WOW what an awesome night. I didn't stay too late as I was up at 3am that morning, but the 3.5 hours I was there was filled to the eyeballs of amazing sights through Rod's 20" SDM.
What a work of art that monster is. The motion is very smooth - just the right amount of push/pull needed, not jerky at all.
And the view! OMG!
We started with the moon before it set.. even though it was low on the horizon (10-20deg) it was still very sharp. We were using the 22mm pano and the craters were very sharp. The earthshine side of the moon looked fantastic, and gave a real 3D appearance with background stars visible in the same field.
M42, shades of green/blue around the trap. 6 stars immediately visible and it wasn't even dark yet. Shades of pink in the outer regions of the nebula. The nebulosity around the trap looked 3D, with plenty of structure and detail visible in the gas.
Tarantula - WOW, so much nebulosity. The whole LMC area was a thrill to view. Just panning around the area was stunning.. small groups of clusters, nebulosity. Just beautiful.
Omega Centauri - using my 14mm Meade UWA s4000, it literally FILLED the eyepiece with pinpoint stars, all the way to the edge.
Saturn! WOW! Inky black background and Saturn so bright! We used my Pentax 7mm XW for 360x, and my Meade UWA 14mm for 180x an both views were absolutely stunning. The sky was very clear and the seeing very good. Amazing banding, Cassini division all the way around. Just a great view and SO BRIGHT!
We looked at a few galaxies including Centaurus A, M83, Leo triplet, NGC1365 and more, but most of them were too low down to really take full advantage of the aperture. But they were certainly bright and sharp.
The jewelbox was stunning, the stars so bright and crisp. We also looked at betelguese and then Sirius. Amazing! Sirius was so bright we needed sunglasses. We were looking at 360x and couldn't quite see the pup, but when defocused there were 2 sets of diffraction spikes so it was definitely there.
We looked at a few planetaries including the blue planetary and the one in M46 (can't remember the number now). Very bright!
and the best for last...
Eta Carinae and the Humunculus! WOW OMG! The view of the humunculus at 360x made me swear like a truckie! It literally blew me away. Structure bellowing out from the star.. you could literally see it glowing and it was just like the view from the hubble image, just smaller. It was the most incredible view I've ever seen of it. We went back to it several times and had I not been swearing I would've been speechless!
We also looked at Eta Carinae through RB's 31mm Nagler - wow, crisp stars, wide field of view, 3-dimensional. An incredible experience.
It was a fantastic night. Thanks to Rod for letting us view through your marvellous scope. It's a piece of art - Peter Read at SDM is to be congratulated on a superb instrument. The mirror looks every bit as fantastic as the specs, pinpoint stars every single time.
I cannot wait to view through this beauty again at SPSP!
Nice report Mike, sounds like you are ruined for life. I'm assuming some of those views were only attainable from a ladder, how high was it necessary to go at the zenith??
Yeh Phil we used a ladder for most objects, however we only needed go up 2 steps usually, 3 steps at the most. Still comfortable and not too far off the ground to be scary.
Yeah these truly are awesome scopes, looking through Paul Haese's 18" SDM left us speechless at Snake Valley, awesome views of every object. Peter Read and OMI will be on my shopping list if I can ever afford one of these fine instruments.
I was left speechless after looking through this magnificent scope.
The Humunculus was something I had only seen in pictures but never like this thru an EP !
It actually lit up like a neon sign !
Jupiter looked like we were hovering in orbit around it, the detail was amazing.
The workmanship is something else and Peter has done a magnificent job indeed.
Congrats once again Rod and thank you for a most memorable Kulnura night !
Making comparisons between my 10" and Rods 20" was pointless. Furry blobs take on definition and stucture. Planetaries with detail and galaxies fill the eyepiece. Totally mind blowing.
Thanks Rod.
It was a real experience.
Making comparisons between my 10" and Rods 20" was pointless. Furry blobs take on definition and stucture. Planetaries with detail and galaxies fill the eyepiece. Totally mind blowing.
Thanks Rod.
It was a real experience.
It was like that for me looking through Julians 18". Somehow after looking through a large aperture scope, 10" just doesnt cut it anymore
Glad to hear the observing night went well guys and most importantly that Rod's scope performed as expected. I knew it would, having an OMI mirror in the 18" and having used John Trudgen's 20"/F5 also with an OMI mirror (SDM #11) last Monday night at Coona.
Now I don't like to rub it in but we had the Homunculus at just over 700X in Murrell's 25" and at 600X in my 18" last week at Coonabarabran. Now if that doesn't make you envious, how about M4, M22, NGC 2808 and NGC 6397 all being naked eye objects as the night rolled on. I estimated limiting magnitude to be between 7.1 and 7.2. .
Now I don't like to rub it in but we had the Homunculus at just over 700X in Murrell's 25" and at 600X in my 18" last week at Coonabarabran.
CS-John B
Ok, John, You said it first
A good 20" is certainly only waiting for the finest seeing at 360X (at 18X magnification per inch) . I regard about 30X per inch the minimum amount that the diffraction pattern can be enlarged enough to the eye to resolve it , to bring out all the scope has to deliver resolution wise.Its a bit like moving your eye close enough to a newspaper photo that sudddenly you are seeing the dots .
Once the first ring of the Airy Pattern is visible, no more resolution can be gleaned. I call that the point of image `breakdown' . Nights like that are not very common of course. On a 12" thats around 350X tops. If testimonials are to be believed on one of the USA mirror vendor forums, the laws of physics are different in the USA: mirrors over there can go to 100X over there without image breakdown
What size mount will you need to get one of these for imaging????
Paul Hease has his 18 inch motorised and fully plans to image thru it. it should by rights give some of the best results we have seen of course you know very well it would take something very special to EQ mount a 20"
super report mike! just picturing you swearing... I can almost picture it in my mind
I'd love to go galaxy hunting in one of those beasts!
Observing through Rod's 20" SDM
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