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Originally Posted by Paddy
Great to have some obs from you again Sab - it seems quite a while as you say. Very sharp observing as usual under less than ideal conditions. Some nice obs of interacting galaxies as well. Looking forward to part 2.
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Thanks Paddy. It's funny because there hasn't been a huge lack of clear nights, just bad timing. Hopefully this burnoff shambles will come to an end already.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lismore Bloke
Hi Sab,
It seems a long time between reports. The crappy weather definitely hasn't been on our side for months. Clear nights are a bit precious.
You're dead right about higher magnification helping to reveal faint galaxies. I've gone from using the 17mm for a wide field look and the 12mm for a closer examination to using the 12mm first and then the 7mm or 5mm if seeing permits. Even if the seeing is mush, clear moments come and go, so I've had to learn patience and just persist!! The difference higher magnification makes with faint galaxies is sometimes quite amazing. Observing from suburbia means we need all the help we can get.
Cheers, Paul.
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Yep, with galaxies seeing is not that critical (but hate mushy stars) so I'll use the 5mm regardless. I'd love to have the 3.7mm Ethos for these tiny faint galaxies and for tight groups. The 250-400x range seems to work very well in my experience, but in excellent seeing I won't hesitate to hit 600-700x on really tiny/faint stuff and groups. However That requires a barlow and from my obs, attempting to use barlows on these edge of vision objects seems to be detrimental. During these sessions, I also used a 13mm+barlow combo for 205x, and I decided it is not suited to faint galaxy observation, the extra glass in the light path is not what you want.
Hoping to get a 2.5mm Nagler and 3.7mm Ethos eventually! Would make a killer combo along with the 5mm.
In my scope that would be 534x, 360x and 267x respectively, now that would cover all grounds without dealing with barlows and their extra glass elements.