12065 replies to this topic

[Bomber Bob]

I have a parallel / performance thread over on Cats & Casses...   https://www.cloudyni...-one-must-fall/

 

FYI:  My ETX was limited to 360x with the Flip -- even after testing the Lever.  Now, 360x isn't a critical limitation on lunar / planetary -- it's still 72x / inch.  That ain't shabby!  IIRC, my Kenko 125C topped-out on Mars/Jupiter/Saturn at about 400x with a Nagler 4.8 months ago.  Most times, the break point on my SxS Tests is Jupiter.  This time, I think the deciding factor will come down to globular resolution:  How fine is the Core, and how many (& how tiny) are the Halo Stars.

 

My Kenko comes out of its case today, and goes to the shed.  NWS says we should have clear skies TH & FR.  We'll see.

 

After the ETX / Kenko SxS, there's still another:  Winner CAT vs my Mizar 130SL F5.5 Newt.  It's one sharp small reflector -- in the Center Of Field.

 

Last summer, the Kenko & the Mizar spent a lot of time in the shed.  And during long cloudy stretches, I'd get out there & fret over their collimation -- kept them both tuned & ready.  This summer, I'll have my ultra-ultra-light TS-65P EQ rig, and the Carton 101 F5 + Kenko AZ rig out there, too.  The Real Winner is which one I use most come October...

 

Uh... I hear it's Tough To Beat A Tak...

Edited by Bomber Bob, 20 May 2025 - 08:19 AM.

[k5apl]

I set up my EQ2 mount with the Orion RA motor drive.  It tracks well.....split Castor with 45X.  Using my <90 telescope with 1.25 eyepiece and GOTO clam chip objective.

Wes

 

Sears Discoverer OTA

Astro-Tech 20mm wide field eyepiece

Celestron prism diagonal

GOTO 90mm f900mm with clamchip

EQ2 Mount with Orion RA motor and hand control

[oldmanastro]

At last a clear but low transparency night yesterday. I had the Celestron 102mm f/10 refractor out (old Clammy) in a heartbeat. It was not a long session. Clouds arrived one hour and a half later but at least I cluld get some good views of Epsilon Bootes, Xi Scorpii, M13, M92, C80 (Omega Centauri), Algieba and Porrima. Omega Centauri was an easy find. The southern skies are my darkest and the cluster was about 25 degrees above the horizon. I could resolve it with the 6mm SvBony wide field eyepiece. Xi Scorpii could be resolved at 250x with the old UO 4mm ortho. I was going after Antares green companion when the clouds plus the rain made the appearance on the horizon. The low transparency was due to the arrival of our summer companion from Africa, Saharan dust. 

[davidmcgo]

Took the 1973 C14 and fork mount to the San Diego Astronomy Association property at Tierra del Sol last night.  Had high clouds going by part of the night which were not in the forecast and much higher humidity for a lot of the night but the Astrozap heater, Reflectix wrap, and the dew shield kept the corrector nice and dry.

 

Got real nice views of M104 with a starlike nucleus above the dark lane,  NGC4565 was nice, my old Orion 32mm multi coated Erfle did really well for it.  M51 showed the spiral arms well, M13, 92, 3, 5, 10, 12, 4, and 22 were all super well resolved, a 22 Panoptic did well for these.

 

Spent a while poking into the Virgo cluster with the aid of my Herald Bobroff atlas, but the C14 is a bit of a bear for that.  Not easy to hand slew like my 15” Obsession and no DSCs on it.  Also tried for AGC2065 in Corona Borealis but wasn’t near dark enough for that from TDS.  Seen it with my 15” from up at Grandview a number of times, but no joy tonight.  

 

 M27, was very nice.  Had periods of super still seeing and on M57, I could swear the central star was popping in with my 16mm Nagler which is a pretty low power for that.

 

By morning twilight the seeing really deteriorated, Saturn did not really look good at all, but was cool to see the really narrow ring much more copper hued and dimmer than the disk, I guess they are backlit right now?

