Just looked at your thread Stu I was writing this at the time.
Hi All,
A quick observing report from last night. 30th December 2005.
Place, Julian’s. Present me, Stu, and Julian.
Scopes, My Mak, Julian’s 12” SCT GPS. And his Tele Vue NP 101. (See below)
Stu’s WO 80mm on LXD75 mount.
We observed from dusk till 2.30am. Plenty of cloud with lots of clear patches so we got plenty of observing in.
It seemed like we where jinxed! All the scopes played up it was unreal. Mine was only a flat battery. (Doh) Stu’s Mount would not work he kept calm I would not have!
The 12” took a few set ups before it worked. I could not work it out. Anyway mine was ok with a new battery and the SCT was working ok at the end. Only the LXD75 never got going.
Slipping gears I think.
All this gave Saturn time to get high in the sky. All I can say is Stu is Apo stricken.
The seeing was ok, hard to give a number it changed so much. But we where able to use well over 300x in my Mak and a 3.5mm in the Apo.
Plenty of light in the sct but not as sharp as the smaller scopes. We had plenty of eyepieces on hand and they where in and out of scopes faster than I can eat dinner!
I’m so happy with the Mak, it really preformed super on Saturn. I was able to push the magnification all the way even with a 5 mm in a F12 scope! Of course lower power was better. I just sat and really enjoyed the views in my 18 mm Ortho and a 6 mm Ortho in the 4” Apo. Really sharp viewing.
All the eyepieces worked well Naglers Panoptics Ortho’s Plossl’s etc.
It was a great night thanks Julian and Stu for the company. Some of those scopes I mentioned very frustrating. At least two where shinning lights.