Getting back in the saddle, with a Moonlit 8” f8

[Stu]

Sorry about the title, best I could think of.

I’ve been struggling with my Astro mojo over recent months; weather, exhaustion and being busy with work and just daily life all contributing. I’ve certainly not lost the love of the skies, in fact on Wednesday morning leaving the house at 4.30am, I was greeted by beautiful Jupiter shining brightly, and also spotted Mars. Driving East up towards London, I then got lovely views of a very thin crescent Moon and Venus hanging in the sky to keep me company until it got too bright to see them sometime after 5.15am I think.

Somewhat inspired by this, I finally got around to fitting the Moonlite I bought from @Piero complete with 8” fitting kit and spacers. I was hoping that it would eliminate the need for an extension tube and so it proved. This scope had previously had a quite decent single speed focuser but adding the dual speed was something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, just to be able to nail focus more easily, and have a lighter touch on the scope as it is prone to vibrations. I did a quick collimation with Concentre then laser. It may not be perfect but it is pretty close. Will refine it next time.

The sky looked reasonably clear, although transparency was variable with a few patches a thin cloud around. I just picked a few obvious targets, not wanting anything too tricky to find to allow me to get back in the saddle.

First up I just centred on Vega. Actually finding things was a little tricky because I had removed the TelRad to fit the focuser and hadn’t put it back on again. It was a case of eyeballing along the tube then panning around through the finder to get on target. I used the 31mm Nagler as a finder/low power, Leica Zoom as mid range and then Pentax 10mm XW as my highest for the night, x160. Collimation  looked good on Vega, so I tried the Double Double next. It wasn’t the cleanest of splits, showing the seeing wasn’t the best but there nonetheless at around x150 in the Leica Zoom.

M57 at similar powers was nice and clear even without a filter, although shielding my eyes from local glare really helped the contrast. I tried a towel over the head but things started to mist up fairly quickly due to the humidity.

The Veil was next, and I struggled to find it at first. Deliberate mistake number one, I was looking at Epsilon Cygni, not 52 🤪🤪. Once on the right star, there was the Witch’s Broom. Not the best view I’ve had by any means but it was clear enough. No sign of Pickering’s Triangle, but panning across gave me the Eastern Veil, complete with the two ‘hooks’ at the end. Again, a little muted but nice to see. I actually think my primary needs a good clean, having been sitting out in the garage for a while.

M71 seemed a good option to try, and with the 31mm looked like a barely resolved glob. Popping the 10mm Pentax in resolved it beautifully, nice one.

M11 was another excellent one, particularly at higher power. I find it really justifies its ‘Wild Duck Cluster’ name when viewed like this, with the V shaped strings of stars and also dark lanes showing up really well.

A scan around the sky showed Hercules really well positioned, although I had to move the scope a few metres to avoid a tree. Found it ok as a faint blob in the finder, it was fabulous in the zoom and also the 10mm. It resolved deep into the core, really sparkling with averted vision and the propeller showed up quite clearly too.

That was pretty much it, I tried Pi Aquilae which did split although somewhat untidily, but Zeta Herc was a fail, even with the 3.5mm in. The seeing was pretty poor although I was setup on the terrace near the house to that likely made things a lot worse.

So, a long report for a very ordinary session, but I’m really pleased with the Moonlite, and it was just good to be out there again. I really need to get the 16” down to the darker skies on the coast for a proper go at the Veil soon 👍.

[Kimboman]

 Excellent report I can sense that you have  really enjoyed your session 

[Knighty2112]

Nice report Stu. I’ve been busy with work for the last 3 to 4 weeks, which has meant I’ve been away in hotels so with that and the weather I’ve not had hardly any chance to do some observing. Hope that might change soon, as got a week off coming up soon. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[Captain Scarlet]

Very nice to read and inspiring too Stu. I also haven’t looked up through a scope for nearly 2 months. Partly because of moving house plus an operation in June, and poor night-weather through most of July despite some scorching days. Getting over that first-session-in-ages inertia hump seems to become increasingly difficult.

