Meade 10" / f8 ACF [visual]

[josefk]

The new ACF finally got first light on the 2nd June. A whole month and a bit since i bought it... 😞 ☁️☁️😞☁️...

Very first impressions were not great but i think i have a learning curve to get up with it and things got better as the night wore on.

Brief findings:

• Transporting the OTA (in a perfectly sized Opklop bag), handling it, mounting and demounting it were all great. 
• It's 2-speed focus action is nice. There were some vibes while i was being heavy handed at the start but i soon dialled in to the soft touch the micro focuser needed.
• My very first target was the double double - i don'y know why. It used to be a kind of seeing test object and it was placed ok on this night. It didn't look OK (on this night). It looked like this 8 ♾️ - the first diffraction rings of all four stars were stronger than the stars if thats possible and it was all a bit messy. I didn't buy it for double stars but i felt a bit disheartened. Seeing was terrible (there were about 5 blobby overlapping versions of Vega dancing around) so i'll put off star testing and collimating to another night. The out of focus doughnut looked soundly concentric but i have a feeling the out of focus test doesn't apply to the ACF optical prescription. i.e it can look ok when it isn't.
• My second target was M57 - its preposterous but i think i saw some pink in the outline of the ring nebula. I wasn't preconditioned too (i haven't looked at AP of M57 recently) and in the moment of the observation i processed the phenomenon to be an optical aberration of the ACF and started cursing it for the second time. Reflecting later and reading about seeing colour here; because it wasn't properly dark and i wasn't dark adapted at all there is an outside possibility this aperture did trigger a colour response 🤞. If true this would be early browny points for it.
• The rest of the night was spent on galaxies around M81 and M82 and even while its wasn't really dark the new scope began to deliver a little bit what i hoped and expected of it. I'm looking forward to the autumn now already.
• Dew will need very active mgmt. i may not even take this scope out at >RH90%. I have it wrapped in insulation and ran a Kendrick dew band on 25% power (whatever wattage that is) all night but still lost the scope to a very light misting of dew at the very end of the session (after the OTA being out under the sky for ~5hrs. Dusk till dawn). Running the dew band at higher power will require a bigger energy source than i have currently.

Here are a few observing notes from first light:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/422817-m81-m82-and-their-neighbours-020624/#comment-4490690

And here's a gratuitous shot of it mounted up and fully dressed for action:

 

Edited June 4 by josefk

[ST_Steve]

18 minutes ago, josefk said:

The new ACF finally got first light on the 2nd June

Nice report @josefk I’ll be following along as you gain a deeper understanding on this scope. I do hope this will be a keeper for you.

Great sketches and report in the linked thread too!

[John]

Interesting report on the Meade ACF 10.

My society has the 12 inch version. I've only looked through if a couple of times but the stars did not seem that well defined in it. It's permanently sited in a dome so I suppose some collimation tweaks were needed. It was a while back.

I guess any SCT is going to find it tough, in terms of star image, against your Tak refractors !

Edited June 4 by John

[josefk]

10 hours ago, John said:

I guess any SCT is going to find it tough, in terms of star image, against your Tak refractors !

They are both tough acts to follow indeed and for the TOA in particular that was a conscious buying criteria - a benchmark view with no regrets, no doubts and no second guessing re. quality at that aperture. 
The ACF stars were consistent  across the FOV (important to me) and feint stars were nice and small. Bright stars may need the Allen key treatment. 😗