Nice night tonight..

[F15Rules]

Having felt pretty ill on and off for the last 3 weeks, my observing has been almost zero.

So it was nice to get home from work this evening to be greeted with clearing skies and 15 degree temperatures.

I decided to set up both the FS128 and ED103s and spend some time on M42, comparing the two, as I haven't previously had the chance to do so.

I had the ED103s mounted on a nice GPDX mount I acquired recently, they really are well matched, and the GPDX is really much more beefy than my previous (and excellent) GP mount.

The Tak was, as usual, on the EM2 mount with its' simple but highly efficient RA drive, tracking for the whole session with just a simple visual alignment with Polaris. The EM2 is a similar size and weight to the GPDX and handles the quite large tube of the FS128 beautifully.

First up was the ED103s with a 30mm Aero ep, giving a beautiful wide view at x26. The Trap looked very sharp, with the 4 main components nicely displayed, surrounded by the fainter stars embedded in the nebula.

I'd set the FS128 up with the binoviewer and a pair of Parks Gold 25mm, and these delivered x38 and wonderful contrast..two eyed viewing really feels comfortable to me these days, and these fine old Japanese units with their winged eyeguards really deliver lovely images, pin sharp across their entire 52 deg field. There were faint stars popping into view right across the Bat wings and the Fish mouth was starkly outlined as a very dark mass. The benefit of the Celestron binoviewers is that they come to focus without a Barlow, adding only about 15% to the native magnification of the eyepiece pairs being used.

Next, I loaded the Vixen with my Morpheus 9mm, giving x88, and to my great delight I could see both E and F stars, distinctly in the case of the E star, and faintly, but definitely in the case of the F component.

Encouraged by this, I popped the 9mm into the Tak, cyclops, and giving x115 due to the longer focal length (1040mm) of the Tak.. as I'd hoped, both the E and F stars were easy to see , both with direct vision, and a lovely sight. However, with the binoviewer I couldn't see either, demonstrating that using a bv does come at the cost of a significant loss of brightness - I would guess between half and 3/4 of a magnitude. But the sheer comfort and depth of field of the binocular view does IMHO make up for the slightly dimmer image ceiling, in terms of improved viewing comfort and less tired eyes at the end of a session.

I then tried pairs of Morpheus 17.5mm and Fujiyama 12.5mm giving x60 and x88 respectively. 

The Morphs delivered beautiful, wide (76 degrees) views, while the 42 degree Fuji orthos were razor sharp with pure black background..In fact I did think I spotted the E star using the Ortho pair.

I did also have a quick look at Sirius in both scopes (cyclops mode), in the faint hope of glimpsing the Pup, but as expected there was just too much turbulence that low in the atmosphere this evening.

At around 9pm the moon was really starting to brighten the sky, and was also poorly placed for me at that time (very low in the turbulent air), so I called it a night. So, what did I conclude from my brief comparison?

No surprises really. Both these scopes are high quality apo doublets, optimised for visual observing, the Tak with Fluorite front element (FS = Front Surface), and the Vixen with (I believe), an FPL53 element - both objectives have low scatter and glare, indicating excellent levels of polish and figure.

The Tak showed brighter images, as you would expect, being a full 5" aperture to the Vixens' 4", and I would say that it edged the Vixen on contrast, but the Vixen really showed lovely views and was in no way disgraced.. Both these lovely scopes could keep anyone busy for many years?.

Looking ahead, and hoping to retire next year, keeping both might prove to be a luxury I can't afford. If so, I would have to choose the FS128 to keep, as it really can, for me, be an all-rounder scope..But I'd love to see a side by side in depth test of the ES103s vs a Tak FC100 or FS102 at some point...

All in all then, a very welcome and enjoyable session in the company of a wonderful showpiece nebula and two lovely refractors ?

Dave

 

 

[mikeDnight]

Great report Dave,

I also played around with my binoviewer and a pair of 18mm Ultima's & Ultima barlow for looking at M42 and the trapezium. I had no real difficulty in seeing the E & F stars through the binoviewer. What stood out to me tonight though was, when looking at stars, how the binoviewer enhanced the star colours compared to the mono view. I spent a good hour or so checking out numerous stars and their different colours. Two eyes definitely help in seeing subtle colours! 

I've just come in after checking the lunar terminator, which was spectacular using both eyes. The seeing was going off a bit as the night went on.

[Paz]

Great report, I wouldn't mind having a go with a quality refractor sometime down the road. I've been out with the VX14 this evening and it has been mixed.

I failed to spot Iwamoto, having found the right spot and tried everything I didn't confirm it, although sometimes I thought I was imagining seeing something.

Later I had a go at asteroid Hebe and didn't find it.

M38 was good but the sky background was bright grey from the moonlight.

A quick look at Castor and Mizar, both of which are quite lively at this aperture.

Then the moon was high enough to have a go, Mare Crisium and the shores on the Proclus side being most interesting.

[jock1958]

First clear night I’ve had down here for a while, tried my newly acquired 3 - 6 nagler zoom in my Tak unfortunately the E & F stars still elude me.

Turned to Sirius and all I could see was what resembled the flashing strobe light off an aircraft - absolutely no chance of seeing the pup on this occasion ?