William Optics Zenithstar 73 first light

[badhex]

Hello all,

Technically, I guess this is not a true first light report as I did do some solar observing for the eclipse, and the first night of observing was cut short with batteries dying and clouds rolling in (at the same time!) so I decided to include targets from over a few nights. My partner joined me for the first 30 mins/hour of the second night as she was interested in seeing things in a dark(er) sky.
This is also the first proper tryout of my travel kit in the dark, so a quick few thoughts about that too.

M57 - The Ring
9mm (48x) / 5mm (86x)

First up as I was already not too far away after alignment. I had erroneously entered M56 to my AZ-GTi the previous night and been surprised when I couldn't find the ring, but initially put it down to an alignment issue and ended up running alignment again. Garbage in, garbage out I suppose! That said, when I was actually looking in the right place, the ring was significantly more visible than from my usual site. Averted vision not strictly needed to see it, but there was more definition when using it so I ended up positioning M57 slightly to the left of centre which worked well. Couldn't really pick up any hints of colour on this night but other nights on the same target at slightly lower powers I feel I could just detect a touch of greeny-blue when moving my eye between centred and averted vision.

Albireo
17.5mm

I have recently been thinking of spending more time with double stars as I'm not well versed, and I wanted to show a few double stars to my partner so we started with Albireo. As always, very easy split at low power, size difference and colour very clearly visible. β Cygni A showed as a light golden-orange and β Cygni B as a lovely pale eggshell blue. Wonderful.

Epsilon Lyrae - The double double
35mm (12x) / 17.5mm (25x) / 9mm (48x) / 5mm (86x) / 3.2mm (134x)

On the first night, this target was going to be the next and last on the list when the batteries in my mount died mid slew. I looked round to see an entire sky's worth of cloud heading towards me so called it a night. Fast forward one night and I made it an early target so I could show my partner. To demonstrate the split I went through each FL until the final 3.2mm (134x). at 134x the splits were evident but only just. With the 5mm (86x) the pairs showed up as peanuts; I have heard of people getting clean splits at around 90x in a modest scope but I'm not sure what the conditions must be like to achieve that.

M13 - The great cluster in Hercules
17.5mm (25x)

My partner and I refer to M13 as my "favourite grey smudge" from the first time I found it myself under central London skies many years ago, and promptly rushed in the flat at 2am to wake her up 😂
Anyway, this time round, despite having seen it many times, it appeared to me much bigger than I expected and with much more detail than in my Bortle 8 skies at home. Still quite 'smudgy' or fuzzy, but possible to distinguish a little more detail the longer we looked (which was frankly ages, because who doesn't love M13?). My partner was definitely more impressed this time round, and I went back to M13 multiple times over the course of the next few days.

Nova V1674 Her
35mm (12x) / 17.5mm (25x)

To view an event such as this is obviously quite an astronomical treat, and in fact my first nova. Unfortunately I missed the first night it appeared as I had not seen the thread from @JeremyS and others. It took me a while to find (manual searching) and I spent a while doubting myself due to it being much dimmer than the previous reports of it being around magnitude 6. It turns out according that by the second night it had dropped to about magnitude 8, and over successive nights dropped further to about 9 then 10, and according to reports this might be the fastest dimming nova recorded, so I feel privileged to have witnessed it. Some people picked up hints of red in images or large scopes, but I did not detect any colour at all. Later viewings meant that switching to the 25x gave me a darker background which was needed to pick it up in the EP.

Double Cluster
35mm (12x) / 17.5mm (25x)

On all but one night I was blocked by trees and other skyline objects which was a little disappointing, as I had been looking forward to spending some time on the Double Cluster with the new scope and better conditions. On the night I did manage to get them (briefly between a tree and a pylon!) they really did sparkle. So many more stars visible than from my home location, and the views were extremely crisp. It was alas a brief window, but I spent as much time as I could taking in the view. The 17.5mm framed both clusters very well, again with better background contrast than the 35mm

Jupiter

5mm (86x)

A low gap in the east/south area of the sky meant that just as I was planning to pack up I noticed Jupiter was visible along with three of the Galilean moons, albeit rather low. The 3.2mm was a little too high powered for the amount of atmosphere I think and did not produce good views, so stayed with the 5mm (86x) and spent a short time picking out as much detail as I could. Despite the low altitude, sub 100x magnification and rapidly approaching sunrise I was quite impressed with the view. The NEB and SEB were clearly visible. I am looking forward to what may be possible with the small scope when the gas giants are back in a favourable place.

Saturn
5mm (86x)

Again I had not specifically intended to go for Saturn, but it was early enough to be visible through the same gap in which I'd spotted Jupiter the night before, so it seemed rude not to have a little 10 minute bonus before heading off the bed. Similar viewing conditions to Jupiter, but this time the atmosphere adding a sort of odd yellow haze to everything. Saturn was still surprisingly crisp, with a clear separation between the planet and rings. I also picked out one of the moons, which I'm guessing must have been Titan. It was certainly a bit further out but I can't remember if it was to the left or right of the planet an  sure if Rhea is visible in such a small scope. Hopefully again with better placement later in the year I will be able to make out more detail such as the cassini division.

