Random observing musings and bagging M76 (The Little Dumbbell Nebula)

Wow have not blogged in a while. I guess I must have been busy observing rather than staying indoors and blogging ;) Weather has been fantastic lately (nice cool and dry weather leading to super transparent night skies) and I have managed to squeeze in quite a number of observing sessions. Have been using mainly the 6" f/5, but have also been using my 20x80's on the Orion Paragon tripod with the slow motion control head attached and the Cometron CO60. Since I last blogged, daylight savings have started and the sun now comes up at 6am (used to be 7am) and goes down at close to 5pm (used to be 6pm). So yes there is more darkness for astronomers to ply their trade. And it has been good :) I currently try to get out a little bit later (around 11.30 to 12am) to allow the winter constellations to climb higher into the night sky. If I get out too early I hit the fall/autumn constellations and there is not much there to look at, other than maybe stuff in Pegasus (M15 and NGC 7662), Andromeda (M31, M32 and M110). This time of the night Lyra, Cygnus and Vulpecula are all too low in the skies....unfortunately.

Seeing that I moved from the southern hemisphere, I have yet to explore some of the sighs that can only be seen from north of the equator. Some of the northern constellations riding high in the skies right now include the hero Perseus, Cassiopeia and of course Pegasus, the winger horse and the maiden Andromeda. Since starting to observe northern constellations DSO's, I have grown rather fond of the double cluster in Perseus. It is really quite pretty in all my equipment. I guess one of the reason why I was not a bigger fan was probably due to the object being placed too low in the murk. Also there are several other open clusters that look really nice riding high in the skies. There is M36, M37 and M38 in Auriga. Then there is of course M45, the seven sisters (Pleiades). That sorta concludes the open cluster tour, even though there is still  the clusters in Cassiopeia. Coming to the topic of planetary nebulae. I am rather bias when it comes to planetary nebulae (i.e. I really like them ;) They show all sorts of interesting shapes and most of them, while not very big tend to show minute detail at high magnification, to patient observers. Now if only I could lug my big 10" down those pesky stairs, I could probably probe deeper. But as it stands, the 6" f/5 is my primary scope now. It is big enough to show some really interesting detail.

Well if I start early enough I get to observe the bright and ghostly Ring Nebula (M57), the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) and the Cygnus blinking planetary (NGC 6826). You can refer back to my older post but each one shows a slightly different face to us. For instance when we look at M57, we are looking down its cylindrical form and that is why we see a celestial doughnut. And planetaries generally do very well when a UHC type filter is used. While these selective filters do not make objects brighter, they increase contrast to a point where minute details become obvious. I have yet to see a planetary that does not show more detail with such filters.

Later on in the night we get good views of the blue snowball (NGC 7662) in Andromeda. Both NGC 6826 and NGC 7662 look similar in my 6" f/5 operating at about 150x and 300x with the NPB filter in place. At higher mag's I think I can start to make out some inner detail. When Gemini rises, the Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392) becomes fair game. This one is way more interesting than the above-mentioned as it shows quite a lot of detail. At high mag the "layers" become very apparent and the "fur parka" is easily visible. I can't pretend to make out the "face" of the eskimo in my 6" f/5, although his triangular visage is easily visible in the 10" f/5 at high mag.

And now for the crown jewel, the planetary I have never seen from my equatorial and southern observing locales, M76, the little dumbbell nebula. Did not expect this one to be easy, but did not expect it to be hard either. When I got the location down, it was easy even without the NPB filter in place. The bipolar nature of this planetary is clearly evident with the filter. I am sure this object will be a centerpiece when viewed from a dark sky. Also with the filter in, I though I could make out some faint outer wisps with averted vision. Sketched this object from memory and when I get the chance, I will post the scan up on this page...promise.

Its always nice to finish off the nights observing with a really bright and detailed object and M42, the Orion Nebula never disappoints. I still miss getting lost in the dark rifts of the Eta Carina Nebula and scrutinizing the homonculus, or the Tarantula's outstretched arms in the LMC but somehow M42 packs a slightly brighter punch. With my 10" I can see subdued rusty reds in the outer wisps of M42. Have to settle for blue greens in my 6" though. The NPB filter really does make the faint outer tendrils stand out a bit more but the views are more pleasing without the filter in place.

So there you have it...my long overdue observing report. Hopefully I will have more to write about since there is the long Thanksgiving Day weekend coming up. Only problem is the waning moon...maybe later in the weekend might be good ;)

Night of the Cometron......

Have been meaning to post this earlier, but as usual life gets in the way. But yes as the title says, the Cometron CO60 is here!!! Was waiting patiently for it to arrive via FedEx before the weekend (person selling it said that he got it sent out on Wed last week). Parcel did not arrive till late Sat evening. Only discovered that it had arrived when I went to take the trash out. Man was I shaking with excitement. I felt like a kid at christmas time again, or a kid in a candy store....well I need not elaborate you guys and gals know what I mean ya! Don't you love that tingle when you get something to play with in the mail ;)

So with adrenaline pumping through my veins, I hastily tore up the wrapping paper only to find that the seller had placed styrofoam pieced on both sides of the grey Cometron box. And he had stuck the styrofoam down with clear tape. I had a nice time trying to remove the styrofoam while trying preserve the original box. Can you tell not that I don't like styrofoam. I much prefer bubble wrap. It is just neater. 

Anywho after spending some time trying to carefully remove the styrofoam from the grey box, I finally managed to get to the best part...opening the box. Once I lifted the lid of the box, there it was.......a nice grey tubed CO60. After gawking at how nice the OTA looked, I looked around the box (which has styrofoam packing peanuts (again????) and found all the pieces required to assemble the scope. Did not take me long to figure out where all the parts went. I did not even need to consult the users manual (which by the way was lovingly preserved as well by the original owner...even had the guarantee card!). I especially liked the hardwood tripod. Its light years ahead of the three one piece wooden legs that would not even extend on my old CO40. Niceeeee. Also the scope came with a brilliant solid one piece accessory tray, Celestron/Vixen 25mm and 10mm fully coated Kellner's (noted by the bluish cast on the lenses...just like the main objective lens), a T18 lens, as well as a crummy 5x20mm finder on a metal three screw bracket. I have no clue what this is but I am assuming that the T stands for terrestrial. What I like about the CO60 over the CO40, nice extendable legs (you will have to unscrew the wingnuts and change the height and then rescrew the wingnuts as the legs do not extend by sliding like the newer tripods do) and solid accessory tray. Also the spread of the legs can be adjusted easily. All you have to do is not screw the wingnuts that hold the accessory tray to the tripod legs down all the way. With that you can just pull the legs outwards, or vice versa to spread and contract the legs as the tray would just slide in or out into position. Excellent stuff!

With all the good stuff out of the way, what do I not like about this scope. I found myself not liking the same things I did not like on my older firstscope, the CO40. Well well firstly it shares the same crummy "way too small to be useful" piece of crap 5x20mm finder that is so hard to focus because the focusing eyepiece is always loose. To top that off, I believe the front objective is also a one piece outfit, leading to horrible chromatic aberration. Also did not enjoy the finders mounting bracket as it is one of them three screw ones that is next to impossible to align...did appreciate that it was cast metal though.

Now for the super fun part....scope testing. Surprise surprise no new/old scope curse (well the curse is definately alive and well as the weekend after I got he scope, we got clouds, and I mean heaps of them as well as rains (apparently rare for LA!)). Under not so perfect skies due to a waxing and almost full moon, I tested the scope out on some bright DSO's (well that turned into one DSO), good old Jupiter and the moon. From memory these small scopes really excel on bright solar system objects like planets and the moon. The scope did not disappoint. Jupiter, a little past opposition was nevertheless quite impressive at 80x (10mm Kellner with the 800mm focal length). I am not sure if it was experience, or if it was a very good opposition but I though I could make out minute detail in the cloud bands, and not just the NEB (SEB still invisible). But then again Jupiter is always impressive. I then moved on to see if I could "identify" M57, the Ring Nebula. It was harder than I though thanks "totally too small and worthless" finder. I think a good match for this scope would be one of them red dot non magnifying finders. But as always my persistence pays off and I finally found M57. Faint but definately there. Will need better skies to "kick the tyres" again as it wasn't the clearest of skies plus the moon was almost full. For fun I placed the Orion SkyGlow Filter in front of the eyepiece and there it was....more DSO testing to come for sure.

And guess what...all the talk about me dodging the "new scope curse" proved unfounded. A week after getting the scope, the weather has been absymal. Clouds and rains (yup not just a sprinkle but actual rain!). And it is still raining after like 3 days!!!! Can't wait for it to be clear again so I can scope out Comet Hartley......

Excitement with a capital X...coming soon to a galaxy near you...or mine ;)

Okay okay so I absolutely have to share this with everyone. I am just tingling with excitement while waiting for a complete Celestron Cometron 60 to arrive. You heard it right....this is the real deal, a blast from the past. Saw the ad on Astromart and I absolutely had to get it. It is one of them grey tube (pity its not classic Celestron orange like my CO40), made in Japan scopes with adjustable hardwood tripods. Comes with two original Celestron 0.965" eyepieces and a barlow. And since it is second hand and my birthday is coming up in November, plus I have been a good boy, I decided to get it. Now I have a Celestron Cometron 40 (CO40) which I got as a gift from my dad's friend way back in the early 80's. It is with this first "real" telescope (coated achromatic lenses and not plastic single lenses) that I saw some fantastic celestial sights that sparked my passion for backyard stargazing, and this feeling has remained with me till this very day. Its hard to put into words the sense of awe and wonder, not to mention the oneness I had connecting with the heavens above. Its a real wonder why I ended up doing neurobiology instead of Astronomy...but oh well that's all water under the bridge. So yes the scope should be here...hopefully by the end of the week. I can't wait to take it out for a test drive under the stars. Now its not going to give as bright or as detailed a view as my 6" or 10" scope but I bet I will be looking through it with the same sense of wonder and awe as I did when I was a teenager back in the 80's under those darker Malaysian skies....report and piccys to come!!!!!!!

Blast from the past....observing reports from downunder 2002

10/11th of May 2002

Viewing conditions: Excellent transparency magnitude 7++ skies ; Telescope 6" Synta Catadioptric Newtonian (1400mm f/l), 10x50mm binocs and on occasion a 10" DOB and 6" Synta refractor
Observing notes:

This is my forth visit to Leyburn and also probably my last before the winter. This was also supposed to be a test trip to see if I could take the cool-cold temperatures of winter, which will hit next month (needless to say that I won't be going the next month due to my aversion to cold temperatures…unable to focus…brain and finger freeze). Weather for the past few days prior to the trip was excellent with clear skies. As we drove out, there were some clouds gathering though. Well hopefully we will get clear skies from the word go when we get there. As we had set out early, we got there just before 4pm. During the southern autumn, the skies start getting dark at 5pm and will be fully dark when it hits 6pm. When we got there the skies were spectacular. There were some clouds hovering around but they were never really a threat.

