grandpanancy
17-05-2005, 07:43 PM
For those interested I thought I would do a small report on this scope and the eyepieces I have been using.
The telescope is a Megrez 80mm ED Triplet refractor, the eyepieces include 2" 33mm Swan, 1.25" 9mm UO HD ortho, 1.25" TV 8-24mm Zoom and a William Optics x2.5 barlow. And it's mounted on a microstar basic altaz mount -- pictures of the setup can be found previously posted in this forum.
Keep in mind that I'm relatively new to astronomy so this is a beginners point of view.
The 33mm swan gives a nice low mag wide field view. Stars are pinpoint about 2/3 to the edge -- in the final third there is seagulling which i personally find a bit distracting but probably to be expected from an ep in this price range. This ep has provided amazing views in the eta carinae region of the sky.
The 9mm HD ortho gives nice bright views of jupiter and saturn at x62 mag. The two brownish cloud bands on jupiter are clear, with saturns shadow cast onto the rings also visible -- at times the cassini division is also visible. The images are very sharp and aesthetically pleasing. Teaming this up with barlow to give x155 has generally been a fraction too much magnification except in moments of good seeing. There is noticible softening of the image at this magnification but i suspect the poor coditions have also had something to do with this.
I felt the TV 8-24 Zoom was a bit of a risk purchase given some of the poor reviews it has recieved. However, from what I did read a small refractor seems to be the best companion for this ep. I have found it to be a brilliant acquisiton and it is easily the most used ep. I get powers from x23 to x175 (with barlow) and everything in between! Without the barlow it has been perfect for star clusters and glob clusters in scorp. and sag. It is nice to be able to find exactly the right mag and field of view to frame the cluster without changing the ep. I'm particularly fond of the butterfly cluster (m6 I think?) in this region. Stars are pinpoint sharp all the way to the edge of the field of view. With the barlow I found this ep to be excellent on the planets and lunar. Again, it enables you to select the right mag for the conditions easily. Remebering that I'm only a beginner (which may have something to do with it), I found image quality using this ep comparable to the ortho -- maybe not quite as bright but certainly as sharp and it provides just as much detail. It also has the advantage of far better eye relief.
The barlow itself isn't too bad but I certainly wouldn't recommend it. As far as I can tell it doesn't introduce any chromatic abberation but it has a very small clear aperture for a 2" barlow at a very expesive price. In fact, the clear aperture is less than most 1.25" barlows. In hind sight, TVs big barlow would have been better but I will admit I was stung by brand loyalty!
Overall, the scopes performance has been pleasing and what I expected from the positive reviews. Chromatic abberation is noticible only on bright stars such as sirius. Star tests in good seeing have showed a nice airy disc in focus, and nice circular concentric rings outside focus. My only concern is that inside focus the concentric rings have a slightly jagged and hazy appearance (particularly the outside ring) -- if anyone has read this far and knows what this might be or might with a better description your suggestions would be appreciated.
To finish, the biggest advantage of this scope is its portability. I have been able to get this scope out for short sessions in between clouds when I just wouldn't have bothered with anything bigger -- this is the primary reason why I got this scope as I felt it would maximise use. Don't get me wrong, more aperture on nights when i have lots of time and patience would be nice, but I figure 3" of frequently used aperture is better than x" of unused aperture.
Feel free to ask any questions.
Cheers,
Dan
The telescope is a Megrez 80mm ED Triplet refractor, the eyepieces include 2" 33mm Swan, 1.25" 9mm UO HD ortho, 1.25" TV 8-24mm Zoom and a William Optics x2.5 barlow. And it's mounted on a microstar basic altaz mount -- pictures of the setup can be found previously posted in this forum.
Keep in mind that I'm relatively new to astronomy so this is a beginners point of view.
The 33mm swan gives a nice low mag wide field view. Stars are pinpoint about 2/3 to the edge -- in the final third there is seagulling which i personally find a bit distracting but probably to be expected from an ep in this price range. This ep has provided amazing views in the eta carinae region of the sky.
The 9mm HD ortho gives nice bright views of jupiter and saturn at x62 mag. The two brownish cloud bands on jupiter are clear, with saturns shadow cast onto the rings also visible -- at times the cassini division is also visible. The images are very sharp and aesthetically pleasing. Teaming this up with barlow to give x155 has generally been a fraction too much magnification except in moments of good seeing. There is noticible softening of the image at this magnification but i suspect the poor coditions have also had something to do with this.
I felt the TV 8-24 Zoom was a bit of a risk purchase given some of the poor reviews it has recieved. However, from what I did read a small refractor seems to be the best companion for this ep. I have found it to be a brilliant acquisiton and it is easily the most used ep. I get powers from x23 to x175 (with barlow) and everything in between! Without the barlow it has been perfect for star clusters and glob clusters in scorp. and sag. It is nice to be able to find exactly the right mag and field of view to frame the cluster without changing the ep. I'm particularly fond of the butterfly cluster (m6 I think?) in this region. Stars are pinpoint sharp all the way to the edge of the field of view. With the barlow I found this ep to be excellent on the planets and lunar. Again, it enables you to select the right mag for the conditions easily. Remebering that I'm only a beginner (which may have something to do with it), I found image quality using this ep comparable to the ortho -- maybe not quite as bright but certainly as sharp and it provides just as much detail. It also has the advantage of far better eye relief.
The barlow itself isn't too bad but I certainly wouldn't recommend it. As far as I can tell it doesn't introduce any chromatic abberation but it has a very small clear aperture for a 2" barlow at a very expesive price. In fact, the clear aperture is less than most 1.25" barlows. In hind sight, TVs big barlow would have been better but I will admit I was stung by brand loyalty!
Overall, the scopes performance has been pleasing and what I expected from the positive reviews. Chromatic abberation is noticible only on bright stars such as sirius. Star tests in good seeing have showed a nice airy disc in focus, and nice circular concentric rings outside focus. My only concern is that inside focus the concentric rings have a slightly jagged and hazy appearance (particularly the outside ring) -- if anyone has read this far and knows what this might be or might with a better description your suggestions would be appreciated.
To finish, the biggest advantage of this scope is its portability. I have been able to get this scope out for short sessions in between clouds when I just wouldn't have bothered with anything bigger -- this is the primary reason why I got this scope as I felt it would maximise use. Don't get me wrong, more aperture on nights when i have lots of time and patience would be nice, but I figure 3" of frequently used aperture is better than x" of unused aperture.
Feel free to ask any questions.
Cheers,
Dan