Starsense dob and Copernicus

[Sunshine]

So a few night ago I had a good long session with just the moon and my 8" starsense dob, I will be honest here and I hope I don't ruffle the feathers of fellow mirror users but I wasn't sure what to expect.

Yes the scope had performed well up to that point but fuzzies aren't exactly a test of optical prowess which made me a bit nervous when I noticed that seeing was great while looking at Arcturus before 

turning the dob on the moon. Having been somewhat spoiled with flawless lunar views through my 102 for the last year I honestly did not expect a whole lot. Call me a fool but I figured I would have to

re collimate, adjust this, change that, check this, and try that in order to come close to the wonderful lunar detail my 102 can reveal, I WAS WRONG!. On a night of good seeing this mirrored little wonder

can amaze!. Copernicus was front and centre and as I ramped up the power to roughly 400x, I was treated to what seemed like an HD flyby of this most perfect example of an impact crater. Minute details 

were everywhere, I made a point of picking out the smallest ridges, craters, and boulders my eye could see and I even felt a sense of nausea on occasion as the crater moved by in the FOV. At times I had 

the feeling I was looking out a window, it was great! nearby was a string of tiny craters which looked like machine gun fire highlighted in the oval which was wonderful as they were ever so small but I could count

 them off one by one and at the highest point of the crater wall is a snaking ridge which looked so well defined It seemed like it was knife edge sharp. Within the crater I noticed how one half was smoother

than the other, one half seems like it is littered with small boulders which the other half is more sandy and flat as highlighted by the blue arrow. There was no shortage of detail and it seemed to get better

with time as the scope slowly reached temperature and my eyes adjusted. It seems I have a winner, I really hope that Synta is on the ball when it comes to QC and consistency, I hope that everyone gets the

same copy I seem to have because so far it has impressed me.  It CANNOT produce the same laser cut disc stars which my 102 can, the double double does not look the same when comparing the two

scopes side my side as I have done on a few targets. The dob reveals what the 4" cannot when it comes to fuzzies and clusters but it just cannot show stars the same way, not a chance.

This is fine because I did not buy it for that purpose, for that I have my refractor, I bought it because fuzzies (especially clusters) are glorious when compared to my refractor and i'm loving the advantage

that aperture brings. I'm just elated to see that it it proving to be a fantastic optical performer, too!, out of focussed stars look great on both sides and I am enjoying the most delicate of pinpoints when looking

into clusters and such, diamonds. It seems I underestimated this telescope before I bought it, I was not sure about optical performance on moon and planets but figured I wouldn't worry about it because I have

my 102 for that, I cared about the fuzzies. 

 

With every session I'm realizing that this scope will be more than I expected, it has been a joy to use, easy to assemble and use, Starsense has been the sweet cherry on the optical cake and I find myself 

wishing Celestron would have released this starsense dob 10 years ago because it is proving to be so well rounded and comfortable to use that I may have thousands more in my pocket right now if 

I had one a decade ago (this doesn't include my 102) absolutely no regrets about that purchase but I would have saved a bundle in other scopes which just got sold after all. One more thing, viewing position

has been great, when I use my 102 on the Vixen it often seems like an exercise in the art of contortion, leaving me with sore knees, a cramped neck and a feeling like I just went a round with Mike Tyson at 

times. All worth the pain of course but it is pleasant to be seated the entire session just leaning forward a bit to look through the eyepiece as the base of the 8" is small enough that i can sit close, open 

knees and the base fits between my knees nicely making it easy to make fins Alt-Az adjustments while viewing an object. Anyway, by now you may get the idea I'm having fun with my new 8" dob, you 

would be correct, I bought it for fuzzies because I naively thought it wouldn't perform well on planets and lunar but boy was I wrong, and I feel stupid admitting I was naive and a bit spoiled. My jaunt 

with Copernicus was a shocker, it really made me gasp when I slowly brought it into focus, I was so taken aback by the fine detail.

 

This is not my image, It's uploaded so I could highlight my observations.

Edited July 10, 2022 by Sunshine

[Gonariu]

Beautiful observing evening, I also love looking at the Moon, it is beautiful with any instrument! Reading what you wrote I remembered two sentences I read, one in recent times: "a refractor shows little and good, a reflector instead much and bad"; clearly the sentence should not be taken too literally otherwise it loses its meaning. I read the other in a very old astronomy book, bought by my father about fifty years ago ("Conoscere le stelle" by Pierre Kohler) where the author said: "if you are not simply curious about the sky, turn to the spotlight "; even this sentence should not be taken too literally, then it was also the time when ED apochromats / semiapochromats were not even spoken.