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Mirrors excited

mdstuart

By mdstuart
in The Astro Lounge

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ghostdance

ghostdance

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Congratulations Mark on your new mirror/s - looks lovely in the pic!

I hope your first light reveals new light!

Not to hijack your thread, but I wonder if a Hi Lux recoating would be worth undertaking in a 6"? I ask only for my future reference, as I think it likely I will be a 6incher for the foreseeable future and I'd be interested in options down the line...... :)

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Ghost dance

I think I can say that when you come to recoat your mirrors then the guys at Orion Optics would certainly be recommended by me based on my recent experience.

I cannot comment on how much better hi-lux would be to a traditional coating as I have no experience of anything other than the hi-lux which is VERY SHINY!!

Keep an eye on this thread as I will be reporting whether I can see fainter stars with the new hi lux coating..

Mark

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Paul

My secondary was "reasonable". It had perhaps 20 pinprick holes around the edges and was slightly smeary looking at certain angles. However if you just held it in a room and looked at it then it did not look dirty...Orion told me it was reflecting 85% of the light so in line with normal non enhanced coating levels. I just wanted to sort it before it got worse in case the glass would be attacked and then I would lose the re-coat option.

The main mirror again was broadly Ok and not dirty but again had twenty or so marks and some had become a few mm across and looked black from above. Again I wanted to get the mirror done before the glass could be damaged.

So I think I will see an improvement in the view but I was really recoating as a precaution and perhaps because I wanted to take the opportunity whilst I could afford it!

Does that help?

Mark

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Mark at Beaufort

Mark at Beaufort

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Very pleased for you Mark it sounds like you are going to have great fun.

I recently bought an Orion VX8 and I am very pleased with the quality of the mirror and secondary. I had a look at NGC891 with the Ethos EPs and I think the view matched the one I had with my 10" Skywatcher Dob.

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Finally a clear sky...so the mirrors received their first light..after much collimation...A glorious view. How I have missed the feeling when you see the double cluster in all its magnificence!

After looking at a very bright comet Lovejoy with a lovely field star in the halo... I managed to pick up a few new galaxies tonight despite the bright moon.

Ngc 2523 and Ngc 3668 found. Both required averted vision. I could see stars to mag 14.6 tonight but I am sure that when the moon is less bright these mirrors will take me deeper than ever...

Thanks everyone for following my mirrors adventures.

Mark

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DazC

DazC

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Sounds like you got a great service and a great result.I will bare them in mind when my mirrors need a re coat in the future.

Great to folow your mirrors journey, good thread.

D.C

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Out again tonight for the first time without the moon.

Had a look at a number of galaxies. I managed to see a galaxy NGC 2767 which is m13.8 and a star near NGC 2350 which was mag 15.0 and that was at an elevation of 36 degrees above the horizon so there is potential to go deeper still.

So to sum up the mirrors have now equalled my record with my 14 inch and gone 0.3m deeper than the 16 inch before the mirrors were coated and I think at a higher elevation might get to mag 15.2 ish. The coating of both mirrors has added 0.5 magnitude which given that magnitude is a 1/5 of a logarithmic scale is actually pretty significant. I bet an extra 0.5 magnitude adds 100s of galaxies   :evil:

Mark

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