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Great session with a great little scope, I'm a convert.

RobertI

By RobertI
in Observing - Reports

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RobertI

RobertI

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Had a great session with my 72mm Megrez last night. I bought this scope for wide field imaging and never really considered it for visual (my C8 is the usual choice for visual), but based on last night’s experience I will be doing a lot more grab and go observing in the future with this little great scope.

Being short of time last night I carried the scope plus mount (a SkyTee2 altaz) to an observing site round the back of my house, which is basically a dentist’s car park in the middle of a small town – not the darkest of sites so I wasn’t expecting too much. Also I didn’t have any kind of star atlas so had to rely on memory which would restrict me to the better known objects.

With a 10mm Baader Hyperion eyepiece in place, I was getting 43x magnification and a FOV of 1.57 degrees.

I decided to start with a star so I could align the red dot finder. I chose Mizar in Ursa Major and was met with the sight of Mizar A and B easily resolved at 14" separation and Alcor in the same field of view. The double looked really pretty with perfectly pinpoint stars side by side  in a really dark background, quite stunning actually for such a simple object.

Hmm this was looking promising, so how about another double? Alberio is the classic coloured double so a quick slew round and there was the burning orange of Alberio A easily separated from Alberio B by 35”.  Really beautiful, but in many ways I preferred Mizar as a double because the closeness of the stars seemed so pleasing to the eye.

OK I am liking this little refractor for doubles, what about faint fuzzies? I trained the red dot finder on the area of M81 and M82 on Ursa Major, expecting a lengthy period of scanning to find some faint smudges, looked through the eyepiece and bang, there were both galaxies in the field of view, very distinct with easily discernible shapes. I suspect I could have seen some detail if I had more time and had I not had a couple of street lights nearby ruining my dark adaption. But far better than I was expecting.

Right, let’s try another faintish fuzzy, the Dumbell Nebula M27. This was easily found and pretty impressive too, a ghostly blob of light hanging in the darkness, but with a discernible shape. Not sure what shape I would have given it if I did not already know it was dumbbell shaped, but it was definitely circular with dark areas.

On to the great globular M13 in Hercules. This was slightly less impressive and I think is where aperture is king - the view of M13 through my C8 is truly breath taking. With the 72mm I could just about resolve the outer stars using averted vision and with a darker sky and more power I could probably have seen a lot more.

Finally onto M52, an open cluster in Cassiopeia. Both M52 and the bubble nebula were clearly visible in the field of view. M52 was a lovely small and compact cluster  with numerous stars with little variation in brightness. Very pretty indeed. The bubble nebula was a hazy blur, but at the time I didn’t know what I was looking at, assuming it was a very faint cluster, therefore I did not try too hard to see any detail – next time I will have a closer look. A quick look at the double cluster in Perseus confirmed the Megrez's superb ability on open clusters.

I finished with a 10 minute scan of the milky way. I could have scanned all night and with such a wide field of view it is easy to stumble upon interesting objects, and I bumped into the Dumbell Nebula for a second time.

It’s clear to me now why people love refractors and why small refractors are ‘great grab and go’ instruments, especially for double stars, open clusters and brighter galaxies and nebulae. I’ll be out there again tonight if skies permit as there was loads more I wanted to see!

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kirkster501

kirkster501

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Great stuff!!! :)  Sounds like you had a good time.

Little refractors are cracking scopes.  I just love the moon in my ED80 - you can almost reach out and touch it.  The star fields in Cygnus, Perseus etc are equally stunning as are Open clusters. And for visual use an expensive scope like the FSQ  is not that much better than my ED80.  ED80 - is a keeper for sure!!!!  Great the Megrez is equally good :)

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RobertI

RobertI

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Absolutely right! I love them, the views are fabulous :-). Had a fab session with a 4" under dark skies recently, 5 degree fov, amazing what you can see!!

Yes, I found myself thinking how good the views would be in a bigger frac (must not spend, must not spend..... :evil: )

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Stu

Stu

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Yes, I found myself thinking how good the views would be in a bigger frac (must not spend, must not spend..... :evil: )

Actually I think the 70 to 80 ish mm range is about the optimum. Very portable and easy to take anywhere, and can be mounted on a photo tripod. Getting those widefield views of clusters and nebulae is what it's about for me, although splitting tight doubles is great fun too and they excel at that

Stu

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RobertI

RobertI

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Actually I think the 70 to 80 ish mm range is about the optimum. Very portable and easy to take anywhere, and can be mounted on a photo tripod. Getting those widefield views of clusters and nebulae is what it's about for me, although splitting tight doubles is great fun too and they excel at that

Stu

That's really good to know. I guess now I need an ultraportable mount, the skytee is a bit on the heavy side (oh dear, spending again, stop it :laugh: ).

