tharohwai amateur astronomy

i went to jupiter, with the 25, the 12, and the 8. the 8 was a little fuzzy, but maybe its because of the seeing.

then i went to castor. in the 25 nothing seemed unusual. then in the 12, i sort of saw the binary in castor. first it was like an elongation, then it felt more like the resolved or notched terminology people use in splitting. and then i just re focused to a much nicer focus, and then i could much more easily see two stars. it was still maybe notched, maybe in between resolved and split. it was like two points embedded in a soup of diffraction light. i switched to the 8, and focused, and then i reached a point where i felt i could say they were definitely split. through the 8, in good focus, i could see the airy diffraction ripples on the spikes of both points. also all this time, i was seeing three other further fainter stars in the neighborhood. maybe the closest of these was the third, because there are three stars of the castor system that are visible in a telescope, a, b, and c. this third star i was seeing felt still a little far from the other two, at least over ten times further. but upon checking turn left at orion, it was definitely the right star. together the triple formed a long and mildly obtuse triangle.

next i tried to observe the rosette nebula. 25, then 12. i found ngc 2244, but i didnt see any nebulosity. i mean of course i wouldnt, i didnt dark adapt at all, and the sky is glowing from light pollution and the full moon was about to come out. but i did enjoy a lot the star fields around the area. in the main cluster, i could tell one or two stars were more orange as well. less orange stars than m35, but maybe more than the beehive.

something ive been noticing recently is the secondary shadow dimming the view in the center. i know that this happens from reading the forums, but i thought it wouldnt be easily discernable. but now in recent nights ive been noticing it more. its like a real shadow in the center 20 percent of the afov, feels like ive been blinded a bit in the center of my vision but the darkness doesnt recover. maybe im only now perceiving it because for some reason sky glow is higher this time of year? also, ive only really noticed it in the 12, not in the other eyepieces. maybe its there in the 25 as well, but the exit pupil in that eyepiece is so weird, other aberrations might be distracting me from it.

for some reason i never thought to use the polarising filter on jupiter until today. so i observed jupiter with the 12 with 1.5x and with the filter. and while it felt a little scattery, i could see way more easily the stripes, and even could see the grs more often than usual. still a dot, but it came way more quickly than usual without a filter. and that is with less than ideal seeing as well.

turns out the reduction in glare also helps with phone pictures. ive always struggled to get a picture of jupiter through my phone that isnt just a bright featureless orb, but finally the filter gave me for the first time a somewhat recognisable photo of jupiter, just barely banded.

next i went to the beehive cluster. i observed through the 25, then the 12. i took a picture with the 25. especially through the 12, i could see a lot more blue or white stars than m35, like a mini pleiades.

i got a new red dot sight, so no more surviving with two and a half degrees. though the 25 is still a fun eyepiece to roam around with.

i went to jupiter straight away with the 12, then barlowed down 1.5, then switched in the 9 with 1.5x as well. i felt for some reason the 12 was a little fuzzier than usual, but maybe it was just my eyes at the moment. no grs today, but just thought to observe jupiter for a bit. and then i turned over to mars, just to pay a visit.

with the finder, i could finally aim between bright stars to find fainter objects, rather than roam with the 25 and compare with stellarium for ten minutes. i found m35 relatively easily by aiming first at alhena, then hopping over to the feet of the right twin of gemini. through the 25 and then the 12, i felt that many if not most of the stars in the cluster were yellow or orange, but after checking online it seems only a few are. still more than the pleiades i think. before closing out, i did take an impromptu picture, but it is way too poorly taken for me to want to save it in this log. maybe another night.

no notes. while there was still some daylight, i collimated the scope. i re twisted the secondary into a better orientation. if the scope is aimed at the sky with an eyepiece, and im some inches away from the eyepiece, the image of the sky unfocuses away, and the spider refocuses into view. so i think i can check that the secondary is collimated if when i focus in and out, this spider image through the eyepiece doesnt skew and elongate. so in addition to physically looking through the focuser to get the three holdings of the primary in view, i checked the spiders image through the 15, and i repeatedly loosened, rotated slightly, and re tightened the main screw to the secondary, to get the secondarys roll correct. the spider image still changes a bit through the draw tube range, but its noticeably better now, it doesnt skew or stretch as aggressively. after the secondary, i slewed to jupiter with the 15 as a finder, then switched to the 9, and star test collimated the primary on jupiter. i dont know how necessary it is to collimate on a point source, but the collimation seemed good enough because the views were much better.

