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Old 26-01-2010, 09:48 AM
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Dave47tuc (David)
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Observing report 25/01/2010 local time.

Observing report 25/01/2010.
Place: Main Ridge Victoria.
Scope: 5" Apo. Astro Pyhisics on AP600 mount. With William Optics binoviewer. 20mm and 15 mm eyepieces plus Barlow 2x. (see pic)
Seeing was poor to ok.
Transparency was good.

Purpose of the night was to Look at the Moon and Mars and Saturn with this set up. Also I wanted to evaluate some eyepieces I got with the 12" Dob.
We started with the Moon. Unfortunately the seeing was bad to just ok. Very shimmery but when the Moon was right on the meridian it sharpened up so we could use the 15 mm eyepieces. The view in the Binoviewer is very nice. Using two eyes on bright objects makes observing so comfortable. If you have not tried it do yourself a favour and find someone who has a binoviewer and give it a go. You will be surprised how good it is.
But with the seeing only ok at best we could not go to very high power. Also the Moon is in a quiet Northerly position as is Mars. But I sat in the chair and observed for a while just taking in the beauty of the Moon in a binoviewer. It was very relaxing and you could loose yourself in the view.
There where many fetures to look at, the terminator was quite distinctive with all its shadows, mountains and rills and craters aplenty.

Mars was suffering the fait of the Moon. Being so far North and in poor seeing. We had to wait till it was near the meridian to get any sort of view. But once there we could bump the power up enough to see the Polar cap, also many dark features on the planet. Sorry i did not have the year book with me to tell which ones they where!!! What did get me was with the binoviewer it was like i could reach into the eyepiece and pull it out! 3D not so much but a more satisfying view in a binoviewer. Colour was good with the very white polar cap and the pale orange on the disc and what to me was darkish blue features around the disk. You could see a major feature from below the cap to are large dark area to the South or North (anyone??) I hope someone takes a photos of Mars last night so I can look and compare to what we where seeing.

Moved to Saturn but it was still low in the East and yes that was Saturn with the rings starting to open up, but nothing to rave about.

I spent sometime evaluating eyepiece's that I got with the Dob. They are Bintel's 15 and 9 plossl's and 32 mm wide view. Now you can buy these for near nothing at Bintel or Andrew's They came with the scope are they any good, well yes not to bad. The 15 mm was just ok with a 15 mm tele vue plossl better. The TV had a little better contrast and was a little sharper. The field stop was poor on the bintel plossl.
I compared the 9 mm to a 8 mm TV plossl. the 9 mm did very well, the 8 mm was again a bit bitter in contrast, eye relief was about the same.
The 32 mm wide view was not to bad. It had field curvature but not to bad. Nice field and eye relief. Put it up against a few Nagler's and the Nagler's been many hundreds of dollars compared to the Bintel eyepiece for $70 odd it did very well. Yes the Nagler's where better on all counts and I did prefer them but if you could not afford them the wide view was very good.
Bottom line was all the better eyepieces where better, some by a fair bit. But the Bintel plossl's where very serviceable. Would they be the only eyepieces to own?
No! but if you could not afford any others they will satisfy you until you looked through a premium eyepiece then you could burn a big hole in your pocket.
But if you can not burn that hole the the cheap eyepieces will do you well.

That was the night, it was clear very peaceful and enjoyable to be under the stars. See you under them sometime.

PS sorry about the pics taken with my phone!!!!
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  #2  
Old 26-01-2010, 10:37 AM
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orestis
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Nice report David,

That binoviewer looks like a good instrument.

I was thinking at either getting the wide view ep from bintel or the 20mm stratus.The stratus being a lot more expensive is good from what i've heard but i think i'll go with the wide view ep.Thanks.

Mars is looking good at the moment,i've been able to get some good detail.

happy observing
orestis
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Old 26-01-2010, 11:00 AM
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Nice report mate. Shame about the seeing, I was out on the same night and my experiences replicate yours. I did observe Mars and the polar cap and Syrtus Major jumped right out, but like you said it was too shimmery. Not good. Transparency however was marvellous I thought.

