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Mars with the 102ED-R


RobertI

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Had a lovely little Mars session just now with the 102ED-R mounted on the Skytee 2 and seated on my new Nadira observing chair. Seeing was really good and at 220x the disc was still sharp and giving up plenty of detail, the most interesting feature being a brightening at the northern polar region, what I assume to be cloud? I spent a good thirty minutes enjoying the views. 

I was discovered an interesting technique which seemed to really help pick out the detail - if I very slowly moved the planet back and forth across the FOV using the slow motion control, I could clearly pick out more detail than staring at the stationary object. It just seemed to bring details into sharper focus. I know a similar technique works picking up faint DSOs but not sure why it would work on planets? 

I have placed an order for a bino-viewer and really looking forward to trying this out on Mars. It dawned on me that this would probably hugely reduce the effect of floaters so making high power views more enjoyable. 

Final thought - the 102ED-R was up and running and giving sharp views of Mars at 220x after only five minutes of cooling from the garage. This same scope is also able to give a nearly four degree field of view for stunning wide fields. What a versatile scope the 4” ED F7 refractor is. 🙂

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23 hours ago, RobertI said:

Final thought - the 102ED-R was up and running and giving sharp views of Mars at 220x after only five minutes of cooling from the garage. This same scope is also able to give a nearly four degree field of view for stunning wide fields. What a versatile scope the 4” ED F7 refractor is. 🙂

This is one of the reasons it has grown on me, how easy it is to use compared to the quality of views you get is a good combination.

I take my ed-r straight out and start observing anything. Today I took out the C8 but that required knowing that I would be going out and putting it in the garage to cool down.

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24 minutes ago, RobertI said:

Thanks for the comments.  I’m really looking forward to viewing some winter DSOs with scope. Orion was just peeping over the rooftops when I packed away - winter skies are on the way. 🙂

A good test will be the ease with which you can see the E & F stars in the Trapezium Group (Theta 1 Orionis) within Messier 42. Personally I've found that they can be really quite challenging in my 100mm / 102mm refractors but regularly visible in my ED120 and larger scopes.

It's a good old Autumn / Winter challenge :smiley:

Tip: finding the "goldilocks" magnification seems to be important with these :wink:

 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, John said:

A good test will be the ease with which you can see the E & F stars in the Trapezium Group (Theta 1 Orionis) within Messier 42. Personally I've found that they can be really quite challenging in my 100mm / 102mm refractors but regularly visible in my ED120 and larger scopes.

It's a good old Autumn / Winter challenge :smiley:

Tip: finding the "goldilocks" magnification seems to be important with these :wink:

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks John, yes that will be a good challenge. Looking back through my log, I've managed the E&F with the 150PL, but not with the Tal100R, so it will be interesting to see what's possible.

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On 27/10/2020 at 00:46, John said:

Excellent report. Yes, they certainly are very versatile scopes :thumbright:

 

I’ve noticed quite a few people are starting to buy these over the last few months. Every time I see another I have a grin to myself 😌

I think the opportunity of quick setup sessions Mid week on work days is helping this along. Observation and a decent nights sleep is for me a good solution. 

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2 hours ago, Dantooine said:

Observation and a decent nights sleep is for me a good solution. 

I hear that!

2 hours ago, Dantooine said:

I’ve noticed quite a few people are starting to buy these over the last few months

Yes I see @Fozzie has just purchased one - nice to see.

I saw the Altair Astro stall at Kelling and they had a 150ED, 125ED and 100ED-R hanging off a Sabre mount - the 100ED-R looked tiny by comparison! But it's probably the only one I could face setting up on most nights!

 

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