Belper 22nd September 2012

[Guest JohnC]

Arrived at the Darksite around 19:00 to find Kheldar and Sheila already setting up.

First order of buisiness was to confirm the presence of the legendary cakes, thankfully they had made it.

The refreshments station was set up near the clubhouse and whilst the kettles boiled I set up my gear.

The faithful Skytee 2 had a new addition tonight with the newly aquired Bresser Messier 152 refractor joining the much

loved Intes Micro maksutov. Quite a heavy load, but the mount handles it with ease and remains rock steady.

Another new addition is the Nexstar SE goto mount to be used for basic planetary imaging. This was connected up ready for

use later in the night when Jupiter became available.

First target, after a cup of tea of course, was the Double cluster.

I had viwed this through the Mak and a Megrez 72 before, but the Bresser really showed it's potential.

The field was alive with stars, pinpoint edge to edge even with the basic eyepiece's iI was using.

Fired up with the view I spent a good deal of time just browsing the sky with no real idea of where I was going.

The extra aperture keeping me enthralled with the whole expanse of things.

M13 The Great cluster next. Again the view was very pleasing, not quite as nice as in the Mak but still very good for what

is after all a budget scope. The conditions started to deteriorate and so a break was taken to top up with cake's and

coffee.

As the skies cleared again I spent a while with a couple of New members to the forum. Richard was interested in what levels

of Chromatic abberation are present in achromats. we swung up to Vega and then on to the moon which was now very low and

covered in hazy patches of cloud. The Bresser punched above it's weight in controlling the excess colour and showed that as

is often stated, it is not a great issue. I think we will see Rich out at the darksite with a large achro quite soon!

Whilst waiting for Jupiter to raise it's head I had a wander around to see what other people were doing.

I spent a while with Ibbo and John (astro developments) admiring the quality eyepieces that they both pocessed.

Back to the rig as Jupiter was now sufficiently high to give reasonable views. Leaving the Mak on the manual mount for now

I was rewarded with fine views of the gas giant and it's moons. The seeing was quite unstable but gave some really great

views from time to time. I dismounted the OTA and put it on Nexstar SE. The mount although small coped with the weight

quite well. Having tracking enabled me to crank up the magnification and gave me some fantastic sights as the seeing

steadied.

Multiple banding with alot of fine detail being apparent for short periods. I spent a good 45 minutes on the target and

came away very pleased. The Mak is a really great scope when conditions allow it to show it's worth.

Back to the Bresser as conditions started to go downhill again. Target this time was M45 The Pleides. The wide field of

view comes into it's own again. Simply stunning.

The time was now approaching 2 am and I decided to call it a night following yet another tea and cake break.

What more can you ask for. A great night with great people. Reasonable skies, new members, the forum continues to go from strength to strength.

Thank you to all who attended.

Here's to the next one.

John

[catman161]

Great report john. Enjoyable read

[Doc]

I'm glad you enjoyed the Bresser John. I had to accompany the wife on oine of her works do's but hey ho I'll actually get up there one day.

Great report which I enjoyed reading with a cup of tea and of course a slice of cake.

[Guest JohnC]

Thanks Mick.

I am really impressed with the 152, much better than I envisaged.

Look forward to seeing you again soon.

Best regards

john

[Daz Type-R]

Glad you enjoyed it, sounds like another good night.

[Guest Fluke]

Enjoyed your report John, wish I could have made it too.