First light for my new Clave 80/1208 Refractor

[Doc]

Last night was clear but bitterley cold, but I did venture out for a few hours. The first object was of course the moon and the Clave performed very well indeed, there is very little false colour on the limb of the moon, I have never really been bothered by CA and this was hardly none so I well pleased. The contrast is surpurb as is the sharpness. 

 

I then had a tour of the night sky trying to split some double stars, I tried numerous stars getting tighter and tighter seperation and I eventually got to Gamma Cass which was easy at 2.2" seperation and the B star being 10.9 mag. I tried Eta Gem also known as Propus, this star has a seperation of just 1.8" and with the 4mm Clave inserted giving me x302 I could just glimpse a seperation between them. I looked at some really faint stars that were mag 11.2 and just mangaged to view them. Colour is very good in this scope, yellow and red really popped out.

 

The Clave being F15 actually splits double stars cleaner then my 120ED Esprit.

 

Considering a 80mm F15 objective should have a dawes limit of 1.45" and a limiting mag of 12.2 I was quite impressed as my observing site is far from dark and the sky conditions were not perfect.

Mars looked OK, couldn't see any details but it was a nice shade of red and looked like Mars.

 

Things I did make a note of is that I need a 2" extention as my 2" 40mm and 55mm eyepieces wouldn't reach focus, 1.25" eyepieces are fine. Also the focuser installed is a bit flimsy and basic, I really need to invest in a Moonlite or Baader focuser.

 

Overall very happy and impressed with the scope.

 

 

 

 

[+Graham]

Sounds like you have a winner on your hands.

Well pleased for you Mick.

[+Streetbob]

Glad it was as good as you hoped. Bet you’re looking forward to trying at Belper. 

[philjay]

Great stuff Mick glad you were able to give it a test. 80mm f15 quality achros give very little colour on the moon I find, my Towa is good that way as well. A bit later in the season give Epsilon Lyra a bash and let us know the minimum mag you can split the pairs with it.

Thats on of my tests when sorting scopes.

80mm f15 delivers a heck of a lot, there is so much apo frenzy these days people have forgotten how good a quality achro is. Lets face it centuries of astronomical discoveries have been made with long focus achros.

Edited April 12, 2019 by philjay

[+Bino-viewer]

Pleased to hear its performing well Mick ??

[Doc]

1 hour ago, philjay said:

Great stuff Mick glad you were able to give it a test. 80mm f15 quality achros give very little colour on the moon I find, my Towa is good that way as well. A bit later in the season give Epsilon Lyra a bash and let us know the minimum mag you can split the pairs with it.

Thats on of my tests when sorting scopes.

80mm f15 delivers a heck of a lot, there is so much apo frenzy these days people have forgotten how good a quality achro is. Lets face it centuries of astronomical discoveries have been made with long focus achros.

 

It's opened my eyes a bit Phil, I didn't expect it to be as good as it is on double stars. As I said the split and view is cleaner then my APO.

[BAZ]

I'll bet you are really pleased with that Mick, it sounds brilliant. I have no doubt it won't take you long to get it fettled.

[philjay]

Is the cell collimatable Mick?

[Doc]

It doesn't look like it Phil, I think it uses shims. If you are at the next monthly meet I'll bring it along so you can have a look at it.