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Double trouble


RobertI

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Had a couple of brief but pleasant outings recently. The first night I thought I would try the dual setup which I have enjoyed so much in the past (4" frac alongside 8" SCT). This time I mounted the refractor on the top clamp thinking it would allow me to line up both scopes exactly. The result was it was more trouble than it was worth and I shall be moving the clamp back onto the end for a more traditional side by side arrangement.

Anyway I started off with M42. WIth the moon nearby I was more interested in the Trapezium - the E component was immediately visible in the C8 but more fleeting in the 4". I didn't look to hard for the F as the conditions were rather wobbly. I popped the 38mm Panaview into the C8 (realising I cannot make full use of the 2" FOV in that scope) and was rewarded with a wonderful view of the nebula, even with the moon nearby. Adding a 2" UHC really increased contrast and showed the extened wings very clearly. 

Moving on to Leo, with the 38mm (sans UHC)  I instantly spotted the M105 and NGC3384 close together and panning across found M96 and then M95. The wide angle of the Panaview at 55x really made galaxy spotting easy. Moving up to x100 made the galaxies brighter against the darker sky, but more difficult to locate. Turning to the 102EDR at x70, the galaxies were still easy to see but not quite so bright. You can't beat the C8 for faint fuzzies.

While in Leo, I had a squint at Gamma Leonis, a beautiful golden double, lovely in both scopes. 54 Leonis also presented a lovely white pair of differing magnitudes. 

My second outing was a very brief view of the moon with the 102EDR and binoviewers. At around x57 Luna only filled half the FOV but was totally captivating with so many different shades visible and features outlined in super crisp detail. I would have been happy to spend an hour with the scope and an atlas, re-aquainting myself with Luna's geography, but sadly cloud descended. I know I may have gone on about this before, but the binoviewers have made the moon an object of real interest to me, probably for the first time. Looking forward to the next opportunity. 

 

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Edited by RobertI
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