first light with Bresser AR127 L

[Seafury]

Hi all ,well it's only taken just on a year to get my "new"scope out and I'm not quite sure how to report what I saw, however, firstly it's not an ideal time of year for viewing, not really getting dark and with a full moon lurking low down, it was the first time I used the goto mount for real and that seemed to work pretty well considering I was not that careful with the polar alignment but it seemed to find Mars and Saturn without too much adjustment needed and then tracked fairly well. To be honest I couldn't see any detail on Mars using a 6mm Celestron  XL eyepiece or the 12mm BST, Saturn was the best I had ever seen it with the Cassini division clearly visible with both eyepieces. Having run the gauntlet of a decaying back, neighbours getting twitchy and surrounding bedroom and bathroom lights going on and off like Blackpool iiluminations I decided to pack it in but at least it has been outside and I think it seems to be quite a good scope, "like I would know"

Gordon

[russ.will]

I've had some great views of Saturn and yet, on the same night, frustrating views of Mars with all of my scopes, AR127L included.

I'm no planetary specialist, but there is something about Mars that makes it a real sod! If you're not out in the wilds, free of additional thermal disturbance, then don't expect too much from it.

Russell

[Seafury]

Hi Russell, yes it seems pretty unimpressive just an orangery colour blob can't even seem to focus it properly  ,perhaps it was just too light

gordon

[nightfisher]

Mars is always tricky, might have been a dust storm blowing on it

[cotterless45]

It's going , going, going..........

[ronin]

For Mars the 127 will struggle a bit.

It might be a nice aperture but at f/5 you will get some form of CA even if Mars is basically red, but also what comes through the edge of the lens will cause problems, there will be a degree of Spherical Aberration from that section of the scope.

Every time Mars ambles into view just about everyone expects good views and just about everyone is disappointed. It is an annoying little planet, or expectations are unreal.

Your 6mm eyepiece is not enough magnification for Mars, the reports of seeing much on Mars comes from people running magnifications of 250x and above this. That would in effect mean a 2.5mm eyepiece on your 127. And igniring the idea of 2x magnification I would not be convinced you could get a useful 250x out of the scope. 200x is more likely a maximum, and there is no guarantee on how good the image would actually be at 200x nor how often you could use it.

The "new" BST 3.2mm wiould just about deliver 200x (you say you have the 12mm). but it would be a gamble and you may not use it a lot, really only on Mars every 2+ years - Mars is close again at the end of May 2016, so really at this stage I see little use in spending out on one.

One thing I have heard, but never tried on the visual side, is to put an IR filter in and so remove the IR aspect coming from Mars.

Wait for 2 years and then read the cries of anguish about Mars all over again . Jupiter really is a much more observer friendly planet.

APOLOGIES: The search for 127L put up the page from Bressier for the 127S, the 127L should be the f/8 scope. That should be much better as both CA and SA will be reduced.

Wasn't a mistype as I cut and pasted, but I am too lazy to edit the whole post. :rolleyes:

You still have the need to get 250x I would say but the f/8 variant brings in more eyepiece options. Well actually it just means a 4mm to get this 250x. A 5mm would mean 200x in effect. Might be worth a try, there are not many 4mm eyepieces around for 250 and really suspect the scope would struggle in any case..

[ronin]

Something is odd on the Bressier web site.

The specification says 127mm, dia f/8 and a focal length of 1200mm.

However 127mm dia and f/8 gives a focal length of 1016mm not 1200mm, quite a fair difference.

A focal length of 1200 and dia of 127mm gives an f number of f/9.448.

So somewhere one, or more, of the values don't make sense.

Half suspect they are quoting the focal length of the 150L on the 127L page.

[Seafury]

Hi Ronin, it definitely says 1200 fl on the scope itself and F9.5 so I guess that is correct. As indicated by Cotterless I should have been looking a couple of months ago , that having been said, 2 years time is about what my back needs to recover from last nights excursions  lol. I did not notice any false colour on Saturn and the view was really very sharp, I think I saw three moons?

Gordon

[Seafury]

A quick photo "ready to go"

[F15Rules]

this scope is definitely F9.4 focal length. Having owned one, and unless the scope has a duff lens, which I doubt, the light sky and poor placement if your targets are the problem..as Cotterless says, Mars has effectively "gone" for another 18 months or so, and no amateur scope is going to show much derail now.

Saturn is also low in the sky and what you can see will depend a lot on the atmospheric conditions: my D&G has given my best ever view of Saturn a few weeks back, but most views have been much poorer due to turbulence and poor seeing.

Your scope is, I'm sure, a good one, and from September on you will see that, as "proper" night returns!:-)

[John]

I'm sure your 127L can do better than that on Mars. Yes, the planet is now rushing away from us and it's apparent size has shrunk a lot since opposition but details on the disk are still clearly visible at 200x - 250x with my ED120 which has smaller aperture. 

[Seafury]

Hi John , I suspect my "poor" view of Mars was a combination of too light, too late, low over neighboring houses etc etc

cheers Gordon

[paulastro]

I agree with John, Mars still has plenty to offer.   Mars need good planetary observing technique, patience, application and reasonably high magnifications to get the most out of it.  Mars demands plenty of TLC to give you its best.   Even with it's current diminishing size Mars is still rather dazzling if too low a power is used.  Of course, this means we need plenty of eyepiece time, waiting for the seeing to relent briefly so we can tease out some detail. 

[Seafury]

To be fair I only tried it for 10 mins

[John]

To be fair I only tried it for 10 mins

Nuff said !