6317 replies to this topic

[MT4]

It was partly cloudy last night so I could only watch Jupiter, Saturn and the half moon.   I used my Zeiss 20x60 S (mounted on a p-gram), SkyRover 120mm @73x and Kowa 884 @25-60x.

 

All three instruments were fantastic on all three objects.   (I did try using the Zeiss for some DS work but quickly gave up due to the clouds.   Nevertheless it did give some pinpoint sharp stars in the central 80% of the view.)

 

I recently started using Morpheus 9mm eyepieces with my SkyRover 120mm for 73x and found these to be my new favorite eyepieces.   The mag is right for the moon and deep-sky work.  The 78-degree AFOV wonderfully wide.  The 20mm ER icing on the cake.   

 

Jupiter and Saturn look beautiful at 73x though of course would benefit from higher mags.   That'd be where my Tak FC-100DZ comes in.   (I have a great binoviewer but I don't use it much preferring all the light going to just one observing eye for maximum brightness and resolution.)

[f18dad]

The Morphi are wonderful eyepieces! The designer should be awarded the Nobel Prize in optics!

[desert_sage]

Last night’s Moon was mostly obscured by clouds, nothing but the major mares could be seen in the Canon 12x36 IS.

 

This morning, in a break in the clouds, the 8x32 Sunoculars showed many spots on the Sun, ten or more. I was tempted to go get the scope & white light gear, but prepping for dinner guests takes priority.

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

 

p.s. I wish the Sunoculars had a tripod socket, they are too light to hold steady!

Edited by desert_sage, 23 November 2023 - 12:10 PM.

[jrazz]

Man, I know I’ve been quiet lately but honestly I’ve just been happy observing with just the MMC.
Last night was coooold but clear. I stepped outside, sat on my recliner under my blanket and looked at Orion as it was rising majestically over my house.

I know here in the US we’re heading into the “buy stuff” season but just for today I’m thankful for quiet, clear nights with my dog and my blanket just looking up.

Hope y’all find that perfect enjoyment either from getting that shiny new binocular or by just using what you have.

[Dale Smith]

Well said! Binocular astronomy is so relaxing and blissful. Simply wandering the star fields of Cygnus, Orion and Auriga brings me so much joy.

[aznuge]

Quick first light last night with Oberwerk BT-100XL-SD.  During this 15 to 20 minute session from my back deck, my house set a screen to observe, in the shadow of the moon, the eastern sky from Orion up toward Pleiades near Zenith, and to the NE for Auriga. I used the OB 14mm eyepieces for a 40x power.  I was impressed right from the first target - M42 and Trapezium.  Pinpoint stars, near perfect resolution and crispness, with the cloud of M42 showing high brightness, but not showing much color.  STF747 and Mintaka/companion are always stops in this neighborhood for mentally comparing the view with previous views.  Magnificent in this BT!  Then toured M38, 36 and 37 which aren't necessarily easy to see in my Bortle 7 skies, but tonight they stood out with detail.  The very satisfying observing finale of this first light was with spectacular Pleiades.  Its major stars shone with high contrast like bright jewels on black velvet.  And the tiny, pinpoint string of Allie's Braid was a distinct and glorious whisper among its bolder sisters. 

 

This has to be one of the more memorable experiences I have had introducing a new BT to the night sky.

Edited by aznuge, 23 November 2023 - 03:48 PM.

[Dave Mitsky]

I tracked a bright pass of the Tiangong with my Canon 15x50 IS early Thursday night.  I posted a report on the pass at https://www.cloudyni...ass/?p=13087715

 

Later on, I looked at the waxing gibbous Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, 119 Tauri, the Coathanger asterism (Collinder 399), the Davis's Dog asterism, the Heart of the Swan asterism, the Kids asterism, the Sword of Orion asterism, Collinder 65, Collinder 69, Collinder 70, Melotte 20, Melotte 25, M42, M45, NGC 1980, and NGC 1981 using my Canon 15x50 IS.  Unfortunately, clouds had begun to cover the sky so I wasn't able to see some of the objects that I can usually log from my red zone home.

[desert_sage]

The holidays have been rough on my time & energy levels, little deliberate viewing.

 

Yesterday, however, I met up with some family at the local airport for lunch, and while waiting pulled out the ancient little 7x35 Focals (Kmart) I keep in the truck (black truck in desert == inexpensive all metal bino’s).

