Cheap but cheerful

[John]

Scope: cheap 90mm f/11 refractor optical tube, branded Celestron, that I'd forgotten I had in a cupboard

What did it show me during a short session last night ?:

Double stars:

Theta Aurigae, Izar, Algieba, Gamma Virginis, Epsilon Lyrae, Iota Cassiopeia - all split quite nicely at 150x.

Eta Draconis - the 8th magnitude companion star was not seen with this scope.

Globular Clusters:

Messiers 13 and 92 in Hercules. Nice bright fuzzies at 50x. Hints of granulation in the outer regions of M13 at 100x

Nova:

V1405 Cassiopeia - easy to see at 50x within a nice star field and the faint sprinkling of stars from open cluster Messier 52 nearby.

Galaxies:

Messiers 84 and 86 from the Virgo part of Markarian's Chain of galaxies.

The "Leo Triplet" of Messiers 65 and 66 and, very faintly indeed, the "hamburger" of NGC 3628.

And that was that as the clouds got thicker and the gaps between them became few and far between.

The scope cost around 30 quid used I seem to recall. I was using the stock RDF finder and low cost mirror diagonal last night. Most viewing with a 7.2mm - 21.5mm zoom eyepiece sometimes with a 2.25x barlow lens.

Optics seemed quite good. Very little CA. Decent, though not perfect, star test.

The long tube needs a tall and quite steady mount and an RACI finder would be preferable over the stock straight through RDF but we managed anyway.

Nice slice of astronomy targets available for the low cost I think. Plenty enough to get someone hooked on the hobby. The moon and planets would also be good targets for this type of scope.

A lot of enjoyment per £

 

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by John
Spelling !

[Mr Spock]

These long focal length refractors are ideal for double stars. It's something the old 60mm f15s were good at.

[RobertI]

You’ve probably had your money’s worth on that one session John! Nice demonstration of what these cheaper scopes can do. 👍

[Nik271]

A great example what a basic entry level telescope can show to the experienced observer! This reminds me, Charles Messier used a refractor of similar aperture (3.5 inches?), perhaps of inferior quality, and look how much he saw with it

[Epick Crom]

Sounds like you got a great bargain there John👍Great views for a great price!