now on jupiter, i tried the planetary again, contrast was still meh. i switched to the 12 with the 1.5x, and could at some instances see the faint blob of the grs. also i dont remember if i did this in other recorded logs, but this night i used tongs and rubber bands to add moment to the focuser for finer focus. it does help significantly, but the contact has to be strong. anyways this view felt the most clear of recent nights, i could repeatedly re catch the grs when i got up from the eyepiece. in my laziness i didnt make a sketch. jupiter is only getting lower in the sky now, i really need to take some pictures and sketches soon.

before concluding, i quickly tried to look for the crab nebula with the 25. i felt i located where it should be based on the pattern of the nearby faint stars, but i couldnt see it. i switched down to the 12 and still couldnt see anything. the moon of course was out, i should try again in a week, but i wonder if sky pollution will prevent me from ever seeing any nebulae other than orion.

again no notes. i found the orion nebula with the 25. switched to the 12. i am unaware of the variability cycles of the trapezium, i just remember that one was brighter, two in a diagonal were less bright, and the last one was fainter. i went to iota, then switched down to the 7 xcel. in the 12 i again saw only two stars, in the 7, the second star became even fainter. i was again unable to see a third.

no notes again today. used the 25 to find jupiter. i enjoyed some star fields along the way. i also finding and confusing aldebaran for jupiter. i compared the 7 xcel, 7 planetary, and 12 with 1.5x on jupiter. i dont remember if i saw the grs. but i hadnt used the 7 xcel in a while on jupiter, and i was surprised how okay it was. i thought i remembered it as a very mushy and blurry image. it was still not as clear as the others, it felt like i was looking through a very small and fine window mesh, but the edge of the disc was still crisp, and i could see bands. i also found that the 12 without any barlow was sufficient for observing jupiter, it wasnt too small in the fov. i then went to the moon, observed craters for a bit. i tried the green moon filter, and compared it with the polarising. both did their job, just that the polarising didnt add color.

another day where i was too lazy to take notes. i observed the terminator of the moon with the 7 xcel. of course i used the 25 to find it. i toured around the craters and maria at the terminator with the book turn left at orion. i added the polarising filter, which did reduce the blinding moon light, but i also felt it scattered light. it certainly made the dark background brighter. when i showed a light on the filter, nothing looked dirty. maybe its just the case that any filter will scatter and lose a bit of contrast.

i didnt take notes this day while observing, i just wanted to causally and quickly explore a few sights.

first i looked for the double cluster. my first time. i had no red dot, so i just pointed the scope somewhere by cassiopeia and swung around blindly in the area with the 25. 2.3 degrees afov makes for a very limiting finderscope. i saw some nice star fields, but didnt find the clusters. i stepped away re aimed the telescope, eyeballing more in the middle of cassiopeia and perseus. i didnt swing more than a few degrees when it magically showed up in the 25. on my second try.

it was a nice sight. it was closer to the western horizon, a bit of daylight and sky glow, but even then there were many small and delicate stars visible. i stepped down to the 12, and the sky glow reduced, showing even more stars. both clusters fit in the 25, and in the 12 they sort of still fit, but some stars spill out of the view. conveniently, one cluster sat on top of the other in right ascension, so i just needed the ra knob to pan between the two.

i clicked a quick shaky photo in the 25 as a souvenir.

while setting up for jupiter, i saw a bunch of satellites fly over west to east. like stunt planes in formation, but much higher up and further apart. or like a bunch of alien orbs moving silently in unison, they seemed to have a slight blue or green tinge. i found out later these were from a recent starlink launch.

i found my way to jupiter with the 25. grs would be in view. i tried one more time to compare all the eyepieces for planetary observation. 7 planetary, vs 15 with 2x, vs 9 with 1.5x, vs 12 with 1.5x. i also used a stock blue filter to see if it would help better see the spot, it didnt. the 15, 9, and 12 all gave pretty good views, with a decently clear image, and i was able to see the weakening of the band near the grs, and sometimes even see the faintest dot. the 7 planetary, while giving a crisp enough disc, did not show the bands as dark as the other eyepieces. it is clear from all this testing that the planetary has worst contrast. i will think about flocking the inside of the eyepiece, maybe then it can compete.

