Well, another update and more pics
Got out again last night to do a few hours observing before the moon popped up and before the wet season sets in. The dark site wasn't all that dark or wasn't as dark as previous visits. The bushfires on the horizon might have had something to do with that and it was slightly more humid too. Luckily a slight breeze kept the mozzies at bay.
Last night was also first light for my 10mm Delos and I was most impressed. I don't have the experience to give a knowledgeable and in-depth review except to say that my inexperienced eyes liked the clarity of view it exhibited and the comfort of the 20mm eye relief. I preferred the adjustable eye-guard fully extended and although tricky at first, soon worked out the best position to put my eye socket (just touching).
With my Parracorr the Delos gives me x 209 mag which was the maximum I wanted last night as the seeing was pretty average. Even so I did get a look at Uranus for the first time and Jupiter, even with a boiling atmosphere the detail and colours were amazing. This is a great planetary eyepiece IMO and the 72˚FOV seemed much larger than the +4˚ over the Panoptic. I will however have to adjust the balance of the scope yet once again as at low angles with the Delos the scope wanted to slowly nosedive.
My main mission for the night was to find my first comet, Garradd, which I did relatively easily thanks to the coordinates posted elsewhere on this forum and some tinkering with Stellarium. At first I thought I found another globular but the higher mag of the Delos didn't resolve any of the stars like it did rather impressively with 47 Tuc.
A check with Google images confirmed that the smudge with a bright dot was indeed Garradd. It wasn't the long tailed, shuttle-cock shape I was expecting but satisfying to find non the less.
Also knocked off a couple more Messier objects so a pretty busy three hours.
I will try and get out again next weekend but at this time of year it's a day by day proposition. If there aren't any cumulus nimbus clouds on the horizon near dusk then I'm there.
Here's a few pics. 1st is my Eyepiece transport case. Almost full but still space for 1 or 2 more EPs.
http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/v...f/SAM_1977.jpg
My TV eyepiece collection. The Delos is quite large.
http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/v...f/SAM_1980.jpg
The Delos hanging off the end of the parracorr. I can't imagine using a barlow as well. I wouldn't be able to reach the focuser.
http://i669.photobucket.com/albums/v...f/SAM_1968.jpg
I'm just starting to get right into this hobby. 5 months of clouds, heat, humidity and mozzies is going to be hard to take.
