First light, Megrez 90

[DaveS]

Well, the sky cleared (Well, sort of) last night so I finally got my 'scope going.

I first tried looking at Jupiter, but it was very low over houses, so not surprisingly the air was boiling, so all I saw were a few belts. I used my 9mm at x68, then added the barlow, for x136, but not surprisingly it made things worse.

Having given up on Jupiter, I moved on to Epsilon Lyrae. With the 9mm I saw elongation, but no clear separation, so added the barlow, and managed a clean split, with dark sky between all components.

Next a star test using Altair, beautiful rings inside and outside focus, with the expected colours for a well corrected doublet.

This might sound a bit thin, but a lot of my time was spent waiting for clear gaps in the clouds which came over as soon as I'd set up. About 9.30 the clouds looked as though they had set in for the night, so I packed up. Lo and Behold the clouds cleared. By this time I'd got the 'scope indoors, so I quickly reassembled the 'scope just outside my back door, didn't bother with the drive, just used it manually with the 26mm SP, I found the double cluster easily, and it was amazing with pin-point stars against a black background, even from London, moved on to M31 and managed to see the core, but LP (Nothing much visible below mag 3) was too bad to see much else, so to get a feel for the FOV, I had a look at the M45, which was just becoming visible over the eastern houses, and managed to see the whole of the "core" stars, even though the background was distinctly orange from the LP.

Given the LP I didn't take things further, so packed it in for the night.

On a non optical note, having a rock-solid driven mount made all the difference to my observing, up to now all my 'scopes have been un-driven and a bit wobbly, so I was well pleased with what little observing I got done, So the next clear night I'll try and get some decent observing done.

Dave

[Doc]

The Megrez 90 id a wonderful scope and it sounds like you had an enjoyable night even though you were dodging the clouds.

[Talitha]

Well done Dave, hopefully the clouds will leave you alone next time.

A light pollution filter would help cut through the glow, but TBH i'm not sure if it would dim the stars down... anyone know?

[DaveS]

Yes, a Baader Neodymium and UHC-S filters are on my list for the next round of purchases, but TBH I've put such a big hole in my credit card with this lot that it'll be a few months before I can afford anything.

On my list:

WO 6mm SPL and 40mm SWAN (Ha!) EPs

Baader Neodymium and UHC-S filters

Telegizmos 'scope cover.

Dave

[Helen]

The view of the double cluster in my Megrez 90 is one of highs! I just keep going back to it. And I bought an 8mm ethos just because it would allow me to frame the double cluster at a higher magnitute - the view is awesome!!

More generally, the Megrez 90 is agreat scope as its big enough to be useful, but small enough to be grab and go. Its been my holiday scope too. I'm just about to start a new use for it though, as I've just bought an EQ6 for the Observatory and so will finally be able to use it for astrophotography too

Enjoy yours!

Helen

PS the 16mm UWAN works very well in this scope too

[iamjulian]

Sorry to hear about your light pollution. Glad to hear it doesn't stop you enjoying the night sky!