i did some more testing with the 58 planetary. i went to the moon, first with the 25 as a finderscope, since the red dot reflex stopped working, maybe the battery. once on the moon, i kept switching back and forth between the 7 xcel and the 7 planetary, keeping track of small details i could see in one, then seeing if i could see those same details in the other eyepiece. i was mostly looking around hercules and atlas, and the part of mare tranquilitatis limbward of and including cauchy. i looked for the shadows and bright spots of tiny craters, plateaus, juts, creases.

the two eyepieces are about equal in the sense that the details i barely saw in one, i barely saw the same in the other as well. but in the xcel, there were slightly more easily discernable. the planetary had a little less contrast. as in, the grays and the shadows were a bit darker in the xcel. at first i thought about if its because the planetary is technically less mag so more light coming in, but focal length difference of 7 / 6.67 means the exit pupil is only 5 percent bigger. i feel like the contrast difference is more than that, maybe not 25 percent diff but more than 5.

while on the moon, there were a couple times i saw something transit it. like a black dot zipping by. the speed makes me sure its satellites, but the size? i didnt think satellites would have a big enough angular size to notice their transits over the moon, theyre so far away. but when they left the lit crescent, they would become bright points again.

i used the 25 to find jupiter, then compared the planetary against the 9 with 1.5x. io was transiting but i couldnt see in either eyepiece. but jupiter as a whole didnt look too different between eyepieces. also no grs today.

next i went to mars, again finding with the 25. then switched between the 9 1.5x and 7 planetary. in both eyepieces, i felt i could barely discern a dot which would be the mare acidalium. in the planetary, it was maybe a little harder to see it.

i recently received one of those 58 degree planetary eyepieces, in 7mm. it had a bit of immediate dust on the outside of the eye and field lenses, i just used a dust blower to clean it off. i took off the field component and saw the inside barrel of the upper half could use baffling as others have said online. still i wanted to try this eyepiece out to see if it was an okay comfortable planetary eyepiece.

i first went to the crescent moon and focused on the mare crisium with the 7 xcel lx. specifically, i saw barely two small craters south and limbward from the picard crater, the same distance away from picard as swift and peirce are from picard. in the xcel i could barely see the limbward of the two, and could just get a suggestion of the other as a dot.

with the planetary, i first noticed a slight halo around the moon at the edge of the field, it looked like chromatic aberration but grayscale, minus the color. i wonder if this is from coma / poor fastness correction, or if its from internal reflections. on the craters, i could see again barely the limbward crater, and every now and then a glimpse of the second crater.

i switched between the eyepieces and felt i couldnt see much difference in terms of this specific excerise in crater detail, even when barlowed 1.5x. probably because of the poor seeing. i did feel though that the view through the xcel just felt nicer, im not sure why. it does have a slightly wider field, and in retrospect maybe the contrast was a bit better.

also i started noticing earthshine with my naked eye around half an hour after sunset. i wonder if i can notice it earlier during an even smaller crescent phase.

i went to the pleiades briefly with the 25 just to get a quick picture for the site. i didnt really sit for any time at the eyepiece to observe. but with the photo i saw some reflection, maybe from my phone itself. later i noticed light scratches on the eye lens, which might have come from forcing the cap down while i packed it temporarily. fortunately i got it clean again with my lens cleaning kit.

then i went to jupiter. i first compared between the 7 planetary and the 9 kellner with 1.5x barlow. the grs was facing us, and through the 9 i could see it. this time it wasnt a dot like before, i could see an actual red brown blob with some area to it. still very small and very difficult to contrast with against the rest of jupiter. i switched to the 7, and could see more or less the same thing, but it did feel somehow the image was a tad less clear, maybe reduced contrast. still sort of a toss up. with the poor seeing and the intermittent gusts swaying the telescope, the conditions werent right to compare. both eyepieces actually do show the grs, but i definitely need to test in steadier skies to see which shows more detail.

uneventful. i knew it was cloudy but i saw intermittent clear patches so i set up outside. i tried to look at jupiter, first with the 12, then barlowed down 1.5, then with the 9 with 1.5x. the grs was facing us, but i couldnt even discern the texture of the cloud bands, let alone get a glimpse of the spot. it was a cool effect though when clouds came in front of jupiter, it acted like a moon filter, for a second it felt like i could see a bit more contrast in the reduced glare.