We began the night with a special treat with the planetary conjunction. Caught Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn all close to one another. Kev tried to find Mercury in the muck before the sun had even set with his 80mm binocs mounted on a mop stick (ingenious way to mount your super binoc) but to no success. I had a brief glimpse of Jupiter, Saturn and Venus in Dave's 10" but as the scope was still cooling I did not get the best views of the planets. I was still lingering on Jupiter when I noticed how dark the sky was already. I then decided to start my mad dash to bag all the galaxies I had on my list (much smaller this time as I wanted quality over quantity this time).

Started out with Leo as this will be the first constellation to set (well for the objects on my list anyway). Set out to bag two rather bright galaxies NGC 2903 and 3607 in Leo. Turns out that I did not need to work very hard. NGC 3607 was a rather bright elliptical close to the M65/66 trio while 2903, at the extreme end of the lion's tail was another easy spiral. Its amazing how easy galaxies are when you are viewing from a dark sky site. Not a problem at all (and I even caught the M65/66 cluster in my 10x50mm binocs). Got M95 this time round (could not dodge me forever). Not much detail there.

Next on my list were…well more galaxies! Charged right on to Canes Venatici and bagged all the galaxies I missed the last time round (the sky transparency was super excellent tonight!). I had not even expected to bag some of the galaxies mentioned later on as they are located fairly low in the sky. Bagged NGC's 4631, 4449, 4490 and M106 (woohoo!). Of the four, the most outstanding was 4631 with the irregular mottling seen all across the face of the galaxy. In fact the mottling was so prominent that I did not even need averted vision.  What a treat as I did not expect such detail from these galaxies. Had a brief glimpse of M51 as well and it too looked much better tonight (even in my 6"…last time all I saw were two fuzzy blobs devoid of any detail). Though I saw a hint of the spiral arms and that bridge connecting the two!

Virgo was up next. I had failed to see some of the galaxies there the last time I was here. Did not intend to fail this time! As such I managed to get them all (well those on my list anyway): 4535 (near M49 which was visible in my 10x50mm) and M89 and M90. While I was at it, I swung my scope around to…naturally Coma Berenices and caught M98 and M99. I have tried these two from home but failed so it was pretty refreshing to see them so easily in my 6" under Leyburn skies. M98 was particularly interesting appearing as a nice sliver of light. Also managed to squeeze in M91 and M88 while I was at it. Not much detail seen in those two. It was at this time when one of the member's (Peter) came on over with his newly purchased Howie Glatter laser pointer and started to show off his new toy. He pointed out this galaxy at the head of Centaurus (one that I had not seen)…NGC 5102 I think. Pretty bright but small galaxy that one.

Did also try to bag two rather bright galaxies in Ursa Major (the only ones in which I deemed were high enough to find….a major portion of Ursa Major, save its legs are all but invisible from my altitude). The two on my list was NGC 3184 and 2841. Did not manage to see any of the two. Well I have to give them a miss…probably too low in the murk!

With all those in the bag it was now time for some fun and for more of my faves. I will not elaborate further here as it would only seem all too repetitive, but I will note some rather exceptional observations. Of the objects I revisited (ditched my 6" in favour of Dave's 10" DOB…well not for all objects but for most of them anyway): globs with very good resolution ; Omega Centauri, M13, M5, M4, M22 and a very low 47 Tucana; nebulae M42, Eta Carina, M8 the Lagoon and the Trifid and planetaries M57 (nice ghostly ring in the 6". Nice nebulosity within the "smoke hole" in the 10"), M27 (looks more like a football with the UHC in place..even in the 6") and NGC 5189, the spiral/leafy sea dragon nebula in Musca (nice even in my 6" with heaps of detail seen. It appeared more like spiral galaxy with the spiral's easily visible….I later noted that I could catch most of the details even from my mag 5-5.5 skies back in the suburbs through the UHC…ahhhh don't you just love technology!) . The things to note was the rusty reds seen in the outstretched arms of the Orion Nebula (never noticed that before) and some reds in the Trifid in the 10" (Notice how I don't have any reports on how objects looked liked through Kev's 16" this time round. I purposefully stayed away so as not to spoil the view in my 6"). Oh and did I mention that we could spy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A galaxy) with the naked eye…yup the skies were that good!!!!!

Well my next dark sky report may possible be several months from now as its time for hibernation (well I will still be out under the stars…but from the comfort of my apartment's balcony :)

The weekend of JOVE...and the our celestial neighbour our moon

The weekend is here again and this weekend I devoted some time to scrutinizing good old Jove. Jupiter is at opposition on the 21st of September and will sparkle at magnitude -2.9, and its equator will span 49.9". WOW did I also mention that it will shine bigger and brighter on that day than it has in almost 50 years. BIG incentive to get out under the moonlit skies (the moon will be close to full, or full by the 21st!). Had planned to get out on Friday night but lil bub S went to sleep at 11pm, plus the skies were clouded out...bummer. Good thing the skies cleared out by about 9pm on Saturday night and I got some great views of jove...and I also devoted sometime to our moon. Have not looked at our satellite since moving here from BrisVegas. Jove was okay and exhibited a rather large disk. Observed the NEB as the SEB is still missing, together with two other belts to the north of the NEB. The great red spot was off to the side and almost out of view.

And how could I carry the scope down a flight of stairs without looking at some DSO! Observed planetary nebulae, M57, M27, the blinking planetary in Cygnus and the blue planetary in Pegasus under moonlit skies with the NPB filter. Then snuck in some views of the great Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and its satellite galaxy M32. The views from my light polluted observing site was actually quite nice. Used the 20mm Expanse in the C6 for the best views. I did try out the Orion Skyglow filter and it did bring out more of the galaxy (who says galaxies don't benefit...well maybe it was just the added contrast with the filter). Views were nothing like my drawing above and only the nucleus of the galaxy was visible. Finished off the night with superb views of the terminator region of our moon. On a side note I observed old Jove last weekend and the great "salmon" (not red at all) was visible at about 10.30pm local LA time.

On the subject of light pollution and finding the best time/setup to observe

Light pollution has always been a problem and it is the bane of modern observational astronomy. Its funny how we live in a "golden age" of affordable equipment, and yet we have to travel so far just to get to pristine dark skies for deep sky observation. Its kind of silly really as I remember growing up in the late 70's/ early 80's and the skies back at my parents place in Peninsula Malaysia was dark enough to nab some really interesting deep sky objects (DSO's), even though back then all I could afford was a 40mm f/20 Celestron Cometron refractor! These days the same skies appear pink with light pollution! Moving to Brisbane, Australia in 1997 for my undergrad studies and then moving there to live in 2001 showed me what good light management could do to improve the skies (the skies were actually black and not grey or pink!). Over the years, it also showed what development could do to "lighten" the skies up. The skies over Brisbane in 2010 and Brisbane way back in 2001, or even 1997, show distinct differences, even though they still appear black overhead. I estimate a magnitude loss of anywhere between 0.2 to 0.4! I now live in Los Angeles, one of the most populated cities in the world and even here the skies are better than back home in Malaysia or Singapore! But moving here from Brisbane also dramatically illustrated how even a loss of 0.4 magnitude (Brisbane's limiting magnitude in winter approaches 5.5, while here on the best of nights I can get 5.1 tops) can do to decrease the number of stars and DSO's visible to the unaided eye, or even detail at the eyepiece. So yes light pollution is a problem and unless we do something about it, soon we will not even be able to see past the brighter planets and the moon!

The immediate addressable problem though is how and what we can see from light drenched skies. Many people who live in large cities seem to think that all you can see are the brighter planets and the moon. That is not true if you are experienced and know what to do! DSO's are totally doable from such skies. I will give you a rundown on what you can do to track DSO's down from relatively bright locales:

• a nice transparent winter or coolish night (best after a front has passed) close to the new moon
• pick a spot that is shielded from ground lights at eye level
• setup on grass and not on concrete (concrete traps heat in the daytime and radiates at night when it cools down)
• use a monk hood (a black cloth that can drape over your head and eyepiece)
• experiment with different eyepieces to get the optimal magnification
• use a longer focal length scope
• use as much aperture as you can handle (the old myth that small refractors are better than large reflectors are pure baloney....bottom line is the larger the scope, the more you can see)
• flock your scope's tube with velvet or flat black paint to improve contrast
• use ultra high contrast or narrowband light pollution filters (make sure you use a hood with these as they can reflect stray light back into your eyes and reduce contrast)
• observe later at night (most establishments turn their parking lot lights off after a certain time, plus there are less cars on the roads at night)
• use a light shield (such as drapes over a frame)
• remember to allow your eyes to dark adapt for at least 30 minutes...start with brighter objects such as open star clusters, then proceed to the fainter fare

On a wider scale that's when it starts to get complicated. To really get involved in turning the light pollution situation around consider joining the "International Dark Sky Association". They provide education and resources to combat light pollution at an international level by promoting good and energy efficient lighting habits...

http://www.darksky.org/mc/page.do;jsessionid=9A6F57442A49F3938C2EE5CC3251E9A9.mc1?sitePageId=55060

Fantastic observing night in LA...plus blast for the past 2002

Managed to get out under the stars tonight and the session was super. Transparency seemed much better than last weekend (the nights have been colder and crisper so maybe that's why) and some of the showpiece objects looked even better. Pity Sagittarius was setting when I got out at about 10.30pm (had to wait for bubs to go to bed first) so I could only manage a sneaky peak at the Swan and the Eagle nebula. Did not manage to look at M8, M20 or M22. Then went on the view the usual suspects M11 (diamond dust on velvet effect tonight!), M57, M27, M13, M92. All were viewed at 150x in the 6mm Radian, with the exception of M27. Also got to see M15 in Pegasus tonight! Very nice with some resolution at 150x in the C6. At low magnification the core looked really starlike and concentrated and the views reminded me of a much dimmer 47 Tucana. Wanted to have a look at M31 but it was in the region of the sky close to the spotlights. Will have to give it another go. Finished off the night with a look at Jupiter.....hopefully I can get out tomorrow night as well! Also finally got to test out the new wooden legs for the EQ3. The whole setup is slightly heavier, but it was well worth it as the whole thing was much sturdier and the scope vibrated much less under high mag.

And now onto....BLAST FROM THE PAST.......

12/13th of April 2002

Viewing conditions: Medium transparency magnitude 7++ skies with heavy dew; Telescope 6" Synta Catadioptric Newtonian (1400mm f/l), 10x50mm binocs and on occasion a 6" Synta refractor, 10" DOB and 16" Truss
 

Observing notes:

This was my third trip to the dark sky site over at Leyburn and I had a huge list of objects to hunt down (namely galaxies in the Coma-Virgo). But I promised myself not to rush through the list so I could scrutinise each and every object to tease out the finer details. The weather was not the greatest. In fact when we got there the skies looked pretty angry to the north. There was even a slight drizzle which sent everyone scurrying for tarps to put over their scopes. But as always, Leyburn never fails to surprise. The skies did clear later at close to 8pm (starting from the south as usual. This time of the year the skies start getting dark at 6pm).

