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12 inch GSO dob update.
I finally got one very clear night to properly test the capabilities of this scope, and it was just awesome considering my mag. 5 light polluted skies.
I began observing at about 11:30 just after the clouds had finally all cleared away and stayed up to 4:30. That night I am sure I observed more DSOs then any other night in my life!
I first had a look at the Sombrero galaxy M104, it was rather bright and I was easily able to make out its bright centre and the dust lane, but its outer glow which is what really gives it its name was very difficult to see. Another galaxy I saw was NGC 5128 which was bright and the dust lane very large and obvious splitting the round galaxy in two.
This night I got to view Eta carina under more ideal conditions and high above the horizon towards zenith. And this time the view blew my little 4.5 incher way out of the water!!! The nebula was very bright, dark lanes clearly visible, filled with hundreds of starts and filling up the entire view through the 2" 30mm 80 degree eye piece!!! A lot of structure was also visible in the brighter parts of the nebula.
I had a good look at two planetary nebulas NGC 2438 in M46 and the Blue planetary NGC 3918. NGC 2438 was very clearly visible even with direct vision, it appeared to me to be about the same size as jupiters disc. I was actually very surprised with how bright it was considering it is listed at mag. 10 and I am viewing under light polluted skies. The Blue planetary was much brighter but smaller and had a very distinct aqua blue colour. It looked a lot like uranus. At higher magnifications it seemed to loose its colour.
I observed many more DSOs that night including many globular clusters which looked fantastic revealing their stars. My favorite eyepiece was the 9.5mm ED yielding 160x which seemed to be an ideal magnification to view many DSOs with this scope. The 2" 80 deg. 30mm and 15mm eyepieces were ideal for viewing large, brighter and more extended DSOs such as M42, omega centauri and eta carina, as well as many open clusters.
Cant wait for more clear skies!!!
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