Last Nights Observing

I set up the skylux. I went through all the eyepieces i have on saturn(25mm plossl,20mm kellner,12mm kellner,9mm plossl,4mm kellner and 4mm plossl) and i was amazed at how extremely detailed it was through the 4mm kellner even more so than the plossl?!?!?!?! :shock:
So i decided to use the 'erecting eyepiece' that came with the scope as i hadnt used it yet! i was surprised to se such colour in saturn!
I also spotted m44 the beehive cluster completely by accident just looking for saturn!
Then onto the moon! It was so CRISP! Using The 4mm eyepiece and erecting eyepiece(1.5x) and saw right into one of the HUGE craters! I had given up hope of using a 4mm eyepiece as my dad had one a;ready and could never find anything with it or use it! his scope is a 4.5" and mine is a 2.75" so i thought id never use it! Well last night we finally got an image through it and it was saturn although it was very hard to focus! But is was still great!
I also saw plaeides etc!
No images for a while as i find thats all i was interested in instead of observing so id have something to show for it or to TRY to impress all you guys! :lol: :lol: :lol:
Oh by the by, for all you guys who have a skylux, in next months issue of BBCs 'sky at night' there will be 8 starter scopes under £120 sterling put to the test against each other and the skylux is one of them!
Clear Skies,
Matthew C

thats great going Matthew.

If you saw maybe yellow/blue or green edge on saturn, thats an artifact of the eyepiece, its called chromatic abberation.
Also, the higher the mag, the fuzzier the image, this is why it gets harder to focus with higher mags, maybe trying to focus on a bright star first and then go for the planet.
Anyway, its good to see that the skylux hasnt become one of those hobby killers.

Nice one Matthew! I was out myself only for a little while, but the sky was lovely and crisp - a real frosty night.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the skylux

Keith..

Matthew - thanks for sharing! And if you get the chance to image with the Skylux, this is potentially what you can get:

www.astroshack.net/gallery/galaxies/M64.php

Make no bones about it, this is a great little refractor with excellent optical qualities!

Cheers and keep it coming!

Dave

Oh i definitely will be imaging as we just bought a canon eos 300d we just have to get the t mount and t adapter!
Clear skies
Matthew C

Great observing report Mathew