2021

[Nightspore]

Last year was dominated by small telescopes. I used eight of my twelve functioning telescopes in 2021. One hundred and seventeen of the one hundred and forty sessions I managed last year were with small aperture, short tube refractors of 80mm or under.

 

 

I would often carry a 90mm or 102mm Maksutov out together with the lightweight Sky-Watcher AZ5 Deluxe mount. Effectively making one journey there and back for a single session. Early last year it suddenly dawned on me that this could also be achieved with a small short tube refractor. Why this particular revelation had hitherto taken so long to dawn on me remains a bit of a mystery.

 

 

The obvious choice was one of my modified ST80s. MCT’s are great lunar and planetary instruments but they lack the FOV of faster scopes. Attaining a wide enough exit pupil for rich field observing is quite difficult. With my 102mm SkyMax even a 40mm Plossl only yields a 3.1mm exit pupil, notwithstanding the limited field. Experiments with 25mm eyepieces combined with a reducer were not particularly encouraging either. An easily and rapidly deployed small rich field scope that could take advantage of the vagaries of the weather was an intriguing prospect.

 

 

On January the 21st, 2021, I ventured out with the Sky-Watcher ST80 carried in a small flight bag and as few accessories as I could get away with. This session basically set the precedent for the vast majority of my nocturnal excursions last year. The Moon, Mars and Uranus were grouped together in the south and Orion was steadily rising in the south east, so I had a good variety of objects to observe with the little achromat.

 

 

The ability to go out at a moment’s notice with a refractor and pack-up quickly at the end of the session was a bit of a eureka moment. This inevitably led to purchasing an ED doublet that would be as portable as the ST80. Early in the morning of February the 17th I got first light with my brand new Altair, f/6, 60 EDF. I was very impressed with this capable little doublet.

 

 

I originally intended to buy a Takahashi FS60, but the Altair was eminently more practical, had a better focuser, and could be deployed straight out of the box. Plus, it was considerably cheaper, and the Takahashi retailer was out of stock anyway. Either way, I had a wonderful wide angle view of Coma Berenices at 10x with a 36mm Baader Hyperion Aspheric.

 

 

One memorable evening was on the 25th of March when I took the 72ED ED DS Pro out with only orthoscopic eyepieces. I hadn’t quite collected all of the Takahashi ortho’s then so used a variety of Tak’s, Astro Hutech, Circle T and Kokusai EP’s. This ‘Orthofest’ was so successful and enjoyable I repeated it a couple of times.

 

 

April was a decent month and I got seventeen sessions overall. On the 28th I had first light with the 3x GSO ED Barlow. The Barlow turned out to be a bit of a disappointment and exhibited an excessive amount of chromatic aberration. I haven’t used it since. It might come in handy as a paperweight (or a DIY spectroscope lol).

 

 

On the 24th of May I got first light with the Orion 7~21mm zoom. I’m occasionally astounded to the point of being gobsmacked by certain new pieces of kit. The lightweight Orion zoom was one of these pieces.

 

 

For the money it gives a very sharp and bright image. It is excellent for lunar/planetary observing and splitting doubles. SvBony also market the same zoom.

 

 

On the 8th of June I had another revelatory brainwave. I realised I could take the 72ED out in the same manner as the ST80 and the 60 EDF.

 

 

Previously I’d taken it out in its supplied hardcase and mounted it on a Vixen Porta II/TL-130 combination.

 

 

This took at least two journeys. If I only used 1.25” accessories the 72ED could be as easy to set-up as the other two short tube refractors.

 

 

It also balances beautifully on the AZ5 with a 1.25” diagonal and eyepieces. It proved a little detrimental to the 60 EDF as the little Altair only got out half as many times afterwards. The EDF has S-FPL-53 glass, a Strehl to die for, and because of its rotating collar I can more easily use a 2” diagonal.

 

 

Its only real disadvantage is that it is just 60mm. Because of this I tend to use it only on nights of above average conditions.

 

 

On the 9th of July I had first light using the Starbase ‘Orthoscopic Plossls’ with the 72ED. These weren’t a resounding success although I wasn’t expecting much with an f/5.8 refractor. Later I achieved eight consecutive sessions with the 72ED during a spell of balmy arid July weather. The conditions were so dry that I could easily make out Barnard 78 (Pipe Bowl) as well as the Trifid and Lagoon nebulae.

 

 

On the 22nd I gave the Starbase another chance with my 102mm Sky-Watcher MCT. I still wasn’t overly impressed and they appeared to ghost frequently on bright objects. In an even later dedicated lunar session with them they displayed a lot of scatter in the 102mm SkyMax. At one stage I found the ghosting so distracting I almost contacted Yvette Fielding and the Most Haunted team!

