jetstream

I'm curious how NV does on some of the small unusual galaxies Gavin, ARP's and Hicksons- I viewed a strange little galaxy, kind of worm like with knots in it at high power, forget the name right now but very interesting. have you tried observing some of these objects with NV? I checked, it was ARP 81

I think both technologies offer pros and cons- are there things like reflection nebula that NV suffers a bit or others?

This is a VG sign, and seeing it no filter is a great bonus. Congrats for a great night with the 20"! Try that scope on IC1318 near Sadr.....

Perfect Iain! Well the cats out of the bag now... this object and ones like it are a major reason I bought the 24". I'm fascinated by Einstein and other great minds like his. I want to see this classic example of light bending around the galaxy in warped spacetime and this really hits to the heart of why I'm a visual observer- I want to see it with my own eyes. I have zero expectations to see this, I only hope I can get a glimpse of at least one image, "A" perhaps. Experienced DSO observers say 2 might be possible in the 24" and one very experienced one said "you never know, you might get them all". Orthos are my only hope I think and I need the unusual combination of excellent seeing with excellent transparency. This object will be my primary target for as long as its in a good position to view.

My plan is to locate the lensing galaxy, PGC 69457, 14-15 mag hopefully with the Docter 12.5mm UWA. If successful I will re align the Sky Commander on it and then try the 10mm BCO. Next will be the 10BCO/VIP @ 1.5x then 2x with both 15mm extensions. I have a VG 7mm KK ortho which will also be enlisted. Plan B will have the Paracorr in place with a Delos possibly- sure wish I didn't sell them now... When using the Sky Commanders realign option I can get back on target using a .14 deg tfov. Mags will be 200x,250x,372x and 500x.

The Paracorr II should be delivered the end of next week and as Piero says I could really use the aperture stop for the Glatter laser. An interesting thing to try is de collimating a newt in small steps to see what happens through the eyepiece.

How dark are your skies? The very best thing to do is get to truly dark, transparent skies- what eyepiece did you use?

Trying is a good description... all set up, the forecast good and dark adapted. The sky looks a bit strange, low extinction on the horizon, but my NELM is off? must be my eyes tonight as I was outside all day. Yeah right.. The Sky Commander was programmed for PGC 69457 so all set to go. Warming up on Stephans Quintet showed the object very faint? not typical in the 24", hmmm Note to self : 1-practise programming the Sky Commander before relying on it- I was massively off, messing up the Dec number 2- check the Aurora forecast before setting up the scope! The Northern Lights, hiding behind trees on the ridge horizon washed everything out pretty bad, so I went the 200yds to the dock to watch them after the scope was put away. The first try on Einsteins Cross was a learning experience lol!

Yes, thats what I meant and corrected my post- thanks for the heads up.

@oldfruit I hope sidetracking your thread a bit is OK, I don't mean to de rail your paracorr purchase/experience.

Were going to see where the Paracorr fits into Suiters wobbly stack for sure and I agree I might lose a bit on axis to induced aberration. My scopes are well above the diffraction limit so hopefully there is some wiggle room across the board. A main interest is to see if extended objects contrast is increased near the edge of view resulting from decreased comatic smear. My experience says "you never know" lol! A side note, but interesting : from TV's site. It seems low obstuction also helps with exit pupil flexibility. "Myth #2: Exit pupils larger than 7 mm waste light and resolution. With refractors larger pupils do waste aperture. But the magnification is so low that the wasted aperture is of little concern: both image brightness and resolution are as great as possible at that magnification. With reflectors, however, larger pupils do waste light, but primarily because the black spot in the pupil caused by the secondary obstruction becomes larger. Both light loss and field shadowing occur with reflectors, but as with refractors there is no resolution loss because of the low power. As explained in the text, there is no practical limit to the low magnification that can be used with a refractor. But the secondary obstruction found on most reflectors does set limits, because the shadow spot it forms in the exit pupil grows as the magnification is reduced. Consider this extreme example of an exit pupil formed by an 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain with a central obstruction equal to 43 percent of the aperture's diameter. A telecompressor lens and long-focal-length eyepiece give 14x magnification. While the central shadow remains 43 percent of the exit pupil's diameter, it is now 6.2 millimeters in diameter and would nearly fill the 7-mm pupil diameter of the dark-adapted eye."

I personally like the ES 82's in mid to high focal lengths- more to do with the targets really. From around 10mm on down low scatter is high on my list and most widefields enable scatter which I dislike for lunar/planetary/ and nebula/galaxies next to bright stars. Our 6.7mm ES 82 is a great, sharp eyepiece but with the mentioned scatter. This is a personal preference, thats all and the ES eyepieces are VG performers overall.

Were going find out if it "disappears" when viewing or if faint objects do when using it lol!

I can't wait to hear of your success not only on the Merope, but the whole beautiful dark lane and glowing complex all through the Pleiades.The H130 is so good here, still baffles me honestly.Ours loves the 24 ES 68, an excellent eyepiece. The Merope itself can take a bit more mag and something like a low scatter 20mm TV plossl or the 18mm BCO can be an asset, but the 24ES 68 is my goto. I'm not an expert but this object and its area is one of my favorite, most observed targets. It is one of the most stunning in the sky. Good luck Mark and eagerly waiting H130 reports!

I'm ordering a Paracorr myself and am happy , very happy to say that my Astrosystems dob has enough room-3 1/2"- for the Paracorr without hitting my filter slide...this is great news for me as I love the filter slide. I'm going to try the 30ES 82 as my wide neb eyepiece and see how it is. Great that it is working well for you Mark!