Hey guys.
Had a great night and morning, the first really clear night in over a week, and the first clear morning in over a week, although the moon really washed out the sky this morning as it was directly overhead (well, close enough). It was almost my first light after flocking the OTA and cleaning my mirror!
I spent some time last night evaluating the Andrews UW80degree 30mm (2") that Mark Hodson has leant me. My initial impressions after my 10 minutes using it last week weren't the best, but after spending about an hour with it last night I like it a lot more. The field is nice and large and it is possible to immerse yourself in the view, having to look up/down/left/right to take in the whole field.
I am still disappointed with the sharpness around the edges, there's probably almost 1/3rd of the view around the edges where the stars look like seagulls. But the more I used it, the more I got used to it and didn't find it as annoying as I did at first. My 50 degree 32mm (1.25") GSO plossl exhibits the same problems around the outer edges, but because of the wider field in the UW80 it's obviously much more noticeable.
I'd like to be able to compare it against the 30mm GSO SV, which has a 60-something degree field, to compare the edge sharpness and field-of-view in my f/5 dob. Like many others, I do think that either the SV or the Andrews UW80 will make a good budget widefield low power 2" eyepiece, as long as you learn to live with the aberrations around the edge of the field. I'd also like to try both with a 2" barlow to see what they're like at twice the magnification - hopefully i've got a loaner on it's way from Andrews soon.
For my tests I went open cluster hunting in Canis Major and Puppis. I also took in my first planetary nebula!
In Canis Major:
M41
NGC2360
NGC2362
In Puppis:
M46
M47
NGC2438 (my first planetary neb!)
M93
NGC2451
NGC2477
NGC2546
In Orion:
M42 (of course!)
I must say that M46 was my favourite! What a great open cluster, looks like a loose globular. I could make out a hint of NGC2438 on the northern edge of M46 with the Andrews UW80, and confirmed it's position when I put in my 9mm plossl, the grey ring was quite evident, although I did wish I had a OIII or UHC filter.
I'd had enough of open clusters so I put the UW80 away and turned my view to Saturn.. seeing was very good, in my 9mm the CD was visible more often than not, which is a sign of good seeing for me. My wife even saw the CD and banding on the planet for the first time. Conditions were good enough for me to want to capture some avi's, so I setup the laptop and ToUcam and took some avi's of Saturn. I'll process them in the next day or 2 and see how they turned out.. Hopefully they were good!
My thoughts on the flocking - I do think it made a distinct difference, especially when viewing Saturn. The glare around the planet was significantly reduced and contrast seemed enhanced.
It's hard to judge whether the clean mirror made a difference, the views of the night were very good, clean and crisp, so the mirror might've helped, but seeing was also good. In any case, a clean mirror can't hurt
I got some sleep, and got up again this morning to do some imaging of Jupiter. It was very close to the moon (probably about 2-3 degrees separating them), so not sure if the avi's will be all washed out, but the planet itself looked ok on the preview screen.
Seeing was pretty good, but not as good as last night. I got some good avi's of Jupiter, and then decided I may as well take some avi's of the moon while it's there.
I then turned to Mars, which was about 10-15 degrees above the horizon, right in the middle of Scorpius and Sagittarius, maybe about 10 degrees below Antares. It'll make a fine sight in the milky way when it's overhead. Mars must be a long long way away at the moment, because with my 9mm I could barely make it out as a disc, and no features at all were visible.
I took some avi's of it anyway and we'll see how they turn out.
Anyway it was a great 9 hours, finally to have some clear skies and steady air was a pleasure. I'll process the avi's in the next day or so and post when they're done!
A great 9 hours! Flocked and the UW80 30mm
