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Observing with Small Apertures: 130mm and Below

Discussion in 'Telescopes and Mounts' started by Ray of Light, Jul 26, 2016.

Observing with Small Apertures: 130mm and Below

Started by Ray of Light on Jul 26, 2016 at 5:34 AM

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  1. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    I agree sweat lodge and river it's very good for the health. Until the place gets filled with very very strange people.
     
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  2. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    LOL, Mak. Where I am just walking outdoors in the daytime is like a sweat lodge *WHEW*:confused:
     
  3. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    Yes, you must be selective with whom you sweat, lol!
     
  4. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    That's what I mean, I'm living in a sweat lodge! It’s 26° Celsius here, which is the coolest it’s been all day. Very clear sky though which bodes well. I'm just surprised my lawns haven't spontaneously combusted yet. :eek:
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2018
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  5. Gabby76

    Gabby76 Well-Known Member

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  6. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    @Mak the Night here is 36 Celsius right now in the shade and with something that must be close to 95% humidity. The ground is still soaked with water but the grass is starting to turn yellow at some higher spots. While looking at the fields, the water vapor is visible... which makes a very bad transparency situation...

    @gabby75 Thanks for the link, Juno pictures are incredible.
     
  7. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    Wow, that's hot. :eek:
     
  8. Orion25

    Orion25 Well-Known Member

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    *WHEW* 36 C + 95% HUMIDITY!?!
     
  9. Dave In Vermont

    Dave In Vermont Well-Known Member

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    That's what it is here too. I've got my A/C cranking.
     
  10. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    It's improving now, temperature is at 28 Celsius 83% humidity.. still extreme conditions. Storms are coming for tonight of course..

    @Mak the Night

    I tried a very very interesting tool today to create incremental backups it's called "Grsync" and it's wonderful. Basically I have an 104 gb file system inside my computer and a copy of the same thing on my 2 portable hard drives. Grsync will update the new modified files from the computer into the file system on the portable hard drives. It will match the 2 archives perfectly without transferring the whole 104gb. (And instead of burning my hard drives too)

    This is so fast to have a perfect backup now, I am very happy. (;

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/grsync/
     
  11. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    I have heard of it. Although I tend to avoid SourceForge since they turned to the dark side.
     
  12. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    Had an ST80 session from 23:00 to about 01:00 BST.

    Screenshot 2018-07-03 at 01.29.53.png

    Viewed Jupiter and Saturn (144x, 161x) but spent a lot of time in the Sagittarius region. Seeing and transparency allowed me to use the Baader UHC-S at times, mainly with a 30mm Vixen NPL (13.3x, 6mm exit pupil).

    IMG_20171202_130830.jpg

    Even 3 arc degrees and 45 minutes of TFOV wasn't enough to get all of the Pipe Bowl in the field of view lol. The Trifid seemed faint but I could see it with the UHC-S even at 44.4x with a 9mm Orion Expanse.

    Screenshot 2018-07-03 at 08.03.34.png

    The Double Cluster and a lot in Cassiopeia were nicely visible.
     
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  13. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    The pipe bowl I want to look at parts of that one.

    The Pipe Nebula (also known as Barnard 59, 65–67, and 78) is a dark nebula in the Ophiuchus constellation and a part of the Dark Horse Nebula. It is a large but readily apparent pipe shaped dust lane that obscures the Milky Way star clouds behind it. Clearly visible to the naked eye in the Southern United States under clear dark skies, but it is best viewed with 7x binoculars.

    Interesting observation Mak, I want to do astronomy too.
     
  14. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    The Pipe Nebula is low for me (approaching extinction), lower than Saturn but above Antares. I have a limited window to see Antares and the Pipe, but the Pipe is visible at low powers/wide exit pupil.
     
  15. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    ahh oki oki. I will have a look at that sector for my next observation close to scorpio, above sagittarius, incredible place.. always inside Montreal,s dome of light pollution.. damn.
     
  16. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    Scorpio's a bit low though.

    Screenshot 2018-07-05 at 12.43.50.png
     
  17. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    Hello @Mak the Night it's true Scorpio is low a bit. But I had a wonderful observation at around that elevation last night looking at the Laroon, Treffid, starclouds, M22, Wild duck. and other DSO's not far away (((; (Even the ink spot)

    Nebulae can be observed at lower elevation I find.

    ==================

    I went crazy with the high magnification last night especially with Saturn! (following our previous discussion about the 5.5mm eyepiece) I am surprised at how well Saturn can take power, my relationship with my 2x Barlow has increased notably after last night. (and I thought of selling it... stupid idea.)

    I spent a few minutes on it at 425x and the cassini division was easily visible, then I installed the 6mm to get 334x.. then I said to myself the 6mm was a much better eyepiece then then 4.7 but forgetting the barlow was in the focuser!! I thought I was using 167x and 212x but it was still usable 334x and 425x

    In therms of the best resolution my best power was 212x

    I finally tried the #11 filter along my 4.7mm eyepiece wow that filter is VERY good with Saturn (has you told me before) I was very impressed by how it will contrast the cloud details and even the belt. the yellow green saturn filter!

    ==================
    Mars was much hard, at some point there were seeing problems. I had a few minutes of great views of the sand storm, still raging but a few shades available and a clean disk. I tried the 3 Celestron filters from their kit, 80a, 25red, 56 green.. but with no good results.. and they are hard to use with the orthoscopic eyepieces.. .Overall the neodymium beat them all easily.. best view were with no filters.. only the orthoscopic or has a matter even lower.. a super comfortable 9mm Xcel LX was even better at 111x.

    ==================
    I saw Neptune too!! A nice little turquoise color and a few seconds of disk, bigger then I thought @212x again.

    Wow with a super visible Milky way,, and the Starcloud too at low power. I can't stop thinking about this.
     
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  18. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    Sounds like a great night! Sagittarius rocks lol. The #11 is de rigueur for me with Saturn for a few years now. I rarely view Saturn without it. I find 250x is generally about the limit with Saturn, with 225x being the usual high mag'. The Saturnian surface is not particularly distinct, but with the #11 on a good night detail can be seen. The rings are a different matter and you need a bit of clarity. The heat is seriously interfering with the nocturnal seeing at low declinations as irradiating back from the ground it seeks to reach equilibrium, shagging with the seeing. I spent a lot of time the other night in Sagittarius at 13x with a 30mm Vixen NPL, I doubt a Nagler would have been sharper.
     
  19. Nebula

    Nebula Well-Known Member

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    Yess sagittarius rocks! I agree.

    Incredible last night. The day before was still hot so I would say yes, the heat from the ground didn't help at least with mars.. because it went well very with Saturn. My mars observation was a few hours later too.. there was something wrong with the atmosphere.

    283x was working with Saturn but not nearly has sharp has 212x. with the #11 There were perhaps 3 different shade in the disk but i could not see anything more then then cassini division inside the belts.

    A night without moon is the right time to use 30mm eyepieces :) You saved a nice little chunk of money if the 30mm Vixen is has good has the 31mm Nagler.
     
  20. Mak the Night

    Mak the Night Well-Known Member

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    The Nagler would be too heavy anyway.
     

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