[callisto]

Enjoyed that report Stu... thanks for sharing 

 

Mark.

 

[F15Rules]

Thanks for that, Stu..

..your post was well timed, for me at least: I'm sensing that many of us have felt a bit jaded in recent months, finding it hard to get really enthusiastic  about our hobby, and perhaps, about other hobbies and activities too?

I've certainly found the past 8-10 weeks quite trying for many reasons I won't bore you with, but certainly the long, light, frustratingly milky/murky skies, combined with seemingly endless hordes of Thunder flies, which invade every part of your kit they can squeeze into, has had me feeling quite turned off from even thinking about getting a scope out..

It occurred to me that, although I love the summer constellations, the Summer Triangle, Delphinus etc etc, I rarely actually see them in the summer months: I've had much my best views in late September to early November, when there are no wretched tiny insects, properly dark skies, and as the summer constellations slowly make way for the rising of Orion & Co, I can still get good views of the summer groups just by going outside earlier each week..easy to do as the nights get dark earlier each week by c 20-30minutes.

I actually packed my FS128 away about 8 weeks ago, indoors, in her Oklop bag, to protect her from all the bugs. My only other scope, the trusty Vixen SP102, has been available and set up, but again, conditions have rarely been good enough to encourage me to stay up until 11.30pm or later after working in the garden all day or choosing between watching a good movie with my feet up, or setting up outside in so-so skies at best. Add to this the whole current state of affairs in the country and wider world, it's not difficult to understand people's lack of motivation and mojo.

It's now 9 weeks since we had any meaningful rain here..our cars have been covered in dust brought in on the winds from the Sahara and Europe, and I really don't want to risk that landing on my optics!

Sorry for the prolonged moan, but  I'm seriously considering just taking a 3 month summer break from observing going forward..it seems that many other long-standing SGLers are doing the same anyway, seeming to disappear over recent months? 

I rediscovered fishing again recently, and really enjoyed it..so maybe a fairly short "close season" of 2-3 months wouldn't be such a bad thing, and them come back, refreshed and raring to go, c early September?🤔

A good Astro friend recently said to me, after I had a moan about "rubbish skies", "too tired to be bothered", "not dark enough" etc etc...(I'm paraphrasing his words..) - "Dave, just take a break, don't think too much about it, and come back when you're ready to: the skies above will still be there, unchanged and unchanging in our lifetimes"..

Good advice I think..👍😊

Welcome back, Stu, and thanks again.

Dave

 

[IB20]

40 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Thanks for that, Stu..

..your post was well timed, for me at least: I'm sensing that many of us have felt a bit jaded in recent months, finding it hard to get really enthusiastic  about our hobby, and perhaps, about other hobbies and activities too?

I've certainly found the past 8-10 weeks quite trying for many reasons I won't bore you with, but certainly the long, light, frustratingly milky/murky skies, combined with seemingly endless hordes of Thunder flies, which invade every part of your kit they can squeeze into, has had me feeling quite turned off from even thinking about getting a scope out..

It occurred to me that, although I love the summer constellations, the Summer Triangle, Delphinus etc etc, I rarely actually see them in the summer months: I've had much my best views in late September to early November, when there are no wretched tiny insects, properly dark skies, and as the summer constellations slowly make way for the rising of Orion & Co, I can still get good views of the summer groups just by going outside earlier each week..easy to do as the nights get dark earlier each week by c 20-30minutes.

I actually packed my FS128 away about 8 weeks ago, indoors, in her Oklop bag, to protect her from all the bugs. My only other scope, the trusty Vixen SP102, has been available and set up, but again, conditions have rarely been good enough to encourage me to stay up until 11.30pm or later after working in the garden all day or choosing between watching a good movie with my feet up, or setting up outside in so-so skies at best. Add to this the whole current state of affairs in the country and wider world, it's not difficult to understand people's lack of motivation and mojo.

