iceman
24-03-2007, 10:06 AM
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!
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!