11893 replies to this topic

[Paul Sweeney]

This evening I took the C8 out at dusk for a short session. A front is coming, so the seeing was not great. Maybe a 5 or 6 at best.

Venus was first and was brilliant. Saturn was good tonight. During intervals of steady seeing, I could see the rings in front of the planet, and the dark stripe of the ring's shadow. The planet showed one band.

Jupiter was the star of the show tonight. The GRS was right in the middle and was obvious. I could also see the white area surrounding it. Numerous bands were visible, and came and went eith the seeing. Callisto was passing above Jupiter. It was very close to Jupiters pole, but didn't make contact.

The clouds arrived and I packed it in.

[highfnum]

took at quick peek at Jupiter during mars moon occultation

 

c8

 

 

[clamchip]

what scope is that?

It's a vintage ATM, Goto 4 inch f/15 lens. 

 

Robert

[cavedweller]

It's a vintage ATM, Goto 4 inch f/15 lens. 

 

Robert

On a Cave mount!

[highfnum]

I used to droll at old Goto ads

how good is objective?

Edited by highfnum, 15 January 2025 - 06:22 AM.

[clamchip]

I used to droll at old Goto ads

how good is objective?

The objective is excellent.

Like all Goto's I've looked thru when you first put your eye to the eyepiece you say hmm...and I think this

is because the lens is uncoated. But then, hold on tight because you are going to be blown away!

 

Robert

[Terra Nova]

En Re  occultation of Mars by the moon       Yes      Started out with binoculars   but soon realized I needed a grab and go 80 mm       brought out the everyday fluorite grab and go   Vixen 80mm FL  watched the whole show....in the cold New England evening I wore the flannel pajamas under the sweat pants   3 shirts  and the leather jacket and wool hat     toasty warm helped the 67 year old bones enjoy the show...

 

With 8 mm lens saw the whole moon and Mars when they were close together  then  poof   Mars was eaten by Luna

Pretty cool for a Monday in January  in my view..............

 

Hurry Springtime

 

Barry

I had a ringside seat from the picture-window in my living room supplemented with occasional, quick trips out on my balcony, (it was ~18°F). Instruments of choice, 1965 Japanese Mayflower 60mm F12 refractor, modern 8x42 roof-prism binoculars, iPhone 13.

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Edited by Terra Nova, 15 January 2025 - 11:37 AM.

[sonny.barile]

I had a ringside seat from the picture-window in my living room supplemented with occasional, quick trips out on my balcony, (it was ~18°F). Instruments of choice, 1965 Japanese Mayflower 60mm F12 refractor, modern 8x42 roof-prism binoculars, iPhone 13.

Spectacular……..Looks like you had “box seats” at the event. 

Edited by sonny.barile, 15 January 2025 - 12:25 PM.

[Dale Smith]

Glad you had a ringside seat, Terra! We were clouded over then. Love the images! Tonight of course it's clear, but I'm not complaining. Okay, clear as in the sky has a bit of a milky cast to the blue, indicating some very very thin cloud. But I'll take it.

[CarolinaBanker]

Went out for a brief session to look at Mars in my Meade 226, I used my 40mm MA as a finder then switched to my Vixen 5mm ortho, I then tried my Celestron 4mm ortho, but wound up backing off to my 6mm. A fun session.

[deSitter]

Went out for a brief session to look at Mars in my Meade 226, I used my 40mm MA as a finder then switched to my Vixen 5mm ortho, I then tried my Celestron 4mm ortho, but wound up backing off to my 6mm. A fun session.

At f/15, 7mm maxes out useful magnification (0.5mm exit pupil). The 6mm is already pushing it and the 4mm is too dim, and getting fuzzy. I remember learning this lesson with my first telescope. It had 5 eyepieces but the shortest was not useful and the next shortest was rarely useful and inferior to the next longest, 9mm. A better spread of eyepieces would have been 6mm, 9mm, 12mn, 20mm, and 30mm. I never understood why those scopes came with such a lineup. Probably marketing value of magnification.

 

-drl

[CarolinaBanker]

At f/15, 7mm maxes out useful magnification (0.5mm exit pupil). The 6mm is already pushing it and the 4mm is too dim, and getting fuzzy. I remember learning this lesson with my first telescope. It had 5 eyepieces but the shortest was not useful and the next shortest was rarely useful and inferior to the next longest, 9mm. A better spread of eyepieces would have been 6mm, 9mm, 12mn, 20mm, and 30mm. I never understood why those scopes came with such a lineup. Probably marketing value of magnification.

 

-drl

This one is a f/11.67 (60/700), agree that with a 4mm it’s too dim, but the 5mm was acceptable with no image breakdown at a .42mm EP.

[DouglasPaul]

Do classic eyepieces count? I viewed some very good sunspot activity through my .965 solar wedge with a zoom eyepiece then bumped it up a notch with a Takahashi 7mm ortho. Still early and lots of turbulence, should be much better later. Unfortunately, I left all my good classic refractors back home in Washington. I won't do that again, making do with a cheap Celestron 60mm alt/az.