 

Anyway, a fun night with the old classic.  A lot of work to haul out but I am getting comfortable with mounting and demounting the tube from the forks.  Helps that I have a full size cargo van for hauling it but definite doable for star parties and is a crowd pleaser due to the size and scale of what it shows.

 

Dave

Edited by davidmcgo, 25 May 2025 - 12:36 PM.

[Airship]

I had a lot to learn during my first evening out with my new-to-me vintage C14 including how to assemble it and become familiar with how to use it. I started the evening zeroing-in the collimation, which proved to be relatively easy, though I took my time to get it right. While doing this I noticed significant thermal issues with the image, so I installed a Lymax Cat-Cooler (designed for a 12” SCT) and let it run for about 30 minutes. That helped quite a bit to tame the thermal mixing inside the tube. I spent the evening using a 2” 56mm Super Plossl for wide fields (70x, 5mm pupil), 2” 26mm QX for mid fields (150x, 2.4mm pupil), and a 1.25” 14mm UWA for narrow fields (279x, 1.27mm pupil). In order I observed Izar, M3, M53, T CrB, M13, M92, NGC 6229, Epsilon Lyra, M57, Ste 1, M4, and M80. All of the fields were just stunning, but the globulars were just gorgeous. I could have spent all night with any one of them. This was all from my Bortle 8 backyard, so I can’t wait to take this scope out under dark skies.

 

My C14 waiting for sunset…

 

 

...and the next morning, sneaking in a peek of Venus before the clouds rolled in...

 

 

Wonderful!

 

[Jay_Reynolds_Freeman]

Last night, 27-28 May 2025, I hauled out my Takahashi Teegul-100 (100 mm f/7.7 Dilworth-relay Cassegrain) for some more Messier hunting at a magnification of 31 (25 mm Meade SA eyepiece). I logged another fifteen objects, all summer Milky Way stuff that was beginning to be well placed at midnight or thereabouts. The telescope gave a very nice view of M8 (the Lagoon Nebula) -- much nebulosity amid many stars -- and showed both lobes of M20 (the Trifid Nebula) but did not quite show the tripartite structure of the larger lobe that gives this object its name. Open clusters M6 and M7 were magnificent, and many other open clusters were well resolved.

 

I continue to be impressed with the Teegul-100 for its quick setup, which is mostly due to the design features of Takahashi's mount, and I am getting used to the odd orientation of the field of view: Since the Dilworth relay lens provides a right-side-up and unreversed view when used straight through, it follows that the view using a star diagonal in any given position is rotated 180 degrees from what you would expect if the instrument were a conventional refractor.

 

The only other problem I have noted is that there is noticeable slop in the focus mechanism: The problem is not with the optics -- the telescope does focus crisply, with no doubt at all about when the image is sharp, but focus change is effected by moving the mirror, as in most Schmidt-Cassegrains. There is a collar through the primary's central perforation that slides along the baffle tube, and the collar has an arm attached that extends sideways for about 4 cm, just behind the mirror. A vernier screw threads through the tip of the arm, and pushes and pulls on it when you rotate the focus knob. The problem is, there is a bit of a dead spot if you change the direction you are turning that knob. The fix is procedural -- when necessary to refocus, back off the focuser till it is clearly on one side of sharp focus, then approach focus slowly, turning the knob only in one direction. That works fine, but it might be vexing for a newcomer or perhaps in very poor seeing. I see no image shift while refocusing, which indicates that the problem is with the focus mechanism itself, not with the fit of the mirror and its collar on the baffle tube.

 

 

Clear sky ...

Edited by Jay_Reynolds_Freeman, 29 May 2025 - 03:18 AM.