It's now 9 weeks since we had any meaningful rain here..our cars have been covered in dust brought in on the winds from the Sahara and Europe, and I really don't want to risk that landing on my optics!

Sorry for the prolonged moan, but  I'm seriously considering just taking a 3 month summer break from observing going forward..it seems that many other long-standing SGLers are doing the same anyway, seeming to disappear over recent months? 

I rediscovered fishing again recently, and really enjoyed it..so maybe a fairly short "close season" of 2-3 months wouldn't be such a bad thing, and them come back, refreshed and raring to go, c early September?🤔

A good Astro friend recently said to me, after I had a moan about "rubbish skies", "too tired to be bothered", "not dark enough" etc etc...(I'm paraphrasing his words..) - "Dave, just take a break, don't think too much about it, and come back when you're ready to: the skies above will still be there, unchanged and unchanging in our lifetimes"..

Good advice I think..👍😊

Welcome back, Stu, and thanks again.

Dave

 

I’m kinda not bothered that it’s been full cloudy over a lot of the summer so far, like you say lack of darkness and atmospheric warmth aren’t conducive to good observing sessions. It’s made me not want to stay up really late to see the planets too which has helped me not be a state the day after.

Really, really looking forward to the evening planetary extravaganza round the corner however! 

[IB20]

8 hours ago, Stu said:

Sorry about the title, best I could think of.

I’ve been struggling with my Astro mojo over recent months; weather, exhaustion and being busy with work and just daily life all contributing. I’ve certainly not lost the love of the skies, in fact on Wednesday morning leaving the house at 4.30am, I was greeted by beautiful Jupiter shining brightly, and also spotted Mars. Driving East up towards London, I then got lovely views of a very thin crescent Moon and Venus hanging in the sky to keep me company until it got too bright to see them sometime after 5.15am I think.

Somewhat inspired by this, I finally got around to fitting the Moonlite I bought from @Piero complete with 8” fitting kit and spacers. I was hoping that it would eliminate the need for an extension tube and so it proved. This scope had previously had a quite decent single speed focuser but adding the dual speed was something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, just to be able to nail focus more easily, and have a lighter touch on the scope as it is prone to vibrations. I did a quick collimation with Concentre then laser. It may not be perfect but it is pretty close. Will refine it next time.

The sky looked reasonably clear, although transparency was variable with a few patches a thin cloud around. I just picked a few obvious targets, not wanting anything too tricky to find to allow me to get back in the saddle.

First up I just centred on Vega. Actually finding things was a little tricky because I had removed the TelRad to fit the focuser and hadn’t put it back on again. It was a case of eyeballing along the tube then panning around through the finder to get on target. I used the 31mm Nagler as a finder/low power, Leica Zoom as mid range and then Pentax 10mm XW as my highest for the night, x160. Collimation  looked good on Vega, so I tried the Double Double next. It wasn’t the cleanest of splits, showing the seeing wasn’t the best but there nonetheless at around x150 in the Leica Zoom.

M57 at similar powers was nice and clear even without a filter, although shielding my eyes from local glare really helped the contrast. I tried a towel over the head but things started to mist up fairly quickly due to the humidity.

The Veil was next, and I struggled to find it at first. Deliberate mistake number one, I was looking at Epsilon Cygni, not 52 🤪🤪. Once on the right star, there was the Witch’s Broom. Not the best view I’ve had by any means but it was clear enough. No sign of Pickering’s Triangle, but panning across gave me the Eastern Veil, complete with the two ‘hooks’ at the end. Again, a little muted but nice to see. I actually think my primary needs a good clean, having been sitting out in the garage for a while.

M71 seemed a good option to try, and with the 31mm looked like a barely resolved glob. Popping the 10mm Pentax in resolved it beautifully, nice one.

M11 was another excellent one, particularly at higher power. I find it really justifies its ‘Wild Duck Cluster’ name when viewed like this, with the V shaped strings of stars and also dark lanes showing up really well.

