Skymax 90 First Light

[Roy Challen]

First light for the Skymax 90, BCO 18mm and RGO 7mm.

I had the Skymax mounted on a new-to-me Altair Astro Mini AZ mount, on my First Horizon tripod. I had already balanced it and let the scope cool down outside for a while. 

Found the Moon easily even without having the finder aligned, although I did align it while I was there. Using the TV Plossl 25mm first, nice and sharp as expected, but I could see the seeing was a little off. Perhaps this explains the tiny yellow fringe on the lunar limb. I don’t recall seeing it when using the Tal 100.

18mm BCO. I have very rarely ever bought an eyepiece brand new, but I did get this one new, from Harrisons Telescopes. Like the TV plossl, this ortho is very sharp, and comfortable to use. The full disc of the moon still fits within the field of view. Excellent detail along the terminator. No yellow fringe, or any other false colour.

10mm BCO. Again, a very sharp eyepiece, but this one was second hand and could do with a clean. Still comfortable to use, but tonights’ seeing limited its use.

7mm RGO. The seeing didn’t allow this eyepiece to really shine. I have had one before so I know how good it can be. Still reasonably comfortable for me.

Altair Mini AZ. Very simple to use, needs good balancing to work effectively, but once balanced is very easy to track the target even at high mags. Surprisingly stable, there were slight gusts of wind this evening, hardly noticed them at the eyepiece.

At about 18:10, I noticed a star close to the limb that looked like it was going to be occulted. I have never actually seen an occultation before so decided to wait for it. It was slow going, and I kept checking the time to make sure I had it exactly. At the critical moment I glanced at my phone, and when I got back to the eyepiece, it had disappeared! Ah well, at least I had the time down - 18:38:48. I checked Stellarium for the star, it was 99 Tauri.

After that minor disappointment, I packed up, satisfied with the rest of the session and very happy with my super lightweight setup.

First image is through the Televue plossl, the second through the BCO 18mm.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Roy Challen