Finally - First light with VX12L

[Stu]

I've had this scope for some months now but last night was the first time I managed a look through it. Only about 45mins unfortunately, and earlier in the evening so that although it was dark, Orion hadn't come into view. I'll save that pleasure for another night.

I didn't bother to collimate it, being short of time, but a quick star test showed it to be pretty close despite picking it up from Exeter, and then a fruitless trip to Lucksall and back. This is the third lovely scope I've bought from Mike73 .

Even with my 80mm finder and Telrad on, the balance was pretty good, no need for any counterweights or use of the friction break. I only used three eyepieces, a 40mm TMB Paragon, 24mm Panoptic and a 12.5mm BGO. These gave a nice spread of mags, and the 40mm was very handy as a finder. The scope is crying out for a 21mm Ethos though really, but that will have to wait and I suspect balance will need address with one of these lumps in the focuser.

Somewhat infuriatingly, the sky later on was even better than when I was observing. The seeing looked very steady and Orion was beautifully clear! However, I got to use the scope so that's what's important. Quite a few lower targets were obscured, so the Double Cluster seemed like a good place to start. I still prefer a good frac on the DC, despite the obviously brighter and deeper view through the 12". The other night, through the 4" fluorite the stars were just stunning; last night, far more stars were resolved, but I didn't get that same warm glow. There's nothing wrong with the optics, 0.987 strehl, 1/8th wave is good enough for me, but it does illustrate the difference.

I thought I would check Polaris to see just how well it performed on resolving the tiny secondary. The answer was... beautifully. Even with just the 24mm Panoptic in at x66, the secondary was a very tight pinpoint sitting on one of the diffraction spikes. I suspect with better collimation the views with doubles will be excellent. The dual speed focuser on the scope is very smooth and accurate, a joy to use and it is fitted with a Baader Clicklock, heated dewstrip and a1.25" Howie Glatter Parallizer, all great kit which works well, I had no issues with dew despite the damp conditions.

M36 and 38 showed the real benefits of aperture. In the four inch under these skies they are nothing to write home about, but last night they resolved beautifully into proper open clusters, a lovely sprinkling of stars, particularly M38. My old favourite of NGC457 gave me my normal smile when I saw it, a great fun target.

Last target in this short session was Caroline's Rose. Under a dark sky this is a lovely target, but even last night it was great to see. Quite subtle with the LP but lovely features becoming visible with time, the dark curved lanes creating the petals of the rose quite clearly. Averted vision helped, but considering that I wasn't very well dark adapted it was a nice view.

So, another long report about a short session . Nice to have finally used the scope and for it to deliver what I hoped for. The optics seem excellent and it has been modded in a way which gives me everything I could want, including flocking of the top and bottom thirds of the OTA.

Nice and quick to setup, next stop M42, and who knows, perhaps the Pup

[DRT]

Glad to hear you managed to get this lovely scope out at last, Stu.

My VX12 has probably seen about an hour of clear sky since July

 

[nightfisher]

Nice one Stu, glad you finally got to take a look, its a pain but part of the hobby when waiting to get first light with a new scope i had same problem when i got my second 150 pro mak, it just sat about for ages,  it was cloudy when i turned in last night but must have cleared in the early hours

[John]

Nice report and 1st light Stu

Your scope is exactly the same optical spec as mine except newer. They are great performers IMHO

Good for outreach I've found as well - showpiece objects really have some impact even for novice observers.

 

 

 

[Highburymark]

Sounds very nice indeed Stu 

[laudropb]

Very nice first light report Stu. You seem to be onto a winner there.

[Chris]

Nice one Stu, you have a good array of quality kit back now  

[cotterless45]

Lovely Stu, get it out to a darker site for the new moon . Everything looks so lovely with little light pollution,

old Nick.

[DirkSteele]

Your public wants pictures! Sounds great, look forward to reading more about it over the coming month months.

[xtreemchaos]

great report Stu, cracking scope mate, ive had one on my must get list for a while, thay have a inpressive rep. goodluck and clear skys charl.

[Stu]

23 minutes ago, DirkSteele said:

Your public wants pictures! Sounds great, look forward to reading more about it over the coming month months.

I think I've posted these somewhere else Matthew, but here they are again

The little dew controller is great. Really lightweight but powers the eyepiece and telrad heaters perfectly well.

[Saganite]

On 11/26/2016 at 17:18, Chris Lock said:

Nice one Stu, you have a good array of quality kit back now  

Spoilt for choice eh ! What a great position to be in . love it 

I have read so much about the quality of Orion optics. Not so long ago I had the chance of a lovely 10" and took too long thinking about it.

[Stu]

3 hours ago, Saganite said:

Spoilt for choice eh ! What a great position to be in . love it 

I have read so much about the quality of Orion optics. Not so long ago I had the chance of a lovely 10" and took too long thinking about it.

Well worth grabbing a used one if you can, even with top grade optics they are quite affordable.

[nicoscy]

Stu,

Lovely scope & I love the little extras! Your observing report is what I would expect since I have a brilliant example of the VX12 (the f4 version) myself!

Your next purchase should be a Howie Glatter Laser and Tublug - makes collimation a child's play 

[MarsG76]

Sounds like you had a great night, short but great... reading your report made me crave that next night I'll be out there observing.

 

[Size9Hex]

That looks a beauty. Hope that you don't have to wait so long for second light!