 

There wasn’t much to see, very quiet and the cafe’ closed early, but returning home much later after dinner at the relatives I did take a short look at the Moon and Jupiter with them.

 

Surprisingly good views despite no modern anti-reflective coatings.

 

I might try again tonight, and do a quick Kowa 6.5X and Fujinon 7X compare.

 

 

Evening “shootout” report:

 

Basically the nearly Moon and Jupiter, handheld, were the targets.  No visible stars.

 

No surprises. The Fujinon FMT-SX 7x50’s were best, followed by the Kowa 6.5x32, followed by the Focal 7x50. Basically the criteria was the few visible terminator features stood out a bit better on Luna, and Jupiters moons were more visible.  

 

But really, it wasn’t a dramatic difference, particularly between the Kowa and Focal.  The weight of the fujinons also helped keep them steady.

 

I was going to do a even steadier compare with propping each against a fence, but was shaking so bad I had to go inside, 45F 41F and a 10mph breeze from the north in the open field was unpleasant.

 

Perhaps another night with stars present and an effective wind break.

 

Not a great night, but nice enough. A fire in the stove later, I think.

Edited by desert_sage, 25 November 2023 - 09:45 PM.

[Rustler46]

Tonight was perhaps a day before full moon. So the sky is quite bright. But I've been enjoying a series of clear, but chilly nights. Having a touch of frost in the morning is what is considered cold for this coastal Oregonian. So I wouldn't wimper too much out of respect to those who endure temperatures in the 20's and colder. But surprisingly the air has been quite dry. Likely this is from the offshore breezes bringing dry continental air to my locale. Usually being so close to the coast, I have a moist airmass from the Pacific Ocean. So having no dew was a real plus. The only problem was at times the moisture from my eyes would begin to fog the eyepieces. An electric hair dry warmed them enough to prevent that. 

 

So despite the Moon, I couldn't stand it any longer. Out came the AT115EDT APO refractor for some observing. I started mono-viewing to have a look at Uranus, quite close to Moon. Then I switched to my William Optics Binoviewer with a pair of 26mm Celestron Silvertop Plossls. Even with the William Optics 1.6X focal extender it wouldn't come to focus. So out came my trusty Televue 2-1/2X Powermate. That did the trick at f/17.5 and 2013 mm focal length. With those eyepieces this gave 77X and 0.65° actual FOV. I have come to realize that the supplied William Optics 20mm eyepieces with 66° apparent FOV would work better. Those would provide essentially the same 0.66° actual FOV with magnification being upped to 101X. The Celestron eyepieces give a lower power but essentially the same FOV. Live and learn.

 

Long story short - I'm going back to the William Optics 20mm eyepieces. I'm hoping their optical sharpness will be at least what those old Celestron Plossls provide.

 

So here's what I observed tonight mostly with my binoviewer @ 77X:

• Uranus
  @ 183X (mono) - Focuses down to a little disc, no color can be discerned, at this power no stars are visible in the bright sky, @77X with WO Binoviewer one star is visible in the FOV, the planet is different in not being a star point but having a small extent
• Moon
  Some features along the limb near Mare Humorum & Gassendi are visible, @77X with WO Binoviewer, at first I was confused by the mirror image, but with the Sky And Telescope Moon Map (mirrored) I could correctly ID features, dark floored flat bottomed (slightly convex) Grimaldi is apparent along with Hevelius, Darwin & Byrgius are nearby further south, the double crater Sirsalis is nearby, then Schickard, Wargentin (lava-filled crater) and Phocylides are identified, Inghirami nearer the terminator is half filled with shadow, further south is a very large crater – Bailly, its far wall is illuminated with interior crater well seen, half of its floor is dark, there are some tiny little peaks or rocks inside – little speckles, further away from the terminator toward Tycho is the trio of Zucchius, Bettinus & Kircher these three right at the end of one of Tycho’s rays, further up the terminaor from Bailly you can see at least part of Le Gentil, but this is quite the spectacular view with the Binoviewer
• Jupiter
  With WO Binoviewer, has a real 3D effect, 2 belts are seen, 2 moons on each side
• M37
  ​Open cluster in Auriga, with WO Binoviewer, bright Moon causes grey sky masking fainter stars, there are two brighter members with perhaps 15 in all, they keep coming and going with the seeing
• M42, Orion Nebula
  Bright nebula – immediately identified as a gas nebula looking sort of like PacMan, low elevation of 14° makes for poor seeing, 4 stars of Trapezium are seen with the 4th star coming & going, there is a definite color difference among the 4, the brightest is sparkling all different colors, averted vision shows nebula with the quadruple star at the hinge of the jaws, along the lower “jaw” is a line of 3 stars (brightest one closest to hinge of jaw), there’s another star visible on the upper jaw, an interesting sight despite the bright moonlight
• M31, Andromeda Galaxy
  ​Galaxy – this is just a really bright oblong glow, the inner core is brighter, averted vision shows the long extent of the much dimmer outer halo, this quickly fades into the sky background, I don’t offhand see the companion galaxies, I’m just soaking in this light that has taken 2-1/2 million years to get to me

