"I could have cried"

[adamsp123]

Somewhere in wet windy mid Wales, 18th Dec.

Suddenly the skies clear - no moon, the air was a bit hazy but pretty steady, quickly setup for second go with my new SW 120ED PRO. Getting better and more organised and was up and running without the goto aligned in about 5 minutes.

Took my first good long look at the Orion nebula with this scope - I could have cried :crybaby: , it was stunning never seen so much detail, far more than I ever saw with my old 8 3/4 inch Newt.

I tried most of my EPs the 5mm did not render a good view due to atmos disturbance but the 9 to 32mm all worked nicely I did learn to take my time in focusing, the dual speed Crayford helped alot, mine is very smooth in coarse or fine mode, there was a point where you hit the sweet spot for your own preferred biological photon detector. ( in my case my left eye)

I don't know if these are the stars people mention near the trapezium as a test??, as I veiwed the trapezium to the lower right were 3 pretty bright stars in a line, up and right of the trapezium in the nebula I could fairly readily see another much dimmer star, to the left of it, I could occasionally make out an even dimmer star.

I could see a fair bit of detail of the neblula, the dark areas and the nice shapes of the bright clouds the more I looked the more detail I saw - awesome.

Next I headed for the Pleiades and I was amazed to see nebulosity around the brighter stars - very nice and then the clouds rolled in - I could have cried. :crybaby:

Started packing up, everything bar the mount put away and lo and behold the clouds dissappeared, set up again and went for Andromeda, a bit hazy with occasional thin cloud but I could clearly make out the shape well defined against the dark background but no real detail as I expected.

Started clouding over after a few minutes - I could have cried :crybaby: , managed a final look at Orion before total cloud cover, packed up everthing and now it is raining.

I am so pleased with the scope I wish they would make a 6" to 6.5" version then I WOULD cry.

As regards to the CG5 mount it was rock steady even with the legs well extended with this weight scope even with a bit of a breeze blowing.

Pete

[Doc]

Thats alot of crying for one night

Great report and it sounds a mmust have scope.

[lulu57]

I think you should cry.

All that repression is bad for you.

But don't do it over your eyepiece.

[James]

When I've been out at a dark site and the weather forecasts suggest it should be clear but possibly with occasional cloudiness I take along a cover for the scope and a book... as soon as the clouds come over the cover goes on the scope and I retreat to the car or just read in red light. It can be surprisingly therapeutic reading a book at 2.30am in the middle of nowhere in complete silence...

James

[A McEwan]

And so another ED120 owner sees the sky it is meant to be seen - through a moderately fast apochromatic doublet capable of wide-fields and high power scrutiny of celestial targets.

:cheers:

[lulu57]

When I've been out at a dark site and the weather forecasts suggest it should be clear but possibly with occasional cloudiness I take along a cover for the scope and a book... as soon as the clouds come over the cover goes on the scope and I retreat to the car or just read in red light. It can be surprisingly therapeutic reading a book at 2.30am in the middle of nowhere in complete silence...

James

That does sound like heaven...literature and astronomy...

But if I went off to a dark site on my own, the nutter off the bus would probably follow me there (this is not paranoia - strange types gravitate toward me like small moons).