24mm Panoptic

[Naemeth]

Glad you got your first light. Sounds like a winner (not that I ever doubted that). Warning: Green and black EPs can be addictive!!

At the moment I am sorely tempted by that 26mm Nagler for sale. MUST RESIST, MUST RESIST

I know that feeling. I only got my 1st TeleVue on the 29th of May... Now I've got 8.

That Nagler is tempting, but alas, I don't have the cash...

[Naemeth]

Having some quite excellent luck tonight. Weather forecast says it'll be clear for another 5 hours! Time to get the dob downstairs ready for tonight :D

[AlexB67]

Looking promising here too. Don't bring them out side at the same time. The luxury you have is use one, wait for some dew build up, get the next one out  

I am tempted to start with the Heritage early on to have a look at a few doubles first, then will see, though no doubt the bigger brother will be brought out after for some DSOs if conditions hold up. 

[alan potts]

Good, I hope it turns fine for you, I put the scope out and just like England the clouds rolled in, no rain though. 

I knew it was a mistake taking the tiles off the barn roof, at least if it does rain it is only concrete below to wet.

Alan

[Naemeth]

The scope is going out when I am, in a few minutes time .

[Naemeth]

Just come in, wow! 12 DSOs observed, I think I'm finally getting the hang of this!

Second Light Report: 24mm TeleVue Panoptic

Telescope used was the Skywatcher 10" F/4.7 Dobsonian

Weather was looking great from about 16:00 onwards, so late afternoon I got the dob downstairs so I'd be out quicker when I got there. At 7:00pm it was dark enough to start so I got everything outside, not before I put on a lot of layers. The recent drop in temperature (of about 7 or 8 degrees) was encouragement enough - as I was planning a long session, for me at least, I knew I didn't want to have to go inside because I was too cold. So I put on some thermals, two hoodies and a coat (and hat and scarf), very comfy - even with that cold wind.

So, with everything set-up, I went for one of my favourites - M57. It was the usual smoky ring, and again got a hint of colour. It seems that with any eyepiece I try in this 10" dob I get colour, a hint at least. I'm really looking forward to Orion later in the year.

Next was M11 or at least what I thought was M11, I was stunned, absolutely amazing, lovely dust lanes. It's the dust lanes that make me doubt whether it was M11, unlikely from a cluster. Looked almost like the pinwheel galaxy, any ideas?

Next up was M14, very smoky as expected, no stars resolved though - even at higher power.

Moved over to Andromeda, and got a lovely view, even better than last night, of M31/32/110. It looked fairly big, probably about 0.5 degrees wide, but I know it's a lot larger than that, perhaps I need to get away from all this LP .

Next onto M71, always easy-ish to find as it's just directly up from Altair. If I'm honest, it looked like a large grey blob, but then that is to be expected, what wasn't expected is it seemed larger than M31. Can't be right surely? I guess LP really ruins galaxies.

Next, I went onto M56, fairly un-impressive but very obvious, about the size of a pea. One of the things I love about this scope is I no longer have to wonder if I saw something, the extra aperture makes me sure of seeing another Messier, it's almost like I'm seeing the whole catalogue anew, and I like that idea .

As I was scanning the sky around Deneb, a Meteor conveniently appear in the FOV, very small and fleeting but definitely different from a satellite - I've seen enough of them!.

Next, I gave M52 a go, I managed it but it didn't look as impressive as the others, just a small freckling of stars with some 'dust' around it.

The next two were M15 and M2, two quite bright globular clusters in the eyepiece, although only the size of a pea. They looked almost exactly the same, and the other was easy to find from one of them (M2 is directly below M15).

Finally, I swung the scope over to the Double Cluster, lovely target in every scope I have. The FOV of the Panoptic really does frame it nicely.

That concluded my 3 hour session, a bit of high cloud started coming in and my hands were beginning to get pretty cold so I decided to call it a night.

[Qualia]

I really must find some way of catching up on posts. There's so much happening on SGL, most just fly by the qualia-radar and just don't get spotted . Anyway, I'm glad to see the Pan getting a good bit of action. Curious as it may sound, although in my small EP collection there's nothing in the visual element which can touch the Delos, I prefer the ergonomics of the Pan. It is lighter, smaller, less of a beast, sits well in both the 4" and 10" without worry of balance or the diagonal slipping and just seems a more subtler affair. A cracking eyepiece and I guess will only feel truely at home if accompanied by its sweet brother, the 19mm 

[Naemeth]

I really must find some way of catching up on posts. There's so much happening on SGL, most just fly by the qualia-radar and just don't get spotted . Anyway, I'm glad to see the Pan getting a good bit of action. Curious as it may sound, although in my small EP collection there's nothing in the visual element which can touch the Delos, I prefer the ergonomics of the Pan. It is lighter, smaller, less of a beast, sits well in both the 4" and 10" without worry of balance or the diagonal slipping and just seems a more subtler affair. A cracking eyepiece and I guess will only feel truely at home if accompanied by its sweet brother, the 19mm 

There is, if you change your settings so you subscribe to topics when you reply, you can make it so you get a notification, then you open up all your notifications (My Settings --> My Notifications) and it gives them all .

I haven't had chance to get that Delos yet, the spending of other things got in the way a bit. Payday is only in a week or so at least .

[Qualia]

Dumb old me never realised that, Naemeth! Thank you. Perhaps folk will now think I'm less rude. To settings I go

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice report again Naemeth.

Don't worry Qualia, I do not think anybody ever thinks you are rude on here. Even with notifications on there is too much to catch up on.

[Naemeth]

Nice report again Naemeth.

Don't worry Qualia, I do not think anybody ever thinks you are rude on here. Even with notifications on there is too much to catch up on.

There is a lot to catch up on - even just looking at things I've replied to I get about 100 notifications a day. There are probably 1,000 posts a day on SGL.

Really looking forward to an observing session with the Leeds Astronomical Society soon, should be on the 30th of October, weather permitting. May take my Panoptic instead of my 25mm TV plossl.