2nd light with Vixen Atlux

[Stu]

Lovely session with the Vixen last night. Not so long with Mrs Maksutov in such an advanced state of tubbiness ;-), but nice.

The transparency was not great, and seeing quite variable, mainly due to central heating flues, but I stuck almost exclusively to Jupiter and the Moon and a quick look at Mars before packing up.

Detail on Jupiter was very clear in periods of good seeing, often coinciding with gaps between houses! Whilst the resolution is obviously not to the level of the 12", there was plenty of detail in the equatorial belts. There was a clear feature ahead of GRS in the SEB, and quite a dark barge in the NEB later on. GRS itself was very clear, again with detail around where it nestled into the SEB.

Most enjoyable maybe was the beautiful resolution of the Jovian moons. I have never seen them as such pure, wonderfully sharp disks before. I watched Europa move into the surface and was able to follow it a good way away from the limb. It was clearly visible as a bright white disk. I lost it after going in for dinner, but with continued observing may have been able to follow it for longer.

I have also 'rediscovered' my Orthos which seem a perfect match for this scope and mount for planetary viewing. I was using the 9, 7 and 6mm BGOs almost exclusively last night, simple and no balance issues, tack sharp views. The Atlux mount tracks perfectly for visual. With nothing other than plonking the scope pointing north and basically being roughly pointed at the Pole star, following a 3 star align it was keeping Jupiter central in a 6mm BGO at x225 with an 11.2 arc minute fov. I could almost forget the scope, just sit comfortably and concentrate on the view. I know there is a lot of talk of the simplicity of manual Alt Az mounts, I too am a fan, but don't discount the benefits of tracking EQ mounts in whatever form if you haven't tried them.

After Jupiter I moved over to the moon, and it was absolutely stunning! I've never seen such clarity and detail. No visible CA even on the terminator at high power (x270 ish) and features I've just not seen before.

I managed four, maybe five craterlets in Plato which is a first for me! Smallest one 0.97 km, according to the map John posted the other day, amazing :-)

I also saw Schroter's Valley, identified thanks to Nicks post. Lovely!

Took a few dodgy iPhone shots as a record just to capture a flavor of it but the detail visually was much sharper and finer. These were at around x300 I think.

The Atlux has over 100 lunar features in its database, helping to locate and identify features.

Lastly Mars. Low down and over houses, I still got lovely detail at over x250 ish.

The ice cap, Syrtis Major and what I understand is frosting or clouds over the Hellas region were all very clear, plus a lovely orange colour to the surface. I meant to say I was using the Baader Neodymium filter throughout this session which really helped to pull out the detail and improve contrast of subtle features.

This is the Atlux last night :-)

Wonderful session, I love this scope :-)

Sorry for rambling on :-)

Stu

[Mike73]

Congrats on a succesful second light Stu, so which one do you think you'll grab for decent solar system observing session then, the big newt or the classy frac?

[cotterless45]

Can't wait to have a go !

Just for a change ,I had the 150Pl on a simple RA motor eq3-2. The results were superb on the Moon and I've never seen so much detail on the Jovian belts. I used a 7.5 mm old school Celestron Ultima.

Even though seeing was unpredictable this gave good views.

Hoping to set this beside the refractor and compare views,

Nick.

[Stu]

Thanks Mike. That's a tricky question to answer and I guess will depend how I'm feeling. I am really enjoying the tracking of the Atlux and the purity of the views. I know that there will be more detail in the 12" but it will need more effort tracking and nudging. We will see which gets most use :-)

Stu

[Stu]

Can't wait to have a go !

Just for a change ,I had the 150Pl on a simple RA motor eq3-2. The results were superb on the Moon and I've never seen so much detail on the Jovian belts. I used a 7.5 mm old school Celestron Ultima.

Even though seeing was unpredictable this gave good views.

Hoping to set this beside the refractor and compare views,

Nick.

I look forward to it Nick :-), although if your views are better I will either cry or sulk, or both :-)

Cheers,

Stu

[John]

Great report Stu 

Jupiter was rather lovely last night as was the Moon. 

A few weeks ago I tried to identify the Jovian moons by ranking them in order of apparent size though the eyepiece before checking to see which was actually which. Rather to my surprise I got it right

[Stu]

Will give it a go! :-)

Stu

[Stu]

Just noticed that I misread the crater size for the smallest Plato craterlet seen. It was 1.98km, not 0.97km, and was in close proximity to the 2.22km one, still managed to see them as two distinct craters.

Stu

[nightfisher]

Good to hear the scope is performing, sounds like you had an enjoyable session