Second Light - The Highlights

[asteria]

Second light - the first time out under a clear sky with the Skywatcher Pro Mak 150mm and CG-5, purchased recently from from the Used section of SGL, from chuenmanc and Roy Batty respectively. Thanks due to both of you.

This set up is something of a dream come true for me. I've always had my eye on the Pro-series 150mm Mak. I never really thought I would be able to own one, but I took the plunge with the purchase from chuenmanc and don't regret it. Based on this first session it is everything I expected.

The scope is in fine fettle and has obviously been very well looked after by chuenmanc. The collimation is excellent, the optics clean and clear, finder in tip-top condition, focusser smooth, eyepieces in good shape, etc....I couldn't really ask for more. Thanks!

My general impression of the Mak is that it is a well built instrument, strong, robust with very good quality optics. Some people have questioned the build quality, but I don't think it's an issue. For the price, I don't see how it can be beaten. It's easy to handle, on and off the mount.

Mirror shift - I noticed this at first, but once I was into the session I completely forgot about it. I didn't find that it intruded at all.

Cool down time - OK it takes a while, but I put the scope in the lean-to to chill when I got home from work, and then mounted it up at dusk. By the time I was ready to go, after a bite to eat, it seemed to be fine.

Dew - I got through to midnight before I had a problem. I put this down to the dewshield that chuenmanc supplied with the scope. Without it I think it would have been a struggle from the off.

And I love the gold and white colour scheme too - something a little bit different!

The mount is excellent. This is a significant upgrade for me from a wibbly wobbly eq-1, topped by a 114.5mm reflector of dubious quality. The mount is absolutely steady, easy to put up and polar align, smooth action on both axes, with fine slo-mo control. I guess you'll all know about this workhorse. It's solid as a rock, dependable, easy to swing about the sky, and then to finesse into the final position. A perfect match for the Mak! I didn't notice any shakes at all, except perhaps at the highest mags.

No go-to? I'd thought long and hard about this, but in the end I just wanted to see how far I could go with a manual mount. With these easier objects, it looks like a reasonable decision.

After a few observing seasons it might be time to move on to go-to for the fainter stuff, but I think using this mount is going to be OK for the foreseeable future.

Overall impressions

I was surprised how easy it was to use this set up, even without go-to. I had absolutely no difficulty finding most objects I looked for. I put this down to the combination of the mount and finder. I know all the experienced hands here won't be surprised by this, but for beginners it's critical to understand, and I learnt the hard way. If you've got a good mount and a good finder you can go along way, even with a relatively small scope. In fact, with hindsight, I would sort out the mount and finder first! Everything else should fall into place.

What I was relieved to find is that even with the small TFOV of the Mak (no more than a degree with a 40mm Plossl) I was able to drop onto everything that I wanted to by getting it right in the finder. I know this is going to be much more difficult for the faint stuff, but even with a moderate degree of light pollution most things were fine. My worry with this scope was that I would not be able to find objects in the eyepiece, but it didn't prove to be a problem (except M92!). I was able to go down to a 9mm Plossl without any difficulty, but after this the view was breaking up and getting very dark.

I was using the Celestron Plossl set (the one in the aluminium box), plus the supplied Skywatcher 25mm and an additional entry level Celestron 40mm Plossl. All these eyepieces were fine. I'm sure there are better eyepieces around, but the images were sharp across a large part of the field. They seemed a good match for the scope.

The tour highlights

Polaris - a very nice impression of the double star. Polaris well defined and the faint partner just shining through nearby. Good clear dark sky around both. I actually like looking at Polaris! I know it's probably not very exciting, but somehow it seems important to pay a little homage to the Pole Star each session.

Double Cluster - I went for this first because I know where it is! I was surprised to get most of it in the 40mm. A nice view with plenty of faint stars. Obviously a bit cramped in the Mak, but much better than I have seen it before. It's good in the 80mm refractor, but the extra aperture brings out many more stars.

Mizar and Alcor - no problems. Not a bad view at all, but most scopes do a reasonable job on this partnership.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy - core pretty good in the light pollution over town. Again, the small FOV isn't go to do it justice, but plenty of shimmering light at the heart of the galaxy. Would be much better in a dark sky.

M13 Hercules Cluster - I was looking forward to this, but perhaps it was the one disappointment of the night. At low mags, the view was good - a fluffy, light round cloud, but I was expecting some individual stars. Even with high mag, and averted vision, the best I could do was a certain graininess to the image. May be needs a bit more work, or perhaps this is the limit of 150mm.

Vega - beautiful! Bright, blue-white star, magnificently held by the optics. Fantastic!

Epsilon Lyrae - split the double double in low magnification, probably 25mm but I've forgotten which eyepiece. I went down to 6mm on this, but the image was less clear, and each pair had to be held in the centre of the FOV to get a reasonable sense of the individual split.

M57 Ring Nebula - yikes. This was great. Held magnification really well and a good sense of the "smoke ring". Easy to find, and well worth the time I spent on it. I've seen this through the 80mm refractor, but this was a different league. I'm definitely going back there!

Albireo - double yikes. Fantastic colour, fantastic definition. The best I've seen it, and it's pretty good in the refractor.

Nu 1 and 2 Corona Borealis - I think! Can't be too sure on this on as I got lost on the way to M92. Whatever they were - a nice white double at equal magnitudes.

Epsilon Persei, Zeta Persei - good splits on the doubles Epsilon and Zeta in Perseus. (Double star work is a real strength of this scope.)

M45 Pleiades - OK, I was never going to get the whole shebang in but what a sight. The sisters even looked great in the finder! I just moved across the field using the slo-mo controls. Beautiful definition, all stars very clear and bright, delightful colour and bluish tinge. All this in the most light polluted part of the sky. I can't wait until they are higher in the evening.

Mars - just risen and the view was very shaky at low altitude. The viewing was steadier as the planet rose. I tried various filters. Unfortunately I can't remember which was best - red too dim, orange just made everything more orange, I think the green was best - some additional detail, but I might just have been hallucinating as I was dead on my feet. The dew may also have played a part at this stage; when I looked at the front lens it looked like frosted glass.

Time to pack it in!

By the way - does anyone know the way to M92 and is it worth the trip. I couldn't work this out at all! Not even in the binos.

Take care all - clear skies!

Ed

[blinky]

Great report, sounds like you had a great evening. I fancy one of those for planetry views, the high mag must be great on them!

[asteria]

Thanks Craig - it was a good evening, especially for first time out. I was hoping to get a view of Venus, Mars, Saturn etc this AM, but alas, overcast in the pre-dawn.

Perhaps tomorrow.

Best wishes

Ed

[mik]

That sounds like you had a superb night with your new telescope good work.

Mick.

[asteria]

Thanks for the reply Mick - I was hoping for a second good night this PM but not looking at all promising at the moment. We'll have to wait and see.

Ed