i tried to collimate the primary on sirius with the 9 and found again the inward and outward donuts disagreed. i just struck a compromise between the inward and outward donuts and left it at that, maybe i will redo the secondary another week or month.

i went to the pleiades with the 25, when i was unfocused outward some stars had really messed up donuts, but closer to the right focus draw length it was fine.

i switched to the 12, and dark adapted. this time i could see a glow around the stars without averted vision, the texture of light reminded me of the orion nebula, so i felt i was definitely seeing nebulosity on these stars. also when i slewed away from the pleiades the sky became a bit darker, and when coming back it became brighter again. i also saw the light delicate trail of stars southwest of the dipper of pleiades. i could tell most of them were just barely orange in color.

but seeing nebulosity on meroppe is still difficult. maybe theres the faintest thinnest light around it. i switched to the 9 to cut out more light pollution, and after a few moments i felt i was really seeing a paper thin glow stretching some few arc minutes around it. or its my imagination...

also while on pleiades i unintentionally caught in the view three satellites and even a plane. the plane was a jumpscare, looked like an ominous v shape of lights pass through, i thought it was a satellite constellation at first.

i went over to mars still with the 9, the image was very spiky. not diffraction spikes. the disc was still there, but there was a spiky halo or something around it, even though i felt i was focused. spikes almost as big as mars itself. i think this is the effect of the less perfect outer edge of the primary that i read about online. not an astromaster shortcoming, i think its common or just guaranteed with mirrors.

i went over to jupiter once i knew the grs was in view. with the 9 and 1.5 barlow, i noticed a weakening of the south band right where it contacts the left edge of the disc. after some ten or so minutes, i could see a hole in the dark band, and every now and then i felt i saw a faint dot just south of the band, directly under the hole. i switched to the 12 with the 1.5 and felt i could see the same detail almost, but the dot showed up less. jupiter was definitely bigger in the 9, and it felt a tad cleaner.

i noticed at some point the view was getting less crystal clear, in both eyepieces. i thought my eye was getting strained. but the halo was getting weird too. then i realised jupiter was setting behind a roof. so thats what gradual setting looks like through a telescope, less and less definiton.

i read online that collimation donut images differing between inward and outward focus means the secondary mirror is out of alignment. makes sense to me, the donut would have a different appearance at every point through the focus range if the focuser axis and actual light path from the secondary were not aligned.

while sunlight was still out, i actually collimated the primary first before the secondary, because looking down directly through the tube i saw the reflected image of the secondary was way off center from the real secondary. i adjusted the screws at the back until the secondary and its reflection were roughly overlapped on each other.

for an hour i adjusted the secondary. looking through a retracted focuser, the image of the primary would move unpredictably. tightening a screw would move it one way, then move it in the opposite way a minute later. two things were happening. one, if the collimation screws were a little loose, the secondary cell sags. two, unless everything was as tightened as can be, to the point of almost stripping screws, spinning a screw can spin the entire cell about its axis. it doesnt matter if a screw is getting tightened, or loosened, the whole cell would spin a small amount counter clockwise. frustrating.

the process i repeated was:

1. slightly unscrew the main screw, the one connected to the cell
2. use another hand to hold the cell and spin it till the image of the primary is vertically well aligned
3. rotate the cell a small amount clockwise, to counteract any future spins counter clockwise
4. tighten back the main screw down hard
5. in small increments, adjust the collimation screws with equal amounts tightening and loosening (tighten one, loosen the other two, or vice versa)
6. maybe screw down the main screw again
7. repeat until happy with the image of the primary

and repeat i did, for an hour. i felt the secondary was okay, and moved to the primary. i collimated on sirius with the 15. for future reference, so i dont get it mixed up, tightening a primary collimation screw will push the shadow of the secondary back away from whatever side the screw is on. and for secondary collimation, only when everything is extremely tight, tightening a screw will push the image in the opposite direction the screw is located in.

i went to jupiter in the 15 and saw still again the donuts were different on inward and outward focus. but actually its just that the outward donut exaggerated the unevenness that was there on inward. i didnt re collimate, maybe another night.

i experimented with 'high' mag again on jupiter, now that seeing and transparency was better. the size looked all about the same through 15/2, 12/1.5, and 9/1.5 (really 10/1.5). details same too, i could discern the texture of the cloud bands equally. the 12 was obviously most comfortable. jupiter was slightly bigger in the 9, but maybe i would be happy after all with an 8 starguider. but the tmb clones also have a comfortable cup, and could offer closer mag to the 9/1.5.

