First Light 27/11/09 - 300p Flex Auto

[leeq]

So... after missing clear skies earlier this week due to work, followed by cloudy skies for the rest (I didn't waste the time and ensured the secondary & primary were well collimated), I decided to ignore the scudding clouds that were out last night, and set-up for a look at the Moon and Jupiter early yesterday evening.

My Telrad arrived yesterday, so I removed the stock finder, and mounted the red dot finder on the far side of the dovetail from the focuser, and that was nice and easy to collimate once I centered Polaris in Baader 8-24mm 2" Tele. I started at 24mm and clicked down through the range to 8mm until I had the Telrad spot on. (Thanks for the suggestion Doc! What a great finder). I then proceed to align the scope--again using Polaris, and set lattitude.

With alignment complete, I fixed on Jupiter and set the scope to track. The tracking is something I'm going to have to tinker with, or explore adding some weights down near the primary, as there was far more slop than I was expecting, would be a waste of time trying to photograph anything but quick frames of the moon with the way it was kicking; I assume i've probably set something up wrong, so i'll have to work on that...

Oh my word, Jupiter was phenominal!! It was my favourite object 18 years ago when I had a 6", but the 300p Flex & the Baader EP made the planet look amazing. I could easily see 4 bands, and the 4 visible moons. I wasn't sure if I was seeing a feint spot, but in the upper right quadrant there was a definite localised darkening (dot like) when I skipped around the FOV to use my peripheral vision. I promptly popped on the UHC filter to help with the light bleeding over from the moon, but with the thin clouds covering the planet, I think the extra glass layer diminished the view slightly, as I certainly lost contrast. That said, it was the first time my wife had seen Jupiter (so there was lots of wow factor there ), and my 6 year old has now seen his first of the planets, and complete with 4 moons no less!

One thing I discovered, was that the deck of the summer house is not a great place to setup. There is too much movement in the floor which even changing weight on your feet will subject the tube to some vibration; but even worse is the neighbours 500w motion sensored flood light which came on (a cat in their garden i'm sure) and all but destroyed my night vision for another 30 mins. I'm heading down to the hardware store in the village shortly, to look for a 4' x 4' sheet of board to place on the deck, or out on the lawn and see if that cures the vibration, as I know it will fix the line of sight from floodlight to my eyes if I get off of the deck... failing that I'll be planting a LARGE screening conifer on my side of the fence to break the LOS to the light.

On to the Moon. Absolutely AMAZING! I couldn't believe how much detail I could see. I started with an Ascension 30mm 80deg 2", and used the O-III filter to reduce some glare (I need to get a good 2" moon filter if anyone can recommend one?), and even with the clouds misting across the sky, the contrast between the Mares, highlands, and craters were outstanding. I dropped in the 15mm Ascension and the wow factor just kept going up, as even more detail was revealed, especially in one of the mountain ranges (time to start researching my guides to begin some more accurate lunar observation). So just for giggles since I figured with the lousy clouds would be a ridiculous hinderance, I dropped in the 5mm Baader ortho and a 1.25" cheap moon filter, and my jaw promptly hit the deck. Even with the clouds it was stunning to see even more detail. This did highlight just how much the slop in the tracking was affecting the view, as one second I'd be looking at some relatively small craters, and then they'd be out of the eyepiece, and then slam back into the FOV again but slightly off centre. Even with the annoyances, it was the most amazing view of the surface of our nearest neighbour I have ever witnessed. Surely this couldn't get any better for me, especially as the clouds were starting to thicken, but I figured "What the hell!" and dropped the 5mm into a Celestron Ultima 2x Barlow, and all I can say is my jaw definitely suffered some severe bruising from the 2nd time it hit the decking!! I was as gentle as I could be with the Crayford focuser, as soon as I had things tight, I locked it into place and spent the next 30 minutes giggling like a school boy. Question: With a effective 2.5mm EP giving me 600x magnification of the moon, can anyone tell me approximately what the smallest diameter crater would be that I should be able to view?

