Saturday night we took the scope to a dark site and looked at the usual suspects, saturn and orion nebula. it was very windy and im guessing the seeing was pretty awful, as saturn was hard to focus and drifted in and out of focus. it was also quite low in the sky, so less than optimal opportunity.
With the 26mm EP, M42 is very nice.. the trapezium just resolves and you can see gas (with the greenish tinge), it takes up about 30% of the eyepiece.
With the 17mm (75x) and barlowed (150x) M42 was spectacular.. could clearly see the greenish gas and then the dark nebula streaks through it. the trapezium looked good. at these magnifications the nebula is bigger than the field of view. definitely keen to see some more nebulae!
Without knowing where to look for more targets, we ended up using the binocs to explore the sky a bit and find clusters.
Friday morning we got up to see Jupiter. with the 26mm eye piece (50x) it was a small white disc. with the 17mm eyepiece in the barlow lens (150x) it was a big white disc, with 2 distinct bands on it. we also saw 2 of the moons nearby. that was pretty impressive.. but i have to say i was a bit disappointed at the lack of detail, but then again it was only 150x. also the mirror was not cooled so i think it could have been a bit better if i got up earlier.
I think we will still eventually get the william Optics SPL 6mm eyepiece which will give 200x and with the barlow, 400x. i think at those magnifications, in the right conditions, the planets would be pretty spectacular.
i used the moon filter on jupiter and i dont think it did anything at all, its not exactly a dark tint!
overall im pretty happy.. i know as i learn to find more objects the enjoyment will only increase
