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1 night, 3 scopes! 10/11th September report

Andrew*

By Andrew*
in Observing - Reports

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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I came home from a poker game last night around 11pm to find a nice clear night waiting for me – it looked to nice to pass up.

I took my new (to me) 12” f/6 David Lukehurst dob out. I’d also just taken delivery of a very nice wee Vixen A80SS earlier yesterday, so I took that out with me to put it to the test.

On Jupiter, the 12” was showing horrific views initially – clearly the mirror wasn’t cool yet. But at low power, I got some nice views of M34, the double cluster, M31, M81/2 and NGC 3077 nearby, all at 55x. When I turned to M51, however, I was decidedly disappointed. Two vague misty patches, one slightly brighter than the other. Moving up to 120x, it became slightly clearer, showing a slightly larger fuzzy patch. The low altitude of 25° and the LP in that direction were clearly working against me.

Anyway, I decided to give the 12” a chance to cool down and moved to the ED120 which was already on the mount. This also wasn’t properly cooled, but Jupiter showed the SEB very clearly as a quite grey distinct band – I think it’s on its way back… Uranus was fairly simple to find – it’s the brightest point 1° NW of Jupiter. At 250x, I could just resolve a pale green/blue disc.

But the A80SS was still awaiting first light, so the ED120 came off and the little Vixen 80mm f/5 achro went on. I put it to the ultimate test – Jupiter at high power. Wow! Nice and colourful! It looked quite like a deep exposure of M57 – a green and red disc! Focusing carefully at 114x, I could see a clear disc with the NEB, but the coloured fringe could not be focused out. It wasn’t all that pretty!

But all was not lost for the 80mm. It’s an f/5 achro – you can’t expect it to put up with high power on a bright target, so I decided to check out what it does best – wide field. Using a 33mm SWAN, it gives 12x magnification and a whopping 6° FOV.

The SWAN struggled at f/5, but the central portion was clear enough to get some beautiful views of the best the E sky had to offer – Perseus double cluster, NGC 457, M103, M45 and M31. The last two were spectacular! The Pleiades were shown glistening in their environment, and M31 showed a 2° long misty patch, with both satellite galaxies also visible.

As a last test for the 80mm, I popped in an OIII filter and moved over to the tip of Cygnus’ eastern wing – home to the magnificent Veil Nebula – my favourite DSO. In such a huge FOV, it took me a while to work out which was 52-cygni, but as I looked at it, a crescent of nebulosity caught my eye a short distance away – the brighter E portion of the nebula! It was visible with direct vision, and hinted at the intricate texture. The northern stream of the W portion was also visible, but much less distinct. I thought the 80mm did extremely well on this target.

Back to the now-cool 12”, I moved over to Jupiter, which showed so much more than the ED120, despite the poor seeing. The scope is f/6, has a tiny 21% secondary mirror mounted on a single curved spider. These factors all contribute to making it a very capable planetary scope, in my limited experience. The bands weren’t just smooth stripes, as in the ED120, but turbulent belts, showing knots and waves. Unfortunately there wasn’t much going on though – no transits or GRS.

Uranus was in the same low power FOV as Jupiter with the 33mm SWAN – they’re closing up! At 180-260x, a small disc was seen, with no banding visible, unsurprisingly. However, to the N was visible some faint points of light. I couldn’t pick out an individual moon, but Starry Night confirms 3 moons to have been in this vicinity. There were no bright (under mag. 12) stars nearby.

So with that I called it a night, around 1am.

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John

John

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Nice report Andrew and of 3 very diverse scopes !.

Spotting the Veil (any segment of it) with an 80mm is a real achievement so you are right to be pleased with the little Vixen.

I've yet to have a really impressive view of M51 with my 10" scope from my garden yet - your may recall though that the 12" belonging to Alex that you and I used at SGL4 did show an excellent view of it including sprial arms so I'm sure the Lukehurst 12" has more to give, on the right night, on this object.

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Spotting the Veil (any segment of it) with an 80mm is a real achievement so you are right to be pleased with the little Vixen.

I thought so too! I was very curious as to whether it could be done. I remember seeing it in your 4" under much darker skies than my own, but this was a much harder test.

I've yet to have a really impressive view of M51 with my 10" scope from my garden yet - your may recall though that the 12" belonging to Alex that you and I used at SGL4 did show an excellent view of it including sprial arms so I'm sure the Lukehurst 12" has more to give, on the right night, on this object.

Yes, I hope so - M51 really suffers under less than ideal skies. My limiting magnitude is usuall a touch over 5, so not bad, but clearly not good enough.

The good thing about the 12" is it is so much more portable than the 16" so I should be able to get it to a dark sky site.

Andrew

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russ

russ

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Hmm did you by any chance buy the David Lukehurst from classifieds in AN? :D

I was so close to buying it myself. Wish i had. Did you keep the binoviewers that came with it?

Sounds an awesome scope and an awesome night. :eek:

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Andrew*

Andrew*

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Thanks for the comments guys.

Yes, the 80mm is nice. Probably not much better optically than an 80ST TBH, but a bit smaller. I bought it as a travel scope as it fits into a camera bag, but I will give it a go with my 450D to see what it can do.

Great Report Andrew. The F/5 Vixen and 33mm EP sound like a great combo for Milky way cruising. Put it on your dob and do double duty as a super finder :)

That's a great idea actually. I just shudder to think of the counterweight needed with that and a binoviewers up at the top. Oh, wait - easy solution: stick it on the bottom... You've got me thinking now... :)

Andrew

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SAB

SAB

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That's a great idea actually. I just shudder to think of the counterweight needed with that and a binoviewers up at the top. Oh, wait - easy solution: stick it on the bottom... You've got me thinking now... :)

Andrew

What you do is, stick the 80 ontop and counterbalance it with a 150mm ST on the bottom :)

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