First light with the 8MM Delos at the L.A.S

[Daniel-K]

After building the Observatory i had'nt been to Liverpool Astronomical society for nearly a year so the past two Wednesday nights i have shown my face again, and last night was clear so even though my garden is dark then the meeting point i packed up and set about to the LAS. it was around 6 o'clock and there were a few people there trying to get a glimpse of Panstarrs as its on a hill above most of the surrounding lights. as we spotted the thin crescent of the moon in the twilight sky Breden from the LAS spotted it in the 20x80s so armed with my 10x50s i picked it up and what a great sight the tail was clearly visable and you could see it got wider at the end. this was my first comet since 1997 when Halebopp was around which you might say because i was only 10 it had a influence on my interest into astronomy. After all the excitement i got Mr Dobby set up.

First to get it from the Delos was Jupiter.I hadnt realized that there would be a transit and actully thought it was a spot of muck on the glass so i shouted over to every if anyone new if there was a transit and i got a blunt yup! The first thin i noticed was how sharp the image was. There was a increase of visible banding and details in the bands were coming through.I didnt get to spend as much time on Juptier as i would have liked because its a Wednesday meeting its open to the public so i was sharing my scope with the public showing them Jupiter and it typically got the WoW never seen that before.

I like clusters and Auriga was high and its chocker block with star fields and a few M numbers which i always have a look at when i can.So M37 located using the Telrad and the 24MM Panoptic then i upped the mag to x150 with the 8MM Delos. first thoughts huge FOV it nearly got it all in nice dark background sharp stars i let a few people have a glace at it then moved on to the other M numbers in Auriga.

The trapezium in orion was another target to get the E star and yes we did in the 8MM. There was a lot of structure in the nebula that was showing as well stuff i have never seen before. Only spent a few minutes on this before changing to the 24MM Panoptic to give people a wider FOV of M42 and they were impressed with the amount of nebula that was able to be seen.

After half 9 ish people started leaving and it was just a few members left and me with my scope so we had a bit a galaxy hunt the conditions were ok 7/10

M81 &82 were first up tried at the start of the night and failed to find them but got them in the 24MM panoptic and the upped the mag on 82 which showed a dark dust lane and m81's wispy arms were just about coming through.

M51 was just a fuzzy blob nothing exciting i actually got NGC 3998 in the plough but couldn't get the one next to it. NGC 4565 the needle galaxy fantastic side on good in the 24mm Pan and even better in the 8mm nice and bright

A few globs we Got m3 m53 and m13 the condtions were a bit mush for the 8mm but you could just resolve the stars.

it was about 11 when the other members were going so packed up and drove home were it was still clear so i set back up in the garden were the condition's were alot better checking the difference from my home to the society's i was ale to resolve m53 m3 and m13 in the 24mm Panoptic were as just an hour before at the the society place i was unable to get do that so when i used the 8mm Delos on these 3 at home the stars in the core were bright full of golden color and very dense.

My conclusion on the 8MM its a nice EP but i think when i can i will get the 10MM as well it just seem'd a tad much power sometimes and when i get the 12mm Nagler i should have a good range of EP's also i need a bigger scope its not quite the same once youve had a 16" and go to a smaller appature. The wife's against it but now i have the osby to store one in, it would be alot easier now with a big scope tan it was before hauling in and out of the house so over summer i think i will be trying to get another 16 or something around that

oh and we saw US Navy,Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) double satellite formation going through the plough

Thanks for reading

Dan

[Naemeth]

You're not going to be able to avoid getting the 10mm now, from reading your report are you ?

Nice report, and sounds like you had a great time .

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report. I remember when I first looked through an XW that I was also srtuckt at the level of detail these top-notch EPs give on Jupiter. Even coming from a Radian, I could spot more with the XW. The Delos is in the same league as the XW by all accounts. Given the speed of your scope, an 8mm is not overreaching by any standards. A 6mm (200x) or even a 4.5mm Delos should work well with your scope.

[Daniel-K]

i found it hard getting use to the WFOV im only use to 65 degrees and found it i had have the eye guard all the way out or it would black out.

[alan potts]

Danny,

No I am not buying it 8mm was the right call, it is the conditions X150 is perfect Globular power. I have some bad news for you I have just bought a 10mm Ethos and you know what that will mean, yes leaving the wife. I also have a large and thick cardboard box you can have.

Alan.