astronut
09-04-2006, 07:53 AM
Well, after waiting three weeks I finally gave my 12" LB first light.
Between the weather and me pulling the thing apart it didn't have much of a chance earlier.
A few star starved members of our astroclub went out last night to catch up on observing, and along with the moon ( 3/4 phase ) and the wind, I pointed my baby to the stars. The former and the latter didn't help but my first impressions are WOW!!!:scared: All the old favourites just jumped out at me ( I've come from a 4" Refractor ) and the supplied 2" 26mm Meade with the 70D, F.O.V. performed well, some coma in the outer 1/3 of the image, but this didn't detract from the object.
All the other eyepieces widescan 111-16mm, ultima 24mm all with and without the barlow performed well.
I was very happy that the scope has tension adjustments on the alt & az bearings this kept the scope exactly where I wanted it to be, without backlash. The other two scopes on the field were spinning around in the wind.
I didn't go hunting for faint fuzzies due to the moon, I will wait another couple of weeks for that test.
It was a dream to set up ( in the dark for the first time ) and the collimation was only out a fraction to what it had been at home.
Speaking of collimation I now know the fun?:screwy: that I was missing out on all these years;) really though, I know that practice will make ( near ) perfect.:lol:
It's main feature being a truss scope came to the fore, it's so much easier handling a U.T.A. 3 trusses and a L.T.A. than one big tube, no hernias:lol:
The G.S.O. mirror performed well, a more critical test will be carried out in darker and less windy skies.
All in all I'm very happy with Meades new scopes and would recommend them to anyone. Price? $1499 + $69 collimator.
Between the weather and me pulling the thing apart it didn't have much of a chance earlier.
A few star starved members of our astroclub went out last night to catch up on observing, and along with the moon ( 3/4 phase ) and the wind, I pointed my baby to the stars. The former and the latter didn't help but my first impressions are WOW!!!:scared: All the old favourites just jumped out at me ( I've come from a 4" Refractor ) and the supplied 2" 26mm Meade with the 70D, F.O.V. performed well, some coma in the outer 1/3 of the image, but this didn't detract from the object.
All the other eyepieces widescan 111-16mm, ultima 24mm all with and without the barlow performed well.
I was very happy that the scope has tension adjustments on the alt & az bearings this kept the scope exactly where I wanted it to be, without backlash. The other two scopes on the field were spinning around in the wind.
I didn't go hunting for faint fuzzies due to the moon, I will wait another couple of weeks for that test.
It was a dream to set up ( in the dark for the first time ) and the collimation was only out a fraction to what it had been at home.
Speaking of collimation I now know the fun?:screwy: that I was missing out on all these years;) really though, I know that practice will make ( near ) perfect.:lol:
It's main feature being a truss scope came to the fore, it's so much easier handling a U.T.A. 3 trusses and a L.T.A. than one big tube, no hernias:lol:
The G.S.O. mirror performed well, a more critical test will be carried out in darker and less windy skies.
All in all I'm very happy with Meades new scopes and would recommend them to anyone. Price? $1499 + $69 collimator.