CELESTRON STARSENSE EXPLORER 10 INCH DOB FIRST LIGHT.

[paulastro]

In the year of owning the 8inch version of this scope, I have taken every opportunity to sing its praises as a true game changer, resulting in me having the most productive and enjoyable observing year ever I've ever had - and that's over a period of more than fifty years. A large part of this being down to the Starsense location system.  I have a review  of the eight inch on this forum and so have several other members, and so I'm not going to go through it again here.

Having said all this, earlier this week I part-exchanged my eight for the ten inch version that a very good friend of mine owned.  He wanted a smaller version, I thought it would be a chance to have a little larger scope with all the advantages of Starsense, so the deal was done.

I had first light with the ten on the night of July 19th-20th, and thought I'd share some of my thoughts.

They are the same focal lengths, so the only obvious difference is their weight and tube diameter.  I was a bit concerned about the weight difference, around four kilos I think, but in use it made little difference to me. I only have to unlock the garage and move the scope a few yards, the base first then the tube. Also both scopes have some advantages in moving them around over other makes of the same size Dobs.

The side panels of the base are partly cut out, which means you can grasp the sides of it by putting your hands through each side.  This is much easier than picking it up by its handle which I find much more awkward.  The tubes have a large knob at the eyepiece end and a large handle on the tube at its balance point. It is easy to carry the tube by the handle alone, or by also grasping the knob with the other hand as well.  If you think this isn't helpful, then you can't have tried moving a dob covered with dew after an observing session.  It's skin to something like trying to wrestle with a slippery eel!

Anyway, on Monday I was out from 11.30pm to 2.25am, and it was very dewy, and not great transparency.  I observed 16/17 deep sky targets and Saturn and Jupiter. It is of course not a comparison with the eight's performance - not possible unless you have them side by side on the same evening.

The star (sorry) of the night for me was M11, the wild duck cluster.  It looked good in the 17.5 Morpheus, but with a x2 barlow it was quite stunning, The arrangement of so many similiar mag stars close together with excellent contrast giving a black background was probabley as good as I've ever seen it from home - in any telescope. It's low altiude makes  it a challenge a lot of the time from Yorkshire.

Also impressive were the E and W portions of the Veil Nebula, with a 30mm/70 Ultima Edge with the old Japanese version of the Ultra Block filter.  They were not usually observable on the eight so I was pleased to see them.

I spent a few minutes on M13 with the 12.5 Morpheus when the transparency was a little better, filling getting on for a third of the field it was very impressive - lists of expletives won't do it justice.  In a similiar vein, I had a fine view of M81/M82 at opposite sides of the field of the 17.5 Morpheus.

One other object worth mentioning is Saturn.  At its low altitude and very average seeing I was not expecting very much.  I have to say, its nice to be wrong sometimes.  In better moments it made my jaw drop.  Even with the rings at only 7%, all three main rings and Cassinis were finely displayed, as were the rings crossing the planet, a sharp limb and what was a very pale looking equatorial belt and 3/4 satellites. There were also other hints of disc detail.

All in all the scope performed as well, or better, than I expected in the conditions.  As my 8inch had, the 10 inch has fine optics, and combined with Starsense, they are both phenomenal packages in my view.

The pics below are my rather soggy ten inch after Mondays dewy session, and my eight inch after a very frosty session last Winter.

 

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by paulastro
Typos

[paulastro]

I forgot to mention, the Saturn Obs were with my Baader binoviewer,  24mm Orthos and a x2 Celestron barlow, x200.

[Sunshine]

Fantastic!! great to hear Saturn looked so good considering elevation and seeing conditions, I am doubly happy with my 8" and don't get me talking about how awesome Starsense has been.

[Coco]

Dob + 17.5 Morpheus is superb isn't it! 

[bosun21]

1 hour ago, Coco said:

Dob + 17.5 Morpheus is superb isn't it! 

My most used eyepiece.

[Astro_Dad]

Great write up Paul, and some fine sights!

[paulastro]

6 hours ago, Coco said:

Dob + 17.5 Morpheus is superb isn't it! 

Yes it is, sometimes it's the only eyepiece I use depending on the objects Im going to observe. Great contrast, 76 deg field and sharp to the edges as is my 12.5mm. Morpheus.