Some of the objects I had planned for the early part of the night were now too low. Even the sky seemed not to be of exceptional brilliance tonight. There seemed to be some sort of haze about. At this time of the year both the SMC and LMC together with the centre of our galaxy (i.e the milky way) is visible. Talk about the best of both worlds!!!! I can't remember which object I started out with but I was quite sure it was 47 Tucana in the SMC. Not too brilliant as it was rather low in the sky to start with. Still some resolution was visible. Just had to have a go at it! Next up was the Tarantula in the LMC. Its funny how the UHC filter (first time in Leyburn too!) did not visibly improve the view (same for M42 later). Tried it also in the 10" and got the same result. The Tarantula's extended arms were seen better minus the UHC. I then proceeded to my fave object, the Eta Carina Nebula. This one looked brilliant and I was surprised at how much more detail was visible when the UHC was in place in the 6". All the dark knots and mottling were visible (and did I mention that the keyhole was outstanding???). I later had a look through my buddy Dave's 6" Synta Refractor with the UHC and I was blown away. The contrast in the refractor with the UHC had to be seen to be believe (with much more detail and contrast then even the 10" Dob could muster). Talk about legendary refractor -like contrast. The dark regions were pitch black and the nebular regions looked………..well distinctly nebular!

Next up was the Orion nebula M42 which was by now pretty low in the sky. Like I mentioned before more outer nebulosity was seen without the UHC in then with the UHC in place (strange). Also had a go at the Christmas Tree/Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) near the horsehead. Did not look as good then when I last saw it. Probably also due to its low altitude. I did manage to catch it with some difficulty in the 6" though. Had to place the bright star just out of the field in order to see the nebula and its dark lanes.  It was easier in the 10" so I made my sketch using Dave's 10".  Also note that the UHC did not improve the view of this object! Tried to locate the horsehead with the UHC in place but to no avail. I will have to try for it again when Orion is high in the sky! Also spent some time with some old fave's like Omega Centauri (the resolution was just amazing even in a 6"), NGC 5128-Centaurus A galaxy dust lane clearly visible and NGC 4945 edge on all in Centaurus.

With the perennial fave's out of the way, the next target's were mostly faint and dim smudges….the galaxies. Remember how I, for some strange reason could not find M83 in Hydra in the 6" on my last outing?  Realised that I was star hopping in the opposite direction. The star patterns on either side were pretty similar. Caught it this time. Nice face on spiral with two spiral arms visible in the 6" with difficulty (saw three in the 16" but more on that later J). Then it was on to Leo which was getting a little bit too low for my liking. Caught the usual M65/66 and their NGC companion. Much brighter than from home. Then moved on to the M95/96/105 cluster. Caught all of them excluding M95 (again could not find this one….for some strange reason that cannot yet be explained!). Will have to try again for that one. One thing to note was that I though I could make out some detail in M96 spiral arms in the 6". Then again maybe it was just my imagination running wild yet again….

Moved on to Coma after that and had a look at NGC 4565 (it appeared like a photograph in the 16"…but again for later) and by chance stumbled upon a much fainter NGC 4494. Thought I had 4565 but then again it could not have been so dim so I checked the map and whalla…another new galaxy in the books!!!! Also looked at some galaxies in the Ursa Major-Canes Venatici region. This region has several good galaxies of optimum brightness that will show detail in a 6" under good conditions. Unfortunately they are also located at a very low altitude from Brisbane. This did not deter me nevertheless. I did managed to bag the M94-Croc's eye from my mag 5 skies back home but just could not get M63-the sunflower galaxy, only a few degrees away from this galaxy. This time I managed to bag it. Could not see any of the mottling that O'Meara saw. Also caught the extremely faint glow of M51 in the 6". It was a extremely difficult catch for me as it was just a subtle brightening of the background. Did see what I though was a central starlike nucleus though and its smaller companion. This was really pushing the envelope as it was in a ridiculously low altitude from where we were. Did get a much better view of it through the 16" though.

Had planned to observe several other objects in the Sagittarius-Scorpius region but alas dew set in. It was just 1am but everything other than those powered ep's and scopes were drenched. That was when I called it a night.

p/s: The highlight of the night would have to be looking at stuff through a fellow member's (Kev's) 16" Truss Scope. We had a look at many…and I mean many, many objects. Had a look at Omega Centauri. Again the snaking chain of stars, the two dark eyes in the glob and the 3D effect were seen. 47 Tuc was brilliant (resolved right to the core) despite its low altitude as was NGC 3132 the Eight Burst Planetary Nebula in Vela (again the 8 shell's of nebulosity was seen). The dust lanes in M104 and NGC 5128 were so wide you could drive a dump truck through them (a sliver of nebulosity was noted in the dust lane of NGC 5128). Also there were some strange objects that we looked at that I could have sworn should have shown more structure in a 16" like the Ghost of Jupiter in Hydra, M64, the black eye galaxy in Coma and M83, the face on spiral in Hydra. I could not make out the CBS eye structure in the Ghost of Jupiter nor the dark lane in M64 which was visible the last time round in my 6". M83 too was not much better than in the 6" with the spiral arms looking only a little bit more pronounced (with three arms now visible). Was it the transparency of the skies which made the difference???? Its also amazing to note how globular's take on an identity of their own when viewed though larger apertures. There was this glob we looked at that resembled a starfish with its outstretched arms of stars. Can't put an NGC number to it  but it was nicknamed the starfish glob by Kev.  He also showed us a very strange looking planetary called the spiral planetary in Musca (his nickname was the "leafy sea dragon nebula" as its shape really resembled the leafy sea dragon seahorses found in South Australian waters…I think it was NGC 5189). Some objects really resembled photographs (excluding the glob's which looked better than in the overexposed photographs). The Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius was one of them looking like a photograph minus the bright pastel color's (some rusty red's were visible though with the usual green's). The edge on spiral in Coma 4565 was also brilliant with the central bulge, its radiating arms and the dark, dark dust lane. Wow! Also managed to see the spiral arms in M51 connecting it to its smaller companion but the word here is visible rather than spectacular…well till next time.

Blast from the past....observing reports from downunder 2002..more to come!

12/13th of January 2002

Viewing conditions: Good transparency magnitude 7 skies; Telescope 6" Synta Catadioptric Newtonian (1400mm f/l), 10x50mm binocs and on occasion a 10" DOB and 16" Truss

Observing notes:

My second visit to Leyburn and boy was I in a rush. Have not been to a dark sky site since November due to the southern summer weather (i.e. more cloud cover and rains). I had been planning this trip for about two months now. Anyway, the weather did not look great from Brisbane. The forecast was for fine hot weather but fine does not necessarily mean clear skies! As we got nearer, it still did not look promising but we went anyway. Friday night reports filtering through sounded positive though. We got there at about 6pm, just enough time to set the scopes up and let it cool (or warm up..it was warmer outdoors than in the car with the air con running). Astronomical twilight only descended on us at about 8.30pm (when it got really dark). There was still some clouds in the sky but the southern sky was clear...first up...the LMC and SMC's.

The LMC and SMC was higher up in the sky early in the night than the last time we were here. Wanted to see M32 and M33 but the skies over there were clouded over. Would not have gotten a very good look anyway as they were pretty low in the sky. Warmed up with 47 Tuc with the new 12.5mm Plossl. Looking great with stars resolved across its face. Spent several minutes on this object...brilliant from a dark sky with chains of stars radiating outwards (this effect is invisible from my mag 5 suburban skies)! Will get a chance to compare it with Omega Centauri later tonight :). The Tarantula also looked brilliant with the 12.5mm. Heaps of faint tendrils seen.

And now the highlight of the night! I was invited over to look through a 16" truss owned by a member of the society, Kevin. WOW was all I could say...47 Tuc was resolved all the way to the core (you could change the focus and resolve stars at different level's giving it a much more 3D view than in the 10"). All the stars looked golden! Also looked at the Tarantula...more nebulosity and knots than you could possibly imagine...much better looking than those burned out photo's. Also caught a glimpse of the Eight Burst Nebula in Vela (NGC 3132). It looked plain in my 6" but I could see why it was called the Eight Burst in this monster scope. The greenish planetary was huge with about 8 outer shells in the 16". He put in an O III but that seemed to hurt the image (but more core details were seen). Next was Eta Carina...superb in the 16" with the homunculus clearly visible at high power with two shells visible...will have to look and see if I can see that in my 6" later. Also caught Linear...nice bright nucleus and short dust tail in the 16" and M42 the great nebula in Orion (did look great for a while before the high altitude clouds hit)....Time to get back down to earth!

At about 12am, the clouds started to roll in and we decided to have a break. The break lasted till about 1.30am when we were getting ready for bed...the skies cleared up and the transparency became excellent!. Whew the milky way stretched all the way from the south to the north. Seeing how Orion was getting lower, decided to catch a quick glimpse of its wonders. M42 was looking superb now with its wings fully stretched...heaps of nebulosity around M42 as well. Looked at M78...much brighter than from home and resembling a comet with a short tail more than anything. Tried for the Flame Nebula but did not see it. Now onto Eta Carina which was very high in the sky!

Hmmmm..in the 6", even the clumps and knots are visible. This is a brilliant nebula stretching over a very large area of the sky. Only the central portion was visible in my scope operating at 56x (will have to get a lower mag ep...say 32mm or 40mm). I could make out the keyhole...and wait a minute....the homunculus does look non stellar. Bumped up the mag and though I could make out the shells. Now I am not crazy or anything but the 6" view actually looked quite good even after looking at it through a 16"! And hey Centaurus was quite high too..time for Omega Centauri. This was the first time I would look upon Omega with my 6". It is a brilliant and huge glob..much bigger and brighter than 47 Tuc...a distant second now. At 56x Omega was pretty much resolved to the core with its chains of stars resembling skeletal arms stretch as far as the eye could see (the 10" view was something else altogether). The glob looked very flat (probably due to its fast spinning speed) without a condensed core. It looked distinctly yellowish. Very different looking from 47 Tuc and most of the other "common" globs.

 

Bumping the scope north, I caught a glimpse of NGC 5128 a rather peculiar looking galaxy also known as Centaurus A, a radio source. I have seen this through binocs from a dark sky site but nothing could prepare me for the view. The dark dust lane was barely visible with direct vision but stood out like a sore thumb with averted vision. I also had the impression that I was looking at a smaller and unresolved Omega...cool. Also caught the edge on galaxy (NGC 4945?) in Centaurus...another brilliant first for me appearing like a very delicate fat streak at 56x. No mottling was seen (will have to confirm this with a second view).

