Lyra 4" F11 on a Skytee II [Part 2] plus some UWANs

[ibraidwo]

A month on from the first review of my set-up I got another chance to spend a couple of hours with the Lyra and the Skytee. A clear night with a bright, almost full moon. There was a bright object above and to the left of the moon, and later I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was Saturn and one moon.

Set up was quick and within 5 mins I was looking at my favourite object in the sky - the aforementioned moon, beautiful, just beautiful! One of the jobs I had to do was align the RDF with the Lyra which didn't take long to do.

Additionally I now had 2 new eyepeices to try out - 7mm and 4mm WO UWANs courtesy of a well known auction site.

My overall thoughts of the Skytee haven't changed, however I decided to try the scope on the higher mounting point to try and raise the eyepiece point a little and this is when I discovered a design flaw: the saddle locking screw was very tough to turn and I quickly identified the cause - the barrel of the saddle locking screw was rubbing tight against the Skytee saddle mounting platform. I rectified this by finding 2 large outer diameter washers and fitting them between the Skytee saddle point and the saddle itself. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has seen this problem...

Once I had addressed the problem and the was scope in place I discovered that the Skytee coped well with the Lyra on the higher mounting point even without any counterweights (although I should probably get some at somepoint!)

Moving onto the views through my eyepieces...

The Baader zoom is always my starting point as the 24mm aids finding objects before zooming down to 8mm. The Baader never disappoints me, and gave me that 'wow' factor when I looked at Saturn. I just love looking at Saturn!

I then slipped in the 4mm UWAN, and although it was great on the moon, I didn't get an expected greater 'wow' factor looking at Saturn as the image wasn't as bright. Possibly it works better in larger aperture scopes.

Moving onto the 7mm UWAN, the image was (as expected) similar to the 8mm zoom point on the Baader but seemed to keep Saturn view longer (I am assuming that the higher FOV on the UWAN is the reason).

I didn't plan to buy the 7mm UWAN (it came as a package with the 4mm that I was actually after); I shall keep it for a while and try it in my other scopes, however I don't expect it to be a keeper as the Baader is more than adequate. I reorganised my eyepiece case last week and made an area for it to fit into - so you never know it may stay in its new home.

I also want to try the 4mm on my SW Explorer 130p, however I don't like its single speed focuser and it probably would be even worse at that mag. I may need to think of getting a 200mm newtonian with dual speed focuser (like the Explorer PDS) to compliment my Lyra (just don't tell the wife).

I have still yet to get to a darker site with the SGL Surrey Observers, but I will do soon.

Oh, one other point, I plan to make a red led strip automatically light up inside the lid when I open my eyepiece case - something to do on a cloudy night...

[John]

Nice report, I enjoyed reading it

The 4mm UWAN is a fine eyepiece but is delivering too much magnification at 280x for a 4" objective lens, even a good one like the Lyra's. I find 200 / 220x is the max useful with my Vixen 4" ED refractor. I did find the 4mm UWAN / Nirvana very useful with my 120mm ED refractor though in which it gives 225x.

I'd not be too quick to part with the 7mm UWAN though. I reckon it will out perform the zoom and the UW field of view is a great boon with alt-azimuth mounts.

[argonaut]

I agree with John that the 4mm UWAN(excellent eyepiece BTW) is a little bit much for the 4" F/11. Although for perfect nights it may surprise you if you can wait long enough for a perfect night. This is the UK. I think you will find that the 7mm UWAN is closer to 7.8mm.

I liked the UWAN's when I owned them but I went with ES 82° which I found have a more neutral tone.

Glen.

[ibraidwo]

Thanks John and Glen,

Point taken on overdoing the magnification - although on the moon (being that much brighter) it wasn't bad. And also a good point on using it on an Alt-Az mount. [As my signature says 'lots yet to learn']

I assume that it would work better on my SW 130P at 158x - must give it a try next time on the other mounting point.

Thanks again.

[John]

You are right - the moon seems to be able to "take" a lot of magnification and still look pretty good. Binary stars are another target where you can really go for it. Your refractor ought to be pretty good at those too

[ibraidwo]

Binary stars - I haven't tried looking at those yet...

[foundaplanet]

Nice one. I had one night with the Lyra up to 225x on Jupiter when seeing was good and it performed very nicely. Usually though on its occasional outings I am am finding 160 - 190 the highest usable mags. It will be interesting though to see how it performs when we get one of those rare great evenings. I have just gotten an alt/az mount for mine also which does make for a rather sweet set up. Isn't the focuser something grand though.. I was amazed at the quality of it and the rest of the scope for that matter.

Ed; Have you upgraded the factory saddle on the skytee.