Mars , Saturn and my IEQ45.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Hi every one , well it looks like the dry season has arrived at last up here , man its a long 5-6 months of the wet when a good star gaze is really hard to have .. . I really start to get withdrawls ...
But this last week has made up for it , beautiful clear and quite steady skies .. nice .
Here ia s few photos of my set up as it was yesterday arvo/ evening .
I just love the ease of setting the IEQ45 mount up , its so simple and takes about 3 miniutes , just set the mount south , this is done after the GPS lock has happened, ( yesterday it took 45seconds ) and follow the pionter on the hand controller untill it lines up with whats in the polar scope ,, its that easy .. I set the mount to GOTO Mars and thats the position in the first photo .
I had a few beers , tea , then took a few more photos wiating for dark .
Arount 8pm I went out and woaw!! mars was in the field of my 22mm Panoptic , impressed or what this was after about 3.5 hours of tracking , yea ha!!
I cranked the power to around 250x and had a great session on mars, there were those fleeting moments of perfect seeing that allowed lots of deatail to be seen , Nice.
Then about 10.30pm I sent the mount to Saturn , and it was just spectular in the 127mm triplet , at 200x plus I had some of the best views I have ever seen in any scope .. , yep I am a happy camper , and this GOTO on the IEQ45 is an impressive bit of kit !! So much easier to use than any Celestron / Meade GOTO's I have played with over the years , there is nothing wrong with them ,,, until you try the Iopotron IEQ45 set up .. , yep I recon its that good . Enjoy this and the photos , and feed back is more than welcome ,, till next time ...
Brian.

[Tinderboxsky (Steve)]

Brian,

No wonder you are a happy camper. Looks impressive and a joy to use.

For you the dry season, for us the cold season. What was the temperature last night? I am betting it was at least 20 degrees and you were feeling the autumn chill! I was out last night at a chilly 6 degrees and getting colder! Still, the cold crisp clear nights give us some good seeing down here too. Plus all the far southern targets up at the zenith, so some compensation for the cold

I am thinking about telescopes and mounts and your comments are good food for thought.

Cheers

Steve

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

BRRRR!!!! there Steve , yes it was a cool 29 degrees and 45% humidity and enough breeze to keep the mozzies away , perfect , I was out till very late , but well worth it , .
Brian.

Originally Posted by Tinderboxsky

Brian,

No wonder you are a happy camper. Looks impressive and a joy to use.

For you the dry season, for us the cold season. What was the temperature last night? I am betting it was at least 20 degrees and you were feeling the autumn chill! I was out last night at a chilly 6 degrees and getting colder! Still, the cold crisp clear nights give us some good seeing down here too. Plus all the far southern targets up at the zenith, so some compensation for the cold

I am thinking about telescopes and mounts and your comments are good food for thought.

Cheers

Steve

[MattT]

Hi Brian
I thought your post might include refractors ... yep. Beautiful is all I can say. Love the classic white tubes. A quick question if I may...how do the LV's compare to other eyepieces of the same FL for planetary? Thinking of getting 2 or 3.
Cheers Matt...dedicated refractorholic.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Thanks Matt , fellow refractorholic .
I have gone out a got me another , check my signiture . yep there is a new one in there somewere . I am waiting for the other refractorholics out ther to spot it as well , heads up to you mate ,,,.
Anyway Matt on the Vixen LV's I will say YES Get them , they are such a nice eyepiece in every way , they do every thing just right , from their petite size and weight , so you forget they are even there ...
to there effortless high powers without a barlow , using our beloved refractors , and I have to mention the 20mm eye relief, thats so easy on the eye and as I just said ,, they just dissapper. Nice .They become one with me anyway ?? .
I have done some compario's with my Circle T Orthoscopics in the 9 to 4mm range and its a hard call , the ortho's are sharper by a little but ,,, but their smaller field of view demands a well alligned mount , and good drive and at these high powers the object is gone rather fast ....
But Matt I will recomend the Vixen Lanthiums without a problem , they are that good as an all round eyepiece .
One more thing they are the best for people to use that have never looked thru a scope before .Because they are that easy to use , not like my awsome Ortho's .
Hope this helps mate .
Brian.