In summary I was impressed with Uranus' non-stellar appearance, particularly mono viewing at 183X. It is amazing that William Herschel recognized its image as non-stellar, thinking it was a small comet since it moved. This was after there were at least 13 prior observations of Uranus by other observers. These had placed it as a "star" in an atlas or other sketch. It took the master observer to discern it was something different - the first planet discovered in historic times.

 

Clear Skies,

Russ

Edited by Rustler46, 26 November 2023 - 10:56 PM.

[Takuan]

Tonight was perhaps a day before full moon. So the sky is quite bright. But I've been enjoying a series of clear, but chilly nights. Having a touch of frost in the morning is what is considered cold for this coastal Oregonian. So I wouldn't wimper too much out of respect to those who endure temperatures in the 20's and colder. But surprisingly the air has been quite dry. Likely this is from the offshore breezes bringing dry continental air to my locale. Usually being so close to the coast, I have a moist airmass from the Pacific Ocean. So having no dew was a real plus. The only problem was at times the moisture from my eyes would begin to fog the eyepieces. An electric hair dry warmed them enough to prevent that.

So despite the Moon, I couldn't stand it any longer. Out came the AT115EDT APO refractor for some observing. I started mono-viewing to have a look at Uranus, quite close to Moon. Then I switched to my William Optics Binoviewer with a pair of 26mm Celestron Silvertop Plossls. Even with the William Optics 1.6X focal extender it wouldn't come to focus. So out came my trusty Televue 2-1/2X Powermate. That did the trick at f/17.5 and 2013 mm focal length. With those eyepieces this gave 77X and 0.65° actual FOV. I have come to realize that the supplied William Optics 20mm eyepieces with 66° apparent FOV would work better. Those would provide essentially the same 0.66° actual FOV with magnification being upped to 101X. The Celestron eyepieces give a lower power but essentially the same FOV. Live and learn.

Long story short - I'm going back to the William Optics 20mm eyepieces. I'm hoping their optical sharpness will be at least what those old Celestron Plossls provide.

So what did I observe tonight with my binoviewer (all @ 77X):

• Uranus
• Moon
• Jupiter
• M37
• M42 Orion Nebula
• M31 Andromeda Galaxy

When I get my observations transferred from voice recorder to Excel spreadsheet, I'll post them here as an edit. In summary I was impressed with Uranus' non-stellar appearance, particularly mono viewing at 184X. It is amazing that William Herschel recognized its image as non-stellar, thinking it was a small comet since it moved. This was after there were at least 13 prior observations of Uranus by other observers. These had placed it as a "star" in an atlas or other sketch. It took the master observer to discern it was something different - the first planet discovered in historic times.

Clear Skies,
Russ

https://www.cloudyni...view=getnewpost

Just saying... 🙄🙂

[Sebastian_Sajaroff]

I took my 7x50 outside and relaxed for 5 minutes to observe the Full Moon and Jupiter.

That's what I love about them : no tripod, no mount, no alignment, no collimation, I just grab them and go outside.

[desert_sage]

The only problem was at times the moisture from my eyes would begin to fog the eyepieces. An electric hair dry warmed them enough to prevent that.

 

 

Oh dear god.

 

This California boy bows his head with respect to all the observer’s out there who endure these sort of things.

 

 

Edited by desert_sage, 26 November 2023 - 01:30 PM.

[Dale Smith]

I took my 7x50 outside and relaxed for 5 minutes to observe the Full Moon and Jupiter.

That's what I love about them : no tripod, no mount, no alignment, no collimation, I just grab them and go outside.

