I was going to spend a year with binoculars getting to know the sky etc. etc., starting around last November. Well, it was a short year
I was out tonight with my "new (second hand) Bintel premium 8" Dobsonian reflector. Bought it last week (thanks Robert), had a quick look the first night and liked what I saw.
Tonight was first serious attempt. Spent the afternoon peering at the TV antennas on Mt Dandenong, aligning the finder scope etc. It was fun ramping up to some 260x (9mm + 2x Barlow) and seeing the detail of the antenna through the heat shimmer.
Collimation seemed fine - tweaked up using Bintel's laser collimator. I see the fun of this - wiggle the laser and watch the spot dance across the primary!! And I haven't got around to v-blocking the laser to check its own collimation. However I've be reading up on collimation with a barlowed-laser - I'll try that when I make up a mask.
So I packed it all up - the OTA with finder attached with just fit in the boot of my small car - great! and headed for the hills. Quarter moon, and not a very dark sky site - but enough to start learning.
Put in laser collimator - Oh - cannot see the centre spot of the primary in the dark - OK - just tweak the primary to return the laser to its source - that'll do for learning.
Let's just point at a star and try to get the hang of moving, focussing, changing eyepieces without the OTA moving - picked Alpha Centauri - what's that? Oh yeah - it's a double (ignoring Proxima) - that was neat.
Wandered around the basics - The Jewel Box, Omega Centauri, M42, Saturn, Tarantula - getting the hang of things - sliding the speaker magnet up and down the tube as I moved from barlowed 2" eyepiece to 9mm by itself. Handy that I added a couple of rubber bumpers to either stop point - I turned my back once and the bit of wind, plus imbalance had the OTA swing to a gentle stop.
I'm also trying to operate without the springs - I philosophically don't want them increasing the friction.
Tried galaxy searching (M65/66 in Leo) but moonlight didn't help - but not being able to navigate as easily as I can with my binoculars was a real problem. My brain needs training!
Finished off with the quarter Moon - bubbling in the eyepiece - but pretty spectacular for a first-timer like me. The "moon filter" helped greatly - I had fun pushing up to 260x - crazy, but I could see more detail.
I cannot quantify "seeing" yet but I think it was pretty poor tonight.
Star image quality and magnification is great compared to my 30x100 binoculars. But using one eye? And the inverted image? I'll get used to it.
Overall a good first evening. Plenty more to learn and to perfect yet - but I had a few WOW events even tonight with the crappy seeing. The Alpha Centauri double; the granularity in Omega Centauri; the clear view of the rings of Saturn; the colour in the stars; the detail of the Moon terminator - all leave me wanting more. (But I will resist aperture fever - I've promised myself!)
i feel for you brother.