 

Thoughts on the travel kit

Broadly, everything worked pretty well. I had to carry additional stuff such as my tablet, work laptop, work phone, etc and it was still easily light enough to carry around on public transport without concern. The bag itself (Thinktank Airport Essentials) is super sturdy and I feel really confident that everything was very well protected.
In terms of the inner storage, plenty of space for everything but I did end up removing the spacers between the tube rings and dovetail so that everything fit more snugly. It could still work with them in but it felt just a bit too much to then add laptops etc to the front pocket. (WO clearly listened to complaints about the focuser locking screw in previous versions not leaving enough room for the dovetail to move backwards, and added the spacers. Here I am undoing their hard work!)
I've never used bolt cases until now but I managed to get a good system going where I open each bolt case as needed, place the EP endcaps and silica packet back into one half of the bolt case and pop that back in its usual space in the bag while the EP was in use or on the tripod accessory tray. This made it really easy to find each of the right caps etc when packing up.

In terms of changes, so far I just want to tweak a few small things. I still don't have a red headtorch - no idea why - so I want to add this, along with better spare AA battery storage rather than them rattling round in the pack. I might invest in a powerpack of some kind but need to look into what is most portable.

All in all, a great first few nights with the scope and kit, and especially happy to have been in much darker skies as well as see an unusual nova!

Edited June 19, 2021 by badhex

[Stu]

Lovely report @badhex, a small scope under dark skies can deliver some wonderful views. Get yourself an OIII filter if you don’t have one, and once we get back to proper darkness again you can go for the whole Veil in one field of view.

I have had plenty of fun with a range of small refractors, so I’m sure you will enjoy yours. My last one was a 72mm TS, very similar scope which was very capable. Right got down to 60mm I’ve been able to see the GRS and shadow transits on Jupiter, so give it a go and see what you can see.

[JeremyS]

Great report @badhex 👍🏻

[badhex]

12 hours ago, Stu said:

Lovely report @badhex, a small scope under dark skies can deliver some wonderful views. Get yourself an OIII filter if you don’t have one, and once we get back to proper darkness again you can go for the whole Veil in one field of view.

I have had plenty of fun with a range of small refractors, so I’m sure you will enjoy yours. My last one was a 72mm TS, very similar scope which was very capable. Right got down to 60mm I’ve been able to see the GRS and shadow transits on Jupiter, so give it a go and see what you can see.

Thanks Stu. Unfortunately I don't normally have access to dark skies but so whilst having a small frac has limitations, I'm also much more likely to set it up for a quick session, and as per my report it's very portable which makes a huge difference.

Thanks for the advice on filters, my understanding is from previous threads that the Astronomik OIII is likely the best option. Not sure if my Bortle 8 skies will fare well but I love a challenge (and there's always the option to go somewhere darker as mentioned above) 

[badhex]

11 hours ago, JeremyS said:

Great report @badhex 👍🏻

Thanks Jeremy! I think the scope handled the targets pretty well 😁

[wookie1965]

Great report try M92 next time also in Hercules it is much missed because of the great cluster but is a cracking cluster in its own right.

[badhex]

16 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

Great report try M92 next time also in Hercules it is much missed because of the great cluster but is a cracking cluster in its own right.

Thanks @wookie1965 and thanks for the tip - I haven't tried M92 before so I'll add it to the list! 

[Stu1smartcookie]

Just reading this makes me impatient to set up my WO73 , Joe . 

Nice report mate 

Stu

 

[badhex]

On 11/02/2022 at 12:22, Stu1smartcookie said:

Just reading this makes me impatient to set up my WO73 , Joe . 

Nice report mate 

Stu

 

You won't be disappointed! It's a great scope - I think you've had one before IIRC? 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I am more of an imager than observer but that report was a pleasure to read and I could feel your excitement whilst reading it 🙂 

Great work.

Steve

[badhex]

On 14/02/2022 at 09:29, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I am more of an imager than observer but that report was a pleasure to read and I could feel your excitement whilst reading it 🙂 

Great work.

Steve

Thanks Steve! It's a great scope and I was glad to be able to have its first real workout under much darker skies than I normally "enjoy". Since I wrote this it is has been on quite a few more adventures to other dark skies! 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

2 minutes ago, badhex said:

Thanks Steve! It's a great scope and I was glad to be able to have its first real workout under much darker skies than I normally "enjoy". Since I wrote this it is has been on quite a few more adventures to other dark skies! 

It is a great scope, this was my first imaging scope as with a flattener is great for imaging too 🙂 

Steve