[Commanderfish]

Hi Stu, 

Really interesting to hear your thoughts on the VX12L!  I was out with the VX16 last night which has the same focal length and therefore TFOVs as your VX12L given the same eyepiece (actually I get about 15% less TFOV and 15% more mag as I use a Paracorr).  I agree, the Double Cluster just doesn't have the wow in it.  I think it is partly due to the small FOV, but it could also be that even in top quality reflectors, the optics don't quite rival a quality smaller frac on that object.  With a Paracorr and a 30mm 82 degree ES I only get 1.35 degrees.

These scopes are great on M35, M36 , M37 and M38.  The definition on M37 is just fabulous.  M36 and M38 make a lot more sense than in a frac, as so many more stars resolve.  Little open clusters that you didn't know were there suddenly pop out in areas like Cygnus and Cassiopeia.  

Yes double stars look great;  last night I found two double stars at Orion's dagger that I didn't know were there before, in a lovely little group of eight stars.

You're in for a treat when you get to point it at M42; I've never seen colour in the nebula visually, but I do in the VX16   The E star in the trapezium was clearly visible at x87 too.

Did you notice any secondary shadow through your 40mm?  The reason I haven't bought a 41mm is that the exit pupil would be really large on my scope as it has an F ratio of 4, so an exit pupil of 10.25mm.  In your VX12L at F5.3 the exit pupil would be a much more reasonable 7.5mm and 1.7 degrees.  

Do you still have your ES30mm 82 degree?  I'm using mine a lot in the VX16, it gives me the same field as you would get in an Ethos 21.

If I ever sell the VX16 it will be for a VX12, for more portability and a larger FOV.  

[Stu]

7 hours ago, Commanderfish said:

Hi Stu, 

Really interesting to hear your thoughts on the VX12L!  I was out with the VX16 last night which has the same focal length and therefore TFOVs as your VX12L given the same eyepiece (actually I get about 15% less TFOV and 15% more mag as I use a Paracorr).  I agree, the Double Cluster just doesn't have the wow in it.  I think it is partly due to the small FOV, but it could also be that even in top quality reflectors, the optics don't quite rival a quality smaller frac on that object.  With a Paracorr and a 30mm 82 degree ES I only get 1.35 degrees.

These scopes are great on M35, M36 , M37 and M38.  The definition on M37 is just fabulous.  M36 and M38 make a lot more sense than in a frac, as so many more stars resolve.  Little open clusters that you didn't know were there suddenly pop out in areas like Cygnus and Cassiopeia.  

Yes double stars look great;  last night I found two double stars at Orion's dagger that I didn't know were there before, in a lovely little group of eight stars.

You're in for a treat when you get to point it at M42; I've never seen colour in the nebula visually, but I do in the VX16   The E star in the trapezium was clearly visible at x87 too.

Did you notice any secondary shadow through your 40mm?  The reason I haven't bought a 41mm is that the exit pupil would be really large on my scope as it has an F ratio of 4, so an exit pupil of 10.25mm.  In your VX12L at F5.3 the exit pupil would be a much more reasonable 7.5mm and 1.7 degrees.  

Do you still have your ES30mm 82 degree?  I'm using mine a lot in the VX16, it gives me the same field as you would get in an Ethos 21.

If I ever sell the VX16 it will be for a VX12, for more portability and a larger FOV.  

Yep, it's been a while since I pointed a 12" scope at M42. It was a VX12L f6 last time, a huge beast! Very clear green colour then I agree and plenty of detail. Strangely enough I do see similar colour (more subtle) in the Tak, particularly if I am not well dark adapted.

Agreed re open clusters (and globs) looking better with aperture. My previous 16" Sumerian was lovely on these.

I don't recall seeing any signs of the secondary shadow with the 40mm, but as you say the 16" f4 is a different beast in this respect. I will, at some point, invest in probably a 21mm Ethos as I think it would really excel in the 12".

[Mr Spock]

Sounds like you have a good one.

Globs are difficult to get the best of, even in modest apertures. I get reasonable though not inspiring views in the C9.25 but, I've seen M13 through a 22"... Takes some beating and is an awesome sight.

[Commanderfish]

So last night I went out with the Starwave 152 and ES 127 Triplet Apo, in very similar conditions to the previous night with the VX16.  As I set up, I was wondering if I was wasting my time after the previous night's huge aperture, but the fracs were pin sharp and very enjoyable , particularly around the Cygnus and Lyra star fields, with the larger FOVs really giving something extra to the views.  The speed and smoothness of maneouvering both scopes around the sky on the Ercole giro was fantastic, even easier and nicer than pointing the dob.  There's an interesting area of Cygnus about half way between Sadr and Albireo which is full of what seem to be visual double stars.

However, the fracs weren't great on the double cluster.  I missed the aperture here, with the stars appearing fewer and dimmer.  It was also a [removed word] to point directly up at the zenith.  So currently the Double Cluster is not a winner in the big dob or the fracs.  Hmm.

The Orion's sword area was nice to see as a whole in the fracs, and M42 was nice, but lacked the wow of the VX16 (obviously).   I thought I could see a hint of colour in M42.  Likewise, M36, M37 and M38 were a dissapointment after such huge aperture.  However, the Pleiades was nice and some large clusters/asterisms like those in Auriga were nice to view - they simply don't fit in the FOV of the big dob.

If it were practical, my dream set up would be a big dob like the VX12 with a big aperture wide/richfield scope like the Starwave 152, co-axially mounted.  

By the way, in both the VX16 and the fracs (to a much lesser extent), the unfiltered colour I see is a light blue-purple colour, compared to the green which Stu sees!  

[spaceboy]

Glad to hear you finally got out under the stars Stu. I was hoping to have a look through it at SGLXII but our clear skies luck didn't hold out as it did for SGLX

Sounds like you had a good session and I'm sure with a longer cool down and better collimation the views are only going to get better