Alkaid

I’m at a DSO site this week and having fun hunting globs amongst other things. I liked M15 as it looked a little different from the norm, it had a very dense centre surrounded by a faint glow, it was a bit different as it wasn’t a uniform spread of light.

Like most of us I have known the really well known ones (eg M13) for years and now wonder if there are any other globs which also look a bit “different”. Or do you think they’re pretty much all the same?

Let me know of any really interesting ones you may have observed and why?

Cheers Steve

Can confirm that trying to use a warm SCT on a cold night (or any scope tbh) is like viewing through running water. I’ve heard that Mak’s are the worst due to the much thicker glass (but excellent once acclimatised).

Absolutely, it is a necessity.  I put my SCT into a large plastic storage box and then cover it over with a waterproof bike cover (in case of any unforseen rain showers).  I leave it outside for a few hours before observing. Works well.

Nice post John, it’s nice to have a low powered spotter, I often use my ST102 like this for fun. 

The Startravels are really nice for sky sweeping at low power visual use.  Up to 120 size sit well on an AZ4, vibration not a problem at low powers.   No real problems with CA at low power on star fields, Messier objects are quite reasonable at dark sky sites.

Starfields and deep sky is where these scopes lie, and only for visual.  But nothing else...

If you have the pennies, get the APO...

Nice! Quick question, what’s the difference between StellaLyra and StellaMira?  Or are my glasses failing me? 

I try to plan ahead if I can.  If the forecast is good, I put my scope, diagonal and eyepieces in a plastic storage box in the garden, then cover the box with a waterproof bike cover.   When I get home from work, it's perfectly cooled to ambient and all ready to go.

19 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

From personal experience, and I've literally used hundreds of SCT's, they are the absolute worst visual scope in existence for planetary. In forty years I've only once seen an SCT give an acceptable planetary view. Everything else is a better option!  As an imaging scope SCT's can be great, but visually they give the softest, definitionless view imaginable. 

Aw...c'mon Mike....my C8 heard that and is now crying in the corner 😜

Kidding aside, the worst enemy for me is UK seeing.  Generally speaking, it is terrible for 99% of the year.  Refractors are just better at dealing with it.  I'm sure that a good SCT, collimated and away from the jet-stream would deliver.

15 minutes ago, dweller25 said:

I’m guessing a Skytee 2 might be a good option for a C9.25 ?

I was thinking the same...

28 minutes ago, Pete Presland said:

I guess the C9.25  on an alt az mount would certainly be a lot a easier than my EQ6.

But which mount?...

Don’t own a 9.25, but heard that it’s considerably beefier than a C8.  Admittedly for me, the C8 is approaching that “big enough” feeling when constantly mounting / dismounting the tube. 
 

Someone with the 9.25 will chime in...

What alt/az mount will you use? It’ll need to be fairly hefty.

Also found a 9mm xcel to be sharp  in mine.  
Was the old 10mm the same as the basic eyepieces that get delivered with a scope? If it’s a anything like the SW 10mm, it will be bad...just saying...

I don't think that scopes depreciate as much in subsequent second hand sales.  For a scope going from brand new to second hand, the general rule is around 2/3 of retail, or 33% price drop.  Moving down the chain, I'm willing to bet that going from one second hand owner to another, the depreciation will be less, probably no more than 10%??

You can probably sell it for within 10% of what you paid, especially a premium scope like this. 

Fabulous! But you must have a case of sore neck? Did you notice a reasonable development in the viewing without the diagonal?
 

Great sketch!

General consensus is that a used scope of good quality and fairly recent manufacture is about 2/3 retail price. Older scopes generally go for a bit less. It’ll probably go for around the £250 - £299 mark as a guess.

Dang yeah... go with the heart and not the head. If the scope doesn’t do it for you, time to move on....

Had a few times like that myself.  

Love 3 peaks country. Were you parked right on the road where the tea van parks up? Yep, it’s a deceptively busy road.  You know, you can drive up the track to the viaduct (legally), just take it slow due to the pot holes.  Once there, you can use the viaduct as a windbreak of sorts (and a light shield!).

Ribblehead is a few hundred metres altitude already, as a result it’s usually a couple of degrees colder than the forecast suggests.

Great effort in the wind, nice report!

Visually at low power, it will be a very nice deep sky scope at a dark site.  Will have nice pin point stars, show globs and nebula well.

At high power, Moon & Planets, it's a differing story....the large achromatic objective combined with the short focal length will give quite a lot of false colour.  That may (or may not) bother you.  However, if the lens figure is good, you'll still get good resolution and contrast.  The view will be smeared with some blue haze from the false colour.  

I'm no imager, but this scope will not suit for AP.  The achromatic objective will give some star 'bloat' and blue haze around the stars in the image.

To sum it up, that scope is a visual, dark sky, DSO hunter killer.  

Great report, thanks!

Well, I didn't manage to get out, was rather tired after work and nodded off.  Really poor effort..

Did you guys get a look in??

Haven't we already been over all this, in multiple other threads??

Going cross-eyed..

Great, I'll be out to have a go!  Thanks.

Having owned a TAL100RS myself previously, I’m going to be reading this thread with huge interest, what a great comparison of Achromat vs Apo. Can’t wait!

Although it’s a a lunar high contrast target, I would love to know the comparison between these two on Copernicus at high power. Say both at roughly x200 for one test, and also an image breakdown test whereby you keep pushing the power.  You might find that the ED100 will allow much higher powers to be employed, would be fun to see how hard each one can be pushed.

As a note to help finding objects, a 50mm finder will spot almost all well known Messier objects from a dark sky site.  
 

Just a thought, what finder is being used? Is it aligned with the scope? It’s important to do this before or at the beginning of the session, either in daylight on a distant object or at night on a bright star or the moon. Once the finder is pointing at exactly the same place as the scope, good to go.

Pop in lowest mag eyepiece, aim finder and get object in finder view. Look in main eyepiece...object should be there.

As a final note, if looking for faint objects, do not turn on torches or any lights for at least 20min...it’s your dark adaptation that will get you there. (None of that matters for the moon & planets, as they’re bright).

Good luck!