As dawn was fast approaching, I had to start my hunt for all those galaxies I had planned to see. Leo, Virgo and Coma was up as was Corvus. First stop was M83 in Hydra...never found it in my scope for some peculiar reason but saw three spiral arms in the 10". Looked like a miniature version of M33 in Triangulum. Next stop Leo and M65/M66 and M95/M96. As a kid, I grew up dreaming of seeing these rather bright galaxies in my Cometron scope...no luck. But my luck was about to change! M65/M66 was easy in the 6" at 56x with a smaller and fainter streak north of them. Thought I had seen M95/M96 in the ep but I was wrong after checking "The Messier Object's" by O'Meara when home. Saw three rather faint galaxies in the field forming a small triangle (I had a nagging suspicion that these were not M95/M96 as they were quite faint!). Turned out that they were some NGC's north of M95/M96. Oh well will have to hunt these ones down on my next trip I guess.

Next stop...Virgo, Coma and Corvus. M104, the Sombrero looked brilliant in the 6". I have seen this from home (mag 5 skies) in my 3" but the 6" at 56x under dark skies showed something else. It was really bright and the dark lanes was hinted at that mag. At 112x the dust lane was easy (in the 10" it was thick enough to drive a dump truck through). Then onto the Black Eye in Coma. Also a very easy galaxy, I did not see the dark dust "eye" on first glance. Andrew, one of my observing buddies commented that he saw it by scanning the outer fringes of the galaxy. I tried that trick and saw it in the 6" though it was easier in the 10". The rest of the night (or day as the sun would rise soon) was spent looking at some ellipticals in Virgo (M49 was brilliant in the 6") and Coma. Did not get a chance to draw that many galaxies in Virgo as there were to many...well will have to dedicate more time to them on my next trip...

Overall it was a very fruitful trip. Its hard to get exceptionally clear skies in summer but we were rewarded for our patience. The next trip, I plan to hunt down all the galaxies in Virgo and Coma and maybe try for M95/M96 again as well as spend some quality time with Omega Centauri!

Blast from the past....observing reports from downunder

I will be publishing several or my observation reports over the course of the next few days, weeks or whenever I get the chance that I meticulously documented way back when I started observing from my main dark sky site that I used to visit almost monthly. Leyburn, which is situated about 2 1/2 hours driving time, one way from Brisbane. The skies were awesome back in 2001 when I started observing there and is still the darkest spot closest to Brisbane city.


17th of November 2001

Viewing conditions: Good transparency magnitude 7 skies; Telescope 6" Synta Catadioptric Newtonian (1400mm f/l), 10x50mm binocs and on occasion a 10" DOB
 
Observing notes:

My first trip to the Southern Astronomical Society's dark sky site with my newly acquired 6" scope. I had an agenda for this trip, to see all the objects with low surface brightness that are invisible from my suburban observing site, plus to revisit some old favourites. As the sky darkened, the first thing that caught my eye was the "clouds" towards the south. Those were not clouds, they were the LMC and the SMC! Boy were they bright! I have glimpsed with difficulty the LMC from my suburban site but the SMC has continued to elude me until now. Not much detail with the naked eye but excellent objects to scan with binocs!

Waited till the sky was much darker and started to hunt down the faint fuzzies. First up were my two faves, NGC 55 and NGC 253, the Sculptor galaxies (both visible from my mag 5 skies back in Brisbane). Under dark skies, these two bright galaxies were excellent. Mottling was seen in 253 with a hint of the dark lane. 55 looked distinctly clumpy, showing its distinct asymmetry with one end clearly brighter than the other!

The extremely large but low surface brightness Helix nebula in Aquarius was next. I have never been able to spot this from my balcony from suburbia. The planetary was an easy catch showing up as a featureless blob in my binocs. No hint of the central hole so visible in photographs. On to my scope. The scope showed little extra detail with the central hole revealing itself at the edge of perception and only with tapping and averted vision. Rather disappointing object but at least I can say that I have seen it!

Another large but low surface brightness object? Yup M33 in Triangulum! Many have said that this galaxy is a good indicator of the quality of the observing site. If it is visible to the naked eye, you have got yourself a great site. Well, the galaxy was definitely visible with the naked eye this night! Through the binocs, it was an oval haze covering a much larger area than the Helix nebula. The views through the 6" were breathtaking (before I looked at it through Dave's 10" DOB that is...5 spiral arms were visible in the 10"). Traced two distinct spiral arms. One radiating to the north and another to the south. Cool!

Also had a look at M31, the great galaxy in Andromeda.  Visible to the naked eye, this galaxy was awesome in the scope. Covering a ridiculously large extent of the FOV, I spotted for the first time its dark lane. But it was not totally obvious...rather at the edge of detectibility. The nucleus looked distinctly greenish and both M32 and M110 were visible (M32 visible in the same FOV). Another great object to look at!

Finally...my perennial faves 47 Tucana (boy...good resolution all across the glob...but overshadowed by the 10".....looking spectacular like photographs with stars resolved all the way to the core!!!!); the Tarantula (again spectacular in the 10" with all its knots and clumps); Eta Carina nebula; M42, the great Orion Nebula (large greenish wings visible in all its glory!) with the sword of Orion (patches of nebulosity everywhere!), M78 (a first for me too..have to try from home! Looks like the head of a comet!!!!); M1, the Crab Nebula (much larger than it appeared from home...spectacular in the 10" with the crab structures observed with averted vision!). Last on the list was NGC 3132, the eight burst nebula. Expected more out of it but was disappointed....looked a little more like a bright out of focus star than anything else....oh well..till next time..

You ready for this? The motherload of reviews I wrote for my now extinct Geocities homepage

Celestron Cometron 40mm f/20

type : achromatic doubled refractor
clear aperture : 40mm (1.6")
focal length : 800mm (f/20)
eyepieces : 0.965" fully coated 25mm and 8mm Kellner's (Japan)
finder : 5x25mm plastic
mount : wooden non adjustable alt-az

This was my first telescope and I still have it today for sentimental reasons. It was with this gift from a friend of my fathers that  I saw the rings of Saturn for the first time!! By today's beginner scope standards it is a very crude scope. It does have an achromatic glass objective lens that appears fully coated and comes with good fully coated 0.965" Japanese made Kellner eyepieces of 25mm and 8mm focal length (much better than the current crop of 0.965" Chinese made H, HM and SR eyepieces!!!). The package also includes a prism star diagonal which is judged to be inferior to the mirror diagonals. Since it has a focal length of 800mm, that gives me 32x and 100x magnification. Chromatic aberration is non existent due to its extremely long focal length and, if I remember correctly, it gave very good star test patterns. The tripod is an extremely shaky wooden tripod that is non adjustable in height and does not come with an accessory tray. The mount head and finder bracket is metal but everything else is plastic. It has a plastic orange colored tube (hip color for that time??), a plastic 5x25 finder (horrible color correction and has its aperture stoppered down) with a metal finder bracket, plastic focuser and focusing knobs and a plastic encased mirror star diagonal.

It was with this scope that I took my first "baby" steps in astronomy. Brighter nebulae and open clusters were easy. I remember the fine views I got of M42, the Orion Nebula and M8, the Lagoon Nebula or M6 and M7. Try as I might, I could never find the M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra. Most of the globulars I saw as a youth (Omega Centauri, M22) were mere dim grey fuzzballs with no decernible structure. Galaxy observing was almost non existant with this small scope. The only galaxy I saw through this was M31. In fact I had better views of extended objects through my father's 20x50 binoculars! But this scope provided pretty views of the moon and planets. Saturn showed its rings and one moon (Titan). I spent a good amount of time on Jupiter tracking the march of its 4 moons and the two equatorial bands. Mars at opposition yielded polar ice caps and Syris Major! And I spotted Halley's Comet from the rooftop of my parents home and followed it for months. Halley's spotted a fan shaped tail and some jets! This scope has also seen Comet Hyakutake! All in all, it was an OK scope. I would never recommend anyone to start with such a small scope, but with this scope, I honed my observing skills in star hopping (with the insufferable excuse for a finder) and averted vision.

3"f/9.2 Newtonian alt-az reflector (sold)

type : newtonian reflector, spherical mirror
clear aperture : 76mm (3")
focal length :  700mm (f/9.2)
central obstruction : 19.9mm (0.26%)
eyepieces : 0.965" H20mm, H12.5mm and SR4mm
other included accessories : 2x plastic barlow and 1.5x erector lens
finder : 5x25mm plastic
mount : wooden adjustable alt-az with micro control for altitude and accessory tray

This was my first real scope that I purchased with my own hard earned money. Got this in June 2001 when I got back to Brisbane, from a good shopkeeper David at the then called Leisuretronics (now renamed Gamestronics). Quite a good scope for the money and it has enough light gathering power to view some objects with a little bit of detail (see "about the author" for details). The navy blue optical tube assemble (OTA) is made up of sheet metal (with crinkled textured metal end rings) and it has a metal 1.25" rack and pinion focuser with plastic focusing knobs. The focuser itself is quite good with little backlash. That and the fact that you can adjust the tension by simply tightening the two screws that hold the rack to the pinion. One thing to note though is the extremely limited focus travel of the focuser. Using a Meade Shorty 2x Barlow, I could not get images to focus. It comes with a screw on 0.965" adaptor, which I judged as an inconvenience and pathetic 0.965" eyepieces (H20, H12.5 and SR4). Out of the three only two were useable, the H20 (which I used most of the time) and the H12.5. Nothing would come to focus in the SR4. Using 1.25" plossl eyepieces in this scope brought viewing to a whole new different level. The star test revealed minor astigmatism but images were still sharp at 117x. Collimation of the scope is possible with the collimation screws at the back of the scope on the primary mirror mount and the collimation screws on the three vane spider holding the secondary mirror. All require a Philip's head screwdriver.

This scope comes with an equally pathetic 5x25 plastic finder that has been stoppered down, rendering it virtually useless for anything other than bright objects; a 2x plastic barlow with uncoated lens and a 1.5x erector lens with equally pathetic plastic body and lens. It comes with a pretty decent mount (wooden adjustable legs) with an accessory tray. The one thing I did not like about the mount was the micro altitude adjustment knob. There was too much play in that. Overall I think it was quite a good scope if you throw away the eyepieces, the poor excuse for a barlow and erector lens and finder and replace them with some 1.25" eyepieces and a no power pointing device (or even a good 6x30 finder). I think this would be a much better beginner scope than those ubiquitous 60mm refractors out there as from memory I saw better detail in the planets (Cassini's division in Saturn and ruffling in Jupiter's equatorial bands), much more nebulosity in the brighter messier nebulae (finally found and saw the ring shaped M57 and the apple core of M27), galaxies (NGC 253 immediately comes to mind!).

