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First light 12" Dob - The joys of being a newb
I picked up a very nice GSO 12" from John this morning to complement the 8" I've had for a little while. Had to go out tonight, but on the way home was relieved to see the skies still clear!
I put both scopes out in the yard (the 12 is SO much more cumbersome than the 8) and started comparing views. It's really amazing how much more the bigger beastie can show you. The wife was almost speechless when I showed her the Omega Centarus globular cluster, she just kept saying things like 'Oh my God!' and 'Wow!' a lot. I'm sure the neighbours were wondering what we were up to.
When comparing views of the Carina nebula, I saw one particular star that was quite bright, and quite orange. In the 8 it just looked like a bright star, but in the 12 I just couldn't get that star to focus, it looked like it had a big fuzzy ball around it. Now I've read that these f5 scopes really suffer from coma, so I put it down to this, and the fact that the scope had just been brought out from inside the warm house.
After a few more subjects, I happily packed up and headed for bed to have a little read of 'The Southern Sky' that I picked up at a book fair yesterday. Lo and behold, I read a little blurb on the Carina nebula. Well, bugger me if I hadn't just been looking at something called the Homunculus. I'd never even noticed it in the smaller scope, but it stood out like the dogs proverbials in the 12 inch.
What an amazing hobby this is, just had to get out of bed and tell you about it!
Cheers,
Jason.
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