First light report.. Meade AR6 + HEQ5 syntrek

[mahone1978]

I`ve been waiting ages for the opportunity to post this first light report and the night of the 11th sept gave me the opportunity to give the new scope and mount a run around the celestial block.

I`m no expert so please bear with me on this...

got the scope and mount set up with a rough polar align:

(click to enlarge)

Having not observed for a good few months thought i`d have an easy start and had a quick look at the moon. Looked nice and crisp, pleasing views.

Then on to Jupiter; Had some very pleasing views of this ol girl, no GRS but nice and crisp in 7mm ortho with nice colourful jovian banding..

I wouldn`t normally observe like this but i spent the next couple of hours having a whistle stop tour of the summer favourites taking in M57 the ring nebula. M31, which looked great in my 30mm moonfish widefield. M103 the owl cluster, again amazing view in the moonfish, could really see it as an owl shape, sparkling jewells abound! The same with the Perseus double cluster, once again the moonfish widefield gave the best view, amazing pinpoint crisp stars.. Amazing. Did i say Amazing!!

Alberio; Beautiful double which, even to my colour blind eyes is awesome.

Mizar double/triple; Dont think i`ve seen this before but glad I had a go tonight, great image in the eyepiece, really enjoyed this easy target.

Feeling brave while in the the area thought i`d have a stab at finding M81/M82... Piece of cake, found the pair of the blighters in no time, not the most detailed i`ve seen them but was pleased with myself for finding them easily especially with the moon so bright!

Now Back To Epsilon Lyrae which was split nicely into its two pairs at 170x mag with clear black in between the individual stars...

All the above was a great test run for the new scope and mount, both perfomed beyond my expectations and the setup looks the Cats whiskers to boot! Did see some C/A but whether its because of my own colour blindness or what but it didn`t bother me at all.... Maybe one lucky bonus for me!

I have to add that the best thing I saw all night wasn`t with the telescope... Whilst mooching about, gazing up with my eyes I saw the most incredible shooting star, Literally flew acroos the dark sky! I could see the tail breaking up as it went, Honestly this thing trailed a blaze at least 30 degrees across if not more. It headed towards Andromeda then was gone. I was so astounded I was nearly shouting out loud. Think this is classed as a fireball? I`ve seen loads of shooting stars and this was nowt like them sooo much bigger and brighter. I am surprised I haven`t seen any reports on this phenomena elsewhere!

Conclusion: Best night i`ve had under the stars for a long time and the Fireball, well, That is something I will never forget... stunning.

Scope wasn`t bad either!

Cant wait to get out again soon. Hopefully for you guys my reports will improve with my observing!

Thanks for reading,

A very happy

John

[mik]

Superb looking setup and nice report John.

Mick

[Mark at Beaufort]

John

Good report the setup looks very impressive. I think I saw the same meteor - very bright heading towards Andromeda. I agree one of the best I have seen.

Mark

[Aaron]

Hi John, nice report and setup, it's good to see your on here, how come you've gone back to the Meade Refractor, did'nt you have a 10" OO Europa :scratch: .

[mahone1978]

Hi Aaron,

Yeah I did have a cornbeef tin with 10" mirrors but run into some difficulties so it had to go. Also I found the whole setup too cumbersome and awkward to be honest.

I would love a 12" dob to partner the Meade.....saving again!

Really enjoying the Frac, Have just installed a rather nice Dual speed Moonlite focuser to it and cant wait to use it!

I would love a 12" dob to partner the Meade.....saving again!

Your images are looking fantastic by the way 8) 8)

John

[mahone1978]

OOH! Aaron... Just read your post about the XX12... Superb, Cant wait to see hear what you think of that beast!!

John

[Astro_Baby]

Thats a great looking set up. Beautiful looking bit of kit and obviously works well too.

[philsail1]

Yes, a good report there John. Your Meade looks a very nice instrument indeed. There is something special about the way a "traditional" refractor looks. Just seeing the long scope set up on its tripod makes you want to get out observing!

regards,

philsail1