First meeting with the AAL guys on their 2012-02-04 event.

Received delivery of the SkyWatcher 80/400 on tuesday 2012-02-28, after order on friday 2012-02-24.

First light. That is, I took it outside in the evening and had a look around. First off, finding Polaris - set the axes to 0 resp. 90°, tried to orient the mount towards Polaris, check through the finder scope… almost dead-on. Now, navigating the 'scope around. It quickly turned out you have to look out for the proper orientation, or you'll have parts bumping into other parts. Checked out Mars, first with 25mm ocular, then 10mm ocular, finally adding the 2x barlow lens (not much of a gain there). Checked out stars of Ursa Major. Moved the mount so I could point to the (half) moon - wow! Extreme detail around the terminator. Checked out the Pleiades. 25mm ocular much better than with the 10mm one. Jupiter - wow! Way better than with the binoculars, I could clearly see at least 3 galilean moons lined up to Jupiter's left. Jupiter also clearly seen as a disk, even through the 25mm ocular, but no more detail. Again I tried the 10mm along with the barlow lens, to little gain. I guess these 400mm focal length just aren't made for planet hunting. Wonderful with Orion, though. I also tried finding the globular clusters between Perseus and Cassiopeia, but not having experience with them and having those on the street side (with lighting), not much luck there. All in all, a wonderful first experience.

Notes: I'll have to practice a lot with proper orientation of the mount (in the dark!), handling of the mount in general, get better at finding my way around the starry sky. The mount certainly isn't of the most stable sort, but I knew that before buying - the whole point is to learn handling such a beast, not (yet) resulting in perfect deep-sky long-exposure pictures.

Went out with F.S. from AAL, he brought his self-made binoc “aldi-scope” plus his 200/1200 dobson. He gave me some tips on handling the equatorial mount, which is hugely helpful. Interesting: Jupiter through my 80/400 and oculars is simply too bright to be clearly seen - with his own 4mm ocular plus 2x barlow we got a nice enough view of Jupiter so we could see cloud bands.

Using his dobson, we got a very nice view of Mars, enabling us to even see a polar cap at one end (brighter than the rest) and darker parts at the other end. We also got to see the great wall feature on the moon.

Note: even if weather's getting milder, you still need to get into warm clothes. Especially when the air is starting to get foggy, it gets cold real quick; you still may get good results watching planets or the moon.

Note 2: I'm sorely tempted to get additional oculars plus filters, such as this case here, or maybe this zoom ocular.

What also might be interesting is a star chart, german or english version.

Some sort of atlas, such as this one, might also be a good idea. Should I ever be tempted by a telrad finder, this atlas would be it (certainly much cheaper than some GoTo mount).

A nice gadget for handling stuff in the dark is a hands-free red light.

Should I ever want to observe the sun more closely, here's stuff to be able to do it safely.

Finally, weather again permitted some observation. Good thing too, with the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. I did take a series of pictures, but am not entirely happy with the result. Guess I should find a more attractive foreground.

I also (again) tried to take some pictures of Orion, but had trouble focussing properly.

After that first batch of pictures using standard photo equipment (I did use my 200mm tele with low exposition times giving me pictures of Jupiter with galilean moons), I turned to my telescope. It turned out that despite being almost at their closest, through a 400mm scope plus wide-angle (25mm) ocular, it remained impossible to see the two at once - neither directly mounting my DSLR (via T2) to the 'scope, which I tried and also got some pics of Jupiter with moons, but with Jupiter decidedly over-exposed (less exposure results in the moons not being visible).

I then went on with taking pictures of the Pleiades and an open star cluster near the top of Perseus. In both cases, I missed proper focus, but got interesting results with exposure times and ISO settings.

Conclusion: I'll have to get better at focusing. Maybe a “Scheinerblende” will help. It seems possible to expose up to 2 seconds at 400m with stars still remaining dots instead of dashes, without tracking.

Since my previous observation session, F.S. recommended not buying an ocular set, but instead get more practice and then select oculars specific to my needs - no doubt a good recommendation. Considering what I learned so far, I'm sorely tempted by a 5mm wide-angle ocular, which would allow me to get to the maximum sensible enlargement factor allowed by my scope, i.e. 160x (using a 2x barlow lens, and double what I can do now). Interestingly, it is possible to add a T2 adapter, making it possible to use a DSLR along with the ocular - I seriously doubt though that the EQ1 mount would take the weight of all of that.

With the Venus transit coming up start of june, and that being the last such in my lifetime, I'm also tempted to practice some observation of the sun, which will require proper filtering.

Apropos filters, I'm also wondering about getting an UHC or polarisation filter.

Apropos tracking, my feel is that manual tracking with piggy-back may not really be feasible with this mount, as it is rather shaky as soon as I touch anything. If I should attempt it, a crosshair ocular such as this 20mm or this 12mm might be of use.

Learning from yesterday's mistakes, I've confectioned a 3-holed Scheiner mask to help with focusing. I can confirm it helps, as my results with photographing the Pleiades were way better than yesterday - whereas my attempts with the classic photo equipment remained mediocre.

As I started observing later than yesterday, I didn't get as good results with Venus/Jupiter as yesterday, even if they were slightly closer to one another: this time, it was possible to get both into the same picture through the 400mm telescope. As they were at opposite ends though, they were rather outside of the optimal region (in the middle) of the optics, thus with less-than-optimal results on the picture. What didn't help was that by then both objects were rather low above the horizon.

Went observing at the standard AAL place with F.S. Among others, he demonstrated the use of UHC, O3 and polarisation filters with galaxies, planetary nebulas etc. He also showed me Praesepe, which isn't overly easy to find as the location is of rather lower visibility from lighted places. And, almost best thing that evening, I finally got to see Saturn through a telescope, with my own eyes - it was still rather low in the sky, so non-optimal conditions. I again experimented with photographing objects (my EOS 400D in the 80/400's primary focus), i.e. Venus, Jupiter, the Pleiades, Hyades, some star cluster in Auriga, some star cluster in Perseus, and last not least, the Orion nebula.

Conclusions: even with the Scheiner mask, proper focus isn't necessarily perfect. Orion nebula is best seen when no moon is around! Visual observation of those deep-sky objects, at least from not-entirely-dark places, doesn't seem satisfying to me, as it's essentially dark grey splotches against a slightly darker background, essentially quasi-nothing to see. I hope for better results from darker places, resp. using a cam for photographic results.

Short, pure visual observations from my backyard. Besides some classics, I tried for several deep-sky objects, without much luck. I may have seen M95 or M96, close to Mars that evening.

Went with F.S. to some place north of Habscht, rather darker than the usual near Limpach. We got to see a lot more stars, and deep sky objects too! At last, I actually was able to identify the Andromeda galaxy by my own eyes. Later, I finally saw Saturn through my own telescope; unfortunately I wasn't able to make a decent picture.

Apropos pictures, we tried my DSLR on F.S.'s Newton, in primary focus. As he's got tracking, we did try for longer exposures with Orion, and actually got half-decent results! Same goes for several star clusters, and even a galaxy! I again did have serious problems with focussing, despite the scheiner mask.

All in all, a very nice observation session!

Received my order of some accessories from Teleskop-Express. As for the 'scope, things went very expeditively, from order last friday afternoon to delivery early afternoon today.

Chief among those accessories is a 5mm ocular, which is also what I first tried. Alone on my telescope, it provides the same 80x enlargement as my 10mm plus 2x barlow lens, but at very noticeably better quality. With the barlow lens, I get 160x magnification, which is supposedly the sensible maximum for this scope: 2x aperture (80mm) gives 160x. Well, 160x gives you a filling picture of Jupiter with its 4 galilean moons, including some cloud bands neatly visible. Even at 80x those details are better seen than with the 10mm plus barlow.

I'm a bit less convinced at first sight with the 20mm crosshair ocular, where I simply don't see the illumination. Maybe I did something wrong, or it was simply too bright here in the periphery of Luxembourg-city for me to see that much.

So far, I didn't test any of the other accessories.

I only got around to trying the “Digiklemme” with my older SD video camera. It is difficult enough to get things set up properly, with the target in view and then fitting the camera, zooming in somewhat, focusing, trying to keep the object in view, trying to adapt the exposure, … as I furthermore got interrupted, no chance yet to actually try to film the target (in this case, Jupiter).

Anyway, I did show my daughter (age 3) Jupiter with the 4 galilean moons.

After having taken pictures of the group Moon / Jupiter / Venus the past two evenings, it was now time for another observation session with F.S. F.S. was interested in the performance of my 80/400 with 5mm ocular (and barlow lens) i.e. 160x magnification, which is about the limit for that equipment. While Jupiter was already too low for good results, it was rather easy to see half a Venus (which is btw wandering towards the Pleiades). Next target was the Moon - and wow, what a sight at high magnification! Then again, the moon actually looks good at about any magnification, it would seem. I then went to my 25mm ocular, “Digiklemme”, and my video camera, to finally get some raw footage for first experiments with Registax. With the moon, I did get some decent-enough looking results. Besides this, I also shortly checked out the Pleiades, Praesepe, but didn't insist - it was getting late, and with the recent move to summer time, getting up early is difficult enough without going to bed late.

Pictures of Venus and Pleiades, due to be closest on April 3. More pictures of the moon (slightly more than half), pretty sharp at that. I'm rather happy with these. I also took more pictures of the Orion nebula, partially knowingly exposing “too long”, i.e. worked out the nebula but got stripes instead of dots for the stars. This gives me a pretty good idea of the minimum exposure times to work out certain types of objects - for when I'll have tracking. Also, pics of the Hyades. Tried other objects without much luck - got pretty cold fingers too.

Pictures of Venus and Pleiades. They are very noticeably closer than the previous day. Pics of the moon, serious problems with focus. Guess next time I'll have to check proper focus after moving the mount, stupid me.

More pictures of Venus and Pleiades after a couple of cloudy days. Missed the closest encounter between them, unfortunately. More pics of the (nearly full) moon. Some troubles with proper focus.

F.S. received his shipment of accessories, including a motor for my EQ1 mount - I'll be able to have some (limited) fun with tracking and longer exposures. I know this mount isn't exactly cut out for such tasks, but for little money, a beginner can experiment and learn about all the issues.

Demo'ed the 'scope to my brother, using Venus as a target. Nice view of it at 2/5th, up to 160x magnification. Didn't get around to more, as my brother got cold pretty quickly.

Finally finished the solar filters (for finder and 'scope). First light during a break in the clouds, pretty quickly saw a first group of solar spots, shaped more or less like an arrow, slightly below and left of the center. Went up to 160x magnification, but best view really was at 40x. With the kids around, didn't get to try photography right away - that'll have to wait for a sunnier day.

Pictures of the sun, series with huge variation in exposure.

Some pictures of the sun, varying exposure.

Pictures of the sun. Varied exposure some, still got trouble with focus.

Attempts at taking pictures of the sliver of Venus, then Saturn. Not much luck though. From town, not that late, there wasn't much else worth checking out.

I did play around with the tracking motor - it turns out it's not that easy to use, and it sure does get in the way depending on where you want to point the 'scope.

Some pictures of the sun. Constant exposure, but varying focus - turns out that way I do get 1-2 decent results (insofar possible with this equipment).

First observation with F.S. in a while. It sure is late before the sky gets properly dark, at 22:00 (summer time) the sun may be gone, but the sky is still somewhat bright. Of course it's fun to see how slowly more and more stars become visible. As long as it's still visible, we watched the sliver of Venus. Later targets were Saturn and its moons - it turned out that F.S.'s 200/1200 Newton resolves way more moons than my tiny 80/400 FH. Similarly, M13 (globular cluster in Hercules) appears way better in the Newton. The ring nebula is simply not to be seen using my equipment, whereas it was obvious enough with F.S.'s.

I took a series of pictures around the sky, trying to catch different constellations. Afterwards, we used my EOS 400D on the Newton, targeting the ring nebula, Albireon (double star, one of which is reddish, the other markedly blue), M13.

This noon, right after lunch, I took advantage of the fact that the kids and wife all took a nap, and had a look at the sun's spots. I still got trouble focusing properly when using the camera, but as by now I know what exposure works, I simply take a series of pictures while slightly varying focus - in the end, I have a couple of pictures that are sharp enough.

Evening: clear sky, but lots of seeing (at least before it got really late). Started off with the moon, Venus, Saturn. Observed Venus as it went under the horizon - with all the seeing, it looked as if it were afire. Albireon pictured in primary focus. Tried to picture different constellations using the wide-angle lens, 10 seconds, on a normal photographic mount. Visually took a look at the Bode galaxies (!), M13, ring nebula (finally got to see it using my equipment!).

No luck whatsoever with the Venus transit - cloudy and rainy weather!

After a very long break (mostly due to suboptimal weather), finally went out with F.S. for an observation session. Unfortunately, clouds came up pretty quickly after we'd set up our gear, so not much observation after all.

Lucky stricke: on the way home, got to see the rising moon over Luxembourg City. I did a series of pictures.

First good observation evening in quite a while. Very good conditions for Luxembourg, wonderful view of the milky way, Andromeda galaxy and many other objects. We got to see ISS, and a whole slew of Perseids.

Impressive finding: my glasses do take away quite some brightness. In F.S.'s Dobson, no dice viewing the veil nebula with glasses on, perfect view without.

Received delivery of order #4, ordered on sunday 2012-08-12! Those guys at teleskop-express.de and at UPS are very quick indeed!

I started unpacking and mounting the EQ6 with 8“ Newton, it feels huge and solid. I guess I'll have to get a couple more aluminium boxes for storing and moving all the parts.

Mounting the new parts - continued. I find I've been pretty stupid all along about my viewfinder - there's this little O-ring provided, which I never put over the middle of that viewfinder, it's needed to have some stability for it, so it won't so easily get knocked out of alignment. I also find that I'll finally be able to make some use of certain adapters I already got. One of those adapters also allows me to use my 80/400 as a tele for my DSLR, able to focus as close as about 3m (instead of ~50m without that adapter).

First light for the equipment from order #4. Went north of Elvange with F.S., not quite the same place as last time due to intense farming activity right next there. We again had quite some luck with viewing conditions. I've rarely seen the Milky Way as well as this time around. No moon, pretty dark, not even planets (well, no brighter ones anyway). The brightest object we got to see was ISS before we were set up. A propos setup. F.S. found out how to initiate fast slewing with the EQ6, that definitely works. Aligning on objects will take some practice, it feels quite different from the other scope and finder. Among the first objects tried were the ring nebula in Lyra, M13 in Hercules, Albireo in Cygnus, and somewhere in between the Andromeda galaxy. Despite having aligned the mount only very roughly, I couldn't resist taking some pictures (DSLR in prime focus: M13, Andromeda, Albireo), with results already better than whatever I tried before! Aperture helps (including with focusing)!

Got some small stuff for the mount: Ikea “Upptäkka” trolley for the EQ6 itself, plastic box for the battery and cabling. Will need another aluminium box for the counterweights and other parts.

More experiments with the mount. Put up the 80/400 both in the proper place as well as on the counterweight bar, took a couple of pictures of the sun. Next time in the evening, I'll try both scopes together.

In the meantime, got another alu box for the counterweights, and a nice little bubble level for proper setup of the tripod.

Went out with F.S. again, location: Elvange, left side up. Trouble this time was a beamer, probably across the belgian border, which ruined part of the sky. Proper alignment of the mount didn't quite work out, hat quite some trouble with proper focusing (when using the DSLR). Still took some pictures, of the Andromeda galaxy, the moon (right after its rise, lots of seeing effects), the Pleiades (Taurus), M13 (Hercules).

Longer exposures clearly show star trails instead of dots. Focusing really was an issue, many pics show discs instead of dots.

Based on previous results, fabricated a Hartmann mask for the N200/1000.

Went out with F.S. again, same place. A beamer was there again, but was set up farther south than previous time. There were some clouds, but where absent, the sky was quite clear. We did get in trouble with lots of condensation though - I'll have to make dewcaps at least for the viewfinder, possibly for the Newton scope itself as well. The eyepieces and viewfinder, even the secondary mirror of the Newton misted up rather quickly.

This time, I properly aligned the mount via polar finder, based on instructions found on YouTube. Indeed, my longer exposures turned out much better than with the previous times, only when doing e.g. 4 minutes exposures I got non-dots for the stars. Focusing also got better using the Hartmann mask, even if I did have to use a bright star (Deneb) at first - this despite the 4x 75mm openings in the mask, i.e. almost 4x the light that I get in the Fraunhofer 80/400.

The session ended up being almost entirely photographic - Andromeda galaxy, M13 (Hercules), ring nebula (Lyra), double cluster (Perseus), coathanger (Vulpecula, between Atair in Aquila and Albireo in Cygnus), Albireo (Cygnus), Jupiter right after its rise (lots of artefacts from the dense and humid atmosphere), the Pleiades.

I'll want to use the 80/400 for pictures of:

• Coathanger
• Pleiades
• Andromeda galaxy

as the Newton's field of vision is simply too narrow for these objects.

For objects such as planets, the ring nebula etc., I'll have to experiment with photographing not in prime focus, but through an eyepiece - this will have to be tested first in daylight, as I really don't know which combination of eyepiece / adapters will even allow for proper focusing.

I'll still have to refine the alignment of the mount for longer exposures, but chances are I'll need guiding (not just tracking) for those cases.

I took my gear to Lampech (AAL site), and observed visually from 20h to ca. 21h30. Targets were Andromeda, double cluster, M13, ring nebula, coathanger. I also tried to find some other objects, but without much success - I guess being very tired (3 kids after all…) didn't help. Anyway, I did find the “known” objects quite quickly, not much fiddling around this time to get them into my sights.

Pics of the moon, ring nebula, Andromeda, Jupiter, Pleiades, with rather decent tracking, but lacking on focusing. I'm happy enough with the ring nebula pics though.

Went observing with F.S. We used his new EOS 650D on my EQ6 with N200/1000, took a number of pictures of Orion, the Pleiades. Focusing is infinitely easier with the LiveView feature than with my older 400D (where I need Scheiner mask etc.).