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Stu

Stu

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That's really good to know. I guess now I need an ultraportable mount, the skytee is a bit on the heavy side (oh dear, spending again, stop it :laugh: ).

Have a look at the mini giro mounts, they are really good on a decent photo tripod. I use a Giro-WR which has better control over the tensioning but the mini is very good, around 1kg for the mount.

enaru9y6.jpg

Stu

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Stu

Stu

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Thanks Stu, looks really good. Could I get away without a counterweight d'you think?

Yes you could with a 72mm scope I'm sure. The counter weight does help with smoothness with larger scopes (that is a 4" Genesis on there), but my smaller scopes are manageable without

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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I have an APM 80mm (on a mini-giro) next to my C8 for the exact reasons you illustrate so well in your report. They are great for quick wide field views. Faint fuzzies are generally better in the C8 (that includes M81 and M82, which show more detail in my C8), and on globulars and planets there is no contest, but for grab and go, and wide-field views, these little APOs take a lot of beating

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Chris

Chris

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Great report Robert:-) totally agree, you really need a good quality wide field frac as well as a light bucket to get the most out the sky.

I think I mentioned how good it was for visual when you bought it off me, ah you see, now you know ;)

How about a vixen mini porta mount or an horizon tripod both stocked at flo:-)

Chris

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RobertI

RobertI

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Great report Robert:-) totally agree, you really need a good quality wide field frac as well as a light bucket to get the most out the sky.

I think I mentioned how good it was for visual when you bought it off me, ah you see, now you know ;)

How about a vixen mini porta mount or an horizon tripod both stocked at flo:-)

Chris

Yes I think a lighter mount and tripod would be good as my little ankle biter is due in two weeks and I expect I will only have time for the odd 'dash and view' with the little scope for a while. Don't want to miss out in the winter skies.

Rob

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John

John

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Great report - clearly the WO 72 is a very nice little refractor :smiley:

Personally, having owned a number of refractors in the 70mm - 90mm range including a WO Megrez 70 and 90 and numerous ED80's, I came to the conclusion that 100mm is the minimum aperture that provides, for me, satisfying views of a range of objects and can tease some real detail from solar system objects at 200x or even a wee bit more.

My Vixen ED102SS will therefore not be leaving me :smiley:

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RobertI

RobertI

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Great report - clearly the WO 72 is a very nice little refractor :smiley:

Personally, having owned a number of refractors in the 70mm - 90mm range including a WO Megrez 70 and 90 and numerous ED80's, I came to the conclusion that 100mm is the minimum aperture that provides, for me, satisfying views of a range of objects and can tease some real detail from solar system objects at 200x or even a wee bit more.

My Vixen ED102SS will therefore not be leaving me :smiley:

Sounds like a really good all round scope. They don't seem to make that particular one any more - what's the nearest equivalent scope still available (Vixen or otherwise)?

Rob

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John

John

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Sounds like a really good all round scope. They don't seem to make that particular one any more - what's the nearest equivalent scope still available (Vixen or otherwise)?

Rob

The ED102SS was made around 2000-2002. It's replacement in the Vixen range was the ED103S but the focal ratio had grown to F/7.7 wheras my ED102SS is F/6.5. They are very expensive to buy new (too expensive really) but mine was a used one and cost much more reasonable sum.

A more reasonably priced equivalent today I guess would be something like the Orion ED102:

http://www.telescope.com/Orion-Premium-102mm-f7-ED-Apochromatic-Refractor-Telescope/p/9012.uts

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Special K

Special K

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Yes you could with a 72mm scope I'm sure. The counter weight does help with smoothness with larger scopes (that is a 4" Genesis on there), but my smaller scopes are manageable without

Will this kind if setup, Giro-WR plus say a 8115 tripod, stand up to much magnification though? Realistically, the Megrez could be pushed to pretty high mag and just wonder if the vibration would be a deal breaker (asking purely in support of Rob's OP and no selfish interest of mine own ;) )

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cutepetgroomer

cutepetgroomer

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I love my little table top refractor. It is a 70mm and the one I usually use now and my almost ten month old has yet to show an interest in it .. But he's at the age where he will sleep through the night and I will put on shades to check on him so my eyes don't have to readjust as much

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