First Outing

[Xunil]

Well I got my wish for the day, and got to spend just a little while out with my new scope, a 10" Skywatcher Dob.

I got a tip off in another thread here that there might be a little calm before the storm hits, checked the weather and when I popped out at 6:45pm - the cloud was there but starting to thin. A few little points of light were peeking in between the grey; I could make out the inky blue/black of the dusk sky which meant there was nothing higher for the time being.

I made a good space in the back yard and brought out my new toy, putting it together whilst wishing the cloud away, and then popped a sheet over as a temporary cover while the mirror cooled down. I was going to make myself wait half an hour, and managed just 10 minutes - the scope was cold to touch so I thought I'd have my first look - it a Pyrex mirror and I have no idea how long they take to cool. It had also pretty much cleared so it was probably now or never.

I popped the caps off the finder and lined it up on Betelgeuse, then took a look through the main scope. It took a minute to find the star in the main view, and I had to swap back and forth between finder and scope a little, but after a few minutes got them lined up enough to make the finder useful.

I then swung the scope to take a look at the Orion Nebula, and rather than the usual "smudge" I could already see detail, that unique and recognisable shape along with streaky nebulosity not normally seen from here. This is the thing - I had the curtains open with the living room window open, no night vision worth mentioning and street lights doing their thing - our yard is tiny, just enough room to "swing a dob". And I'm grinning like a Cheshire Cat while able to make out a little detail in the nebula.

The shape of the yard and time constraints due to the weather made me have to forget about Saturn, so headed over to Mars for a look. I got it in sight, focused it as best as the seeing would let me - I could make out the tiny little circle but it looked a little pinched, more of an oval, so dug out the 10mm and promptly lost sight of it. I swapped back and the circle looked a little tighter (a moment of better seeing, or the mirror cool enough - I couldn't tell), but looked like an edge was filed off slightly. Bemused, I swapped to the 10mm after moving the planet so it would cross the higher mag EP and refocused. Mars popped into sight, not brilliantly clear but not bad, it looked to me like it was just over 3/4 full (can anyone confirm this?). Also, I could see some surface detail, darker "Mara" material near the dark curve I perceived as the planet in shadow, like a large bruise on a peach. I looked up as it disappeared suddenly, confused that it had zipped away, wondering momentarily if I'd kicked the tube or something - and was greeted by the grey, gobbling up the sky as fast as it had cleared.

With a sigh I packed up and came in, just in time as the first spots of rain started to drop.

Overall, given the conditions mentioned above, I'm ecstatic with this scope and it's capabilities. I can't wait for the opportunity to take it out for a "proper" night of observing from a dark site. The speed of setting up this Dob is in my opinion a great advantage over wrestling with the alignment on my old Celestron 114mm Goto, and the views are already looking promising.

[scotastro]

Xunil

Sounds like you had a good first night Shame the clouds came back.

Quite a jump from 114mm to 250mm. The sky will never look the same again. The mirror may take up to 1 hour to cool down if stored in a warm room - but I find that you can look at DSOs straight away. It is only planets or close doubles that are badly effected by air currents.

With a scope this size it is worth getting the finder set up as accurately as possible using high magnification it save swopping to a low power EP when changing objects. Unless you bump it, it will stay aligned between uses.

Mercury and Venus are not the only planets to show phases - Mars does too. So you where not seeing things and there is nothing wrong with the scope. Ihe amount of phase just depends on where it is in its orbit in relation to us.

Might be stating the obvious but do a quick star test next time you go out. The Skyliner optics do not seem to alter collimation when moved about, but its worth checking.

Hope you get more clear skies soon

Scotastro

[Xunil]

I have got a Cheshire incoming from FLO but I didn't collimate but when focusing on Mars did notice it turned into a blob with a circle around it - not quite the best test but for the purposes of a "mess around" with the scope it seemed good enough. I didn't really have any expectations, but was hopping from foot to foot to have a go.

I will take the time to check collimation every time I head out for a "proper" night though, I understand this the way to get the best out of the unit.

Fingers crossed for the Messier Marathon our society is holding at the start of April.