Using the second scope

[LeeB]

The 10"OO is out of commission at the moment with a broken tube ring , so last night took the 120mm fract out for a run. Tested the newly stripped (eq6 non goto) mount out on the normal seasonal targets, all seemed to work well and then got stuck on the orion nebula as the moon was still up. Its not one of my normal targets with the 120mm, but the nebulocity last night was amazing, tried a range of filters including an orion skyglow and an ultraglow both doing a fantastic job of inking the sky. Then knocked the mag upto 200x and easily got e an f in the trap, (no filter) and even managed it with the skyglow in. It was nice to just study a familar object for an extended time and the more i looked the more detail popped. Sometimes I forget to look and just hop around the sky. But last night was about one(or two) objects and abit of time. As a side note was very impressed with both the 35mm ultrascopic and the 5000 meade 25mm both seemed to bring out the best in the frac.

I did finish with a good look at the moon and the image held up very well , i pushed mag up to 250x and then 500x!! on the terminator, it was a strange night as i don't recall ever getting a good image at that mag before.