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250PX: First Light

Naemeth

By Naemeth
in Observing - Reports

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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As many of you know, I've been struggling quite a bit with finding objects and spend most of my time just sweeping star fields. So, on my first light, I decided to try and roughly get my bearings before I went out, and concentrate on objects in the southern part of the sky (my best view), because I knew the constellations of Cygnus, Lyra, Ophiuchus, Aquila and Cassiopeia (actually, I know more constellations that I thought....). Normally I lose most of the stars in Hercules, and I can never think of the shape...

So, at about 8:00pm I got the scope down and ready to cool. I have to take it in two stages, whilst I can carry it with both parts it is incredibly awkward to do so and is much easier splitting the OTA and mount and carrying them separately.

To allow you to safely screw and unscrew the OTA to the mount, Skywatcher have provided useful 'rests' in the mount so you can rest your scope and not have to worry about trying to balance the OTA with two hands and screwing in something with a third.

Once all set-up I realised I had been a bit premature in thinking it was going to be a completely clear night... so I took the cloudy time to align my finderscope on a tree, then through gaps I was able to use Arcturus (I think..) to align my finderscope perfectly. It was between the clouds that I noticed just how bright the images were! Amazingly bright, probably about double the brightness (or apparent brightness) of my 6".

It started to get darker, and when the gaps in the right places appeared I pointed the scope at Vega (with the 25mm TV plossl in), and then moved down to the two stars I knew were on opposite sides of the Ring Nebula (M57) - Sulafat and Sheliak... and, bingo! A lovely ring shaped smudge appeared and I was truly blown away, I'd only ever seen it as a smudge, but couldn't have told you what shape it was, but now, it was as clear as day! Well, I wanted more so I moved up to the 15mm TV plossl and I could've sworn I saw a very faint wisp of blue, such an amazing sight! I then moved to the 10.5mm TV plossl, and the same wisp was still there, and I may have caught a glimpse of some faint red, but I think my mind may have been playing tricks on me ;).

By this point I had tears of joy in my eyes - why had I not got this scope sooner?

I then moved down to Ophiuchus, trying to find either M10 or M12, but I think I actually found M107 - and it was an amazing sight! I saw specks of dust! Beautiful resolution, I went all the way up to my Nagler zoom at 3mm (just because I could), the image at that magnifcation wasn't all that sharp (as you'd expect) but it was still a lovely sight. This object kept me occupied for some time, I never thought I'd be able to see something in that much detail in such a light polluted area, I really didn't :).

By this time, there were a lot of clouds around, so I went back to wandering through the stars, and it really struck me how much brighter all the stars appeared, the brightest ones were really obvious, and the not-so bright ones were as bright as the brightest appear on my smaller scopes, I could see star colour too, I lot of it!

Eventually, some of the clouds parted and I just came across what I believe to be M71 (right sort of area) and was amazed to see a huge smudge (about 2-3 peas big), but I didn't have time to give it anymore power because the clouds came back :(.

So that was my night, and the only conclusion I have is that I love this scope :D.

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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I sense the first signs of aperture fever :)

Wait until you see M13 at a decent magnification. That will really make your toes curl.

James

Aperture fever is cured for now :).

I'm lucky I only went for the 10" instead of the 12", I wouldn't have been able to squeeze the 12" upstairs, and moving it around would've been difficult. Any larger would definitely have been a no-go, for now at least :D.

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Qualia

Qualia

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Great report, Naemeth and in many ways your experiences echo my own. I too have seen colour in M 57, a kind of bluey-greenish hue, not just the once and not just from dark sites but time and time again, even in the city. Like you, I was also surprised on just how bright everything becomes when kicking up the aperture. If I recall correctly, the first night out with the 10", I thought I was ready the star map all wrong, for where it was showing a medium sized 5th mag star, for example, I was seeing something like a 3rd mag star. Took me a minute to realise what was going on :grin: I hope you get a lot more evenings like this one and hope you will be able to get out to some decent dark sites soon. My own 10" has done a fair bit of travelling this year and I still feel no desire to up the aperture.

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michael.h.f.wilkinson

michael.h.f.wilkinson

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Great report. I remember my first light with the 8" scope I still have, almost 18 years ago, and the view of M13 as an explosion of stars rather than a smudge with hints of granularity as in my 6" was just amazing. Size matters in astronomy!

Sheesh, 18 years with my C8, I must be surprisingly resistant to aperture fever (that or I have squandered too much on EPs and other kit :D)

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AlexB67

AlexB67

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Sheesh, 18 years with my C8, I must be surprisingly resistant to aperture fever (that or I have squandered too much on EPs and other kit :D)

It's an interesting point. There are those that say I got a 10 , few months later they want 12, they want 16 etc. and just never seem to get enough. Not that I can predict the future. Personally I suspect once I have a 10 inch, may be 12 in future I'd be quite happy in terms of size and all the hassle that come with bigger scopes, setting up, not having an observatory, cooling down and other issues as well.

Even if I had the money to burn right now, I could see myself expanding to other scopes for solar, probably some nice slow scopes like a Maksutov Cassegrain or Schmidt-Cassegrain type instead of going down the aperture road instead of ever bigger dobs. I think there can be a limit to aperture fever as well, but who knows what I'll have collected in 10 years time :D. After all, some of the most seasoned astronomers swear by that size aperture of around 10 inch, and they can be satisfied using it for most of their life to do most of their observing with, that must say something too about the sweet spot when taking into account a lot of factors :)

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Naemeth

Naemeth

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Alex, there is a limit to aperture fever: space. There would not be enough room to get a box for a 12" dob up the stairs, the 10" box was enough of a struggle (only just fits!). Mind you, the OTA and mount are fine to move :D.

Having seen the size of the 10" OTA, I can only imagine how big a 14" SCT is, but that doesn't deter me. I won't be getting a bigger scope though until I get a house, my current situation holds me back in this regard...

It said it would be clear tonight, and it's half clear, I'm just a bit knackered having finished work. I'll see if it's clearer in half an hour or so, and I might take the dob out for a walk :D.

Oh, I forgot to mention this. Throughout assembly I was grinning and when I managed to take it downstairs perfectly safely I couldn't stop myself smiling. This, for aperture, should see me through for quite a while!

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southernman

southernman

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Glad to see you had such a good first light on your new 10" dob. In some ways it echoes my own experience when I got mine. Although living at 44 degrees south offered me a very different set of DSO'S to 'rediscover'. Enjoy is all I can add!

Peter

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Avocette

Avocette

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Congratulations Naemeth. Great report - your enthusiasm is infectious. I have just about got my 'old' 250px to my liking now, having properly collimated it (especially the focuser assembly and secondary mirror) and viewing sessions are a delight at the moment (early darkness and some sparking clarity recently). My Telrad is not getting as much use as the setting circle I fitted and Wixey, largely because my star hopping skills are not so great with summer/autumn constellations, and the Telrad is a great dew sensor!

I'm 'limited' to a range of SW so-called Super Plossl and Celestron Plossl EPs but have been really enjoying observing clusters, nebulae and galaxies for myself, not to forget a special moment early one morning when I saw that Jupiter had stripes and four bright moons around it.

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