22nd Oct views

[Tweedledee]

Had a nice short session in the backyard last night using an ST120 F9 on loan from Damian. The scope seems twice as long as my ST120 F5 but hardly any heavier. Set up the F9 on an AZ4 mount and put in my Baader 2" erect image prism and ES 25mm 100 degree eyepiece giving a lovely 2.3 degree field at 43x. The views were very nice. The sky was deteriorating with increasing hazyness so I made the most of the session without even bothering to change eyepieces.

 

M31 looked rather dismal as a fairly small oval with M32 and M110 nicely showing. The big galaxy should have nearly filled the field of view on a really good night at a dark sky site, but I was only seeing the core about a third of its overall size. M32 looked nice and round and M110 a more elongated oval than the core of M31. M110 has a rather large apparent size compared to your average galaxy, but is rarely thought of that way because it is dwarfed by its parent galaxy.

I then moved over to M81 and 82 and found them easily despite their lowish altitude to the north in my most light polluted area. The oval and spindle shapes were plainly seen, but no other detail in the murky atmosphere.

Clusters NGC752, M34 and the double cluster put on a nice show. Had a particularly pleasant view of the Pleiades which was perfectly framed with this eyepiece.

Globular M15 was not showing at its best in this low power eyepiece and could have done with much more magnification.

Next to Enif in Pegasus is a pair of asterisms side by side in the same low power field. Picot 2 and Alessi J2142.5+1005 showed as an interesting elongated sprinkling of 7th to 10th mag stars with a slight gap separating them. About 7 degrees north is another half degree smattering of a dozen 8 and 9th mag stars which is Alessi J2145.0+1647. This shows as a sparse group in a fairly barren region of sky.

The F9 with the 25mm gave the loveliest view of Collinder 399 The Coathanger nicely filling the field.

In Sagitta I saw M71 as a tiny fuzzy patch. Very near to this I spotted three small asterisms. Lorenzin 4 is a half degree long string of 8th and 9th mag stars. Streicher 67 and Raymond 11 are two tiny condensed groups of 8th mag stars.

Enjoyed panning around Melotte 20 in Perseus which is a beautiful sight in a wide field but was still too large for this scope and ep.

Went to bed buzzing having thoroughly enjoyed the views in the F9. 

[+Bino-viewer]

As your signature says Pete, you can't beat a Rich field, Low power, Wide angle set up for a nice tour around the night sky.

Some nice targets there in your report 

Btw......i had my hands on 'Petes eyepiece' last weekend.....i forgot to mention that !

I didn't check the price this year, although i'm sure its gone up from last year.

 

I just picked it up, felt the weight of it, smiled and put it back down again 

 

Edited October 23, 2016 by Bino-viewer

[philjay]

Its nice to have a play with a different scope every so often. The Evostar 120 is a good scope and as you say is much longer than the startravel. I did a side by side of these 2 scopes some years ago with my ST120 and a clubs ES120 and it was interesting. They are also great value for money and the older ones have a collimatable cell which is nice.

 

[Daz Type-R]

Nice one Pete, not managed to be outside since Kelling due to weekends away or being on call.  Some interesting targets there.

[Tweedledee]

Thanks everyone, the session was fun.

 

15 hours ago, Bino-viewer said:

As your signature says Pete, you can't beat a Rich field, Low power, Wide angle set up for a nice tour around the night sky.

Some nice targets there in your report 

Btw......i had my hands on 'Petes eyepiece' last weekend.....i forgot to mention that !

I didn't check the price this year, although i'm sure its gone up from last year.

 

I just picked it up, felt the weight of it, smiled and put it back down again 

 

 

That is a thing of beauty.

 

It is on my wish list and I have the 3" dual speed focuser ready for it. 

 

Gets even more expensive when you want a 3" Paracorr to go with it. 

[Tweedledee]

The price on the 30mm 3" is actually cheaper now than last year. Just over £800 seems to be the going rate as against about £1100 previously. I can't imagine them being very popular due to the excess in all areas - cost, barrel size, and weight. Can't be that many strange people around who like them.  

 

I just love the fact that I could use it to get a 1.5 degree field, which is totally humongous for a 20" aperture scope! 

 

Just found a used one at a reasonable price that is so tempting. Trouble is, I'm not ready for it yet.

[+seven_legs]

Nice report Phil. 

not been out with scope all year through various crappy reason and my work patterns. Cannot wait to get scope out for the monthly meeting on Saturday. If not clear then hope for a day after as I am off all week.

[Tweedledee]

40 minutes ago, seven_legs said:

Nice report Phil. 

not been out with scope all year through various crappy reason and my work patterns. Cannot wait to get scope out for the monthly meeting on Saturday. If not clear then hope for a day after as I am off all week.

Thanks Fred. 

[+seven_legs]

sorry Pete. I am on nights shifts at the last 3 nights

[Tweedledee]

7 hours ago, seven_legs said:

sorry Pete. I am on nights shifts at the last 3 nights

No problem Tony. I can get quite incoherent after losing just 3 hours sleep.