oldfruit Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 It has been a difficult week, having got the "dream" scope over a week ago and just having to watch clouds day and night. But tonight it has finally cleared and despite there being a Full Moon i had to take the dob out and give it a try. First up tonight was the Pleiades, lovely sight with sharp blue/white stars but unfortunately due to the Moon i could not make out any nebulosity. M81 and M82 next, again they were clearly there but lacked contrast with the sky being so bright. I did see variations in brightness with M82 and will return to this object on a darker night as i feel that the dob will easily show more detail. Rigel and its companion showed up well as did Castor in Gemini. The dob easilt split the component stars and showed a clear gap between them. Polaris also looked good with its faint companion. The Eskimo nebula in Gemini was found with ease but again, did not stand out very well against the bright sky so i put the O111 filter in and the image was much improved, showing clearly the outer ring and the gradual brightening towards the middle. M42 in Orion was a must see and looked good without the O111 filter but much better when the filter was used and almost spanned the entire 60 degree field of view, also showing a lot of subtle detail within the nebula. Also i was able to easily see the E and F components of the Trapezium. I also had to try the scope on Jupiter. WOW! Using 300x magnification and the detail was amazing. The belts showed festoons and subtle variations in the banding. This scope was showing a lot more detail than my 8 inch newt. The Galilean moons were nice and sharp too. I love this scope! I am just waiting for a nice clear and dark night to see what the scope can really do, but if initial impressions are anything to go by i will not be dissapointed! I did wonder how i would get on with a dob as i have always used a motorised mount. For anyone out there with any doubts about the ease of using an unmotorised dob. Don`t worry at all. It is so easy it is like second nature and even at reasonably high magnification it is still relatively easy to keep the object being observed in the field of view. Did i mention, i love this scope? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Marvellous scope and first light report. Just wait till the moon is out of the way . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Great report Mark, you sound a happy man!! See you and your Dob in a couple of weeks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted January 27, 2013 Share Posted January 27, 2013 Great first light report Sounds like a great light bucket! Imagine it at dark sky site with no moon-the faint fuzzies won't be quite so faint me thinks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bino-viewer Posted January 30, 2013 Share Posted January 30, 2013 The E and the F components.....? Wow.....! I've never had a sniff of them ! Would love to see them...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angusw2 Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 Since I'm hopefully going to get my hands on a 12" dob next week (second hand Orion Optics) and this will be my first Alt-Az undriven scope, that is a very encouraging and interesting first light report. Especially the ease of planetary high mag viewing. Hopefully I'll be looking to use at a dark sky location soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 Since I'm hopefully going to get my hands on a 12" dob next week (second hand Orion Optics) and this will be my first Alt-Az undriven scope, that is a very encouraging and interesting first light report. Especially the ease of planetary high mag viewing. Hopefully I'll be looking to use at a dark sky location soon. The seeing was good that night so enabled me to push the magnification a bit, though this is not always the case due to poor seeing etc. The orion dob should deliver wonderful views. Hope you enjoy it when you get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 To see the E and F stars is awesome, I have yet to see them in my 12" dob but they were clearly visible in my old 16" dob. Try to find Mayall II in Andromeda, it's a globular cluster inside the Andromeda galaxy, I saw it once in my 16" dob so could be visible in your 12". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldfruit Posted February 13, 2013 Author Share Posted February 13, 2013 To see the E and F stars is awesome, I have yet to see them in my 12" dob but they were clearly visible in my old 16" dob. Try to find Mayall II in Andromeda, it's a globular cluster inside the Andromeda galaxy, I saw it once in my 16" dob so could be visible in your 12". We have seen the E and F stars through my 8 inch newt at Gibraltar point. Last meeting they were seen with ease in the 12 inch. I fully intend to start hunting for the less easy objects as this is one of the reasons i bought the scope. As much as i love returning to the more popular targets there are times when it is nice to have a bit of a challenge. It feels great when you do finally track something down. When we first saw the Falme Nebula visually recently, i was almost a little excited if you know what i mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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