luminary
03-04-2010, 09:30 PM
After a week, I suddenly had an opportunity to use the scope properly for the first time. I had had one or two opportunities to familiarise myself with the alignment process on clouded nights by using the moon and another visible star using two star auto align. Had also allowed it to get the GPS ephemeris etc by leaving it on for half an hour etc.
Today after a week of cloudy nights, took the scope out to the yard at 18:00 where there is unfortunately much light pollution from a neighbours "security lights" and a street light but not much I could do about that.
Got myself ready and covered in aerogard. Waited till about 18:30 and started the alignment process with the two star auto align. Started with a-Centauri and let it slew automatically to Canopus and it was way off. Found the alignment through the finder scope difficult at this angle as Canopus was almost at the zenith at that point. So restarted by aligning first on Canopus - I released the clutches and aligned by hand first. Then allowed it to auto slew to a-Centauri - again miles off but I used the motor to get it in the finder scope and pressed align. Everything went through OK.
I had the 21mm Ethos in the diagonal. Alignment was made easier by defocussing so the star airy disc becomes large and centering this in the eyepiece is alot easier than a small pinpoint in the 100 degree field.
The defocussing gives a nice impression of collimation too. Practically perfect in this case from the factory. Very impressive.
Focussed back on the star again - a-Centauri easily separated as a double. The 100 degree expanse of the Ethos is very very nice. It definitely requires the eye to be placed carefully and close but I had no difficulty seeing the field stop with my peripheral vision when I wanted to concentrate on it. Other times the central vision takes over and one feels immersed in the field.
OK so I decided to try out NGC104 or Tuc 47. This is in a very bad spot for me since the streetlight is in the same rough direction. Slight tweak of the focus and I see a nebulous patch - faint. Individual stars are just visible but at the limits of direct vision. AVerted vision gives slightly more but its not very impressive from my location.
Saturn had just cleared the roof of the next door neighbour by now so I did the GOTO to it.
A slight amount of recentering (due to my alignment imprecision initially) and I had the cute disc of Saturn and its rings edge on. I tweaked the focus somewhat and the viewing was very steady. After a little time i could make out very slight banding. After a further period I could resolve two moons. Both Westward - the rings were running vertically and the moons were superior or Westward as I looked at it in a laterally reversed view through the SCT. One moon, the easier to see was about a rings width away outside the rings and the other was observed just below or Southward and within the span of the rings.
At this point I changed over to the 13mm Ethos and refocussed. The viewing was again steady and the two moons were much easier to resolve. wished I had a higher power eyepiece at this point but the view was superb. The wide field of the 13mm is also immersive and very easy to use.
Noticed here that the focussing knob on my CPC is very slightly notchy in that it seems to move in little bursts at times and very occasionally I see the image jump somewhat. Not sure if this is normal for an SCT.
After about 3-5 minutes of observing Saturn - with only very occasional slow turbulence in the view which I put down to some heat off the neighbours roof and not atmosphere since the viewing was very nice tonight; I decided to look at a few other easy targets.
First eta Carinae nebula. Back to the 21mm Ethos. And here I was just stunned. Even with the light pollution, the nebulosity was evident. I could make out in the dark lanes the "emu's head" and neck of the emu. The 100 degree field was simply amazing. I spent 5 or more minutes just looking here with direct and averted vision.
Then to the jewel box. Again stunning. Greeted with groups of three and four almost collinear stars like mini Orion's belts. Surprisingly geometrical and I could see the orange of one of the stars easily.
Finally to omega centauri nebula (NGC 5139) and again a bit of a disappointment in the light pollution, like Tuc 47 but I could just see the faint cluster of stars filling the entire central field of the Ethos. I didn't bother going to the 13mm as doing that on NGC 104 had resulted in a less than stellar view - pun intended.
Had to cut the session there as I had prior commitments and really took the scope out to get my first real views. About an hour of viewing and despite the tropical strength Aerogard roll on.. the mozzies had gotten me on the fingers.
