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Starwave 102 EDR: First light


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My 2 inch WO diagonal arrived from FLO this morning and as luck would have it I have already had an hour with the moon this evening. 

The scope is a dream to use on an AZ4 and is perfectly balanced.  It's still a bit breezy out there and I haven't had any tremor issues, it's rock solid. 

I have added a WO red dot finder and have a MK IV Baader Zoom in the diagonal.

The optics are reassuringly sharp, they just snap into focus using the dual speed rack and pinion rotatable focuser. I had had forgotten what a luxury s rotatable focuser is, getting comfy has never been easier. The whole outfit is simplicity itself, very user friendly. I also happened to think it looks quite cool too.

There was occasionally the slightest hint of yellow as the moon drifted away from centre depending on eye placement on one limb occasional, and absolutely no purple.

Anyway, I need to get back to my scope. I will post a more detailed report later, but I am very pleased with what l have seen so far.

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45 minutes ago, mikeDnight said:

The yellow off axis sounds like it may be coming from your eyepiece.  Many eyepieces exhibit lateral colour in this way.

Good point, I did wonder. I absolutely love this scope. It's gone cloudy again so I came inside bought a hard case from TS for it to live in. 

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12 minutes ago, John said:

So glad you are pleased with the scope. It looks just great on the AZ-4. Just the sort of setup that will get lots, and lots, and lots of use :thumbright:

I think so too, it's a really fun outfit to use and that's important isn't it, astronomy should be fun.

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It looks absolutely fabulous- and also the sort of setup you’ll get loads of use out of. Congratulations! Mine has arrived in Dublin and cleared customs so I’m hoping for delivery on Monday (fingers crossed).

What do you think it’ll be like for DSOs? I’m assuming planets will look wonderful. I think we will get a lot of fun from these scopes 😊

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DSO's in a 4" F7 can be quite impressive, especially if you block out surrounding light by using a blackout blanket or hood over your head and eyepiece. Also, with the beautiful wide field your scope will be a great comet seeker too!

274570300_2019-03-2620_26_50.jpg.157a9e32bcfc1751a3615ba51a0ce649.jpg.f0fa3ed565a2ba95107d15b27f5738bd.thumb.jpg.3221b6b6460683950c6dd9d4bda58098.jpgIMG_20160205_175527.JPG.8141fecf4ac4948e3e44ea9d7fe36d7a.thumb.JPG.28605098ededac70b7de20e650107905.JPG1918183207_2020-08-2412_39_10.jpg.7e2f360375af9854a647c3c79dd97281.jpg1375078463_2020-08-2412_38_49.jpg.1a6b6ec86346d6fe1bcacb113721de47.jpg2031110683_2020-07-1910_59_20.jpg.bcc186389dc2cb5750c50afbfd0e46d9.jpg

 

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2 hours ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

It looks absolutely fabulous- and also the sort of setup you’ll get loads of use out of. Congratulations! Mine has arrived in Dublin and cleared customs so I’m hoping for delivery on Monday (fingers crossed).

What do you think it’ll be like for DSOs? I’m assuming planets will look wonderful. I think we will get a lot of fun from these scopes 😊

Big open clusters and global clusters are very pleasing sights as are the brigher nebulars (Orions, dumbbell, ring) The double cluster is a remarkable sight in a wide field refractor. The contrast you can achieve with a refractor makes some of the fainter stuff pop. If you want to hunt for the faintest of fuzzy blobs then a big dob is obviously the way to go visually.

 

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2 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

DSO's in a 4" F7 can be quite impressive, especially if you block out surrounding light by using a blackout blanket or hood over your head and eyepiece. Also, with the beautiful wide field your scope will be a great comet seeker too!

274570300_2019-03-2620_26_50.jpg.157a9e32bcfc1751a3615ba51a0ce649.jpg.f0fa3ed565a2ba95107d15b27f5738bd.thumb.jpg.3221b6b6460683950c6dd9d4bda58098.jpgIMG_20160205_175527.JPG.8141fecf4ac4948e3e44ea9d7fe36d7a.thumb.JPG.28605098ededac70b7de20e650107905.JPG1918183207_2020-08-2412_39_10.jpg.7e2f360375af9854a647c3c79dd97281.jpg1375078463_2020-08-2412_38_49.jpg.1a6b6ec86346d6fe1bcacb113721de47.jpg2031110683_2020-07-1910_59_20.jpg.bcc186389dc2cb5750c50afbfd0e46d9.jpg

 

That’s brilliant news, and more than I was expecting to be honest. Thanks for attaching those beautiful sketches too. I’ve been very inspired by your post showing your Takahashi DZ and your observatory - really appreciate you sharing all those pictures!

