are having a lovely view along the extreme edge of the terminator. 

[John]

2 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

...If your views were anything near the image then you are having a lovely view along the extreme edge of the terminator. 

The illumination tonight is pretty close to that of the image Steve

[Stu]

14 hours ago, jock1958 said:

I have exactly the same problem especially with 15mm TV plossls in my BV’s.
I’m sure I read somewhere on this forum that either removing or folding down the eyepiece cups helps by dissipating the warm air currents, I haven’t tried that yet as I find the cups are crucial for my eye placement so I tend to give it a break for few seconds while the fogging clears. 

I think multiple dew bands on a pair of eyepieces is a non starter for me, I would hate all those cables and the faff and the thought of swapping eyepieces 😩 I might try @mikeDnight method of wafting my hand over the eyepieces method next 🤔

I sometimes wrap a dew strip around the body of the binoviewer which dissipates heat into the eyepieces and can help. Means you don’t need to switch when changing eyepieces.

[Stu]

19 hours ago, Voyager 3 said:

The 31mm Nagler in the Genesis is THE widefield setup .

Are you sure the Genesis is F/5.4 ? If I remember correctly , I think it is F/5 ..

That’s right, the original Genesis was f5. I have one and for widefield views with a 31mm Nagler I doubt it can be beaten.

15 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I had to check, but yes the Genesis SDF is definitely F5.4.  I think the original Genesis was F5. The SDF was the second incarnation of the Televue 4", which I believe was released in 1993. Im uncertain as to whether the original Genesis F5 used fluorite, but perhaps the slight increase in Fratio helps with colour correction?

 

The Genesis f5 had an achro doublet up front, and a fluorite element in the petzval pair in the rear, but that just avoided adding any further to the CA so calling it a fluorite scope is a little naughty. The SDF had better glass in the front pair and a slightly longer focal length so has better colour correction. Nice scope! 👍

[John]

The pale swirly lunar feature I mentioned earlier, Reiner Gamma, is pretty interesting - possibly a mini magnetic shield but there are other theories as well:

https://the-moon.us/wiki/RoI_-_Reiner_Gamma

 

 

 

 

[bomberbaz]

4 minutes ago, John said:

The illumination tonight is pretty close to that of the image Steve

enjoy John, particularly like the swirly feature, very interesting phenomenon.

For me the next time available is Thursday, it looks half decent for my area. So maybe I can get some time along the eastern terminator which is another quite busy part of the Moon. 

 

[Davesellars]

Really clear here.  4th session this week!  Just come in after almost 2 hours with a refractor observing the Moon and some brighter DSOs.  At least the massive humidity appears to have mostly gone - everything stayed pretty dry!

[John]

Full moon but observing multiple stars is still fun

The seeing is really good here currently. E & F Trapezium with my 100mm refractor - must be a decent night

 

[Nik271]

Superb seeing in Oxford tonight, slighly misty and of course a full Moon but the air is very very steady. Had my best view of the Pup so far this winter at x300, Sirius shining steady and the Pup showing clearly for long periods of time. Also Tegmine, Eta Gem, 7 Tauri, practically every double I tried I saw easily! Waiting a bit more for Dubhe to rise higher over the mist and will give this one a try. That is unless the fog  freezes on the corrector of my Mak... 

[Davesellars]

Clear yet again! (what is going on???)   I'm giving it a rest tonight though...  it does look the moment (if Clearoutside is anything to be believed) like quite a lot of this week there may be good opporunity for more sessions so i'll save my energy a bit since it's full moon tonight.

[John]

For a challenge I tried Kappa Geminorum. Just 3.2 degrees from the full moon tonight so spotting the 8th magnitude primary star at 7.2 arc seconds separation from the magnitude 3.6 primary star tests the eye as it's bathed in moonglow. I found 180x did the trick but I had to look hard !

I'll find some that are further away from the lunar searchlight I think

[IB20]

Had a look at the Southerly pole of the moon. I’m amazed at how good it looks in the Tak, the undulations, hills, cliff faces, recesses, valleys and features present with such definition, they are truly striking. Almost feels like I could walk along them. Two features stood out marked on the 2nd image. Any lunar experts help identify them as I’m struggling to find out what they’re called?

Was extremely cold out so had a quick look at M42; sure I could see the E star pop out on occasion but it wasn’t as easy as a few nights ago. Back inside now 🥶🧊.