[Jay_Reynolds_Freeman]

I have been going down the Herschel-400 list with a Unitron 142 (75 mm F/16 doublet), and gathered a handful early last evening, from a county-park parking lot near Frazier Park, California. This site is about 5400 feet above sea level, and it was a bit chilly -- the temperature got down to 2 C. Fortunately, I was born and raised in Vermont, so those conditions merely made me nostalgic for springtime. The light dome of greater Los Angeles made the southern sky brighter than I would have liked, but the sky was quite transparent, so I was able to work fourteen objects in Gemini, Monoceros, Canis Major and Puppis, using a magnification of 48 (modern 25 mm Plossl eyepiece). There were no other observers present. My only company was resident wildlife, including the well-known Felis concolor mutabilis, a mountain lion variant common in dark conditions, that magically transforms into a jack rabbit when illuminated by flashlight.

 

I won't provide a detailed log, but most of the open clusters showed merely as a diffuse blur. Some had the granular appearance of incipient resolution, and a few were well resolved. The one diffuse nebula on the night's list, NGC 2185 in Monoceros, showed faintly around embedded stars.

 

I started this project with the 142 on its original equatorial mounting, modified by the addition of an electric sidereal drive from Astronomy Shoppe, which is very pretty and works very well. Lately I bought a PiFinder and switched to a more modern altazimuth mounting to try it out. PiFinder takes images of the sky and uses software to figure out where it -- and, after alignment, the telescope -- is pointing, and tells you in real time how far and in what direction to slew the telescope to find what you are looking for, but it only works with an altazimuth mounting. The system was good enough to put objects well within the rather narrow field of the eyepiece: My Unitron does not have an drawtube adapter for 1.25-inch eyepieces, so the field of view is restricted to what will pass through a 24.5 mm circle, which is a bit over a degree.

 

This combination of old and new technology works well: I was able to find objects in about a minute, before the cold made my fingers too numb to feel the controls. I have 45 H-400 targets left, and there is little doubt that the 142 can do it -- I  have already logged the two H-400 objects I consider most difficult with it, those being low-surface-brightness galaxy NGC 6118 in Serpens and highly-obscured open cluster NGC 6540 in Sagittarius. What remains are all pretty much wintertime objects, so I shall likely again face the prospect of frostbite and transmogrifying mountain lions at this site. Until then I wish you clear sky, warm hands, and strictly vegetarian wildlife.

[John R.]

I had a ringside seat from the picture-window in my living room supplemented with occasional, quick trips out on my balcony, (it was ~18°F). Instruments of choice, 1965 Japanese Mayflower 60mm F12 refractor, modern 8x42 roof-prism binoculars, iPhone 13.

That is one beautiful refractor and tripod. The tripod is homemade? Whoever made it has wonderful woodworking talent. 

[Paul Sweeney]

Tonight was cleaŕ but hazy, so I took my new-to-me C8 out. The seeing was varied. Sometimes I would have 5 minutes of 7-8 seeing, and then it would deteriorate to 5 or so. The transparency was poor. The day's fog burned off at sunset, so the sky was opaque below 30°, and hazy above. The temperature was about 25° F.

First up was Jupiter. The GRS was just coming around. When the seeing steadied, the detail visible was impressive. Lots of detail, and I even got to see two white ovals. I stayed on Jupiter as the GRS crossed the meridian and drifted towards the limb. A shadow transit followed the GRS along the SEB.

Mars was nice tonight. The polar ice cap and dark markings were easy to see.

I started hunting down double stars, but had to pack it in because the corrector started fogging up despite a 12" dew shield.

[Bomber Bob]

My '86 C8 had its best night so far on Thursday:  views of Jupiter at 400x (LV-5) got the closest to my Meade 826 yet.  I had my 1975 TS-50 / 700 out as well as a "seeing checker" -- overall, a 7+ with moisture > (cold front pushing in) but very steady air.  5 sharp & easily visible belts in the TS at 140x (spectros PL-5).

 

Both my 8" scopes can deliver colorful belts with white zones.  The big difference is resolution.  For me, that's how much fine detail I can see in each belt, and along its margins.  The C8 is a compromise, but... it's so much easier to set up, and rides so well on my Mizar AR-1.  I'm retired, but after a day of working in the yard, convenience is important, too.  Glad I took a chance this Old Scope.

 

Mars was low, but I took a quick look.  I could see several dark features at 200x that fuzzed away at higher powers.  Gotta be -- what's the word? -- patient.

[CHASLX200]

Sea of clouds for 3 weeks.

