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250px Dob First Light

Revs

By Revs
in Observing - Reports

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Revs

Revs

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What a great night! :) To say I'm pleased is an understatement. I can see I will get many hours of fun with this 'scope.

I got to a mates house about 10 miles out of town at about 9pm and set the scope up in his front garden, facing SE. It's a good spot because it's pretty dark up there and there are no street lights on his road. Straight away I popped the 8mm Hyperion in and looked at Jupiter, but it was obvious the scope needed to cool, so I went back in for a cuppa and left it.

I came back out at about 10pm, found Jupiter in the finder scope (I'm using the SW RAE 9x50) and put the 24mm in... looking better. There were diffraction spikes but I was expecting that. Did a final tweak in the finder alignment and stepped up to the 8mm again. I could see more detail but it was just too bright, so I put the ND96 and the 82a light blue filter on and refocused. This improved things and I could now see a nice bit of detail, including the GRS. The band was clearly visible and after a few seconds more detail appeared. More than I've been able to see with the Mak, but not much more. Time to move on, but I look forward to trying the webcam.

Next stop, M31, which was easy to spot, in fact I could just about see it naked eye. Again the dob gave a far brighter view than the Mak and the scale of this galaxy was now clear, with the Dobs wider, brighter view. It more than filled my FOV with the 32mm EP in, and some very faint detail was visible using averted vision. M110 and M32 visible in the outer edge of the FOV.

At this point I tried to find M33 but for some reason I couldn't, so I thought I'd move on to something else my Mak struggled with.. open clusters. After checking Starmap Pro it seemed Cassiopeia was the place to be, so with my eye to the finder I slewed in that direction, finding a double cluster, which turned out to be NCG869 and 884. I put the 24mm in and started to focus, and as the image slowly cleared up, a wonderful mass of stars came in to view, then more and more as I fine tuned. It was at this point my jaw dropped... WOW! I couldn't stop smiling, the shear number of stars in bright, crisp detail was simply awesome! Again with the 17mm, wonderful views. So good that I was looking here for a good 30 mins, moving to the 8mm later, until the sky started to haze up and the odd cloud was heading our way. Time to call it a night, but what a good night it was.

For about £400 this scope represents stunning value. Using a dob gives great freedom to easily move around, and the star hopping makes you learn the skies more quickly. It is the perfect starter scope, good for most objects. It is pretty big, but the tube fitted nicely on my A3's back seat and the base in the boot with no problems. Any bigger and it would be a problem. Weight wise it's quite manageable, but the bulk mean it's a careful job moving it through the house. Someone was asking if it would be manageable in a wheelchair and I have to say yes, but it might be tricky, but where there's a will there's a way :D

If you've got £400 to spend on your first 'scope or your first Dob, look no further. I'm keeping the Mak, but the Dob is a more versatile bit of kit.

Love it! :mad:

ps, I'll post some pic tomorrow :D

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Revs

Revs

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Thanks for reading and cheers for your kind words, guys :)

One thing I forgot to mention is how pleased I am with the Hyperions. The larger aperture really brought out the best in them. Sharp, contrasty views which filled my vision, even with my spec's on. It was only when trying the barlow that the image blurred a bit round the outer FOV. I find it hard to imagine getting a better view through an EP, but not having tried anything like a TeleVue I guess I've not been spoiled yet :mad:

Oh yes... the scope held it's collimation perfectly during transportation, which I was surprised at. I didn't knock it but I would have thought bouncing around on the back seat for 30 mins would sent it out.

Thanks again and clear skies! Pics on the way..

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Revs

Revs

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As a fellow mak127 owner its interesting to read the differences in viewing experiences with a different scope.

You should try some Jupiter imaging with it just to see of you can!

I intend to next time I'm out :). Feel free to ask any questions about comparing the two, BTW. As someone said, they both have their merits.

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Revs

Revs

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I've tried to take shots I know would have been handy for me when I was looking to buy the scope. As you can see it fits nicely in the car, but I don't think a 12" would fit without messing with seat folding. Taken with Canon G10..

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george7378

george7378

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Thanks for the report - I was also observing last night. I managed to find M33 with mine, but the skies were not dark enough to see any spiral arm detail - just a large fuzzy spot. It is still far better than any other view I've had! M31 was also very nice from my place too - I think I even spotted a dust lane! Thanks again.

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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Great report. I also have the 10 inch...

Globular clusters are WOW with the scope. This is not the best time of the year for these but you have a treat waiting for you next Spring..

Oh and those galaxies! My favorite objects. I hav logged over 300 with my 10 inch. Most are very faint so start with the brighter messier ones..

I have the 17mm Hyperion which is just so amazing. A large field with lovely colourfull stars etc.

Save up for an OIII filter and have a look at the veil nebula with your scope..

Oh' yes and the orion nebula is just amazing...Its got some colour in the 10 inch..

Enjoy your scope and post your views..

Mark

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bus_ter

bus_ter

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Wow it's massive. Something that big for £400 really does seem a bargain.

I'm wondering, how do you keep a high magnification object (like a planet) in the FOV? Do you have to make constant up/down left/right adjustmets? It's going to take some work to keep a planet on a webcam sensor, though you should get some great detail if you can pull it off!

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Revs

Revs

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Obviously it's harder as you get the mag up. At 150x, once you get it in view to the right of the FOV, you get about 30 seconds to look while it transits across. I think it'll be a task keeping it on the sensor with the webcam, but I'm looking forward to trying.

Trying to make small corrections isn't easy, but it depends where you hold the scope to make the adjustments. The wider you hold it the easier it is. It's easier to make fine adjustments in Alt than it is in Az as the tension is adjustable. I was thinking about putting some Silicone spray around the Az friction surface to try and eliminate the ever-so-slight sticking, but I suspect the 3 anti-friction pads will get better over time so I'll leave it for now.

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