I was very impressed at what I could see despite the light pollution and now can't wait till I use this in real dark sky conditions.
Today after a week of cloudy nights, took the scope out to the yard at 18:00 where there is unfortunately much light pollution from a neighbours "security lights" and a street light but not much I could do about that.
Got myself ready and covered in aerogard. Waited till about 18:30 and started the alignment process with the two star auto align. Started with a-Centauri and let it slew automatically to Canopus and it was way off. Found the alignment through the finder scope difficult at this angle as Canopus was almost at the zenith at that point. So restarted by aligning first on Canopus - I released the clutches and aligned by hand first. Then allowed it to auto slew to a-Centauri - again miles off but I used the motor to get it in the finder scope and pressed align. Everything went through OK.
I had the 21mm Ethos in the diagonal. Alignment was made easier by defocussing so the star airy disc becomes large and centering this in the eyepiece is alot easier than a small pinpoint in the 100 degree field.
The defocussing gives a nice impression of collimation too. Practically perfect in this case from the factory. Very impressive.
Focussed back on the star again - a-Centauri easily separated as a double. The 100 degree expanse of the Ethos is very very nice. It definitely requires the eye to be placed carefully and close but I had no difficulty seeing the field stop with my peripheral vision when I wanted to concentrate on it. Other times the central vision takes over and one feels immersed in the field.
OK so I decided to try out NGC104 or Tuc 47. This is in a very bad spot for me since the streetlight is in the same rough direction. Slight tweak of the focus and I see a nebulous patch - faint. Individual stars are just visible but at the limits of direct vision. AVerted vision gives slightly more but its not very impressive from my location.
Saturn had just cleared the roof of the next door neighbour by now so I did the GOTO to it.
A slight amount of recentering (due to my alignment imprecision initially) and I had the cute disc of Saturn and its rings edge on. I tweaked the focus somewhat and the viewing was very steady. After a little time i could make out very slight banding. After a further period I could resolve two moons. Both Westward - the rings were running vertically and the moons were superior or Westward as I looked at it in a laterally reversed view through the SCT. One moon, the easier to see was about a rings width away outside the rings and the other was observed just below or Southward and within the span of the rings.
At this point I changed over to the 13mm Ethos and refocussed. The viewing was again steady and the two moons were much easier to resolve. wished I had a higher power eyepiece at this point but the view was superb. The wide field of the 13mm is also immersive and very easy to use.
Noticed here that the focussing knob on my CPC is very slightly notchy in that it seems to move in little bursts at times and very occasionally I see the image jump somewhat. Not sure if this is normal for an SCT.
After about 3-5 minutes of observing Saturn - with only very occasional slow turbulence in the view which I put down to some heat off the neighbours roof and not atmosphere since the viewing was very nice tonight; I decided to look at a few other easy targets.
First eta Carinae nebula. Back to the 21mm Ethos. And here I was just stunned. Even with the light pollution, the nebulosity was evident. I could make out in the dark lanes the "emu's head" and neck of the emu. The 100 degree field was simply amazing. I spent 5 or more minutes just looking here with direct and averted vision.
Then to the jewel box. Again stunning. Greeted with groups of three and four almost collinear stars like mini Orion's belts. Surprisingly geometrical and I could see the orange of one of the stars easily.
Finally to omega centauri nebula (NGC 5139) and again a bit of a disappointment in the light pollution, like Tuc 47 but I could just see the faint cluster of stars filling the entire central field of the Ethos. I didn't bother going to the 13mm as doing that on NGC 104 had resulted in a less than stellar view - pun intended.
Had to cut the session there as I had prior commitments and really took the scope out to get my first real views. About an hour of viewing and despite the tropical strength Aerogard roll on.. the mozzies had gotten me on the fingers.
I was very impressed at what I could see despite the light pollution and now can't wait till I use this in real dark sky conditions.