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First light Celestron 9.25 AX


newtyng5

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First of all, it occurred to me how to get tony's 14inch dob, and my new 9.25 and all the bits and bobs (and there was lots) into an astra sxi. But they all fit quite snug really.

Was interesting comparing M51, the m65/66/NGC 3628(triplet) in both scopes, and the orion nebula. Then we looked at M13, amazing as always. Its interesting as I forgot an SCT re-erects the image, but the views were sharp.

Really pleased with it, the faster focal length and aperture of tony's 14inch dob resolved better detail in the galaxies, but not my a great margin. However the views of Jupiter , and the moon , I think the sct excelled (as you would imagine, being an F10). Tonys 4.7 ES eyepiece was a bit much on this scope (I think that generates about 500x mag!) , but great on the moon.

Should be noted I could not set up the alignment as the declination motor would not engage, so I had to manually find things by moving the scope with the help of a mainly useless 30mil finderscope. But after 20 years of doing this (years ago) I guess it was like riding a bike, and I found most things eventually :) .

First light emailed me to say there is a separate dec power cord!. Funny, what an idiot I am. I took the cord and wondered what it was for. Well live and learn, never had a goto scope before (always thought it was lazy).

All in all a very interesting night, very pleased with the performance, and can't wait to go back soon (with no moon next time I hope, even though it was a fat cresent it did affect the faint stuff).

Oh almost forgot, saw transit of Europa on Jupiter at about 11pm ish > that was great! It looked SOO small and pitch black . Reminds you and puts into perspective what a huge planet Jupiter is.

 

So was a great test run, ironed out the flaws, should be sorted next time. (And not take the wrong turn on the way home, drive 10miles around country lanes looking for belper signs :) )

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Very nice report. Glad you had an enjoyable first light despite forgetting the Dec cable. :2thumbsup:

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It looked a beautiful clear night.

Pity i missed it as i would like to have gone up there, and i was free Sunday evening.

But i never checked the forum.....

Next time.

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Yes it was nice to be out under the stars again. Like rob said it was surprising how bright the crescent moon was which interfered with the view of the galaxies and faint fuzzies.But I think when the moon is out it can improve the view of Jupiter for some reason. 

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