6"f/9.3/SPC6 6"f/5 Optical Tube Assembly Newtonian equatorial reflector

type : newtonian reflector, spherical mirror with corrector lens in focuser (replaced with SPC6 OTA parabolic mirror)
clear aperture : 150mm (6")
focal length :  1400mm (f/9.3)/750mm (f/5)
central obstruction : 1.6" (0.27%)
eyepieces : 1.25" 25mm, 9mm and 6mm Kellner's
finder : 6x30mm achromatic fully coated
mount : equatorial mount with slow motion control and accessory tray

My first serious scope and probably my main scope for many years to come (until I exhaust its capabilities). This scope came courtesy of my better half (thanks Siok Hwee). It comes from the same manufacturing plant in Taiwan (Lin Optics) as my previous scope and it is a pretty decent scope for the money. Had some problems with severe astigmatism (even after collimation...which by the way is very, very difficult due to the presence of the corrector lens in the focuser) and had to get the OTA changed. I was fortunate as the shopkeeper at Gamestronics (David) was very helpful. The new OTA was heaps better and came almost perfectly collimated. My first choice was actually a 6" dob (and many times I though I should have just gone with that.....but I can only get them through mail order....). Anyway this one works better from my apartment balcony anyway.

The main OTA is navy blue in color and it is made up of the same sheet metal as my previous scope. The rack and pinion focuser is 1.25" in diameter and is an all metal assembly with the exception of the focusing knobs which are plastic (they are bigger in diameter than the one that came with the 3"). The focuser is just as smooth and free of backlash as the one on the 3", plus it appears sturdier and even has a built in T adaptor that accepts normal SLR cameras. Just as the previous focuser, tension can be adjusted to suit the individual. The eyepieces that came with this scope was a class above those that came with the 3". All seemed to be fully coated and gave reasonable views. All also had decent 50 degree field of views but no rubber eye guard's. I used the 25mm most of the time (56x) and the 9mm (156x) on occasions. The 6mm stayed in the eyepiece box for most of the time as I found that the scope could not handle magnifications above 200x without image breakdown (even 156x was pushing it). This was probably due to the spherical mirror and possibly the corrector lens. Star test revealed astigmatism and curvature of field. Surprisingly I had no problems with chromatic aberration on brighter objects, although the scope had an auxiliary achromatic corrector lens in the focuser (appears to be fully coated as well).  The views were dramatically improved when I substituted the Kellner's with a 32mm, 20mm, 12.5mm Plossl and a 9mm Synta Ultrawide (superwide is more like it at 66 degrees field of view). All have better contrast (well the Ultrawide has a slightly lower contrast than the Plossl's), and are sharper all the way to the edge of the field. Coupled with a Lumicon UHC, the views of nebular objects were incredible. The Orion Skyglow suffered lack of use as a result. The UHC was just so much better....anyway back to the topic.

The finder is a vast improvement over the pathetic excuse for a finder in the 3". While at times I wished I had a bigger 50mm finder, it is sufficient for the moment. It has an achromatic fully coated objective lens, a plastic body, an adequate dew shield (much better than those that come with the York Optical scopes with their super short dew shields). Eye relieve is adequate for spectacle users. The finder bracket is a six screw plastic deal and while very hard to align, it holds the alignment very well. My only gripe is that it does not grip on very tightly to the scopes OTA and gets knocked out of alignment pretty easily. Also its pretty hard to see the crosshairs when observing under very dark skies.

The mount itself is a pretty decent. No plastics here. While by no means the sturdiest mount (the NES mounts on the York Optical scopes are way better....these are the equivalent of Orion's Sky View Deluxe mounts….or maybe better), it is up to task for this super portable 6". Damping time at high magnification (150x and above is about 5 to 6 seconds on my concrete apartment balcony). I reckon that the damping time could be further reduced by replacing the stamped aluminium legs with wooden legs or maybe by getting one of the new shock absorbers for tripods from Orion. It does not come equip to take a polar alignment scope but it does have slow motion controls for right ascension (RA) and Declination (Dec). These are flexi cabled motion controls. The Dec flexi cable is conveniently placed and I use this most of the time for tracking objects (when not in equatorial mode...I only bother to polar align when doing planetary high powered observations which is seldom). The RA flexi cable are at inconvenient positions most of the time. This scope also comes with rotatable tube rings and those Vixen inspired quick release mounting heads. You can simply slip the OTA with the tube rings on and off the equatorial head on a whim. Adjusting the altitude is easy with the L shaped screws on both sides of the mounting head.

Collimation is achieved by a push pull mechanism on the primary mirror cell and the secondary mirror's three vane (which is way thicker than the ones on the 3") spider using a Philip head screwdriver. If you ask me, I think the need for a Philip's head screwdriver is inconvenient. The design of the primary mirror cell seems to be a copy of the Vixen mirror cell. Therein lies the disadvantage. This mirror cell is very crude and does not have springs. For each set of screws, one tightenes to hold the collimation and the other is to allow for the mirro to be tilted ever so slightly. The mirror mount on the SPC6 seems to be identical to this. I noted that with these type of mirror cells, it is better to not overtighten the screws as this will lead to astigmatism and distortion of the mirror's figure.

Overall it is a good scope. My only gripe with it is its inability to handle high magnifications (6" are capable of magnifications in the 200-300x range) which is probably the direct result of its optical configuration. The scope works best below 100x but can be pushed a little more to about 156x. just make sure the collimation screws are not tightened down too much. Also contrast on planetary subjects suffer due to the bigger central obstruction on such a short focal length. That and the fact that off axis aberrations are more pronounced too. A long focal length parabolic mirror would probably solve all the problems listed above. Also instead of flexi cable slow mo controls, they could just supply slow mo knobs.

NOTE: The optical tube assembly has recently been replaced with a SPC6 OTA. This comes with a parabolic mirror and has a focal length of 750mm (f/5). Made by Vixen in Japan for Celestron, I can now routinely use mags of up to its theoretical limit of 50x per square inch. Images are way sharper and stars focus down to a point now. Images also seem a little bit brighter probably due to the enhanced coatings on the mirrors. Globulars like Omega Centauri (resolved even at 46x), M13, M4 and M13 all show nice resolution with the chains of stars effect at 250x. Jupiter now focuses down to a nice color free ball and shows all manner of swirls in the equatorial belts. And coma is surprisingly minimal in this OTA. I am also very surprised at how little the contrast is affected by the rather large central obstruction (about the same size as the other OTA). Also I am surprised by how solid the single vane spider holds the secondary mirror. The only problem with this is that it is pretty thick and the difraction spikes (three now) look more obvious then the ones generated by the three vane spider). My only gripe is the sliding focuser (I much prefer rack and pinion focusers) which does not focus very smoothly and the mirror cell which seems to be similar to the previous OTA. The OTA is excellent. Read my recent e mail to two of my observing buddies...

Observing notes: Did you get out over the weekend? Got out at close to 12am on Sat and went to sleep at about 3am. Got some good looks at the milky way and some of the globs in Sagittarius and Ophiuchus. Again the SPC6 continues to amaze me with its contrast and clarity. M10 in Ophiuchus was resolved to the core (dare say better than M13??). The bloody tree was obscuring the other messier near M10 (M12?) but I am sure that would have resolved as well.

M22 was a stunner. The outstretched arms were very prominenet at 47x (infact they looked better at low power because at 166x and 250x I was looking more at the core and the stars had gaps between them {much like Omega Centauri and how it looks better at 47x}). The glob looked decidedly lopsided as the arms were to one side. M11 the wild duck cluster was nothing like an arrowhead at 166x. Very nice cluster.

Also looked at M8, M20 and M17. M8 looked amazing at 23x. Tons of extra nebulosity surrounding the core nebulosity. M20, the Trifid's dark lanes were more pronounced in this scope (probably due to its sharpness again) at 47x. M17 did not just show the swan at 23x, but extra swirls of faint nebulosity surrounding it (all these observations with the UHC of course). The back of the swan looked distinctly feathery at 47x. Then there is 6302, the bug nebula. Very nice views at 166x with the faint "extensions" to the right and left of the brilliant bright central region. And as if that was not enought, I finally saw 6337 (supposedly difficult 13 mag planetary...did not manage to see it in the older "spherical" scope) as a faint and small ring (with the UHC) in Scorpius. This one is also very easy to find as it is close to the bug nebula. And to top things off, I saw the ghostly Veil Nebula (the portion around 52 Cygni). Very ghostly but definately there with tapping and averted vision.

p/s: this scope has also made me a moon fan. Detail just seem to jump out at you at 166x. Seeing has been dreadful so I am pretty much limited to 166x and below. Again the surface looks like a marbled texture...

15x70 Saxon mini giants (SOLD)

My quick grab and go scope (or binoculars), these babies replaced my 3" alt-az Newtonian and my 10x50 binoculars. They are great as grab and go's as they are light enough to be hand held (approximately 2lb) and have sufficient aperture (compared side by side with Andrew's 4" ST and they had nearly the same light throughput!) for some really great wide field views. Observing with large binoculars is an experience by itself. Words just cannot describe the feeling of scanning the heavens with both eyes and coming across numerous celestial puff balls. Enough said. This was a deal too good to refuse!

The binoculars itself is encased in a nice rubber armour (not leatherette like in normal binoculars) and has a central focus wheel (which is very tight so it holds the focus very well) and a tripod mounting head. The straps that came with the binoculars (1/2 inch???) left much to be desired and digged into my flesh as I used them. I had them replaced with 1 1/4 inch video camera straps. The objectives and the eyepieces are all fully coated with a nice bluish sheen. The eye cups are huge and can hold mounted nebular filters. The field of view is vast and eye relieve is so good that you sometimes get blackout problems. The prisms were advertised as Bak4 prisms and I had them checked out and they were Bak4 prisms (no diamond shapes exit pupils at arms length). The views are surprisingly crisp and sharp to about 80% out of the field of view.

Now for the gripes. After mounting these on a tripod I noticed that the left objective seemed to have a little bit of spiking. These may be a little bit out of collimation. Also since the focus wheel is so tight, I sometimes have problems trying to focus. That and plus the fact that the focus wheel is pretty smooth (not the usual focus wheels with tiny teeth). Also the binoculars only came with a soft carry case :(

For observations this binoculars has continued to amaze me. It was with these that I bagged some objects which I deemed impossible from my suburban balcony. Caught large face on spirals M83 and M33 easily (could never find them from suburbia in my 10x50’s, 3” or 6”). Other objects included M57 and 2393 (seen as fuzzy stars), M1, M65 and M66 (surprisingly easy…..will train them on the Virgo cluster when they get higher). Open clusters and large extended nebulae are seen to advantage. While never intended for planetary observations, I tried them on the moon, Jupiter and Saturn. Surprisingly chromatic aberration was not as distracting as I expected. The moon very sharp and contrasty and looked quite clean with only slight purplish tinges seen. On planets I managed Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and Saturn’s rings (can be seen!). Jupiter’s two equatorial bands were hinted and the four moons were easy. The problem with the planets was that they never seemed to come down to a sharp focus. Just when you think you have them focused, there seems to be some spiking. Oh well….