A scan around the sky showed Hercules really well positioned, although I had to move the scope a few metres to avoid a tree. Found it ok as a faint blob in the finder, it was fabulous in the zoom and also the 10mm. It resolved deep into the core, really sparkling with averted vision and the propeller showed up quite clearly too.

That was pretty much it, I tried Pi Aquilae which did split although somewhat untidily, but Zeta Herc was a fail, even with the 3.5mm in. The seeing was pretty poor although I was setup on the terrace near the house to that likely made things a lot worse.

So, a long report for a very ordinary session, but I’m really pleased with the Moonlite, and it was just good to be out there again. I really need to get the 16” down to the darker skies on the coast for a proper go at the Veil soon 👍.

Glad you’ve had opportunity to have a night Astro session to rejuvenate the mojo, really enjoy reading your observing sessions especially your range of instruments and choice of targets.

I guess we’re all in the same boat when it comes to solar, I haven’t seen the sun since the 40°C degree day!

[wookie1965]

Well Stu finding all that stuff without a finder is incredible I'm pretty sure I could not do that. 

That moonlight looks great on that scope. 

Brilliant read thank you for posting. 

[markse68]

Good to hear you're getting back into it Stu. I really miss my 8" f8- it's too big for my current car

I mounted the dual speed on my moonlite the other way round with the fine focus knob on the left- so I can rest my fingers on the rim of the scope tube to steady my hand and use my left thumb to roll across the knob for steadier fine focussing- works really well

Mark

[Captain Scarlet]

Quick question: were you using a filter when viewing the Veil?

M

[Stu]

7 minutes ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Quick question: were you using a filter when viewing the Veil?

M

Yes Magnus, I used my Lumicon OIII, works very well. I didn’t try without the filter but know from past experience it does make a dramatic difference in the Veil.

I forgot to mention I also had a go at the North America Nebula. Whilst there was plenty of nebulosity visible, I wasn’t seeing the Gulf of Mexico feature. Perhaps just in the wrong place. 

[Stu]

14 minutes ago, markse68 said:

Good to hear you're getting back into it Stu. I really miss my 8" f8- it's too big for my current car

I mounted the dual speed on my moonlite the other way round with the fine focus knob on the left- so I can rest my fingers on the rim of the scope tube to steady my hand and use my left thumb to roll across the knob for steadier fine focussing- works really well

Mark

Sounds interesting Mark. Are you left handed by any chance? Not sure I could work that in the same way. Is it easy to swap the fine control over, I’ve never done it.

[MalcolmM]

9 hours ago, Stu said:

Sorry about the title

Does that make you an Aerosmith fan? Great report and very glad you found your mojo again! I can't even remember when I last saw a star here at home, the weather has been woeful and I have a bunch of new bits and pieces to play with. That "may contain clouds" warning has proven to be very accurate!

Malcolm

[IB20]

14 minutes ago, Stu said:

Yes Magnus, I used my Lumicon OIII, works very well. I didn’t try without the filter but know from past experience it does make a dramatic difference in the Veil.

I forgot to mention I also had a go at the North America Nebula. Whilst there was plenty of nebulosity visible, I wasn’t seeing the Gulf of Mexico feature. Perhaps just in the wrong place. 

Were both these with the nagler or the zoom? I’ve never known what mag to try in the dob and what kind of exit pupil.

Is the Moonlite nice and easy to swap between 2 & 1.25”?

[Stu]

1 hour ago, F15Rules said:

Thanks for that, Stu..

..your post was well timed, for me at least: I'm sensing that many of us have felt a bit jaded in recent months, finding it hard to get really enthusiastic  about our hobby, and perhaps, about other hobbies and activities too?

I've certainly found the past 8-10 weeks quite trying for many reasons I won't bore you with, but certainly the long, light, frustratingly milky/murky skies, combined with seemingly endless hordes of Thunder flies, which invade every part of your kit they can squeeze into, has had me feeling quite turned off from even thinking about getting a scope out..