That 5" AP wouldn't happen to be yours now would it...
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Old 26-01-2010, 11:38 AM
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Dave47tuc (David)
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I wish
It's a once in a life Apo.
It's Julian's


Quote:
Originally Posted by pgc hunter View Post

That 5" AP wouldn't happen to be yours now would it...

Last edited by Dave47tuc; 26-01-2010 at 01:18 PM.
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Old 26-01-2010, 09:44 PM
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lol we'll have to pay Julian a little visit then don't we....every clear night
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Old 26-01-2010, 09:56 PM
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Dave47tuc (David)
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Julian is a good person to know. 18" Obsession 5" AP and also 90mm solarmax double stacked

yeh just got her. The EX can not touch this one

No first light yet. It seems a very nice scope.
I have done one mod and it moves very well indeed.
It will get a few mods and better EP's and a AN over time.
Was thinking of a 8" but when I had the SW 12" the views where awesome. So I could not go back from the 12"
I'm very impressed with the new GSO's there a bit different than the old style like the one I sold you.
By the way just read about your move to a SDM make for your 12" nice.
We have to get together sometime and do a night of viewing. You must look through Geoff's 15"
It's a super scope.
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Old 26-01-2010, 10:07 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave47tuc View Post
Julian is a good person to know. 18" Obsession 5" AP and also 90mm solarmax double stacked
Yup he's well equipped alright! I remember when I got the priviledge of holding that $olarmax in my arms at 3:30am after a long night of observing.....very brave move from him!!!!

Quote:
yeh just got her. The EX can not touch this one

No first light yet. It seems a very nice scope.
I have done one mod and it moves very well indeed.
It will get a few mods and better EP's and a AN over time.
Was thinking of a 8" but when I had the SW 12" the views where awesome. So I could not go back from the 12"
I'm very impressed with the new GSO's there a bit different than the old style like the one I sold you.
By the way just read about your move to a SDM make for your 12" nice.
We have to get together sometime and do a night of viewing. You must look through Geoff's 15"
It's a super scope.
Is that the new 12" gso? IMO 12" is an excellent comprimise between portability and performance. That's not to say I don't grunt when I lift mine

Last edited by pgc hunter; 27-01-2010 at 08:28 AM.
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Old 27-01-2010, 08:50 AM
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Dave47tuc (David)
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Yes it is. It has the so called ADX or whatever its called side bearings. Very smooth. Also has the lazy susan on base . It can go wild if not set right, but i learned with the SW I had that some felt blocks under the rocker box did the trick and it moves silky smooth.
Its heavy the OTA but not to bad. Would not like to do a long distance trip with it thou
The Dob mount is no different than the old 10" one you have now. It fits in the back seat.

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Is that the new 12" gso? IMO 12" is an excellent comprimise between portability and performance. That's not to say I don't grunt when I lift mine
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Old 29-01-2010, 09:20 PM
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Thanks for the report Dave. I will have to look through a binoviewer at some stage. I have to agree about the quality of the GSO plossls. I was a bit taken aback when I first got my 9 mm Nagler and compared it to the 9 mm GSO plossl that came with my 12" scope. Although the FOV was very different, the plossl did not fare too badly considering the price difference (ie an order of magnitude)
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Old 29-01-2010, 10:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paddy View Post
Thanks for the report Dave. I will have to look through a binoviewer at some stage. I have to agree about the quality of the GSO plossls. I was a bit taken aback when I first got my 9 mm Nagler and compared it to the 9 mm GSO plossl that came with my 12" scope. Although the FOV was very different, the plossl did not fare too badly considering the price difference (ie an order of magnitude)
The difference between my Vixen lvw's and the GSO plossls is astounding in my dobs. Edge performance is vastly superior to the plossls, and the difference in FOV feels much greater than the numbers would suggest.
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