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Some spring doubles with a 3 inch Newt


lenscap

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My first scope, which was a gift, was a Celestron 76mm F/9 Reflector. You can see identical-looking scopes under a dozen brand names.

They come on a wobbly fork mount atop a lightweight, bouncy tripod.

I wouldn't recommend this setup. The main challenge at higher powers is keeping a target in view long enough for the vibrations to stop. 😀

The kit did it's job in my case though. Once I'd observed the Moon, the Pleiades & Jupiter I was hooked on the hobby !

I soon acquired a 200p F/5 and I haven't looked through the Celestron since.

But I wondered how the little Newt might perform on a better mount.  I retrieved it from the loft , made a pair of tube rings &  mounting plate from some scrap timber and bolted the scope to my EQ3-2 diy GoTo.

Celestron76inRings.thumb.jpg.2c48588a65a9f1aed94d764d1425d837.jpg

With just a 3 inch aperture and city light pollution,  double stars were the obvious targets.  ( 21st May, from 11pm BST )

Zeta2 Corona Borealis, 6.5", a  pair of white  stars, like headlights in the distance, split at x70 but better at x140 (10mm Plossl & SW 2x deluxe Barlow.)

Nu1 CoBo, 355", a wide, matching 5th Mag orange pair of cat's eyes in a 32mm Plossl (x22) with an unrelated third yellowish 7th Mag neighbour, forming a sharp triangle.

Sigma CoBo, 7.2", a 5th & 6th Mag yellow pair split at x70

Xi Bootis, 5.3", yellow primary with faint white  secondary to the NW, good at x140

Pi1 Boo, 5.5", a blue/yellow dumbbell at x70, clear split at x140

Izar(Epsilon Boo), 2.9", with the magnitude difference this was more of a challenge for the little scope but the secondary was visible as a lump on the first diffraction ring to the N of the primary at x140. The secondary looks grey to my eye in the 200p but here any colour was lost in the primary's orange glare.

STF 1639 (Coma), 1.9, couldn't split this one, too tight for this scope I think.

And to finish what else but the Double Double (Epsilon Lyr), 2.2", always fascinating & clearly split at x140 with a satisfying black line between each pair.

The little F/9 reflector produced smaller, tighter stars which seemed more stable in poor seeing compared to the 200p, with  fainter diffraction spikes.

Great fun ! So once you seperate the OTA from the awful accessories that it comes with & put it on a steady mount the 76mm Newt is a handy little grab & go scope.

I'm glad I rescued it from the spiders.
 

Edited by lenscap
typo
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Excellent stuff @lenscap. I agree with what you've said, if you sort the mounting out on some of these small scopes then they are surprisingly capable.

I love trying to get the most out a small scope, it's often a great challenge and can be just as rewarding as different targets in larger scopes.

I have a lovely little Tal Alkor which is a 65mm newt and is great fun since I put it in rings and mounted it on a decent EQ mount.

PSX_20190425_132542.jpg

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Thanks Stu,

23 hours ago, Stu said:

if you sort the mounting out on some of these small scopes then they are surprisingly capable.

I was surprised that, for doubles within it's grasp, the 3 inch Newt produced more stable, more pleasing views than the 200p.

Perhaps the smaller aperture cannot resolve some of the small-scale turbulence that may become visible as wobbly stars in an 8 inch scope.

I suppose this is what is meant by "cutting through the seeing"

 

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Great stuff. I wonder how many people get hooked on the hobby this way? 

I could cut and paste your first five paragraphs, and if I swapped "Pleiades" for "Saturn" I could truthfully present it as my own. I wasn't even particularly interested in astronomy when I was doing it.

My 76700 is currently sat, unloved up in my loft and retained only for sentimental reasons.

I'm just wondering....

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