It occurred to me that, although I love the summer constellations, the Summer Triangle, Delphinus etc etc, I rarely actually see them in the summer months: I've had much my best views in late September to early November, when there are no wretched tiny insects, properly dark skies, and as the summer constellations slowly make way for the rising of Orion & Co, I can still get good views of the summer groups just by going outside earlier each week..easy to do as the nights get dark earlier each week by c 20-30minutes.

I actually packed my FS128 away about 8 weeks ago, indoors, in her Oklop bag, to protect her from all the bugs. My only other scope, the trusty Vixen SP102, has been available and set up, but again, conditions have rarely been good enough to encourage me to stay up until 11.30pm or later after working in the garden all day or choosing between watching a good movie with my feet up, or setting up outside in so-so skies at best. Add to this the whole current state of affairs in the country and wider world, it's not difficult to understand people's lack of motivation and mojo.

It's now 9 weeks since we had any meaningful rain here..our cars have been covered in dust brought in on the winds from the Sahara and Europe, and I really don't want to risk that landing on my optics!

Sorry for the prolonged moan, but  I'm seriously considering just taking a 3 month summer break from observing going forward..it seems that many other long-standing SGLers are doing the same anyway, seeming to disappear over recent months? 

I rediscovered fishing again recently, and really enjoyed it..so maybe a fairly short "close season" of 2-3 months wouldn't be such a bad thing, and them come back, refreshed and raring to go, c early September?🤔

A good Astro friend recently said to me, after I had a moan about "rubbish skies", "too tired to be bothered", "not dark enough" etc etc...(I'm paraphrasing his words..) - "Dave, just take a break, don't think too much about it, and come back when you're ready to: the skies above will still be there, unchanged and unchanging in our lifetimes"..

Good advice I think..👍😊

Welcome back, Stu, and thanks again.

Dave

 

Thanks for the post Dave. I’m not sure what it is for me really. In the past I’ve continued through summer quite happily, but this year I’ve not even done much solar for the last few months.

I really do enjoy the Veil in August, so am very keen to get the 16” down to the coast to make the most of it. I think my work situation is not helping with motivation at the moment; I work remotely three days a week, but have to head up to Dartford (from Somerset) on Wednesday and Thursday. I leave at 4.30am so the traffic is manageable, and it generally only takes just over 2.5 hours even taking it steadily and I’m in by about 7.10 ish. I head to my parents on Wednesday night which is normally about 1.5 hours each way. Heading home is around 3 hours but I leave a bit earlier so get back around 7pm in time to put Lorna to bed.

I do enjoy the early start on Wednesday, so peaceful and quiet at that time and often something nice to see, whether it is the Moon or Venus, mist in the fields or the sun rising over Stonehenge.

I’m generally pretty wiped out on Friday, must be getting old, so it’s hard to find a night when I’m able to stay up late when it doesn’t get dark until so late.

Hopefully I’ll find a night or two in August to enjoy the Milky Way, and then start to be able to observe more frequently when the nights draw in a bit.

Another benefit of doing the trip is seeing my elder parents regularly, I know they appreciate seeing me, and I get to have Mum’s home cooking too. I also get to play with my little car which is currently in their garage, I hope to bring it down here very soon though, once I’ve cleared space in the garage. It’s very much a good weather/summer car so will hopefully complement astronomy in future.

[markse68]

35 minutes ago, Stu said:

Sounds interesting Mark. Are you left handed by any chance? Not sure I could work that in the same way. Is it easy to swap the fine control over, I’ve never done it.

No i’m very right handed Stu which is strange but I find it really works especially well at high mag. I move the scope with my left hand so it’s in that position anyway

Iirc, on the moonlite it’s very simple to swap the axle round the other way but it’s been a while and i’m getting old..

Mark

[Stu]

22 minutes ago, MalcolmM said:

Does that make you an Aerosmith fan? Great report and very glad you found your mojo again! I can't even remember when I last saw a star here at home, the weather has been woeful and I have a bunch of new bits and pieces to play with. That "may contain clouds" warning has proven to be very accurate!