I was so in awe of the sights I was witnessing, I hadn't even noticed that it was now 9pm and I was out in the garden in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt still

I dropped in the 30mm Ascension again, and located M31, but things were really starting to cloud over now, so after at least seeing the bright center of the galaxy and some slight definition in the arms, I decided it was time to pack up and head in after 2+ hours in the garden still wearing shorts!

It was a fantastic first night of observing for me, even with the clouds, vibrating deck, and slop in the tracking. Hopefully I can resolve the latter two. I went back to the alignment instructions to ensure that I had set things up correctly, as the 300p auto requires the same direction key used to set the 0deg (down arrow), be used to set the lattitude; so I went past the 51.5 degrees, with the up arrow to about 55 degrees, and then back to the correct setting with the down arrow, but it still had slop there. Regardless of these teething issues, the scope performed far beyond my expectations, and the optics were really amazing from my perspective. It just makes me want to buy something like a CPC 800 (GPS) XLT for photography work -- would that be a good one for a mix of near and DSO shots, with a modded 450D? (I'm determined to become proficient with prime focus).

A thoroughly enjoyable evening, and now I am off to the shops to buy some board to try a location on the lawn with the next clear sky, red bulbs for my summer house lights, and something for lunch!

[wulfrunian]

I can't answer your questions about the tracking, but just wanted to say you've really captured the excitement of first light there! Really enjoyable report, and many more great nights to come

[Helen]

Yep, that was a GREAT read. Thank you!!! And I hope you have loads more nights when you spend lots of time giggling! I can relate to that - I dread to think what my neighbours think

Helen

[DarkerSky]

It sure is a buzz having first light on a new scope. I think with the set-up you've got you'll have many more great nights to come

[oceanheadted]

Lee,

good review. I'm pleased you new scope is giving you some good views. Hope you get your tracking issues sorted

cheers

Alan

[Doc]

Great report Lee I'm glad you like the telrad, IMO the best finder around.

As for objects on the moon, I saw Catena Timocharis in my 400mm scope where VMA says you need 500mm so you could give that a try. Also Rima Sheepshanks needs at least 400mm so if you can see this then your scope is in pretty good collimation.

Read some of my reports, most of the planetaries you should see in your scope.

[pvaz]

Great report! You captured the emotion of a 1st night really well.

I also use a telrad, it's so easy to located DSOs with it. In case you don't have maps, this ones are free and make me look like a human goto. You can get finder charts for all Messier and the best NGC from that link.

I recently purchased a couple of Baader Orthos and I am as impressed as you. The amount of detail, sharpness and light scatter control they provide also made me drop my jaw the 1st time I used them. When you get a chance use the 5mm on Mars. The polar cap shows very clear.

[iamjulian]

Sounds like a cracking scope. Have you asked your neighbours whether it is possible to adjust the sensitivity of their light? Or was the cat that set it off in their own garden. Hope you manage to avoid turning it on.

I cannot imagine what 600x on the moon looks like. I haven't pushed mine beyond 160x yet and that gives lovely views. 600x on a steady night must be something to behold.

[albedo0.39]

Really great first light report - good drama and an excellent sense of the real issues we face with not living on top of a mountain ! However... 600x is brave and I hope you get the chance to use it again !

[Astro Adj]

Great report - and very interesting for me especially as I am considering purchasing this exact scope!

In answer to your question about the smallest crater you could observe at 600x, I believe the answer would be in the region of a crater with a diameter of around 615m. I may be way out, as I guessed your EPs AFOV (my guess was 52 degrees) and my maths could well be wonky, but here is how I arrived at 615m.

EP AFOV (52) / Magnification (600) = True FOV = 0.091 degrees. True FOV x 60 = 5.5 arcminutes, or 330 arcseconds.

Once that was established, I popped the figures into the small angle formula, which is D = αd

----