The joys of a tracked Dobsonian

[Nyctimene]

Was out from 01.15 to 03.00 CEST with the 8" f/4 Hofheim Instruments traveldob on it's newly acquired equatorial platform. Average conditions (NELM 5.6; SQM-L 21.12), good seeing, but some clouds, that interrupted the warming up with M 2. Remembering Nick's (cotterless 45) recent post, I went over to Iota in Cassiopeia, and found this lovely triple well resolved at 266x mag (2.6"/7.2"), the fainter components clearly more yellowish than the bright white primary. During the search, SkySafari had pointed me to a 12 mag planetary 30 arc min SE of my starting point, Epsilon Cas. I found this object, IC 1747, after a short star hop, and spotted at 200x and using a Baader UHC filter, a round, small (13") uniform disc, without details. Increasing the mag to 400x and using 4mm Ortho together with the Zeiss Abbe VIP 2x barlow, the disc appeared slightly elongated, and a brighter knot, in the direction of a field star close by NW, could be glimpsed now and then. The central star (15.2) could not be made out. - Two contrasting open clusters followed. oc 637 in Cas was easy to find, with a central elongated group of brighter stars, and fainter stars interspersed; very rewarding. oc 609, close by, was, in contrast, extremely faint, just an unresolved glow, visible only with averted vision. I finished, as usually, with my most loved oc, 7789, Caroline's Rose. Oh, and the joys of tracking! After five decades of observing, mostly as a Dobsonaut, without any electrical tracking (only manual tracked 6" Newton on a GEM), I was very pleased with the precisely working EQ platform. Changing eyepieces at high mags without losing the target - observing details in a planetary - splitting a double star comfortably - all features very welcome now with age. (But I would never give up the freedom of searching, and moving the scope willingly, that a Dob offers!). Really pleased with this mixed bag of observations and experiences, and so to bed.

Thanks for reading

Stephan

[Littleguy80]

Excellent report, Stephan. Like you, I love the freedom of the manual dob plus the challenge of finding objects manually. However, there are certainly times where a tracking mount would be nice. It was the comment on changing eyepieces at high power that I really related to! Although I do have the Nagler Zoom now which has solved that problem for the most part.

[Paz]

I am a fan of tracking platforms and use one with my dobsonian for the same reasons. The onky down side in my case is it raises the eyepjece hejght out of my reach at zenith meaning I need a step for high altitudes. However that said the biggest benefit is to be had observing at the equator where things move the  fastes but eyepie e height isnt an issue. By the time you get to the zenjth things have slowed down a bit and past that towards celesrial north things slow right down and its easier to get by without tracking.

[Stu]

Lovely report Stephan. I share your enjoyment of EQ platforms, it gives you the best of both worlds, manually finding objects with the convenience of tracking which is very useful at high powers. My 8" f8 is much easier to use on the platform.

[Moonshane]

Totally agree that any sort of tracking is a real boon to observing. Especially so if sketching or at high powers. I have sold my platform now but might make another once my obs is complete. I may eventually get a AZ tracking mount for my frac.