[glend (Glen)]

I have had a good night finally, as the cloud disappeared as hoped. Went out at 2:30am to begin testing. The scope did not disappoint, and collimation was perfect, no tweaking required at all. Did star tests in various attitudes across the meridian and it was rock steady. Intra and Extra focus rings were perfect, and the sky was kind enough to allow good star test views. So glad that was good. Ran through a few doubles and saw very clear separations, despite the not perfect seeing. I have to mention Coma, I could not find any, if it was there it was not obvious visually in any field I looked at. Field size is not large, as you would imagine and this is a scope that benefits from a good mount properly aligned.
Moved onto the line of planets in the eastern sky, starting with Jupiter, Saturn and the Mars. Plus the bonus of Pluto lurking near Jupiter. Despite the proximity of the Moon flooding the scope i had very good non- Barlowed views, and detail was great, even pin point moons around the planets. Focus popped in fine. I was using a 2" 30mm Superview EP, then 20mm Superview, and 15mm Superview: equivalent of 81x, 121x, and 162x. I did try a 2x Televue Barlow but the sky conditions did not allow any improvement in detail. It was 17C with 74% humidity. In the hour and half I spent at the scope no fogging of the optics at all, it did certainly feel muggy with no breeze. A great first light result and I am very happy with this new scope.

PS, I must mention the detail the Moon revealed, it was amazing, the 30mm Superview just squeezing the whole sliver into its field of view.