[deSitter]

I had a lot to learn during my first evening out with my new-to-me vintage C14 including how to assemble it and become familiar with how to use it. I started the evening zeroing-in the collimation, which proved to be relatively easy, though I took my time to get it right. While doing this I noticed significant thermal issues with the image, so I installed a Lymax Cat-Cooler (designed for a 12” SCT) and let it run for about 30 minutes. That helped quite a bit to tame the thermal mixing inside the tube. I spent the evening using a 2” 56mm Super Plossl for wide fields (70x, 5mm pupil), 2” 26mm QX for mid fields (150x, 2.4mm pupil), and a 1.25” 14mm UWA for narrow fields (279x, 1.27mm pupil). In order I observed Izar, M3, M53, T CrB, M13, M92, NGC 6229, Epsilon Lyra, M57, Ste 1, M4, and M80. All of the fields were just stunning, but the globulars were just gorgeous. I could have spent all night with any one of them. This was all from my Bortle 8 backyard, so I can’t wait to take this scope out under dark skies.

 

My C14 waiting for sunset…

 

Dusk (5-24-2025)-1.jpg

 

...and the next morning, sneaking in a peek of Venus before the clouds rolled in...

 

C14 After First-Light (5-25-2025).jpg

 

Wonderful!

 

That thing in the background needs to be an Astrochiminea

 

-drl

[deSitter]

I had a lot to learn during my first evening out with my new-to-me vintage C14 including how to assemble it and become familiar with how to use it. I started the evening zeroing-in the collimation, which proved to be relatively easy, though I took my time to get it right. While doing this I noticed significant thermal issues with the image, so I installed a Lymax Cat-Cooler (designed for a 12” SCT) and let it run for about 30 minutes. That helped quite a bit to tame the thermal mixing inside the tube. I spent the evening using a 2” 56mm Super Plossl for wide fields (70x, 5mm pupil), 2” 26mm QX for mid fields (150x, 2.4mm pupil), and a 1.25” 14mm UWA for narrow fields (279x, 1.27mm pupil). In order I observed Izar, M3, M53, T CrB, M13, M92, NGC 6229, Epsilon Lyra, M57, Ste 1, M4, and M80. All of the fields were just stunning, but the globulars were just gorgeous. I could have spent all night with any one of them. This was all from my Bortle 8 backyard, so I can’t wait to take this scope out under dark skies.

 

My C14 waiting for sunset…

 

Dusk (5-24-2025)-1.jpg

 

...and the next morning, sneaking in a peek of Venus before the clouds rolled in...

 

C14 After First-Light (5-25-2025).jpg

 

Wonderful!

 

Hey can you put the scope on say 75 degrees N near the meridian? How do you fit your head in there?

 

NGC 4319 is an ideal test target.

 

-drl

[Airship]

Sure! Just rotate the diagonal to a comfortable viewing angle. There's plenty of room.

[Jay_Reynolds_Freeman]

Last night, May 29-30 2025, I spent a while observing with my Takahashi Teegul-60 (60 mm f/8.3 ed doublet), mostly chasing Messier objects at a magnification of 42 (12 mm Brandon).

 

To avoid confusion, I mention that I indeed have two Teeguls, a -60 and a -100 -- I reported on the latter a few postings up.

 

The Teegul mount enables a quick setup, and I have a single tube ring that fits the optical tube assembly, with a Vixen-style finder shoe attached, to which I in turn fasten a PiFinder. This arrangement allows very fast observing -- in less than an hour, ending at about 11:30 PM local, I logged 32 Messier objects, generally from Scorpius through northern Sagittarius, on up the Milky Way all the way through Cygnus, and then on to M52. With a mere 60 mm of aperture, only a few objects could be said to have provided spectacular views: Those included galactic clusters M6 and M7, and emission nebula M8 with embedded stars. Globular clusters M4 and M22 showed a granular texture that hinted of resolution. Many other galactic clusters were well resolved.

 

The seeing was good enough that I was able to perform a useful star test on the telescope itself: With Polaris in view at a magnification of 100 (Pentax 5 mm orthoscopic), the seeing was about Pickering 6 or 7 -- by no means perfect, but useful. With the star in sharp focus, I could see the first diffraction ring pretty consistently but saw no sign of the second. The image a little way inside focus looked the same as it did outside focus. All good, as you would expect from Takahashi. Furthermore, Polaris was resolved -- the 18-second-out companion showed faintly but distinctly --  which I suspect has more to do with the Pentax 5 mm having excellent coatings and few air/glass interfaces: It showed noticeably less glare close to the primary than did several other eyepieces I also tested.