A very good deal and I think this is the ideal quick look scope for me. Almost no setup time and no cool down time. I can just grab my trusty camping chair and an observing guide and I am good to go. Perfect!

Orion Short Tube 80 f/5 optical tube assembly (second hand)

type : air spaced achromatic doublet refractor (multi-coated)
clear aperture : 80mm (3.1")
focal length :  400mm (f/5)
eyepieces : none
other included accessories : mounting plate and StellarVue enhanced 1.25” diagonal
finder : 6x26mm Orion correct-image metal finder on dovetail bracket
mount : none

After using the 15x70’s for about a year, I began to miss my lightweight 3”newt and its easy setup for those casual nights of stargazing when I just did not feel like lugging around my 17-18kg EQ newt. I also yearned for a more diverse range of magnifications. Take nothing away from the binocs as they will always be my ultimate grab and go and airline travel scope. I just wanted something that will allow me the luxury of more magnification every now and then. I wanted sharp contrasty views only a refractor could give. I also wanted to stay within my budget and hence my search on Astromart. After looking around for a while, I found a suitable Synta made Orion (USA) 80mm short tube (ST). There are several 80ST incarnations current being sold but they are all dodgy (clones of the original Synta made ST), save the original Synta optical tube assembly (OTA). This one garnered excellent reviews in its category of cheap but good scopes. It had respectable optics (can’t say it’s the best since its not an APO or semi-APO scope and never claimed to be one) and every part was made of metal save the focuser knobs. This was one of the drawing cards for this OTA for me anyway. Although its not one of the more expensive scopes around, it just felt so solidly constructed. When I first opened the box, I was struck by how nice the scope looked. It also had a quality feel to it. I was also elated to see that the main objective was fully multi-coated and not just fully coated as Orion stated on their web site.

The first night I got the scope (it came in time for my birthday which was nice) the skies were unusually clear, so I gave it a test run. As it did not come with a mount, I mounted it on my Optex T-560 photo tripod, the tripod that usually sees use with the 15x70’s. While not a Manfrotto, it serves its purpose for the time being. When I put everything on, including the star diagonal, the 6x26 finder and the 32mm Plossl, I immediately realized that, when pointed near zenith, the scope had to be balanced. So I grabbed one of my dumbbell weights and used that as a counter balance (see pics). I have since been able to get it out on several other occasions including a shootout with my buddy Andrew’s 4”ST (also made by Synta). The 80ST held its own against its bigger brother. So what do I think of the scope after having owned it for a good three weeks now? Well all I can say is that it performs as I had expected it to be, after some minor tweaking. When I got the scope, the optics seemed to be pinched (stars did not focus down to a point but were rather triangular in shape). This was easily remedied by removing the dew cap, loosening the plastic retaining ring, keeping the scope upright and then tapping the tube gently to allow the objective to sit nicely in the cell and then tightening the retainer ring to finger tight. Also when looking down the barrel of the OTA, I was immediately struck by how “shiny” the inner tube was (much like how my 6” newt was before I flocked the upper tube). But it did have a single baffle midway down the OTA. I once again unscrewed the retainer ring, removed the objective doublet, blackened the frosted lens edges of the objective lens and flocked the upper tube (up until where the single baffle sits). Now when looking down the barrel, the OTA is pretty dark save the focuser and its three shiny screws (a job for another time perhaps). Even then its nowhere near as shiny as it originally was. A second Synta 80ST OTA (this one was a blue SkyWatcher) which mistakenly made its way to me looked markedly brighter down the tube without the mods I made.

These mods made a whole world of difference under the stars. Views I got of M42 were contrastier, even without the UHC in place. Eta Carina Nebula was magnificient, partly due to the huge FOV (well incomparison to my newt). With the UHC in, I could probably spend hours lost in its many dark lanes, rifts and tendrils. Stars focused down to a point and there were definitely more stars resolved across 47 Tuc’s face then before (same effect I got when I flocked my newt!). Also there was surprisingly very little chromatic aberration in this fast achromat. Sure the views were not as true colored as the views I got in my newt (Saturn and the moon looked a little more yellowish) but they were not as bad as I though they would be. And true to its configuration, the views were sharper and more contrasty than the newt. Saturn was a revelation, even at 66x. Cassini’s division was easy even at that magnification and looked even better at 133x. The difference in color between ring A and ring B was also very evident, as was the cloud band on the disc and the darkened poles. I could even make out the crepe ring (though not as easy as in the newt). Jupiter was not as contrasty or as sharp as Saturn. My guess is because it is much brighter than Saturn. In any case, it was sharper than my newt and showed the two main equatorial belts with two thinner bands (I have to date seen up to 5 bands during a night of excellent seeing with some detail in the one of the main equatorial bands). I have yet to get a very good view of Jupiter but my guess is that I will be able to make out some smaller details on the face. More on this later. Also the trapezium in M42 revealed a very faint, but definitely present e component (much better seen in Andrew’s 4”ST). One thing to note however was that the 15x70 still gave a much better images of extended objects. There was more nebulosity seen in M42 through the binocs than in the 80ST (without the UHC though).

The accessories it came with were also respectable. The Orion 6x26 correct-image finder was nice and solidly built. It was all metal, maybe save the eyepiece portion and the metal bracket was great as well. Lenses were all glass and fully coated with a nice bluish sheen to it.  It gives correct-image views and I just simply love the “no brainer” finder bracket..my only gripe it that the views are markedly dimmer than my 6x30mm finder on the 6” EQ. The StellarVue enhanced diagonal was great as well. Felt pretty solid and came with a nylon tip to prevent scarring of the eyepiece barrel, a nice touch. It is claimed that the enhanced diagonal reflects more light than the standard, almost 10% more. Have not been able to confirm this yet though. More testing required. My gripe with this diagonal is that it does not have a recessed ring to prevent it from slipping out of the focuser tube when fully loaded with a Barlow and heavy eyepiece. I also have a gripe with the focuser tube as 1 thumbscrew was not sufficient to hold the diagonal tight enough. I had several heartstopping moments when the diagonal just turned on its own and almost dumped my eyepieces onto the concrete! Also the focuser was nowhere near as smooth as the one on my newt!


102 f/5 4” Synta short tube refractor (SOLD)

type : air spaced achromatic doublet refractor (multi-coated)
clear aperture : 102mm (4")
focal length :  500mm (f/5)
eyepieces : none
other included accessories : mounting rings
finder : none
mount : none

I got this OTA used from a fellow local astronomer with tube rings and a dovetail (EQ5) for a good price. This OTA did not come with a finder or star diagonal. For that I use the finder from my Orion 80ST and the StellarVue enhanced diagonal I got with my used Orion 80ST. The reason’s for its purchase was to supplement an intermediate aperture that could substitute for my C6 newt on trips where the OTA had to ride at the back and risk losing collimation. A refractor can simply be chucked in the boot with some bubble wrap and would not need collimation on arrival. Also this scope could be mated to my existing EQ3 clone mount with an extra dovetail and can be used alt-az without counterweights making it grab and go. Due to the lightweight OTA, this setup was pretty solid when in use. Initial inspection of the OTA revealed a nice and evenly multi coated objective lens. The level of coating was similar to the one on my Orion 80ST. Also there were two knife edged baffles down the tube contributing to the contrast of the final image. The scope has a nice black color. This scope also has a nice 2” rack and pinion focuser that is a bit stiff, probably due to the Synta glue/grease they use for lubrication. Under the stars the scope performed rather well, although the views were not as deep as I liked. There wasn’t much of a difference in views of the brighter globs between my “old faithful” Orion 80ST. There was slightly more resolution in the 4” although not enough to warrant a new scope to replace my venerable 80ST. Maybe I have been spoilt by views in my used Celestron/Vixen 6” which resolves the major southern globs to the core, creating that grain of salt on black velvet effect. Also this scope exhibited markedly more chromatic abberation (and possible spherical abberation as well as the views at higher powers were just not up to mark) than the Orion 80ST, to the extent that I did not like to use magnifications above 100x (my Orion 80ST can be pushed to 133x). I haven’t extensively tested the scope on the major planets but I was not impressed by the views of Mars this opposition. So the verdict….I might still keep this scope for more testing to see if it is worth keeping (it also looks very nice mounted on the EQ J I still find that I use my C6 and Orion 80ST more extensively from home as the C6 gives much brighter and deeper views and the Orion 80ST is just such a sweet setup on my photo tripod. The 4” cannot be used on the photo tripod as the OTA is two times heavier than the 80ST and makes for a very unstable setup.


10"f/5 Guan Sheng Dobsonian reflector (250mm)

type : newtonian reflector, parabolic mirror
clear aperture : 250mm (3")
focal length :  1250mm (f/5)
central obstruction : 25% (approximately)
eyepieces : 1.25" 26mm FMC GS Plossl and 9mm FMC GS Plossl
other included accessories : free binoculars 10x30 and generic moon filter (green)
finder : 8x50mm (nice spring loaded)
mount : dobsonian mount

My first foray into large scope country. I had planned to get this scope in the near future but did not expect to get it so soon. Due to a stroke of luck, my research poster won me some money at a recent BioNano conference for my work on resilin and hence this scope. I have had experience with such a scope as my close observing buddy David has one and I have used it rather extensively from SAS's dark sky site out at Leyburn. My first look through a large scope when I first came back to oz was through a 10" GS dob. I remember fondly the views I had of 47 Tucana, the brilliant southern globular, which was fully resolved into a rich swarm of stars all the way down to the core, and this from a suburban Brisbane site close to the city! From dark skies, some of the component stars actually show color as well. Also the views of Jupiter's belts (too numerous to count) and all the festoons and detail and Saturn's belts and rings (A, B, C components all easy as was Cassini's Division and Encke Minima). I have even seen filamentous detail in M1 the Crab Nebula in Taurus from Leyburn and have sketched several objects through his scope. But this is getting ahead of myself. Now to the very beginning.