[Wildetelescope]

Sitting here looking at the wintery mix descend, so I will talk about my last outing with the AP 152 f9 Starfire from a couple weeks ago.  Small preface about the mount.  I am in the process of putting together a more portable rig for outreach and travel and Santa brought me one of these new fangled harmonic gear(strain wave) mounts for Christmas.   I wanted somthing that I could use in either Alt az or GEM mode, but plan to mostly do alt az with my smaller scopes.  HOWEVER, I also wanted to be able to use my longer AP classics on occasion, because they are so darn fun and make a bit of an impression at the outreach.  So, a couple weeks ago, I hauled the big 152mm upstairs to the front yard to see how the mount handled it and to also look at the planets!  I will just say the mount worked perfectly and move on to the classic scope:-).  

 

Started with Venus at~ 190x with a 7 mm Nagler.  Venus is a rare treat for me, because it spends most of its time below my tree line.  However, right now I have about 1 hour   Or so where it is relatively high in the sky over my house.  This night it was about 2/3s phase, bright and sharp.  I was particularly interested in testing this scope with Pre-ed optics on the brightest object in the sky.  Now for context,  My eyes are almost 57 years old and I am not terribly sensitive to small amounts of lateral color. I can see it if I really look for it, but I tune it out pretty easily, even when there are glaring purple flashes:-).   Looked at Venus for ~15 minutes or so and all I saw was the the effects of atmospheric dispersion(blue on one side, red on the other).   There MIGHT have been just the slightest green/yellow hue at the edge, but if there was, the dispersion effect swamped it out.  The overall image in steady moments of seeing was crisp and very pleasing to me.  So I have now pointed this scope at all the brightest objects in the sky at high magnification and found only the tiniest amount of lateral color.  It is an exceptional optic IMO, even with out the more modern glass.  An amazing piece of craftsmanship.

 

Jupiter was in the neighbor’s tree, so Mars was next up(skipped Saturn for some reason).  Mars was still pretty low to the east so for the most part it was mush.  I was however able to make out the polar ice in short moments of stability.  I went inside to get some cocoa, and came out about 30 minutes later and Jupiter was just clearing the offensive tree, very high in the sky.  I started out at ~150x  with teh 10 mm Delos in order to find, center and focus on the planet. Seeing was probably about a 5 on the Pickering scale.  However the turbulence were fairly low frequency so there were moments of pretty good stability.   3 of the 4 moons were visible.   Once center I popped in the 7 mm Nagler(190x).  At this mag, I could clearly see both equatorial bands and also the polar cloud bands.  In moments of stability, texture was evident in the cloud bands and I could see the tiny little shadow of Europa pop in and out with seeing.  I decided to up the ante and put in my 4.5 mm Delos which gave me 300x magnification.   At this image scale, the texture in the cloud bands was easier to see as was Europe’s shadow.  That was really crisp.  I could also make out at least one barge.  The planet itself was sharp and looked like it had some depth, rather than a flat disk.  I could NOT make out Europa against the planet, the seeing would not allow that.  And of course I did not notice anything in the way of lateral color.   

 

All in All a very enjoyable night with a classic!

 

JMD

[photiost]

Solar observing today with my Tasco 9TE-5 on the Pentax J60 Alt Az mount

 

I am Amazed at the number of sunspots still visible ... counted at least 6 groups observed using a solar tunnel.

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[Terra Nova]

I observed that it was to dam cold for me to go out and observe with any telescope! Brrrr

[rcwolpert]

I observed that it was to dam cold for me to go out and observe with any telescope! Brrrr

That’s why you have the SeeStar! 

[Bomber Bob]

Well... it's been 25F / WC 15F pretty much all day at The Swamp with about 1" snow on the ground -- much worse for our Gulf Coast kin...

 

To paraphrase Aunt Pitty-Pat, "Blizzards!  In Biloxi.  How did this happen?!"  Daughter says they've had 7+ inches so far with snow still falling...

 

We've learned:  Shut Down Everything.  For our own safety!  Shoot.  After 2 LONG Winters in Grand Forks ND, I could pop out to the dumpster in running shorts & flip-flops on a day like this... but, that was 4 Decades ago.  So, no matter how clear it is Weds night, I'll be hunkered in the house.

[The_Vagabond]

It may have been a crisp 5°F with plenty of snow on the ground here in Ashtabula, but when it clears, duty calls. And by duty I mean my daily sunspot count.

After I do my sunspot sketch I try to use my old Samsung Galaxy phone to get an afocal shot through the eyepiece and then process it in Gimp.

It's a crude method, admittedly, but it works.

Oh, the telescope I normally use for my white light sunspot work is a Selsi/Towa 60/700, with a 12mm Kellner. This is in addition to my smaller Bushnell 50mm SkyRover that is used as a backup. Most of my solar work is done with vintage equipment. I also use 40mm Galileascope clone, the StarScout, for an additional sunspot project. 

Edited by The_Vagabond, 21 January 2025 - 06:15 PM.

[dave253]

Jupiter! 
 

Vixen 80, Shorty Barlow, 8-24 zoom. Excellent views in moments of still seeing.