12" GSO Dob: the first six months

[fragchamp]

12" GSO Dob
Orion collimating eyepiece
30mm Andrews UW
24mm Baader Hyperion
21mm Denkmeier D21
10mm Pentax XW
9mm GSO plossl
8mm TV plossl

Hiya.

I've been meaning to give a first light report for about six months now but I've been waiting for high powered EPs that never arrived. I wanted to know how good my mirror was. The Airy pattern is better on one side than the other, but the image can be sharp and it normally feels like I'm limited by atmosphere or collimation instead of the mirror. I've modded my Dob with setting circles, some black felt opposite the focuser, and a bottom end cap to stop the dust. Here are my favourite views in the last six months.

M42, Hyperion
Hyperion is not a premium EP in a fast Dob, but it has a colour rendition that I love. It's cooler than Pentax, yet red stars somehow look ruby red too. One particular night M42 seemed twice as big and bright as normal. It was emerald green for the most part and a gorgeous glossy blue-green in the center. I saw it a dozen different nights after that and it was never as good. If I'd known it was a rare experience I'd have looked at it longer.

Tarantula neb, GSO plossl
GSO plossl. It's about half as bright and sharp as the XW, yet it frames that nebula so well that I prefer it on that target.

Omega Centauri glob, XW
A unique glob: it looks about the same through binoculars as most globs look through the Dob. I did not even tweak to the existence of this object until very late, when I thought there would be no more "wow" targets. XW is made for this one. Pale golden colour, so many stars and many more just lingering at the limit of detection.

Eta Carina neb, XW
Such a big nebula, and it does look good at lower power too, but there's a bright little golden feature in it that you need high power for. Stars are nice and sharp too.

Saturn, Jupiter
Seeing Saturn for the first time was a thrill, even though it was just above the horizon and hardly resembled the views I got later. Saturn peaked at alt 40 where I am. I never really saw the Cassini division, but I didn't have the TV 8 plossl then. On one good night (the only one I seem to have had all winter) I confirmed that TV 8 does beat the XW 10 for planetary detail. Was anyone in Victoria seeing the Cassini division this time around?

Moon, XW
The first time I saw the moon was through the 30mm UW. If you value your retinas, don't do that. XW 10 is perfect though. It looks best near new or near full. I don't see it that much though, since normally I want to avoid it.

Other targets I've enjoyed included Jewel box cluster, Sombrero galaxy, Omega, Trifid and Lagoon nebulae.

[ngcles]

Hi Fragchamp & All,

It seems to me you have few (no) regrets on your choice of telescope -- a 12" 'scope has enough aperture to keep you busy pretty much for life.

Well done on targets observed and it seems you are observing carefully enough to see lots of details that a cursory glance passes by.

Congrats and keep it up!

Best,

Les D

[iceman (Mike)]

Great set of eyepieces and a nice first 6 months report! 12" newts are fantastic value for money.

[AstralTraveller (David)]

So how do you find the Denkmeier? I'm not in the market for one - just curious.

[fragchamp]

Originally Posted by ngcles

It seems to me you have few (no) regrets on your choice of telescope -- a

No, it's great, and thanks to everyone who gave me advice on the purchase six months ago. The difficulty came with choosing EPs as it's been inconvenient for me to get to a club to try some out. Had to settle for sifting through opinions on boards.

Forgot to mention other highlights 47 Tuc and NGC5128. 47 Tuc and Jupiter were good last night.

[fragchamp]

Originally Posted by AstralTraveller

So how do you find the Denkmeier? I'm not in the market for one - just curious.

Ok then.
I can only compare with Hyperion 24. Both show the same number of stars. D21 has better edge performance and less reflections (ghost images) which are especially noticeable on planets. Colour temp of D21 looks about the same as XW. The cooler colour of the Hyperion is what's stopping me from selling it. I'd be interested to compare D21 to a Panoptic or XW. The vault case and the eyeguard flap as design choices are both silly IMO. If I dropped the EP in that vault it would surely put huge stress on the barrel, wheras if I dropped my XW in it's foam/plastic case I'd be confident of it surviving unharmed. I made my own eyecup for it