Spotting scope fun

[Stu]

Heading to Finland today on an early flight, so only time for a quick look around last night with my little Vixen Geoma II 52-S spotting scope.

This is a nice quality ED scope, well corrected and pretty sharp on axis and with reasonable performance to the edges. It has a GLH20 eyepiece in which gives x14 in this scope, might be x15 and it is a straight through design which I find easier to find things with as you are looking straight down the scope at your target.

I was either lying flat on our garden seat, or propping myself against the fence for better stability. At some point I may get a cheap mono pod and trigger grip for it as this does make quite a difference to the views.

Looking around Orion, I spotted the lovely S shape of swirling stars running between Mintaka and Alnilam. Image attached if you want to see this. Mintaka split quite nicely when I steadied the scope enough, and Sigma Orionis showed as at least a double, perhaps treble.

Next up M42, a different view to normal but framed beautifully with Nair al Saif and the little cluster around c Orionis in view too. A fair amount of nebulosity visible around the Trap, which was certainly split but not into four. Need to use a tripod and see how many I can get.

Up to Auriga and I panned along the central run of fainter stars and tried to find M38 with no luck. I guess it is relatively larger and more spread out than the others because I spotted M36 and M37 quite easily, brighter and more compact I suppose. M36 was quite faint, but M37 was more rewarding, resolving a little with AV. M35 looked very nice, quite obvious and with quite a few mag 7 and 8 stars resolved.

M45 looked fabulous at this low power, framed beautifully, again a more stable view would have helped. With this field of view, the entire Taurus cluster fitted in, just about, making the fov 5 degrees. The little double of Theta 1 and Theta 2 Tauri is a favourite naked eye target of mine and looked fabulous in this little scope.

I made a vain attempt at M81 and M82, and whilst I know I was in the right place, I can't honestly say I saw anything definite, perhaps a glimmer of something with averted vision, or perhaps not! Mizar is another old favourite and aswell as Alcor, I did managed to split Mizar itself which was rewarding.

Kemble's Cascade was another failure, perhaps unsurprisingly as it was relatively low and in the direction of London. I just couldn't pick it up at all, will try again when better placed.

Finally I thought I spied M44 just on the edge of naked eye vision, with AV of course Under these skies.  I got the scope on it first time so I must have been right! A beautiful target for this type of scope, many mag 6 and 7 stars presented and relatively bright overall at 3.1. I tried for M67 but that was not coming out to play.

Overall a good fun little session, and I enjoyed the quality of the spotting acope, plus the additional magnification over my 8x42s. It is easy to hand hold too, very light.

This morning, leaving the house at 5.30am I was greeted by a beautiful moon at last quarter, with Jupiter not far away. A lovely reminder that Jovian opposition is on it's way in June,  and that tomorrow morning they will be well under 5 degrees apart. Worth a look!

Good to be able to make the most of the continuing clear skies, and it just shows that any scope can be worthwhile using if it is all you have available/all you can be bothered to use!

[Guest]

Will have a peek at that 'S' tonight hopefully.  Always enjoy your reports. 

P.S.

Enjoy your trip

 

 

 

 

[Paz]

Nice report. I'm looking forward to giving Cancer a go in the coming weeks. M44 was the first star cluster I ever saw, because Jupiter was nearby at the time making it easy to hop to. I know what you mean about M45 looking good, when this is on my observing list I've often spent more time looking at it through my finder scope than my main scope.

[Guest]

Coincidentally,  I had the finder scope off the OTA last night too using it as a monocular.  It's got a diagonal attached so great for exploring the zenith without the neck ache ! 

 

[Guest]

Yep,  there's a lovely big 'S' up there .

Jumped out as soon as I put the finder  on it.  How have I not noticed this before ? .

Ta.

 

[Stu]

I recieved another eyepiece for this scope today. Not wanting to spend a fortune, I've avoided the very pricey zooms and just picked up a GL40 which gives x30 in my 52mm I believe. An added benefit is that it slots into the the little holder under the scope so I have two eyepieces easily available.

Seems pretty sharp, and there is very little CA during the day even on branches contrasted against the sky.

I don't think I will go any higher mag wise as the view will likely get too dim. Might split the trap with this though, and will probably get Saturn's rings just about. Not that this scope was bought for that!

[Stu]

After the wind and hail storm passed yesterday night, I had another quick try of this scope but this time with a lightweight CF tripod which was donated to me by a kindly benefactor

I have found that the monopod is excellent for use at x15, or at the higher powers when in a stable situation such as seated and not extended very much, but for higher power astro observing the tripod is much better.

So last night, in about ten minutes I verified that the Trapezium split quite easily at x30, although the 4th component was not visible, probably due to light pollution and possibly the moon. Stars were nice and tight, enjoyable to view.  Mizar too was an easy split, showing the benefit of the additional stability.

Mintaka really does look lovely  at this power, almost like Polaris in a scope at higher power, still rewarding despite the tiny aperture. I was more surprised by Sigma Orionis which split into three beautiful components, no sign of the fourth of course. The triangle of faint stars alongside it showed as two, although I could see that the closer pair was almost resolving.

I had a nice sweep around other targets; M45 and Kemble's Cascade being the two most notable. Very enjoyable and very quick to setup and pick down. I'm surprised how good the stars are given the fact it is a spotting scope. You can tell that there are prisms involved, but it is quite acceptable and fun to use.