 

 

Clear sky ...

Edited by Jay_Reynolds_Freeman, 30 May 2025 - 05:44 PM.

[Garyth64]

I had my 5" refractor set up on an old Meade mount that I cleaned up and got working again.

 

 

When I started working on this mount, I didn't know it had bearings.  The original CD was fried and I was able to replace it.  It tracked very well considering I couldn't polar align it.

 

So as the sun was setting, the Moon was above the trees in the west.  My backyard is filled with trees.

 

 

The atmosphere was very steady.  There was a bank of smoke from Canada looming on the horizon.  The Moon was looking very good, nice and crisp.  I took this photo with my phone, the actual was much better:

 

 

I also got a quick look at Mars, but at that time, it was in the upper part of the trees.

[jragsdale]

Got some great views of the moon last night. I was out testing the new homemade rotating rings and built in mirror fan system on a Parks 6" f/6. Cranked it up to 300x and it was no problem. Rings worked perfectly, it's a huge difference to be able to have the scope in the most comfortable position when viewing! And the fan cooled down the mirror in no time. Captured this with an ASI676MC, no filter, no barlow. 

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[highfnum]

daytime moon with Tasco 8v

 

[Kasmos]

Got some great views of the moon last night. I was out testing the new homemade rotating rings and built in mirror fan system on a Parks 6" f/6. Cranked it up to 300x and it was no problem. Rings worked perfectly, it's a huge difference to be able to have the scope in the most comfortable position when viewing! And the fan cooled down the mirror in no time. Captured this with an ASI676MC, no filter, no barlow. 

Nice!  Newts on GEMs: I've never understood how you could enjoy a night of observing without them.

[Bomber Bob]

Love the Reflector-made Moon Shots.  I need to do some of that this Fall...

[Garyth64]

daytime moon with Tasco 8v

 

Capture 2025-06-01T19_42_34t8vdlgE.jpg

That's really a nice shot.

[highfnum]

sun with probably my worst scope  Meade 114

 

[Cavs56]

I went out last night just after sunset with my 106mm f-15.5 Jaegers. Spent about an hour mostly on the moon. I love looking at the moon. Went a little over 300x views were perfect. Tried out a few new eyepieces. Looked at Jupiter and Mars. They are sad compared to February in Florida. Then the wife and I and two of our granddaughters went to look for the northern lights. No luck. I gave the granddaughters binoculars. Two really nice vintage Japanese, one was AOC. I can’t believe how cheap they are at estate sales. I paid $4.50 each.

[deSitter]

Got some great views of the moon last night. I was out testing the new homemade rotating rings and built in mirror fan system on a Parks 6" f/6. Cranked it up to 300x and it was no problem. Rings worked perfectly, it's a huge difference to be able to have the scope in the most comfortable position when viewing! And the fan cooled down the mirror in no time. Captured this with an ASI676MC, no filter, no barlow. 

 

Very fine scope!

 

-drl

[deSitter]

I went out last night just after sunset with my 106mm f-15.5 Jaegers. Spent about an hour mostly on the moon. I love looking at the moon. Went a little over 300x views were perfect. Tried out a few new eyepieces. Looked at Jupiter and Mars. They are sad compared to February in Florida. Then the wife and I and two of our granddaughters went to look for the northern lights. No luck. I gave the granddaughters binoculars. Two really nice vintage Japanese, one was AOC. I can’t believe how cheap they are at estate sales. I paid $4.50 each.

 

I have a friend who is retired by disability but helps out with organizing estate sales most weekends. Never ANY binoculars, telescopes, microscopes, or cameras He has a list of things to notify me about

 

-drl

[Garyth64]

On Monday, June 2nd, our club, FAAC, had a “Sun” day at Lincoln Park Middle School, where we have access to their HJRO Observatory.  We try to do this event every year for the school.

