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Off axis mask.
I had a great night last night, sky was clear seeing v.good. Using my 18" dob, I still could not clearly resolve Antares. Nu Scorpii no problems, but not the brighter Antares, just too much light. I have built a 7" off axis mask for this scope, so I fitted it. There was Antares little companion being pushed quickly across the field of the 9mm Nagler - clear as day! Put the scope back on Nu Scorpii and lo, an even clearer split than at full aperture.
I make this post as I have read a couple of articles that claim there is no performance gain in using an aperture mask. I now know this is not true, the views on all the double stars last night were much improved using the aperture mask. Only thing that made me give up was the dew that really started to wet things down by 10:30.
This subject was covered some years ago, with some saying why make a perfectly good scope into a lesser one. Any new thoughts on using masks?
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