First obs, 127mm f/9.4 ‘cleanskin’ refractor

[Rob_K]

Rare clear sky last night, and with the clock ticking on a borrowed SkyView Pro mount (thanks Petra!! ) I couldn’t afford to pass it up. But had to wait till after the moon set, and didn’t get observing till after 2am.

Transparency wasn’t perfect and seeing was poor, but I have to say that I’m very pleased with my first views through this scope (Surplus Shed optics). Was tired and hadn’t used this mount before (or any decent EQ mount for that matter, LOL - my little EQ1 doesn't cut the mustard with this scope!). So just thought I’d do a few of the biggies that I’m very familiar with & observe regularly with the 114mm f8 reflector.

General: Focus was good, able to get bright pinpoint stars across the field. Nice high contrast views.

47 Tucanae: Awesome! First thing I noticed was increased scale, with the longer focal length. Using the 21mm EP the globular cluster was larger and brighter than I’m used to seeing it, with many more stars resolved.

M42, Great Nebula in Orion: Beautiful, stronger than I’m used to seeing it, with nice buttery texture and swirls evident. Put a 2x Barlow on (x110) and the neb remained nice & strong – Trap was OK although wobbly because of the seeing, and I could only see 4 stars.

Tarantula Nebula: Strong & bright, what I particularly noticed was the brightness of the tufty little stuff in the same field as Tarantula. Cruised around a bit, must get a decent LMC chart...

Visited a few other objects, all in all very satisfied. Probably last chance to do visual for a while with the moon intruding further.

Cheers -

[pirate of skies (Rob)]

Hey Rob_K
What do you mean by "cleanskin" ???
Its great to get a good feel for other scopes I think. Broaden your experience. I should try to get some more opportunites myself. I got an eight inch dob, and have not really seen any dso's thru a refractor.

Rob.

[Rob_K]

Originally Posted by pirate of skies

Hey Rob_K
What do you mean by "cleanskin" ???
Its great to get a good feel for other scopes I think. Broaden your experience. I should try to get some more opportunites myself. I got an eight inch dob, and have not really seen any dso's thru a refractor.

Rob.

Hi Rob! By 'cleanskin' I mean that the manufacturer of the optics is not identified. The optics are sold on by Surplus Shed in the US, but source not given. So I bought the optics (objective cell - air-spaced doublet), and put it in a Saxon tube kindly given to me by Bert (Avandonk on this forum).

Cheers -

[pirate of skies (Rob)]

Rob,
I think there is a series of wines that you can buy "cleanskinned".

That makes sense.
Its seems like you have some good friends.
Do you usually observe with the 114 x 900 Tasco ?

[Rob_K]

Originally Posted by pirate of skies

Rob,
Its seems like you have some good friends.
Do you usually observe with the 114 x 900 Tasco ?

Yes, there are some great people around! And yes, I usually observe with the little Tasco, even when surrounded by monster 'cannons' at star parties! I normally have good dark skies which helps, but I like the wider view too. At low power it gives good high contrast views, and performs pretty well on faint fuzzies.

Just put the refractor together because it was a cheap exercise which I hoped would maybe add to the quality of the viewing without radically altering the scale or depth. No aperture fever, LOL!

Cheers -