Picked up the 10" F/5 dob today from David aka Dave47Tuc (cheers mate!) She's got a fully flocked tube, flocked dewshield and a 10:1 crayford focuser so I am stoked
Physically, it makes my 4.5" reflector look tiny! No seriously, this thing is actually big!
The scope had to endure a 40km car ride home so collimation was probably slightly out. But, because the light was fading, I couldnt really check it but at a glance it seemed close. Later on, after I finished for the night, I checked collimation again in a lit room (still not ideal conditions) and it was actually slighlty off. Come next clear night, the collimating tools that came with the scope will get me up n running in seconds
no more film canister guesswork for me!
After a 30 min cooling period (not enough!) I couldn't hold it in an longer so I aimed at Jupiter. At 83x, the view was pleasingly sharp and bright. Despite horrible seeing, I could detect 4 bands. I upped the mag to 138x and now I could see detail in the NEB, the SEB rift was a mile wide and the GRS really showed its colour. Pumping the power further to 277x caused image breakdown, as the seeing was poor and Jupiter itself isn't tolerant of high magnification. Putting jupiter slightly out of focus one could SEE the air rushing past.
As the seeing was poor, I decided to begin DSO observing. I got out my eyepiece collection and used the scope's dustcap as an accessory tray. I started off with the
Trifid Nebula (M20). Sure enough, at 83x the dark lanes were evident, even in my light polluted suburban backyard. My best view of the Trifid was at 104x with a Narrowband filter. The dark lanes were plainly visible and the reflection nebula just north of the Trifid barely so (maybe due to the filter). Looks like the flocking was doing its job
Sketch of the trifid:
I then looked at the
Dumbell (M27) using 104x and the filter and wow it was big! I could trace nebulosity beyond the "apple core". Excellent!
On object that always wins my curiosity is the
Saturn Nebula. At 166x, it appeared as a bright greenish oval. The green colour was rather strong. Increasing power to 227x, I thought I could see the filaments which give it its name but couldn't be certain. Seeing was pretty poor so will have to try it another time.
Lastly, I decided to check out
47 Tuc and the Tarantula Nebula. Freakin WOW! 47 Tuc, even though it was *far* from being overhead, was resolved into a maelstrom of diamonds right down to the core at only 104x. Increasing power to 166x increased the wow factor, as the field was overflowing with glistening pinpricks! The
Tarantula Nebula, was also spectacular. At 166x with the narrowband filter, its filaments and complex structure were evident, as was billowing swaths of fainter nebulosity surrounding it. Definately brighter and more resolved than a view I had with an 8" Starfinder I borrowed a couple of years back. Reducing the power to just 39x, with the filter, several knots can be seen littered across the FOV. Just Brilliant. I can see I'll have fun in the LMC with this baby!
UNfortunately at this point, high-level cirrus started moving in so I decided to pack it up.