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First Light, Thrilled Skinny !


m1dlj

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Took possession of my first ever telescope, Altair 115 APO Silver Trim, and just have to tell someone about it. Headed straight for the dark skies of the Auvergne, up on the Massif Central, in France.

First light came on August 26th, slight rain shower during the afternoon, beautiful clear evening sky. Set up the tripod and mount (an AVX on loan from Tring Astro), attached the OTA, diagonal and 24mm Hyperion ep. No power, just released the clutches and pointed at Saturn, wow, clear and sharp even in twilight. Fitted the 8mm Hyperion and refocused, then just stared for about an hour, tinge of yellow, Titan to one side, and could just make out the Cassini Div.

Ran out a power cable, tweaked the axis to point north, then carried out a simple two star alignment, followed by a single calib star (Altair of course), which proved good enough to put most of what I looked for in the FOV of the 24mm ep.

First GoTo target was Albireo. The APO refractor did not disappoint, the colours and contrast were stunning!

Well that was it, hooked, spent the next hours (until 3am) behaving like a 59 year old kid. Was a little concerned at first, not having used a GoTo mount before, that I would struggle with alignment, but the AVX seemed very user friendly, even to a novice like myself.

Many other targets followed that evening, each as satisfying as the first, M57 (small grey smoky but definitely ring shaped) was a particular pleasure, as I'd never seen it before. Even managed to see Uranus and possibly Neptune (made a simple dot diagram to go back and check sometime).

Yes, I have a lot to learn (and many questions); No, it wasn't a properly planned observing session, but it was unforgettable.

Q. Have 24mm and 8mm Baader Hyperions to start with. The 8mm gives mag x100, but I am pretty sure after looking at Saturn that the 115 APO will comfortably take mag x200. Should I go for a 4mm ep, or would a x2 Barlow give similar results?

Ray

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Congratulations on the new scope :smiley:

I would have thought that 200x would be quite useable with your scope under decent conditions and on the right targets. I often use that power with my Vixen ED 102mm and 250x with my ED 120mm.

If the barlow lens is a good quality one then that would be a viable way to get a 4mm equivalent eyepiece although I prefer not to use one these days.

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Congratulations on the new scope :smiley:

I would have thought that 200x would be quite useable with your scope under decent conditions and on the right targets. I often use that power with my Vixen ED 102mm and 250x with my ED 120mm.

If the barlow lens is a good quality one then that would be a viable way to get a 4mm equivalent eyepiece although I prefer not to use one these days.

Thanks John, I'm kinda leaning that way myself. Thought about getting a Barlow when I ordered the Hyperions, but not having seen one being used made me a bit wary. Don't have a huge budget (who does) but I think I'll dig a bit deeper into the old pockets and get a decent 4mm ep. It'll be mainly for Lunar viewing.

Ray

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Q. Have 24mm and 8mm Baader Hyperions to start with. The 8mm gives mag x100, but I am pretty sure after looking at Saturn that the 115 APO will comfortably take mag x200. Should I go for a 4mm ep, or would a x2 Barlow give similar results?

Nice report, Ray and thank you for sharing it with us. Auvergne sounds like a lovely place to do some viewing :smiley: There's a cracking review of your scope here written by one of our very own.

If you read through, you'll find Olly had no problems working at 200x on Saturn, so as John says, 200x should be comfortable. My own feeling on this is that for such a delicious apochromatic scope, I would prefer to use dedicated eyepieces for viewing planets and Lunar detail rather than loading the instrument with more glass and weight. If budget couldn't run to Radians, Delos, Naglers etc :p , I have found orthoscopic eyepieces, although tight on eye relief, are outstanding.

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Took possession of my first ever telescope, Altair 115 APO Silver Trim, and just have to tell someone about it. Headed straight for the dark skies of the Auvergne, up on the Massif Central, in France.

Hey Ray, that's a long way to go to try out a new scope. I would have thought Exmoor would have been a bit closer.  :grin:

John

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Nice post Ray. I have been to the same area of France,  Puy De Dome,  unfortunately well before I was into stargazing.  

I was curious as to how much magnification my 80mm Apo would take and was advised that a 2.5mm would be about the limit, making 200x magnification on it's 500mm focal length. I have to say at 200X Mars was stunning if not a bit wobbly and crystal clear views of the moon at that power too make an awesome sight. I would have thought your Altair 115 Apo would comfortably take a 4mm eye piece. No worries there!

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Hi Ray, thanks for that wonderful report!

I'd get a 2x Barlow because that would not only give you a 4mm equivalent on your 8mm, but also a 12mm equivalent on your 24mm.

If you go for a Barlow, get a good one. It will last you a lifetime.

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Many thanks for the advice and encouragement guys, it's going to be a fun winter.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go for a 4mm Tele Vue Radian, although I may have to wait until christmas (dreaded 'c' word).

Q. I'm using an Opticron 73680/81, 2" Dielectric Diagonal, I assume the TV won't foul up on the prism? It will be in the 1.25" adaptor. 

In the mean time, the Hyperion 2" M48 Fine Tuning Rings would bring the 8mm down to 4.3, for a small outlay, although they're not applicable to the 24mm which doesn't have the negative element at the front end. (stop press, rings now on order :smiley: ).

Why l'Auvergne? We have a house (rather, restoration project that's hoping to one day be a house) there. Can see Puy De Dome from our bedroom window, about 30km away. Actually used the mast on the summit to play with the finder scope alignment. It's the perfect spot, dark, rural and clear to the south, except for one miserable sodium lamp which is due north, wife suggested we could put a black bin bag over it, hum, maybe. (What's black and sails the seven seas? Bin bag the sailor :grin: ).

Home and work is currently in Exeter, Devon though, so Exmoor could be getting a visit, and will definitely be going over to the NLO Sidmouth one Friday evening soon.

Olly's review of the 115 APO, was actually one of the deciding factors when choosing the scope, and although I have little experience to compare it with, I certainly have no regrets. The rack and pinion focuser on the new version works well, and looks like it would have no problem with the weight of an AP setup. The OTA fully assembled is more front-end heavy than I was expecting, guess there's a lot of glass up there.

Anyway, the loan AVX mount has been returned to Tring Astro, with many thanks to Neil and Jane, who have been incredibly helpful, and has been replaced with an iEQ45 PRO. Have not used the new mount with the OTA yet, only just starting to get to grips with it, but it looks to be a substantial piece of kit. Hopefully, I'll be able to make some useful comments as to the performance of the new stepper motor drive.

Q. Given that I'm only set up for viewing at the moment, what practical assessments can I make about the mounts performance? e.g. measuring drift overtime.

Also keen to try interfacing to some planetarium software, any recommendations for MAC OS 10.9.4?

Again, much appreciate the comments.

Ray 

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