Mars and Jupiter 25/11/2022

[Siegfried1969]

Finally, after so much rain, clouds and unstable weather a clear night. I took the opportunity to make some more sketches of Jupiter and Mars. I am following Mars regularly since it is approaching opposition but for Jupiter, its already a while ago I have seen it. 

Despite having the jetstream over us, the air was remarkably stable. I could catch some surprising details on Jupiter despite my modest 11 cm reflector. 

Mars showed also more contrast than the last attempts which means the transparency of the sky was better. I had lots of turbulence for around 15 min where I have to take a break but after that, the sky returned being stable. The Mars disk is now fully visible

[dweller25]

Excellent drawings, I was out at the same time and saw exactly the same as you have drawn 👍

[JeremyS]

Super 👍🏻

[Froeng]

Very nice! It’s the observer - not the the telescope - that makes the difference!

[Siegfried1969]

21 hours ago, dweller25 said:

Excellent drawings, I was out at the same time and saw exactly the same as you have drawn 👍

Thank you ! That is very encouraging. Especially for Mars, I am not so sure what I am seeing corresponds with what is really there. Would need a bit more aperture for mars so I can boost the magnification up to like 250x

[Siegfried1969]

On 27/11/2022 at 08:47, Froeng said:

Very nice! It’s the observer - not the the telescope - that makes the difference!

Thank you !

I have to admit that this old TAL-1 4 inch reflector is of excellent quality. I had a 8 inch GSO dob for a while but gave him away. Could see much more of course with it but the contrast and sharpness I got in the TAL-1 was just not there. Couple this telescope with the Vixen SLV eyepieces or the Fujiyama Ortho's I am using and the two Baader filters and that gives a system that approaches APO like qualities. 

Sometimes I am thinking of replace this telescope by a bigger more modern one. But replace by what ?? Especially with the high prices these days. 

I therefore thinking of give my TAL a good update and servicing after the mars opposition. The secondary mirror is showing some oxidation, so I plan to send my mirrors to OOUK for recoating and what I also plan is to replace the finder with a RA 6x30 and put a rigel finder in between. That should solve many problems and be able to find objects again. 

 

[markse68]

I don’t know how much Orion charge for recoating but Tal-1s seem to regularly turn up on ebay for ~£50 which is a super bargain and may be more cost effective?

What filters are you using? you are managing to get some great detail from your small spherical mirrored scope! (wasn’t there someone on here recently declaring spherical mirrors junk?  )

Mark

(sorry- should have read better- baader contrast and neo 👍)

Edited November 28, 2022 by markse68