i wanted to test the upper limit of magnifications with eyepieces. i focused on jupiter. on outward focus again the collimation felt off, and again inward focus looked better. in observing, i aimed to reach focus from inside. the 7 (6.5) was mushy and kind of dimmer than i expected. the 9 (10) with 1.5x was good but not as excellent as i remember from previous observations. there was the thinnest cloud layer over the sky, or haze, maybe thats the reason. but otherwise i could reach a clear sharp disc. sometimes the disc was sharper with a bit of unfocused halo. the 12 with 1.5x was the same performance as the 9. maybe its circumstantial, but with 12 i could see the shimmering of okay seeing. the 6.5 was not great, but its a toss up between the 12 and 9 barlowed down 1.5x. somehow jupiter in the 12 looked bigger than in the 9. maybe the afov difference affects this illusion. i need to test again in better seeing.

maybe light pollution was a bit higher. i collimated on sirius with the 9. after collimating with focuser inside, when i focused outside the donut image was off again. i collimated outside and then inside was also fine, i dont know what happened. the uneven flair on sirius went away, so i didnt see pup after all that other night. with the 25, i roughly aimed at the pleiades and followed a trail of light stars and came to the cluster. i could see again the middle stars three companions, one of which i couldnt see the other hazy night.

after ten minutes, i still couldnt see any nebulosity, so i switched to the 12. still after thirty minutes i couldnt see nebulosity directly. when i averted my vision, the bright stars had glows, which i thought could be nebulosity, but atlas and pleione had glow too, even if less glow, so im not sure. the light pollution may be washing out nebulosity. i saw ads 2755 and could split them easily, they were wide apart. the north one had barely a warmer color, and the other was not as blue as the main stars. pleiades set, then i switched to the orion nebula just to look at it before going inside. the nebula was bright and fuller thanks to dark adaptation. i went south to iota orionis and could barely see two stars, a brighter one and then a fainter star with a bit of distance in between. the second was very faint, i switched to the 9 kellner and i almost couldnt see it, because of fogging and the less light coming in. after reading up on iota, it seems there is a third star, i guess i just saw the a and c stars.

i was late and missed the pleiades. i then went to the orion nebula. after dark adapting for a bit, in the 25 the light was good, but with averted vision it really popped. really glowed like a glowstick. it was the first time i deliberately used averted vision. with the 12 i saw an extra fainter star, and outlined the dark 'finger' and breadth of the nebula.

i went to jupiter still with the 12. i saw a moon really close to the disc. i added the 1.5 barlow and saw a second moon even closer.

while focusing i realised there was uneven flaring and when focused far in or out i saw i was uncollimated a bit, maybe i didnt see the pup the other night, just the uneven flare.

on another note, the 12 barlowed down 1.5 made a good image of jupiter, compared to when i tested some time ago the 12 with 2x. so its not the case that the 12 has too many lenses and makes mushy images, its just that 108x is too much magnification and 81x is fine. to sum up past mag testing, 5 is too much, 9/10 with 1.5 is great (9 kellner is maybe 10 actually), 12 with 2 is mushy, unfocused halo, 6.5 is less mushy, and 12 with 1.5 is good. so the ideal max mag for this telescope is between 81 and 98, focal length between 6.6 and 8.

it was supposed to be clear skies, even according to ecmwf. but there was haze or some thin cloud layer. i first tried the orion nebula but it was washed. that was in the 25, but i dont think the 12 wouldve helped. then i saw the pleiades, still washed out. but i mean, the stars were there, just less popped out, and the middle stars companions were fainter:

next i went to jupiter, still in the 25, looked nice and bright. then i saw it with with the 9 kellner and the 1.5 barlow. i had to spend more time at the eyepiece but i felt details were more clear when there was a bit of a halo:

also the focuser is messed up, it clicks up and down, i shouldve never tried to mod the focuser, the slop before is preferable to what it is now. anyways next i did sirius, whos light was beautiful. maybe the pup was in the elongation or its an uneven flair...

then i did mars. spent some time at it, focuser in and out. theres a couple things.

i feel like all the details are just my imaginations...

upon checking out stellarium, i was right about the phase at least.