 

We had 5 scopes set up for viewing with white light and HA filters.  I did solar projection for a simple view.  The C14 in the observatory was on Venus.  “It looks like the Moon!”

Of the scopes we had a 4” and 80mm Lunts, two 4” APOs, and a 60mm Shrine Manon.  My Manon was on an old CG-5 mount, that has become one of my work horses for outreach events.

 

Every hour a new class would be brought out by their teachers for viewing.  We were there the entire school day, from 7am to 3pm.

 

What became interesting was that in the afternoon, just before the next class came out, I checked the WL scope next to me to make sure it was lined up on the Sun.  It was, but as I looked at the Sun and the many sunspots, I saw a lot of “stuff” floating around in the FOV.  My first thought was that the Sun might be burning something in the scope, but that just didn’t seem right.

We all thought it odd, but quickly realized that it was the ash from the fires in Canada.  We were seeing the ash particles up in the sky.  We knew it hazy that day, and the smoke from the fires interfered with out public viewing event on the previous Saturday.

 

It was another good event and I’d guess that we had about 350 students, none of which had seen the inside of the observatory there on their school campus.

 

-picture from 2023

Edited by Garyth64, 05 June 2025 - 11:38 AM.

[Uranotopia]

Yesterday in the evening I put my C90 (from the mid 90s) outside to observe the moon, although earth's satellite is placed low above the horizon.

 

The weather here in Kostanay/ Kazakhstan was fine, but lots of mosquitos had awaken at sunset and now were disturbing a little.

 

This older C90 came with the original 0.96 inch eyepieces and the Amici prism, but IMO all together aren't working such properly, as one could see a blueish "fog" around the bright eastern edge of the moon (in the photo below removed using "photoshop express" to convert the image to black and white).

Just observed only half an hour, as I had acquired some insects' bites, but nevertheless enough time, to enjoy a little visual tour over the nearly-90%-moon.

 

But I had enough time to take a little fast-track image with my Huawei P30lite smartphone through the eyepiece (a simple 20mm Huygens).

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[Jay_Reynolds_Freeman]

On the evening of 7 June 2025 I hauled out an old black-tube circle-V-for-Vixen Celestron 80 mm f/11.4 doublet refractor for a public star party at Griffith Observatory. Transparency was low due to haze and encroaching marine layer, and that plus the city lights of Los Angeles meant that the only celestial object I could see with the naked eye after sunset was the Moon. I gave about 200 people a look at it at 42x, and pretty much everybody seemed to be pleased.

 

There were lots more people there, and also lots more telescopes.

 

 

Clear sky ...

[davidmcgo]

I have been under the marine layer here almost 2 weeks.  Yesterday evening it got mostly clear right around Sunset but more clouds coming in from the ocean.  I did manage a few minutes on the Moon with my vintage C90 Astro with the fork in alt az mode on my patio table and was catching the Moon rising over my house roof.  A bit turbulent but still enjoyed a little bit of viewing.  Eyepieces were the original 0.965” 30mm and 18mm Kellners and a 12mm Ortho.  The air wasn’t steady enough for more and it was still early twilight.  Clouds completely covered the sky before Arcturus was visible so a very short session.

 

Dave

[Uranotopia]

Yesterday evening I again put out my 30+ years old C90 to observe the deep standing moon here from Kostanay/ Kazakhstan, although we had drunk some beer before. But it wasn't cold in the night, most of the vampir- like moscitos had gone to sleep, and so best conditions to sit outside and watch the sky.
 

In spite of the rather low position of the moon the seeing was astonishing good! So I decided to take some images, using a 35mm adaptor and a helical microfocuser to connnect my ALCCD 5-IIc to the tube. I found it really astonishing, what such a little old telescope is able to show!

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Edited by Uranotopia, 09 June 2025 - 04:14 AM.