After picking this up last Saturday morning I have been itching for a decent night to present itself so I could use it, and last night I got just that. The first thing I pointed it at was the moon - I was blown away! Much more detail than I'd ever seen in my 70mm refractor. After gazing at it for a while I turned the scope toward Alpha Centauri, but was a little disappointed that I couldn't split the double star. Not sure why as it's never been an issue in the 70mm. Next up was the Jewel Box, which I'd never seen with my own scope. This is truly beautiful! The colours of the stars seemed to jump out at me and I was surpried at just how many I was able to resolve. I examined it for a short while before I noticed mighty Jupiter rising in the eastern sky, so I moved the scope into the front yard to get a better view. Jupiter was still quite low in the sky at this time, so the view was a quite blurry and disappointing... oh well, next time I'll observe it closer to the zenith. I did have a little trouble with the scope at this point as it was a little top heavy (especially with my 6mm eyepiece attached) and resisted all attempts to tighten the tension handle. Maybe a counterweight might help next time if I'm viewing closer to the horizon. The final target was Omega Centauri, which I was extremely happy with as I could finally see the salt & pepper pattern rather than a big white blob! Breathtaking.
Looking forward to catching Saturn but I don't like my chances with this big bright moon hanging around. Will have a go at Mars and Venus early one morning. I must say I'm extremely happy with my new baby and thanks to all for their input when I was asking about the scope. Maybe now I will finally get my butt into gear and join my local astro club!
Hi Wade,
Good to hear you are enjoying your new scope. That was certainly a good list of observations for first light. I am considering the purchase of a collapsible DOB and would be interested to know if you experienced much if any coma (comet-like tails on the stars) which is apparently one of the problems with fast parabolic reflectors. (I don't mean to be a wet blanket.)
Anyway, have fun.
Robert
Not sure why you would not be able to split alpha Cent with an 8 inch, seems odd.
I like to try alpha Crux as a test of seeing (two almost identical magnitude bright blue-white stars at 4" separation).
Enjoy the new 'scope, should be making out lots of detail on the planets etc. and keep an eye out for the shadow transits of the 4 big moons of Jupiter.
I can split Alpha Centauri with my new Skywatcher 8inch very easily, even at 25mm eyepiece. Not sure why you would have any problem with it. Monday night wasn't as good a night for viewing so some stars were a little blurry, but I could still split Alpha Cent quite well...
I can't be sure that I had the right star but I gave it another try last night and managed to split it. Scope may be a little out of collimation so will check that too.
quick tip for viewing jupiter is to use a filter to cut down on the glare, I use a skyglow filter to bring the brightness down and bring our more detail.
but I gave it another try last night and managed to split it. Scope may be a little out of collimation so will check that too.