 

 

I got a brief view of the Saturn opposition in August with the 102mm Maksutov. The later Jupiter opposition was also a bit of a disappointment. After industriously setting up my 127mm SkyMax, and waiting over an hour for it to reach thermal equilibrium, I only caught an ephemeral glimpse of the Jovian surface through dark manifesting clouds. Two days later I had a good hour observing Jupiter with the same scope which compensated nicely for the unsuccessful opposition session. I had a few more planetary sessions with the ‘Big Mak’. It was the largest aperture telescope I took out all year.

 

 

September was pretty eventful and I had another run of 72ED outings. In fact I had a spate of sessions between the 15th and the 24th only being clouded out on the 18th. On a humid 27th of September I witnessed the rare phenomenon of an Atlas V rocket de-orbit burn low in the north west. I got seventeen sessions in October and all but one were with the 72ED. November was more of a pick and mix with an even dozen of outings.

 

 

Six of these were with the 102mm SkyMax. On the 21st, as I initiated a lunar session with the SkyMax, I suffered a serious equipment malfunction problem with the AZ5 tripod. Luckily I had a spare AZ5 tripod to switch to. Later I discovered that the spreader had shifted on one of the legs and apparently I just had a screw loose, or something. After setting up the tripod once again the 102mm MCT was nicely cooled and I had a great session with the diminutive Orion zoom. The seeing was well above average and I had a memorable view of Messier A’s ejector rays.

 

 

I only managed three sessions in December. On the 6th I had a pretty decent night with the 72ED. On the 23rd I had a very enjoyable three and a half hour rich field session with the same scope. I finished the year more or less as I started, with a brief ST80 session.

 

 

All in all 2021 wasn’t a bad observing year. I had thirty seven more sessions in 2021 than in 2020. Albeit predominantly with small aperture short tube refractors. Compared to the start of the year I now have four complete grab and go ensembles that can be rapidly deployed combined with the AZ5 mount/tripod. These can individually be used depending on what I intend to observe and the overall seeing conditions and transparency. I’ve also developed easier ways to set-up my two 102mm refractors and the 80ED DS Pro on the Vixen Porta II/TL-130. Unfortunately these bigger scopes were all either unused or underused in 2021.

 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2022 by Nightspore

[Doc]

What a great thread. You managed a lot of sessions last year, a lot more then I did.

 

I managed 20 sessions, 16 in the back garden, 3 at Belper and one at Wymeswold. 

 

I didn't see no new objects 😢

[Nightspore]

27 minutes ago, Doc said:

What a great thread. You managed a lot of sessions last year, a lot more then I did.

 

I managed 20 sessions, 16 in the back garden, 3 at Belper and one at Wymeswold. 

 

I didn't see no new objects 😢

 

Thanks Doc. I think I got a lot of sessions as I was using little scopes lol. I looked for the Comet Leonard but couldn't find it. One thing I realised this year is that I can get a 1.5mm exit pupil with broadband OIII and UHC filters on objects like M42, M57 and M27.

[+Glafnazur]

Thanks for posting this, I love reading your reports, 140 sessions is amazing. I don't know how many sessions I managed but I know it was nowhere near that amount, but you've given me some incentive to try harder 🙂 

[Nightspore]

1 hour ago, Glafnazur said:

Thanks for posting this, I love reading your reports, 140 sessions is amazing. I don't know how many sessions I managed but I know it was nowhere near that amount, but you've given me some incentive to try harder 🙂 

 

You're welcome, and thanks. It's been an interesting year. Nothing spectacular but I think I've figured a lot of equipment out. Hopefully lol.

[BAZ]

What an enjoyable read, I think you probably achieved more sessions than some of us combined. You certainly make a good argument for fast deploying ultra portable gear and you made good use of it too. I hope you get a good few sessions in this year. Thank for sharing.

[+Streetbob]

I enjoyed reading your report. I have found quick set up and short sessions are the way to go from the back garden and I’ve continued my variable star observing. 

21 hours ago, Nightspore said:

apparently I just had a screw loose, or something

I’ve been told many times I’ve got a screw loose for standing out in the cold.

[Nightspore]

4 hours ago, BAZ said:

What an enjoyable read, I think you probably achieved more sessions than some of us combined. You certainly make a good argument for fast deploying ultra portable gear and you made good use of it too. I hope you get a good few sessions in this year. Thank for sharing.

 

Thanks. I think the great thing about small short tube refrators is not only are they very portable, they have little cool down time and are versatile. I'm surprised that my ST80 keeps getting out though. I thought I'd retired it over three years ago when I bought the 72ED lol.

[Nightspore]

53 minutes ago, Streetbob said:

I enjoyed reading your report. I have found quick set up and short sessions are the way to go from the back garden and I’ve continued my variable star observing. 

 

 

Thanks. I think my quick set-up experiment worked this year. I really need to get a bigger scope out occasionally though.

 

"I’ve been told many times I’ve got a screw loose for standing out in the cold."

 

Well, as long as you still know where your marbles are you should be OK. I've forgotten where I put mine ... lol.

Edited January 2, 2022 by Nightspore