Malcolm

Not particularly a fan Malcolm and the title wasn’t related, although I’m not averse to a bit every now and then

Let’s keep fingers crossed that we get some nice clear skies this Autumn 🤞🤞

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, markse68 said:

No i’m very right handed Stu which is strange but I find it really works especially well at high mag. I move the scope with my left hand so it’s in that position anyway

Iirc, on the moonlite it’s very simple to swap the axle round the other way but it’s been a while and i’m getting old..

Mark

Thanks Mark. I do move the scope with my left hand too so perhaps it is worth a try.

[IB20]

12 minutes ago, Stu said:

 

Very nice. Definitely a good thing to have a wide variety of hobbies.

[Stu]

31 minutes ago, IB20 said:

Were both these with the nagler or the zoom? I’ve never known what mag to try in the dob and what kind of exit pupil.

Is the Moonlite nice and easy to swap between 2 & 1.25”?

Yep, both with the big Nag. The 8” is really more of a Lunar/Planetary scope and at f8/1600mm focal length needs a long focal length eyepiece to get a reasonable field of view.

Narrowband filters benefit from larger exit pupils too, and this scope still only gives 3.8mm with the Nag, larger would be better which you would get with an f6 scope for instance. It also only gives a 1.5 degree field of view, which is ok to see each section separately but no good for taking in the whole complex.

I nearly decided to use the Genesis last night which might have been better, certainly a different take on it with a 5 degree field and 6.2mm exit pupil. Gives a totally difference perspective by taking everything in in one go, but with less detail of course.

[F15Rules]

Lovely car, Stu..a kit, I imagine?

Having now been retired for 3 years ( so most of it during Covid!🥴),  I do miss the driving..and, having driven around 30 company cars since 1986, from an Astra Belmont to a Jaguar XF, I've had to actually buy a car and get used to financing it's running costs!😱.

It was great to just tell garages to "charge it to xxx lease company", now I'm paying £180 a throw per tyre!!

Dave

[Stu]

2 minutes ago, F15Rules said:

Lovely car, Stu..a kit, I imagine?

Thanks Dave, yes it’s a Westfield. Owned it from 1994 to 2008 ish and have just bought it back

[Kon]

Great report and good to read you got your mojo back. I think the lack of proper astrodarkness is not helping either. I was also happy to see the Veil a few weeks back and it also reignited my visual passion; I seem to have shifted to planetary and ISS imaging to keep sane until nebulas are back. Keep these observations going whenever possible.

[Piero]

Great report, Stu, and happy to read that the Moonlite CR2 works well!

It happens to lose a bit of motivation in this hobby. It is not like reading a book on the sofa! It's a rather tough hobby, outside, often in damp conditions, in the night, equipment to lift, etc.. as you said though, the sky has unique wonders to show. To me, this and the direct interaction with nature are driving forces, which take me out when I can and feel like.

I work mostly remotely and will hopefully continue doing so. That said, work has been literally crazy since Dec 2021, due to a tender (which was won, but forced me to work insane hours). In my free time, I bought a new house and moved into just a week ago. Finally, over the past few months I redesigned my 12" f6 whenever I had some spare time too. Despite all of this, my biggest problem is and remains insomnia, which does not allow me to recharge properly..

Anyway, I only wanted to say that it happens to be busy and exhausted, but the sky is (and will still be) there, waiting for people like us.

 

Regarding whether installing the focuser to the left or right in a Newtonian telescope, it's a personal preference.

In my 16" and 12" dobs, the focuser was installed to the left when the telescope points to the South. The reasons are:

1) I prefer to pull the telescope towards me, rather than push it away. (It is also safer with the 12" as I need a step to observe near the zenith with that telescope).

2) I'm right hand and I use that hand to move the telescope. 

3) I'm left eye and find it easier to move my head between focuser and finder, as well as turn my head to the Telrad/Rigel.

My skywatcher 8" dob has the focuser on the other side instead. It's okay, of course, but I just find it easier when it is to the left.

Edited July 31, 2022 by Piero