First Light with ED127 Took ED127 out in the yard last night .. bout' ...10.30pm ... Jupiter was very nice .. could easily see the " brown bands " across the planet .. and of course the moons just stood out like diamonds.
The air was very stable over Deception Bay last night ... very good " seeing " conditions.
Panned over to the Pleadies ( think that's how you spell it )... and boy .. what a sight it was ... using my 35mm Panoptic .. I got the whole lot " in the eyepiece ". It was beautiful.
The 2 speed focuser really brings " stars " to a nice pinpoint .. especially if you have " good quality " eyepieces.
I then changed to using Tak' eyepieces ... smaller FOV but the " darker " background that these eyepieces give you is very pleasing .. and again stars are " pin point "
Very pleased with this so far ... just need a decent mount... after a while, high cloud dampened any attempts to get a decent look at M42 ( Orion Neb' ) .. so back inside I went.
Flash ...
Last edited by FlashDrive; 03-11-2011 at 06:19 PM.
I used to have one before I upgraded to Takahashi gear, and, it took very darn nice images on an APS-C sensor. It wasn't so good for a 35mm full frame as it showed horrible vignetting and spherical aberrations.
The focuser was a bit of a joke, too. For visual, though, I imagine it's fine.
Enjoy! It's a great value scope which should last you plenty, particularly for visual.
I used to have one before I upgraded to Takahashi gear, and, it took very darn nice images on an APS-C sensor. It wasn't so good for a 35mm full frame as it showed horrible vignetting and spherical aberrations.
The focuser was a bit of a joke, too. For visual, though, I imagine it's fine.
Enjoy! It's a great value scope which should last you plenty, particularly for visual.
I was just about to start the exact same thread! Glad to hear you are liking your new purchase Colin.
I bought an ED127 triplet from a forum member several weeks ago, and with this and that I haven't really given it a good try-out. I had it out tonight for a spot of visual - just the moon and Jupiter - but jeeeez! the best views I have had of either object. Jupiter with a 5mm Takahashi LE eyepiece (giving about 190x) showed the 2 main bands very easily as well as some of the fainter ones. After an hour or so one of the moons peeked out from behind the planet and I watched its shadow transit across the disc - first time I have ever seen this! Just for a laugh I tried using the 5mm with my 2x GSO ED barlow - I could still see the moons shadow - but it washed out all but the 2 main bands.
The moon is impressive at 190x, and took the barlow well yielding more detail, but the seeing started to look like someone had cast the moon under a clear but very wobbly jelly. There was a little hint of colour if the focus was not spot on - but none if I focused right.
All in all - very impressed with the optics of this scope - it bodes well for some imaging!
Humayun - its nice to hear it goes well on the APS sensor. I have taken a couple of happy snaps with it, and have been surprised at the lack of off-axis aberrations. It is touch and go whether I am going to bother getting a flattener for it to use with my EOS.
That has been heavily cropped, yet, you can still see the aberrations around the edges. Also, I've had to crop lots from the top and bottom (to retain a 3:2 aspect ratio) because of the vignetting from the focuser.
All-in-all, it is a wonderful scope. Just make sure you check your focus every 30 minutes, or, so, as it is very susceptible to showing chromatic aberration if not focused on the orange/red side of aberration.
An ex owner here. I managed to get some good photos throught the ED127, nothing I would publish though. I had someone in Rockhampton rebuild the focuser, he changed some of the internal friction plates(?) and modified the locking mechanism so it would hold the 350D safely.
H ... very nice photos there .
I am using mine purely for visual use ... and I don't know what all the " fuss " is about the Focuser ... mine is " smooth " to use.... quite a nice " feel " to it actually.... I'm happy
I could " lash out " and get a Moonlite ... maybe later on
i was wondering how heavy it is ?
. A 127ED or 152ED Explore Scientific is likely to be my very next telescope purchase, sometime in the near future. 