I had known all along from the first time I used David's scope that a 10" f/5 solid tube dob would be the scope of scopes for me. It has sufficient aperture to go deep into Abell and Hickson's territory and yet portable enough to fit in a small car without the tube being converted to a Truss. Also the weight of the OTA and mount is not overwhelmingly heavy and one person can easily carry and set up the whole scope in two sittings. Also a 10 inch scope collects 56% more light than an 8 inch scope and a 10 inch has been said to be the smallest of the great dobs. So it was a logical choice for a visual astronomer like me. The die was cast and the order placed on the 19th of December, 2005 from Andrew's Communication down in NSW. The scope arrived at my doorstep 2 days later in two boxes, one housing the OTA and the other flat box housing the mount. When the courier called me at the office to inform me that the package had been delivered, I rushed home to get the boxes into the house. I was surprised to find that the smaller flat box containing the mount to be as heavy if not heavier than the box housing the OTA. Without further ado I began to open the boxes and lo and behold...a nice noble white shining tube....a dob to call my own! I then began to try and carefully unpack the various parts without damaging the contents in my highly excitable state of mind. I made a mental checklist of the various parts that came with the dob, the nice spring loaded 8x50mm dovetail finder, the two 1.25" GS FMC (yes fully multicoated...NICE!) in 26mm and 9mm focal lengths, the free generic green moon filter and the 10x30 roof prism binoculars. When I finally spied the instruction leaflet, I found it to be totally inadequate and spartan. All that was provided was a very small diagram detailing the parts and where they went. The printing was so small that one could not distinguish one screw part from the other. But using my knowledge of the scope, I managed to get everything assembled in about 20 minutes (maybe faster I was not timing myself). Everything to aid in the assembly was provided excluding a Philip's head screwdriver. An allen wrench was provided and most of the screws worked with this. Throughout all these steps, I was meticulously taking pictures as well. So I guess one could put the scope together much quicker. When the scope was assembled, I proceeded to check the collimation. It was nice to note that a center doughnut was present, saving one the frustrations of having to self center spot the primary mirror (which involves removing the primary mirror mount from the tube...not something for the faint of heart). Collimation was pretty spot on and I especially like the finger collimatable collimating knobs and tightening screws.

Surprisingly the weather remained clear for a week and a half after the dob arrived. The weather gods must have been on holidays too. Turns out that I got the dob at just the right time as I had heaps of opportunities to test it out under Brisbane's suburban skies. During summer the limiting magnitude does not penetrate as deeply as the transparent winter skies. I estimated the magnitude limit from my courtyard to be approximately 5.3-5.4. As my current ground level courtyard (the scope will be too cumbersome to carry up and down flights of stairs but it should be doable) only gives access to stars at zenith and near zenith, stars to the south where all the celestial goodies are, and to the north are inaccessible. I made do with M42, the Orion Nebula and the surrounds. M42 was magnificient in this scope. The added aperture made the wings stand out beautifully and I found myself mesmerised by the views even without the aid of a filter. The trap easily stood out at medium magnifications and the E and F component were ridiculously easy. Also at higher power, the cirrus cloud effect became very pronounced in M42. I also looked at M78, the reflection nebula in Orion. This one was easy as well although the views were washed out due to light pollution. The DGM Optic VHT filter made it stand out better. I also looked at the globular in Lepus and this was also resolved at higher magnification. I then surfed around and looked at open clusters (i.e M41, etc.) in Canis Major and checked out NGC 2438 in M46. Its amazing how much power you can use on such large an aperture without the image dimming. 2438 looked like a fainter version of M57, the Ring Nebula at 208x.

Then at the end of the week I had a chance to try out the dob on the whole sky from Andrew's place at Parkinson's, and to pit the dob against a larger scope, namely Andrew's incredible 12.5" f/6 Truss dob. This would also give me a chance to try to fit the dob in my Hyundai Excel Sprint. Fits in nicely once I remove the back cover and put down one of the top of the back seats :) I was again reminded of how easy it was to move the dob. It was not heavy at all. On getting there, we checked out all the usual suspects. The standouts were 47 Tucana (brilliantly resolved to the core with diamonds on black velvety effect...even at low magnifications), M42 again (rusty colors were visible in the wings and we confirmed this in Andrew's scope as well!), planetaries and their inner detail shone through with Andrew's newly acquired OIII filter (NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula showed its triangular face and fur parka; NGC 3242, the Ghost of Jupiter showed clearly its CBS eye detail and NGC 2438 showed its ghostly ring visage), the delicate swirls of the Tarantula Nebula with and without filters and its surrounds (its great to be able to surf around without worrying about lock knobs as on my EQ mount...look at all that nebulosity around the Tarantula) and not forgetting Eta Carina and all those dust lanes....goodness! Then there was Saturn. There were so many moons hovering around Saturn and Saturn itself presented so much detail. The banding on the planet stood out vividly as did the pole darkenings. No more subdued shades! The rings showed abundant detail from Cassini's Division going all round the planet to the delicate Crepe Ring and Encke Minima. If I had to summarise the scope in two words, it would be BRILLIANTLY BREATHTAKING. Oh and did I mention that the 10" held its own against larger competition? All the detail that was present in Andrew's scope was also present in mine. Star test revealed a very well figured primary mirror. Patterns on both sides of focus showed similar patterns reminiscent of the excellent mirror in my Celestron/Vixen C6. If there were any gripes, it would have to be the very tight tension springs and the lack of smoothness in the azimuth bearings, but these can be easily remedied using milk jug washers or some ezy sliders.


AOE 20x80LW

My latest aquisition. These are the perfect foil for my large dob under dark skies :) Looking at the price of these giants, it is amazing what little money can buy you these days in terms of optical equipment. This is indeed the golden age of stargazing! Large astronomical binoculars can be had for the price of a single 50mm branded binoculars, with all the bells and whistles. This Aquila Optics binoculars boast fully broadband multicoated optics on all surfaces (as opposed to fully coated optics on my old Saxon's), inclusive of the internal Bak 4 prisms (and it shows when you look down the barrel with minimal green reflections and has no light cutoff in comparison to the lesser Bk 7 prisms that are used on cheaper imported binocs...no diamond shaped exit pupils here) and is very nicely baffled. It has the standard binocular tripod adapter socket and comes with a very nice metal tripod adaptor (as opposed to the tough but still not too rigid plastic one that came with the Saxon's. This one used to flex quite a bit under the Saxon's weight). The focusing mechanism is not too tight and the binocs comes covered in a nice rubberised armor coating (no leatherette here but I am not complaining). The lens caps that came with the binocs were also an upgrade as well as they were nice flexible caps that were really rubbery, thus holding on better than the stiffer caps. The eyepiece caps had a flexible "bridge" holding both of the caps together. There was also a cool carry bag to carry the binoculars in (although I would have prefered a stiffer carry case). The neck strap that came with it was also better than the ones that came with the Saxon's as it was a lot wider than those "pencil thin" straps that came with the Saxon's. This large binoculars also seemed lighter in weight than my previous Saxon 15x70 giants and seemed to be similar to all the other 20x80LW's being sold in the market by Garrett Optical, Oberwerks and the newer Barksa's. They must all come from the same giant binocular factory in China! Anyway enough of the preliminaries, time to give it an optical test run.....

On viewing through the binocs, I was immediately impressed by the immersive views. While I was afraid that the narrower FOV of this binocs would make pointing the binocs harder, I did not find that this was a problem at all. The binoc views also seemed contrastier and more well baffled than the Saxon's. This could probably be attributed to several factors, such as the better coatings and probably a higher magnification ratio as well. Eye relieve was also very, very comfortable on this binocs. For daylight viewing, keeping the eyecups fully extended made for more comfortable viewing as the eye relieve was too much when fully retracted (the eyecups by the way were just right...not too stiff and not too flexible). The added magnification and aperture really flexed its optical muscle on large and bright southern globular clusters, my favourite DSO targets. Omega Centauri in Centaurus and M22 in Sagittarius were a revelation. There was some resolution clearly evident on these objects, appearing granular with some of its brighter members shining through. The Ara and Pavo glob too gave up some of their stars from my mag 5.5 to 5.6 suburban winter skies as did M4 in Scorpius in the binocs (its great to obtain new optical equipment in southern austral winter with gorgeous transparent night skies and the center of our galaxy riding high in the sky). Open clusters (M6 and M7 in Scorpius) sparkled in them as did some of the brighter nebulae (M8, M20 and M17 in Sagittarius). Smaller nebulae showed more shape and structure due to the extra magnification (for instance M17, the swan showed its swan shape much better in this binocs than in the Saxon's). I was once again reminded of how awe-inspiring it was to just scan the central bulge of our home galaxy, the milky way and all its clusters in giant binoculars. While scanning this same region with my 10" dob was cool, there is something about scanning the heaven's with two eyes that speaks to the very heart of our souls. Its something that cannot be described in words! This giant was also great for galaxies as I spied NGC 4945, the great edge on in Centaurus, NGC 5128, the Centaurus A galaxy and M104, the Sombrero in Corvus. The FOV exhibited some expected field curvature, but this was not obstrusive at all till about 20% from the edge of the FOV (performance was very similar in this respect to the older Saxon's). There is of course chromatic abberation on brighter objects seeing that this is only a doublet, but still I had good views of Jupiter and its satellites. And I though I could make out its two main equatorial bands (more easily than in the Saxon's). Cool. Will have to try them on Saturn and the moon when I get the chance. Overall it is a great replacement for my trusty Saxon's. I will probably have more to rave about as I get to use them more over the course of the next few weeks. And did I mention that they are incredibly light (1.8kg) and can be used handheld seated for short periouds. My only gripe would have to be the long length of the barrel (37cm????). Its a lot harder to grasp them at the ends :)

60mm f/11 Yosco refractor, Japan (SOLD)

type : singlet refractor (coated)
clear aperture : 57mm (maybe less with the internal barlow)
focal length :  700mm (f/11)
eyepieces : 12.5mm HM, 8mm HM and 1.5x erector lens made in Japan
other included accessories : 0.965" metal bodied mirror diagonal
finder : 5x25mm
mount : wooden extendable

I got this vintage Japanese made 60mm refractor from e-Bay locally for a very, very low price. On paper and from the pictures, the scope appeared to be a classic enamel white refractor from years gone by. Indeed the construction of the scope was sound. It was all metal (including the finder mount) save the objective retainer ring which was plastic. It had a nice wooden tripod with slow motion controls on the altitude axis, like all the current small refractors and was surprisingly stable. The tripod was also extendable, making for very comfortable viewing at elevated angles. The scope also came with some nice fully coated Japanese made 0.965" eyepieces (a 12.5mm HM, a 8mm HM and a 1.5x erector eyepiece) and a nice metal bodied mirror diagonal. And I really liked the super smooth metal focuser and metal focuser knobs, a rarity on lower end scopes these days. But my first look through the scope proved disappointing. Something was terribly wrong with the scope. For starters the views were terribly dim for a 60mm scope (which turned out to be a 57mm scope as the plastic retainer ring stoppered down the aperture). To further aggravate this, there was what appeared to be metal baffles down the tube. This, in addition to the single coated lens did not make matters any better. On removing the objective lens, I found out that there was an inner barlow like tube with two negative lenses on each end. I tried removing this and then experimented by moving this tube up and down the OTA to increase the aperture but the scope would not come to focus at all. A practise in frustration!!!!! And the stoppered down finder was next to useless and had very poor eye relieve. I ended up selling it as a project scope. Maybe someone with more mechanical know-how could actually make this scope work. It was a real shame as I was all ready to embrace a small, light "grab and go" scope in my arsenal.


