Impromptu Session

Hi all

After the football was over, let's not go there, I decided to head out for a short session, I only had a couple of hours, work in the morning and all that. I had no plan and no particular objects list to work from, just scooting about the sky.

I began to with Uranus, it was not particularly high in the sky, just appearing over the neighbour's house. Ramping up the magnification brought the planet to a globe shape and the tinge of green around the perimeter was very prominent. If there were moons to be seen I didn't notice, I would not even be sure where they would be positioned with regards to the planet.

I turned to NGC 869, one half of the Double Cluster, and decided to play around with the eyepieces I possess and see what views I got from each. Starting with a 25mm Plossl, X94, the view was very pleasing, a good smattering of stars, moving up past X147 and X267 I finished with my ES 6.7mm, X351 and the view was amazing, the sensation that I was among the cluster stars was evident and with so many unresolved stars in the background the sight was outstanding. I recommend doing something like this at some stage. I tried the same with M56, but the effect was not the same, M13 was behind the house.

One other reason to head out was to test the Series 4000 8.8mm UWA that I bought recently. This is a hefty eyepiece, very solid feel, well constructed. The sensation of the ultra wide field was there, yet, I feel that the long focal length of the SCT did not do the eyepiece justice, I would like to try it out on a f/5 or f/7 scope, I believe that the eyepiece would come into its own in such an instrument. Saying all that, the views it provided were excellent, this is a keeper.

I finished by just drifting around Lyra and Cygnus and Cassiopeia and generally enjoying the views.

Paul

Great stuff Paul.

Ive officially given up on football (this is my 137th official resignation). I had planned on going up the sugar loaf last night and cancelled because of a date night with wife which was annoyingly cancelled too. Raging i didnt get out- it looked really clear. And now the moon and clouds are doing their annoying scope-blocking thing and there prob wont be a good night for a couple of weeks.

Great report though. Glad you like your new ep.

Sean

I knew somebody would be out. And who better but Paul? Unfortunately I was in Greystones at my monthly music circle.

Thank you, Paul, for the tip on using higher magnification on Ngc 869. I haven't observed Uranus since January. Great eyepiece too!

Aubrey.

Hi Paul,
That's an nice report, makes me want to grab the scope and go out under a clear sky.
Can I ask is that ES 6.7 one of those massively wide fov eyepieces and which sct did you use ?

Hi Dave

The ES eyepiece is this model, www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_inf...----water-proof.html . It's a nice piece of kit, good quality construction with a nice field of view. As with the 8.8mm, I believe it would show it's true worth more in a faster scope, not the 9.25" SCT I employ, not that I'm complaining you understand, I picked it up for less that €80, so it was a bargain.

Paul

Wow, when I read that initially Paul, I thought you had picked up a 9.25 SCT for less than €80. I was going to employ you to buy my next scope :laugh:

Sean