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32 minutes ago, Carl Au said:

Big open clusters and global clusters are very pleasing sights as are the brigher nebulars (Orions, dumbbell, ring) The double cluster is a remarkable sight in a wide field refractor. The contrast you can achieve with a refractor makes some of the fainter stuff pop. If you want to hunt for the faintest of fuzzy blobs then a big dob is obviously the way to go visually.

 

Fantastic, that’s something to look forward to. I have never looked through a refractor before so I’m dying to get hold of it. Thanks for all the info!

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15 minutes ago, Nicola Fletcher said:

That’s brilliant news, and more than I was expecting to be honest. Thanks for attaching those beautiful sketches too. I’ve been very inspired by your post showing your Takahashi DZ and your observatory - really appreciate you sharing all those pictures!

Thankyou Nicola!

It's worth mentioning that the sketches really represent what I saw over time. So for example the nebulosity enmeshing the Pleiades took me 30 minutes, Orion nebula 20 mins, and similarly with the Dumbbell and Ring nebula. With the Orion nebula, the longer you spend studying it the more three dimensional it appears to be, and the more obvious and impressive the layers of black nebulosity become, adding depth. The green colour also becomes very evident.

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11 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

Thankyou Nicola!

It's worth mentioning that the sketches really represent what I saw over time. So for example the nebulosity enmeshing the Pleiades took me 30 minutes, Orion nebula 20 mins, and similarly with the Dumbbell and Ring nebula. With the Orion nebula, the longer you spend studying it the more three dimensional it appears to be, and the more obvious and impressive the layers of black nebulosity become, adding depth. The green colour also becomes very evident.

You must see a lot more detail as time goes on. I have done the vast majority of my observing with a Celestron 127 SLT (I recently checked and I bought it in 2013 so I’ve got tons of value out of it but I’m definitely ready for an upgrade!). I suppose the decent dark skies I have at home help with observing, and I recently saw wonderful detail In the Orion Nebula on a very clear night, but I’ve never seen colour and only recently realised that was possible. I love the idea of taking the time to sketch and see more detail over time. 

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A much better opportunity tonight to try out the Starwave. I am sure you have all seen the dominant position the moon is in this evening, so rather than complain about it like I used to do when I was a dob owner I embraced it. The optics are stunning. No trace of CA this evening, just the crispest views of the shadow filled craters, mountains and features along the terminator.  As good as the views of the moon were it was time to move on, this time some open clusters, M35 followed by M36, M37, M38 and the Double Cluster, the results were pin point stars on a black velvet background, if a little washed out by the moon. Averted vision brought many more stars into view, particularly the Double Cluster. Not the best night for DSO's so it was on to a little double splitting, the easier ones tonight starting with Caster which was easily split with an 8mm setting on my zoom. Alberio is low tonight and like Almach could muster the intensity of colour we all know and love. The orion nebula of course is never going to be at its best on an evening like tonight with the moon so high and bright. Still it was better than I imagined. The bat wings could clearly be seen and with a UHC filter a little more detailed could be clearly seen.

According to the BBC Weather App (Don't laugh) it's going to remain clear and perhaps at it's clearest around 1 am, it's time I put the coffee on, I need to fill my flask, it's time for another look.

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So I am back in for a bit. Mars is nothing like the target it was a  few months back but deffinatly worth a look although the detail is considerably  less noticeable. Uranus is an easy target to find these days with it's proximity to Mars and resolved itself as a tiny sky blue disc. 

Still early days and a few moonless nights would be useful to really give the brighter DSO a proper look.

So far I am very pleased with what l have seen from this scope, I am so pleased I didn't buy the Stellamyra, that would have been a mistake. 

20210123_210832.jpg

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