A quick look through the 20" with the 5/9/20mm naglers.

Hi All,
I'm not sure should this be in the observing reports section or the equipment section but here it goes anyway.
The sky was nice and clear on Tuesday night and between flyovers of the ISS I give the new 9 and 5mm type 6 naglers a good run for their money (astromart, so not actually new but as good as and alot cheaper!), I was abit apprehensive about using such high power on the 20" but they worked out very well.

From my suburban skies, M13 about half filled the field of view with the 9mm, and the 5mm FOV was almost completely taken over with this bright and well resolved object, try imagine M13 in a full 82 degrees.
The stars were tack sharp and to see M13 like this was like looking at a big poster of it on the wall, simply stunning, I cant wait to try them out on a dark site.
I had a close look at some bright double stars to see how they faired in terms of distortion towards the edge of the field of view and the stars hardy changed at all. Some might say that an 82 degree field of view is just too big, well, I was surprised at how easy it was to see the entire FOV at a go, especially if you looked at the center of the field of view, I think the trick is eye placement, in that you must have your eye perfectly centred above the eyepiece.

I got my first look at ngc869-884 in Perseus, and the view of it with the 20mm type2 nagler is just amazing (the 31mm type5 would be perfect for this!), the 2 clusters looked enormous and much brighter then what I'm used to and there were star colours there that I've never seen there before, it looked truly photographic, I had a look at M31 in Andromeda and saw its elongated shape, the view of M32 reminded me of my view of M31 in telescopes past.

So, I hear you asking why am I looking at all the usual suspect objects with the new scope and not hunting down objects I couldn't see with the 12", I will but I have a long list of objects to revisit first.

It was a brief observing session and it the rush of it all, I forgot to use my new O3 filter :oops: , ah well, until next time.

Dave --

20" ...

... and an OIII ...

...................... and you didn't even give the Veil a peek?



Oh dear.

-- Jeff.

I know, I know..... lets just say I must have spent atleast half an hour alone on M13 with various eyepieces, and I had to finish at 1am latest otherwise I would have been a complete vegetable at work the following morning. :lol:

Dave

I understand the desire to visit objects like M31 and the Double Cluster, whenever I get a new scope it's always nice to see such familiar objects in a new light, so to speak.

I consider the Double Cluster to be the object that is number 1 on my list of favourites and I can only imagine the sight in a 20".

I predict "the list" will change with that kind of aperture. (OK, M13 will always be on it.) But M31 and the Double Cluster will likely get replaced by M51, and perhaps Markarian's chain, and, of course, the Veil.

There was a discussion recently on Cloudy Nights on whether or not the Pillars of Creation (in the Eagle Nebula) could be seen in a 15" - 20" with a UHC from sufficiently dark skies. Since my "big gun" is permanently mounted under not-so-dark skies, I'm depending on you, Dave. Let us know....

Cheers,
-- Jeff.

dave i dont think "i took a quick look through" and "the 20inch" should go together in the same sentence!!! :lol: :lol: