Well I set the scope up, checked collimation, then place dew preventing measures on. Waited for a few hours to let it cool off then started to.

Firstly, there is a notice that I’ve stepped down 2 inches from th 300p, BUT its not that much difference, and as i will be using this scope mainly for photography work its no big deal. Besides, at the eyepiece, the scope gave sharper images and better contrast.

My night consisted mostly of splitting doubles, the sky wasnt too clear. id give it a 5/10.

I started with Almaak. WOW first time I saw this double, what a pair lol!. Outstanding, started withthe 25mm, then the 10mm, then the 10mm with the 2x Barlow, around 240x. Wow it was still really pinpoint. Good optics.

I carried on splitting many pairs, Rigel too. The tightest I split tonight was 1.5ARC seconds, I probably would have got down to 1ARC in these seeing conditions.

Time passed by and now the moon and Mars are up high enough for me to view them. 10mm on Mars. Very sharp, can see the ice caps and other features nicely. straight away went for the 2x barlow and 10mm. Again took my time to focus and got it smack on, awesom! much better than the 300p. I cant wait to get a 5xpowermate!

The moon was the best I’ve every saw it, great contrast, sharp as a razor!. What more can i  say other than I love this scope, and it doesn’t break my back to get it out and in.

Here are a couple of pics of the conditions and my home made dew prevention.

Here is my new scope. Its an Orion Optics 250mm “10 inch” 1/6th optics Newtonian. With OO Dob Base, and rings to mount it on a equatorial mount. its F.4.8 and 1200mm Focal length. Really nice scope this, Cant wait for first light.

For a scope that i fitted the mirror myself, and have not yet collimated, she performed outstandingly!

I started off just with Orion. HOLY **** the sky was 10 out of 10 for still and transparency here, only the moon ruined things. I cant remember seeing a sky so clear and still. I could clearly see full on green in the neb, and the trap, just amazing, gobsmacked! Must have spent 30 minutes just gawping at this with the 25mm.

I moved onto the double cluster by cass, Again looked outstanding best view I’ve had of this.

Right now took some finding but i got it, the owl cluster, or should i say Jonny 5! I laughed hard when i realized. Really good cluster to view.

I waited for Mars to go higher as it was going to get. Clearly see the ice cap, seemed to see one on the top and bottom, could see the distinct black/brown shapes too. 300x she was just awesome, although I could tell the scope needed collimation.

Had a go on Saturn but she was low, still, its been a while since i seen her, 5 moons clearly visible.

I viewed a few other clusters too tonight and i was pleased with my 5 hours of observing. A real shame the best night I can remember had a almost full moon white washing the sky

Here’s My monster, Braving the cold and survived, with out fogging, misting dewing or freezing!

And finally inside to dry off.

My first sketch EVER of the sky. M45 Pleiades’s laying in the constellation Taurus, 440 light years distant @ magnitude 1.6. Also known as the Seven sisters.

Well she arrived from Germany last night. Took some putting together, Gave her a quick blast and had some stunning views.

12 inch Skywatcher Dobson, 10mm, 25mm super plos, and 2x Barlow eyepieces.

This is 3x 30 seconds stacked images using the D40 with 50mm f1.8 lens at around 65mm. There is some lens error as you can see in the bright stars but i think it looks nice.

This is my first capture of the sun. Seems really quite of late, no activity at all.

Captured the transit of moon Io tonight with impact site.

EDIT – It appears I captured an asteroid impact, I may have been the first on the planet to see and Image this….

Impact.

Io transit.

I’m an intermediate to advanced photoshop user, yet still, editing and getting the best out of astronomy images is still  steep learning curve, but I’m climbing it slowly. I decided to show you some color and mono negative moon images, this process seems to enhance the detail that’s there.

Montage.

Single color.

Single mono.

Another Venus, Seems in the same transition.