First night with OVNI-B and dob

[Trentend]

Beautiful clear and warm night here in Auld Reekie so decided to get the whole kit out for first use in a while. A few issues along the way; couldn’t find the cable for the encoders on my Nexus DSC so had to go manual and just sweep around the sky. Had the kit attached to my televue 55mm with the 67mm conversion lens. I found to get this in focus the eyepiece had to be pulled around 3/4” out of the base of the feathertouch focuser which didn’t feel particularly secure. Not sure if this is right and I need a riser? Also, I really struggled getting the TNV14- eyepiece adapter tight without starting to unscrew parts of the eyepiece. Must be doing something wrong there.

On to the positives, the views handheld were fantastic from a light polluted back garden. Lots of stars, satellites and the odd shooting star. Keen to get a x3 lens for this (any recommendations?). When I got the kit set up in the dob (no filters) I was sweeping the sky and stumbled across the M13. Took my breath away and the family, who came to see. Incredibly clear seeing individual stars with no averted gaze. Quickly swapped to my Binotron and 32mm plossl to compare and all you could see was a very faint fuzz ball. By the way, the 32mm with the Binotron were not good at all and I’ll be sticking to the 24mm panoptic.

Switched very briefly to the Antlia 3.5 filter again with the 55mm plossl in the dob. Quite a bit of scintillation. Swept around the North American  nebula area. Picked something up but not particularly clear. Looking forward to trying the Astronomik 642 filter next time.

So a bit hit and miss but I won’t forget seeing M13 in all it’s glory for the first time and most issues down to me learning how to use the new kit rather than the kit itself.

 

 

 

 

[Highburymark]

Good stuff! Agree that globulars are fantastic with night vision - M13 and M92 in particular resolve beautifully, even through small refractor

[jonathank]

Wrong account i need to remove as i never used it. 

Edited September 22, 2020 by jonathank

[joko]

On 20/09/2020 at 11:00, Trentend said:

Had the kit attached to my televue 55mm with the 67mm conversion lens. I found to get this in focus the eyepiece had to be pulled around 3/4” out of the base of the feathertouch focuser which didn’t feel particularly secure. Not sure if this is right and I need a riser?

Hi,

Yes TV recommends an extension tube with their 55mm plossl. 

Nice comparison between your OVNI-B and the Binotron.

And glad you enjoyed M13, so many stars unseenn with glass eyepiece.

Kind regards,

Joko

[Trentend]

Second outing. Skies pretty good for a couple of hours. Full kit up and running including my Nexus DSC so managed to hop around the skies in extra fast time. Some great views through the OVNI-B on various globular clusters (too many to list here), ring and dumbbell nebula. Could barely see any of these with same setup and Binotron. Also tried three recent filter purchases:

Antlia 3.5nm; Least used, way too much scintillation - perhaps I need to try different targets / darker skies - or an OVNI-M?...

Astronomik 12nm; Good for Dumbell helping to darken background and showed some contrast/detail in the nebula - but still not what I would call crisp compared to some of the "handheld through the viewer on an iphone" shots I've seen. Scintillation ok but still there.

Astronomik Proplanet 642; Most used on the night - best view of ring nebula - helped darken background

Any eyepiece recommendations to get more magnification (currently use the 55mm televue with 67mm conversion)?

 

 

[joko]

On 13/10/2020 at 17:00, Trentend said:

Any eyepiece recommendations to get more magnification (currently use the 55mm televue with 67mm conversion)?

Hi,

The 27mm integrated eyepieces in the OVNI-B will double the magnification of your TV55mm used in afocal.

You just have to use the 2" or 1.25" including adapters, it’s plug and play like any binoviewer.

OVNI-B is made to be use in prime, afocal and handheld, like the OVNI-M.

Kind regards,

Jonathan