Same here. I did that last night as well, along with the Pleiades, Hyades, and Perseus. So relaxing.

[jrazz]

After a good number of days of this...

 

 

They sky finally cleared up.

 

And it got COLD!  Like single digits (F) cold. My station read 8°F (-13°C).

The full moon + intense sky glow from the snow reflecting light meant the sky was lit up like day. 18 something something mpsas. Needless to say no serious observing was attempted but it was interesting to see how the MMC did in these conditions.

 

I would say prtty well!

 

Nice view of the Pleiades. Jupiter showed it's moons and the Moon was searingly bright. It was all I could do to find Andromeda and even then, all I could see was an extremely faint smudge. 

 

All-in-all I spend 15 minutes outside and that was enough. I'm going to go into hibernation until spring and galaxy season.

[Fiske]

. . .

 

And it got COLD!  Like single digits (F) cold. My station read 8°F (-13°C).

The full moon + intense sky glow from the snow reflecting light meant the sky was lit up like day. 18 something something mpsas. Needless to say no serious observing was attempted but it was interesting to see how the MMC did in these conditions.

 

. . .

Because who could do serious observing in 18 mpsas skies?

 

[Dale Smith]

Because who could do serious observing in 18 mpsas skies?

 

  Here, I’ll take what I can get   But seriously, moonlight-washed sky definitely throws a curve ball into the observing.

[jrazz]

No serious observing was done because of the COLD!

 

Who can observe in 8°F?!?!

 

It was lovely outside and very bright and clear.

 

 

 

And yes, too bright for serious observing  

Edited by jrazz, 26 November 2023 - 11:29 AM.

[Bill Barlow]

Jordan, I think you will be out observing again before the spring galaxy season once the snow melts a bit and temperatures warm up.  We got 1.8” of snow here yesterday into early this morning, but it should melt fairly fast as temperatures get into the middle and upper 30’ today and Monday.  Might get out my 10x50 binoculars and slip on the solar filters to check out several large sunspot groups on the sun now.

 

Bill

[Scott99]

No serious observing was done because of the COLD!

 

IMO it's all about the wind in wintertime - if there's no wind, I can take it pretty cold.  Sitting still with the wind blowing on you below 20 degrees is tough!

[PatientObserver]

No serious observing was done because of the COLD!

Who can observe in 8°F?!?!

It was lovely outside and very bright and clear.



And yes, too bright for serious observing

As long as my lens do not fog up due to the cold, I will not let single digit temperatures keep me away. Owning ice climbing gear helps. It is all about layers and a big down parka.

[norvegicus]

I've observed down to slightly below zero° F.  I can dress for it no problem, it's the equipment that suffers more at that point.  I've decided I won't observe below 20° F going forward except with handheld binoculars.  Maybe use the Porta II mount if there is something special to see.  Definitely nothing with motors or power.

[revans]

Well, it wasn't night but early afternoon yesterday.  The mylar solar filters for my Oberwerk 15x70 Deluxe binoculars came in (ordered a week before the October eclipse but only arrived yesterday morning).  So I put them on the binoculars and went out to see what sunspot activity there was.

 

Actually there was quite a lot and I could see numerous groupings of sunspots very easily.  The solar surface looked very three dimensional and orb-like and the sunspots were very distinct.  Not a lot of detail seen in them at only 15x, but the full disk view was interesting.  I couldn't see any granularity to the surface. 

 

Rick

[jrazz]

Oh...

 

My....

 

Dog!!!

 

 

 

Moon is fabulous though!

Lots of Moon to see!

[Rustler46]

No serious observing was done because of the COLD!

 

Who can observe in 8°F?!?!

 

It was lovely outside and very bright and clear.

 

 

 

And yes, too bright for serious observing  

Nothing is too bright for observing - at least for Sun, Moon and double stars. Now 8°F - THAT might give me pause in being outside with anything other than handheld binos for a quick Look. This pampered coastal observer starts being uncomfortable when it gets close to 32°. So my hat's off to those who endure much worse temperatures and light pollution.       

 

Clear Skies,

Russ

[norvegicus]

Saw the nice bright moon and Venus between clouds before dawn this morning with my 1x7, 170° FOV eyes. Ten minutes later a whiteout blizzard with zero visibility hit. Was a not fun 70 mile drive to work at a rural hospital for the day.

Edited by norvegicus, 27 November 2023 - 06:28 PM.