Skywatcher Infinity 76 saves the day !

[Blackheart]

Hi guys

Just wanted to share a small, but rather pleasant surprise with you. I was just getting read to turn when, glancing out the window, I see a gorgeous sky with a wall to wall Milky Way and Jupiter screaming 'Look at me... look at me...!'

After cursing the fact that I had not put my 12" dob out earlier, I decided that it was too late to haul it out and wait for it to cool down. However, peeved to be missing such a beautiful night, I pulled out the Infinity 76 that I bought off Ebay for £10 about a year ago. I'd written it off shortly after buying it as it's a nightmare trying to find anything and the eyepiece is rubbish. But I thought 'what the hell'.

Unfortunately, Jupiter look like a rainbow blob, which I thought was strange as the Infinity is a reflector. I figured it must be the crappy eyepiece so I took the barrel off my SW 25mm plossl and just held it against the body of the Infinity, and what do you know... I have nice little widefield telescope.

Just huggin it to my chest, without any kind of focusser, I checked out the double cluster, pleiades and M13. All surprisingly nice. Jupiter barely showed a disk so I'm guess the 25mm eyepiece gave me about 20x mag. I turned to Andromeda and had a lovely, if small view. In some ways it was nicer than my 12" dob as I could see the whole object and not just the central core.

I spent a few minutes just sweeping through the star fields of the Milky Way before coming indoors. But I thought I really had to share it with you.

Whether I will ever get round to fitting the infinity with a cheap focusser I don't know, but if anyone has an old one lying around I could certainly find a use for it...

I hope you guys noticed the clear skies in time to enjoy them properly.

Yours

Blackheart

[Revs]

The mak has been out for an hour and I'm just going to join it. Looks a nice, albeit windy night

[LukeSkywatcher]

So the Infinity 76 really works as a real scope?

[Blackheart]

So the Infinity 76 really works as a real scope?

Yes Luke... It was a revelation to me too. The view is more comparable to what you might see through a pair of bins, but it was clear and sharp and bright.

Conclusion... the mirror of the INfinity is fine it's that god-awful eyepiece that sabotages the view! I just need to figure out some way of attaching a half decent eyepiece to the scope...

BH