Monday night, clear dark, all the photo gear set up camera cooling etc using the 150sn and 70ar to guide
...so time to try the newly fitted "wheels" on the 12inch. A "personal troley" set with 4 set of "wheels" ( many seperate rollers in each) and a trolley handle $9 at Crazy prices. I fitted 3 sets of wheels using only contact cement in case they proved useless and had to come off
..and just pushed it and it is fast as
..in and out in less time than it takes to remove the dust cover. Looked at all my favorites in the Milky Way hunting dim patches of glow or dark or whatever looked interesting. To my surprise replaced the 12 inch cover and removed the 50mm cap..the views 38x at f30 (I figure), were stunning, bright crisp and could see nebulosity of Trifid and Lagoon and many other similar
...all thru 50 mm of app. amazing
. The 12 inch view showed heaps more stars but the difference was not that noticable in fact the darker and more contrasty image with 50mm was somehow preferable
.. So why ? I figure the 50mm view was free of any reflection in the tube the 12 inch sufferes from lack of baffling (at the moment) the 50mm would in effect be a baffled view. A great night visual observing. Did not have a finder on the 12 inch and pointed it at where I expected to find my target (found the ring neb simply by "she should be thereabouts"..bang in the middle..advantage of pool playing
) Looking for the Sombrero I got off course and found Cent A... thought thats a little dim but I can see the central dust lane..then I realised it was not Sombrero but Cent A.. seemed real funny at the time
..well that was the funnyiest thing that happened the whole time actually
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The photo session. thats another story
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alex
