First light report (hooray!)!
Firstly I'd like to add a note now to anyone who might read this, and is in a similar prediciment that I was trying to decide what to buy; if it is at all possible, try and get near both an 8" and 10" scope that are setup before making up your mind. The 10" is massive, and a real handful to carry with just one person (at least down a flight of stairs). I can only imagine what the 12" is like to carry! Oh, and if you go the 10" make sure you take a big enough car to go and pick the package up if you miss the courier (see post above). I definately don't regret buying the 10", though its about the biggest I could go, though, and still have something managable in terms of transporting it around (ie. listen to the guys on these forums
). Its not the weight thats the problem its the arkwardness of carrying the OTA.
The clouds have finally disappeared, I don't know exactly when that happened as it had rained earlier in the day and looked like the weather had settled in for the rest of the weekend. I walked out from a friends house at 11pm tonight and jupiter was staring me in the face! Looked up to see if the clouds were gone and realised it was home time.
I got home, assembled the rest of the scope (just the finder and the springs) and started moving the scope outside to start the cooling down period (no easy task getting the scope outside as its stored on the second level at the moment which means lots of stairs
). I waited about 30mins (ok well it was an excited 30mins, so probably more like 10
), grabbed the EP's, a jumper and ventured outside. I roughly lined jupiter up in the finder, located it using the 40mm (easy enough as it was just about roof level) and set about trying to get the finder half accurate. I spent about the next 30mins or so changing around the EP's testing each one out on jupiter. It's amazing just how fast jupiter can move when viewing it even at just 138x! It was great seeing the moons all lined up, couldnt quite get much detail in the planet itsself though, the colour appeared washed out as though it was too bright. Unfortunately saturn had already started descending into the trees by the time I got the scope sorted out so it is going to have to wait until tomorrow (watch it rain now!). Really looking forward to a viewing of saturn. It has been great looking at it through the 60mm cheapy, if it looks even a little better in this scope I will be wrapped!
I turned over to the cross to have a play around after jupiter. I found a great looking double star in what I think was one of the cross stars (would that be right?!). Moved around the area near the cross with the 25mm GS (50x) just to have a wander, and ended up finding a great looking cluster, which after a little investigation appears to be NGC 3532 (again would that be right? looks to be). I spent a good few mins looking at the cluster (its impressive viewing something like a cluster in something YOU own!), and looking at all those stars was really quite scary, it really made me feel about this big -> .
In short:
- seeing was average, transparency was lousy.
- the 25mm GS was easily the most used EP of the night, and the best EP so far. It feels good to use and with average conditions gave the best images of both jupiter, and that cluster I stumbled on (which I also tried with the 9mm).
- the 40mm and 4mm so far have been useless, at least in the conditions I had tonight. The 40mm might be handy for the moon maybe, but for jupiter I may as well have used the 10x25 binoculars (it was handy for aligning the finder though). The 4mm just gave me a big piece of blurry nothing when aimed at jupiter (I was pushing it with the 9mm, let alone the 4mm at 312x in very average conditions). Even then it doesnt feel like an EP I would use even on a good night. The 9mm barlowed seems like a better idea for the planets.
- i need a few hours more practice in moving the dob around, it was hard to get used to the motion of it.
Things I need (already brought a trolley today ready for somewhere to put the scope downstairs):
- red LED torch (badly!). Every time I came inside to get a new EP or use the calculator it stuffed my night vision which meant a few mins outside before I could keep viewing.
- that chair! Astronomy without a chair is hard work! My back and neck are going to be sore tomorrow.
- a printed out map, or book.. or something. Need the torch first.
- a 15mm EP, or a barlow to get the inbetween mags. The gap between 9mm and 25mm is too great.
- some of the ice-mods done to my scope, especially the handle and milk bottle washer mods (ps. I found it much easier to use the base with just one spring on, is that normal?).
The only reason I stopped viewing is because I was getting dewed out pretty badly. It was 8C at 1am though, and this is Bathurst. It was a great few hours of viewing though, very happy with things thus far.
And lastly a note to myself; the OTA when its dewy is extremely slippery! I was bringing it inside after packing up and almost let it slip right out of my hands. The pulse went nuts I can tell you!
ps. If any of that doesnt make sense its early, Im tired but very much awake (ie. excited).