Into deep space with the Svbony 102 ED

[Nik271]

I recently bought the above refractor  and apart from testing on some open clusters and double stars until now did not have a chance to try it on the more challenging DSOs. So last night being clear and with the return of astrodarkness at reasonable hours, I set the scope on my EQ5 in late evening.

I started at 9:30pm in twilight and spent the first 20 minutes looking at Lyra. Starting with Vega I was very happy to note that there was no CA in focus. The dim mag 9.5 visual companion was easily seen. After a quick look at Zeta Lyrae (easily split even at lowest magnification x22) I moved to Epsilon Lyrae. Here I had to up the magnification with my 6mm EP to x120 and the two tight pairs showed immediately, pinpoint stars. Very pleasing view! I've looked at it hundereds of times but never find it disappointing.

It was still not dark enough so I looked at Rasalgethi (again with 6mm EP). This is a very pretty double and the refractor gave a nice steady split, the orange and blue colours were showing well. The blue companion looked a bit dimmer than in my 5 inch Mak but it could be because of the brighter sky background in the refractor.

I moved to Sadr and again the view was breathtaking with many stars and no CA in focus. Next to Sadr is an open cluster NGC 6910, which showed very well, a string of stars like little dust motes suspended in blackness.  This and later observations were with my 32mm Plossl for a large 4.5mm exit pupil and x22 magnification giving over 2 degree field of view. I easily found M29 nearby, to me it looks like a funnel. 

So far so good. Now was time for the serious stuff.  My location in Oxford is not really good for dim objects (Bortle 5) but I was prapared with an OIII filter. So I tried for the Veil.

I had only seen the eastern Veil  previously with great diffculty with binoculars, so at least I knew roughly where to look and for what. Wow, with the OIII filter it was obvious, a scimitar shape filling most the the field of view. I spend 15 munutes scanning around it and gradually saw more: a diffuse glow just south of it. Moving to the west I managed to see the central potion of the western Veil for the first time: the thin wedge going trough 53 Cyg. It reminded me  of the ghost knife of the Nazguls in LoTR 🙂

It was all working so well that I decided to try the North America nebula. I knew it was too big to fit in my 2 degree FoV, but from past experience with binoculars I knew where to look. And indeed I managed to see the 'california/mexico' part : There is a fat arrow of mag 5-5.5 stars east of Deneb (56 and 57 Cyg and another  one) that point directly towards the 'california' strand of NAN.  It was not so bright as the Veil, I guess some of the emission must be in Ha and not OIII. I wil try this one with a UHC filter next time.

By this stage I was so impressed I decided to try for something even harder: Crescent nebula (C27). It's  position is easy to find but I did not succced to see it, probably it needs darker skies or maybe more dark adaptation.

I finished looking briefly at Saturn as it was rising over the roofs. (Using 6mm x120 this time). The rings were very bright, but the seeing did not allow for fine detail. Again happy to report there was no CA visible to me. 

I'm very pleased with this session, this  4 inch refractor is indeed a jack of all trades and highly portable as well. I expect I will be using it often.

Nik

Edited August 20, 2022 by Nik271
typos corrected

[josefk]

Nice write up Nik. I particularly enjoyed the nebula you have described through your descriptions as I couldn’t see some of those same ones myself on Friday. Haha. 

[RobertI]

Lovely report. SVBony do seem to be producing some nice products, this scope sounds great. I too have struggled with the Crescen over the years. The best I have managed is seeing the upper part of the crescent, with my C8 and a UHC filter I think. I did also see an oval smudge in the right place in my 130P, this time with an OIII,  but no crescent shape. But I’ve never felt like I’ve really ‘nailed’ the view, and I feel that you need the right combination of aperture, magnification, filter and dark sky to really get it. One day……

[JeremyS]

Looks like you have a winner there, @Nik271 👍🏻

[Rob]

Nice report thanks. I picked one of these up a short while ago, yet to have proper first light!. It seems really good on testing. Rob

[LDW1]

My 90mm Svbony 48P is a real winner as well, their reputation just keeps growing as varified by my 3 Sv zooms, various filters and several other eps. You will keep liking / using it more and more there is no doubt. And this comes from someone who has an NP101, a very capable scope !

Edited August 28, 2022 by LDW1

[Stu]

Lovely report @Nik271, definitely sounds like a winner you’ve got there. Some favourite targets of mine in your write up. Getting the scope under a darker sky will obviously help, and you may consider a wider field eyepiece to take in more of these large objects. It looks like you are already using a 32mm eyepiece so the exit pupil will be quite large, but going to 2” eyepieces will give you that plus a much larger fov.

I’m not sure if you are familiar with Dave Knisely’s filter comparisons, but he has this to say on the NAN....

QUOTE

NORTH AMERICAN NEBULA NGC 7000 (diffuse nebula in Cygnus)

(100mm f/6, 22x).

DEEP-SKY: (2) Nebular overall form is easier to see than without a filter, but only slightly.

UHC: (4) Very noticeable improvement in contrast over the DEEP-SKY filter, with both “Florida” and “Mexico” now quite easy to see.

OIII: (4) Higher contrast and slightly more sharpness than in the UHC, with brighter “spine” on east side of “Mexico” and some faint dark detail being easy to see, but nebula is somewhat fainter than in UHC.

H-BETA: (3) Detail is similar to OIII, but nebulosity is fainter than OIII.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR NGC 7000: OIII/UHC (near tie) but both H-BETA and DEEP-SKY are useful on the object.

UNQUOTE

I’ve always found an OIII to work very well on it, though a UHC is certainly worth trying as you can see. The full comparison is here:

https://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/filter-performance-comparisons-for-some-common-nebulae/

I’m sure you will continue to enjoy your scope; as we often say here, to the delight of the dob mob (not 😂), every astronomer should have a good 4” refractor 👍👍

[Nik271]

Thanks, Stu!

I have one 2inch Ep: the 32mm Panaview which would give a much wider view than the Plossl. For that session I wanted to try my OIII filter and that one is only 1.25' size.

Looks like investing in a 2 inch UHC or Oiii filter is the next step...

Edited August 28, 2022 by Nik271

[Coco]

Great report I've been looking at this scope for a while, thinking of cutting it down to fit binoviewers or buy some 100mm ED binoculars, anyway enjoyable read thanks.