WOW
Last night was one of the best observing nights I've had to date. The seeing conditions were only slightly better than average, but what was seen was pretty impressive. Unfortunately for the 3rd time in a row I was the only DAG to turn up but at least I had the wife for company (except for that one hour she fell asleep).
Highlights: To start with it was hard to actually settle at the eyepiece for most of the night because of the Southern Delta Aquarids. The display was often spectacular with clusters of meteors making an appearance on occasion. I counted 3 in 10 seconds once and 6 in a minute another time. Several where huge and lit up the sky!
There was also a red/yellow/green shimmering light in the west that seemed to pulsate close to the horizon before setting at about 11pm. I thought it might have been an aircraft but many planes came and went but this thing just seemed to hover over Darwin. The Darwin Cup ball was on so if they were using lazers combined with compatible atmospheric conditions....or....it was a UFO. Either way it wasn't a planet and it was weird.
I waited for Jupiter to rise from the East and there was no mistaking it when it did.
This was the first time I set eyes on it (through a telescope) and its 4 big moons and was surprised by the rich colours observed. Being close to the horizon there was a slight shimmer around it but the banding was very clear. 2 o'clock came and so did the dew so it was time to call it a night. The mirrors were fine but the Telrad and eyepieces were starting to fog and it was time to get the other half home.
Collimation I thought the view previously in the 16" was good but I obviously didn't know any better because last night everything seemed a lot sharper and not because I was using premium glass (although that did help). Even the plossls showed the stars as being more defined with less flaring. The lazer now fits within the donut ring fully and setting up with the Cheshire showed that the secondary was just a fraction out. Again thanks Alex for the tips
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TV 24mm Panoptic I'm a beginner and no expert on eyepieces but here are my layman first impressions. Of the 2 new TV eyepieces purchased this was the most comfortable to use and my favourite. Combined with the Paracorr it gave me a power of 86x. The eye relief was just about perfect for me and the field of view although obviously narrower than the Nagler was sufficiently wide enough to drop my jaw more than once. The Paracorr obviously did it's trick with stars in focus its entire FOV. Took in Saturn, M13 and the Eagle, Lagoon and Trifid nebulas and the detail was brighter and better defined than I had observed with my GSO EPs but that could also be the better collimation playing a part as well. I also appreciated leaving the Dob alone for longer before having to adjust it. For a non goto dob, wide FOV Eps are essential in my opinion (FWIW). This Ep will be the one that I'll end up loading first at the beginning of every session.
TV 13T6 Nagler 82 degrees FOV certainly is impressive and it was the first time I've used one this wide. At 159x it gives an impressive view of the same target objects above although you couldn't frame all of the larger nebulas the details within them was fantastic. The 16" aperture obviously helps but the nebulas weren't just pale smudges anymore but positively glowed.
Although I liked the Pan more, this EP was also very impressive, especially when viewing Saturn. It took one and a half minutes for it to traverse from one side of the EP to the other, plenty of time to get a good look before going the nudge. There were however two things I didn't like about the 13mmT6. 1st there was some reflection within the EP on bright objects, not a lot but noticeable and correct eye placement usually combats this; which brings me to the 2nd issue which is eye relief. I suspect it will become less of an issue as I grow more familiar with it, but getting your eye at just the right distance from the lens was harder to do than with the Panoptic, especially whilst standing. These are only minor points aren't deal breakers. It certainly wont be finding its way to the classifieds anytime soon. However the 10mm Delos is looking more likely than the 9mmT6 to be my next purchase. Stay tuned.
Astronomik UHC filter I popped this into both TV EPs on occasion, mainly to look at the Nebulas and globulars. It did dim the views a bit but you did have better contrast. All the bright stars were subdued so that instead of being boiling beacons they were little white disks. I however much preferred the luminosity of the Nebulas and clusters without the filter so I doubt I'll use it too often. Looking at Jupiter with it resulted in a red crescent surrounding the planet so it's obviously not of much use there.
Any problems? Yes there was one. The added weight of the Paracorr and not overly heavy TVs means that at altitudes less than 45 degrees the tube nosedives.
The tension side knobs helps arrests this downward travel to some extent but I had to hold the tube up whilst looking at Jupiter low on the horizon. There is some ability to adjust the COG by about 25mm but it isn't an easy job. I like the idea of large and heavy felt covered magnets that I can attach to the metal base. Does anyone know of an Australian distributor for this kind of product
(the one in the USA doesn't export).
So to sum up the night was a cracker. It was a clear, dark night, the mozzies were in bed by 8pm and I had a couple of new toys and 50 - 60 meteors to keep me entertained. I'm loving this Astronomy thing.
