Short report May 1st

[ZOG]

Fairly clear last night so I packed the scope into the car and headed off to a local site I use that has less light pollution than home but has a clear 360 degree aspect.

Seeing wasn't great and a bright half moon was washing the sky out a bit but the main reason I was there was to try out the Argo Navis now that the bugs have been ironed out and it's set up on a stalk.

I had to take a look at the moon first, great terminator line last night and the 12" made the most of it. In fact I got engrossed for a while just scanning around the Moon with the Celestron 12.5 mm plossl, and dropping in the Meade 3000 5mm for a closer look at interesting objects. The scope had cooled nicely by now so I did a 2 star align on the Argo and dialled up M37. Bang in the centre of the 32mm and a nice tight view of the cluster. The Argo put every target in the FOV of the 32mm last night, not a long list as the clouds rolled in after a couple of hours but I managed to view,

M3 + M13, both resolved nicely in the 13mm Nagler with loads of individual stars on view

Eskimo nebula, faint but definitely there, a first for me.

Leo triplet, fitted nicely in The 40mm TV plossl

M81 and 82, nice in the TV 40mm and just fit into the 32mm

M51 :hello2:this has been a problem for me in the past, but the Argo put it smack in the centre of the 32mm. Definite cores and outer nebulosity but no hint of the arms or the bridge, this was probably down to the seeing conditions, but I was well pleased with it.

Swung round to Saturn, bright yellow, no bands seen and 4 moons on show.

Vega was now climbing to a reasonable height so I dialled in M57 and there it was. I spent some time trying different EP's on this one with surprising results, the Celestron 12.5mm outperformed the 13mm Nagler giving a sharper view with more contrast. I tried the 0III filter on both EP's, the view was dimmer in the Celestron but the target almost vanished in the Nagler, weird !

The clouds were rolling in so I spent the last 10 minutes just scanning the starfields in Cassiopae, packed away at about midnight.

All in all an enjoyable session, the best bit being the fact that the Argo is now doing what it says on the tin. Hopefully we'll get a night with better seeing later on this week and I can really put the system through it's paces.

Bill

[Doc]

Nice report Bill.

That Argo seems to be delivering the goods. I'm surprised your celestron 12.5 outperformed your 13mm nagler. What type of nagler is it?

[Talitha]

Great report Bill, thanks! Nice to see the Argo's doing so well, and congratulations on bagging the Eskimo Nebula.

[ZOG]

Thanks for the comments Mick and Carol, Mick it's an oldie but goody. Type 1 but still gives cracking views and I believe these are getting to be collectors items these days.

Bill

[tom.yates]

Great report Bill

[Andrew*]

Great report Zog,

Possibly you could make out the difference in quality of coatings from the old nagler and the newer Celestron? I certainly haven't made out differences in other old TeleVue eyepieces (19mm WF, 32mm WF and 20mm T2 Nagler, all compared against bang-up-to-date EPs), but maybe you can... Interesting

Andrew

[ZOG]

Andrew, I was well surprised, I was expecting the Nagler to be better, it usually is, but it doesn't seem to like the rings for some reason.

Bill