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New to Forum and Advice on Deep Sky Grab & Go

spearbearer

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John

John

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The "Clear Outside" forecast for here (North Somerset) is for cloud to start clearing from early evening and it looks 95% clear from mid-evening onwards to the early hours :icon_biggrin:

Congratulations on the new scope ! - maybe you will be able to "first light" it tonight ?

Lots of galaxies on show in Leo and Virgo currently - the Leo triplet should be within the grasp of your scope :icon_biggrin:

 

 

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spearbearer

spearbearer

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John -

Similar  forecast to here in Guernsey.

I saw the Leo Triplet for the first time using my Orion ST-80 last week. Or at least two thirds of it! Pretty positive ID on M66 and NGC3628, but I couldn't for the life of me see M65, which I thought was strange.

This could be a good point of comparison between the new scope and the smaller ST-80.

Thanks for your +ve words!

 

Mark -

Yep, trim your sails according to the wind. Nothing else for it...

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Mark at Beaufort

Mark at Beaufort

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17 minutes ago, spearbearer said:

Similar  forecast to here in Guernsey.

 Pretty positive ID on M66 and NGC3628, but I couldn't for the life of me see M65, which I thought was strange.

 

Gary the diagram attached shows your scope with the Baader zoom set at 24. As you see NGC 3628 is much fainter than M65 and M66. Have another go with the new scope.

triplet.JPG

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spearbearer

spearbearer

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Mark -

I most definitely will! This has been bothering me :happy11:

I couldn't figure it out. I'm pretty sure it was the Leo Triplet I was looking at, but I couldn't understand why I could see what I thought was 3628, but not M65.

Will persevere!

 

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spearbearer

spearbearer

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On 28/04/2017 at 11:13, spearbearer said:

John -

Similar  forecast to here in Guernsey.

 

The forecast was wrong. A thin layer of cloud covered the whole sky. No first light on the new scope yet. Unless its first view this morning of a lighthouse counts...

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spearbearer

spearbearer

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On 28/04/2017 at 11:38, Mark at Beaufort said:

Gary the diagram attached shows your scope with the Baader zoom set at 24. As you see NGC 3628 is much fainter than M65 and M66. Have another go with the new scope.

triplet.JPG

Mark - I have just figured out my mistake. I was forgetting about the telescope reversing the image left to right, and was looking for M65 to the right of M66, as per the charts, instead of as in the telescope view you provided. Total rookie error! Cringe...

Is the image generated in Stellarium, by the way?

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Mark at Beaufort

Mark at Beaufort

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Gary as Dave has stated it was produced in Stellarium. What I usually do when I want a more detailed map of an area is to use the 'snipping tool' in Windows and then produce the map in Photoshop where I invert the image. If you have Stellarium you can put the details of your scope and eyepieces to show the exact FOV - very useful when looking for faint DSOs and checking out the surrounding star field.

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  • 1 month later...
spearbearer

spearbearer

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Finally got first light on this scope on Friday. As I've said above, my main interest is in deep sky but Jupiter and Saturn were both up so I had a look at them. Jupiter showed nice crisp sharpness on the cloud banding. Saturn was a chunky, gleaming little ringed golden jewel. Both very nice indeed. I then went in search of some Messier objects and struggled to find some (remember I'm a beginner), but was delighted that I did manage to spot the faint eerie glow of M101 looming out of the blackness. My initial impressions of the scope+eyepiece setup are very positive, but I won't even try to comment further on the optics until I have used it at least a couple more times.

As for the mount, I was slightly perturbed to find its motion to be a little jerky at the instant it is moved away from stationary, However, maybe either the friction clutches just need to wear in a bit or I just need to adjust them more sensitively.

Will post more on both of the above in due course.

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happy-kat

happy-kat

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I've not used an az4 but if I had one I would look to set the balance of the telescope up combined with just enough tension on the clutches that I could move the telescope by hand smoothly to track objects. Sounds like you have a winning setup there. Hope you get another chance of use soon.

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  • 4 months later...
Alan White

Alan White

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Gary, sorry it’s an old post, but the AZ4 is well documented to have stiction, 

this is where static surfaces when first moved against each other stick slightly from friction, hence stiction.

The AZ4 benefited greatly from a strip of the manufacturers heart grease, known as Synta glue and a regressed with a suitable less sticky grease, have a search on here for the many threads.

I speak as an AZ4 owner.

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