Kasai Comet #66 60mm f/6.9 ST refractor(SOLD)

type : achromatic doubled refractor (coated)
clear aperture : 60mm (2.4")
focal length : 415mm (f/6.9)
eyepieces : 0.965" fully coated 8mm HM, 2x barlow plastic body(Japan)
finder : 6x25mm plastic
mount : spindly plastic head metal legged mount adjustable alt-az

Found this really cute looking 60mm short tube scope on e-Bay, also for a very very good price. I have been chasing the perfect vintage 60mm refractor for a while now. Later found out that this scope was made by Kasai in Japan, probably around the time when my firstscope, the Cometron CO-40 was made. This scope sported the same Celestron orange from the 86 Halley's era, the same 6x25 plastic finder with good color correction and good eye relieve, the plastic encased prism diagonal, sturdy plastic/bakelit focuser, and down to the 8mm HM, metal barrel eyepiece that came with my Celestron. The objective was a full 60mm of aperture and was coated (some white reflections)...what a relieve as there were no baffles like in the Yosco. The mount looked very spindly with its plastic bakelit head but held up surprisingly well under the weight of the scope and was very easy to use. The scope only locked in altitude but swivelled freely in azimuth. Nice and smooth! I had some great views of the moon (quite color free...more so than my Orion 80ST) and yielded some very nice views of open star clusters and M42. However I soon discovered that from suburbia, 60mm scopes do not make much sense as they just do not have enough light gathering power to make views worthwhile. The planets, while sharp were small and featureless, even with the barlow. I ended up selling the scope and stepping up to a 4.5" Meade Newtonian OTA.


114mm (4.5") f/8.8 Meade AST OTA(SOLD)

type : spherical mirror with barlow in the focuser setup
clear aperture : 114mm (4.5")
focal length :  1000mm (f/8.8)
eyepieces : none
other included accessories : mounting rings
finder : plastic 5x25
mount : none

Got this OTA only used off Astromart for a very very good price as well and decided to give the barlow in the focuser setup another go. Sheesh seems like I have become more of a cheap but okay scope tester of late rather than a stargazer. I really should be spending more time observing and less time testing telescopes!!!!! Anyway the scope came with a plastic 5x25mm finder and a plastic focuser that was reminiscent of my 6" catadioptric newt's focuser. I first tried using this scope handheld in a camping chair with the 24.5mm SWA in the focuser without much success. Later got it mounted on my photo tripod for futher testing with all three of my premium eyepieces, the 24.5mm Meade SWA, the 20mm KK Widescan III and the 6mm TV Radian. All came to focus, even when the 2x Orion Shorty Plus barlow was employed. Views were much brighter than in the 60mm refractors as expected but also showed a sharp spiking and stars did not focus down to a point. I then pulled the primary mirror out of the OTA and center spotted the mirror and recollimated the scope. Views were much sharper now at low magnifications but still nowhere near as sharp as I would have liked it to be at magnifications of over 100x. My conclusion for these barlow in the focuser scopes is that they are just incapable of higher magnifications due to their spherical mirrors. They would make brilliant large finders for larger scopes but iwould not recommend them as a first scope or as an only scope. Their strength probably lies in low to medium powered views of DSO as some of the globs started to show resolution. I got good views of Omega Centauri and 47 Tucana in this OTA.


113mm (4.5") f/4 Orion StarBlast

type : parabolic mirror
clear aperture : 113mm (4.5")
focal length :  450mm (f/4)
eyepieces : Orion Explorer II 17mm, 10mm, 6mm
other included accessories : single arm dob mount
finder : red dot
mount : dob

Got this cute lil scope from the Orion warehouse in Watsonville in NorCal on my recent work cum holiday trip to California. Was really lucky to get one as it was on backorder (yup visited their main showroom in Cupertino but they did not have it there). But after explaining to the store person that I came all the way from Australia, she called the manager and he agreed to let me have to floor model. Kudos to the legendary customer service at Orion. I now have firsthand experience of their great service!!! Anyway have been wanting to try out this scope for a while now so it was great to finally get my hands on one. There have been so many glowing reports from big names such as Phil Harrington and Geoff Gaherty. Since I got the floor model, there were some things missing such as the starguide CD and the collimation cap. But they did throw in an extra eyepiece, a 10mm Explorer II, in addition to the 17mm and the 6mm. The scope came pre-assembled and packed into a rather large box. The scope also comes with an Ez Finder II zero power finder. On inspecting the scope, the dob mount and the eyepieces, everything was in good working order. The eyepieces showed pleasingly green reflections, not the expected fully coated blue indicating multicoatings. Later testing showed them to be competent performers, even in such a fast focal length scope. I was amazed at how sharp the ep's were all the way out to the FOV. And eye relieve was good in the 17mm, doable in the 10mm and a little tight on the 6mm, with my glasses on. And there was no annoying spikes indicating good baffling. Comparisons with my many element mega FOV eyepieces showed that they allowed more light through. Must have been the number of elements as these are 4 element ep's as opposed to 7 to 8 element in the mega ep's. For instance the 6mm Explorer II showed brighter views than my 6mm TV Radian. Also I found that among my better eyepieces, the 20mm KK Widescan III showed the worse edge abberations with the view only staying sharp in the centre, with seagulls occupying the rest of the FOV, a sign of coma. Must be the function of its huge FOV (84 degrees FOV). And the parabolic mirror makes a big difference. High power views were sharp and color free. A big improvement over my Orion 80ST achro. Side by side comparisons showed that the StarBlast went slightly deeper (but not by much) in comparison to the Orion 80ST. Views were slightly brighter and there is more resolution on globulars like M22 in Sagittarius, M4 in Scorpius and NGC 6397 in Ara. Planetary views were also good and color free although I found that the Orion 80ST consistently gave sharper and more contrasty planetary views (I told you I got a good samples didn't I ;) I think refractors still rule when it comes to showing minute detail in planets, even one as fast as my 80ST. Also the dob mount is a big departure from those shaky aluminium stamped tripods. When placed on a bar stool, I can scan the heavens jitter free. Feels like I am soaring through the heavens in my StarBlast spaceship. My fave combo is the 17mm Explorer with the DGM Optics VHT. Scanning the heart of our milky way with this combo is breathtaking......M8, the lagoon and M20, the trifid nebula in the same FOV. I usually leave the 17mm Explorer II in the focuser for super quick jaunts into deep space on weekdays. I also find the EzFinder II to be very easy to use. having come from a powered finder school of thought. At a recent dark sky getaway, my observing buddy Yixin used this scope and judged it to be a tier above other newbie scopes due to the ease in finding objects using the zero powered finder. I am now a convert to this sort of finders, although I would still use the 50mm finder on my big dob. Having more time with this scope under dark skies have further cemented my love for wide field small scopes. They are such a joy allowing fantastic views of large objects such as the whole Veil Nebula and the North American Nebula in Cygnus (with the NPB in place of course). I now have a dilemma as I have two very wide fields scopes....which one to keep. I think I can justify have two of them :) Anyway I am going to get back to enjoying this great lil scope...later...


Eyepiece and Accessory mini review

24.5mm Meade SWA (1.25”, 67 degree FOV, Japan) : Currently my most used eyepiece, superceeding my previous most used eyepiece, the 32mm GS Super Plossl. This is an extremely well built eyepiece and is very substantial to hold (as in heavy). It is an older model SWA (made in Japan) and does not have rubber eyecups and it comes fully multi coated. The reason for me using this more is that it offers almost the same FOV as the 32mm Super Plossl at a higher magnification. The background is much darker and more detail is visible at this higher magnification. If there was a problem with this eyepiece, I would have to say that the field is not flat in an f/5 scope. This is to be expected. But only the outermost ¼ of the field is distorted with seagulls. With the barlow in, the field is much sharper almost all the way to the edges. Some distortion is still visible but you would have to look very hard.

20mm Orion Expanse (1.25”, 66 degree FOV, China) Got this used off Astromart. It is a rather nice ep with a very large eye lens. I use this extensively in the Orion 80ST at 20x as it is a nice “panning” ep. The background is not as grey as the 32mm at 23x in the C6 probably due to its smaller focal length and its gives a pleasing image scale in the 80ST. My only gripe with this ep is that it seems to have some sort of field curvature and the stars become seagulls about 20% out from the center (though not nearly as bad as the 11mm Chinese UWA). Best used barlowed. Very comfortable eye relieve and I can see the whole FOV. Also multi coated. I usually leave the UHC filter screwed onto this ep when I observe.

20mm KK Widescan III (1.25”, 84 degree FOV, Japan) Got this used off Astromart as well. Its a rather light ep considering the number of elements it houses. Fully multicoated with very nice barrel knurling, nice pliable rubber eyecups and check out the FOV on these. Eye relieve is a little on the tight side but if you put your eyes close enough, you can almost make out the incredible 84 degree FOV. Its like looking out through a porthole into space. This is a poor man's Nagler. The ep is very sharp at the center of the FOV and is noticeably sharper than the 20mm Expanse at both the center and at the edge of FOV. Surprisingly sharp even in two of my f/5 scopes (Orion 80ST and the 10" f/5 dob...the ep would not come to focus in my C6). I estimated it to be sharp till at least the last 1/4 of the FOV. On comparison, the FOV looked similar to the 24.5mm SWA.

9mm UWA (1.25”, 66 degree FOV, China) : My second most use ep in my collection. I tend to grab the 32mm Super Plossl, the 9mm UWA and the 6mm UWA when observing with the C6. Very comfortable eye relieve (no scrunching up to the ep), sharp to the edges (courtesy of its barlowed formula) and it gives a comfortable 166x with the barlow. This is the mag I routinely use when seeing is not up to the mark. This ep seems to be well baffled and I don’t detect any ghosting on brighter objects. My only gripe with this ep is that its field lens is set flush with the edge of the barrel so one must be careful when treading filters to this. Two of the best ep’s in this series.

6mm TeleVue Radian (1.25”, 60 degree FOV, USA): Got this brilliant TV eyepiece to replace the 6mm UWA that I was missing so terribly as the 5mm X-Cel gave too much power on my 6” scope for those not so steady nights. I find myself using 250x more frequently than 300x as the seeing seldom permits such high magnification. I get the same resolution as the 5mm X-Cel in any case. The FOV is slightly larger than the X-Cel and the contrast is markedly superior as there is no flaring on bright objects off axis. Also due to its barlowed nature, this ep is sharp to the edges and does not exhibit any edge of field distortions. One can allow a planetary disc to drift from one end of the ep’s FOV to the other end. Superb high powered and planetary ep that comes with 20mm of eye relieve and a very nice retractable barrel to adjust for non eyeglass wearers. My only gripe is its weight (this is one hefty chunk of glass) and its slightly warmer views on planets and the moon. I have compared the Radian side by side with the legendary Orthos and these do not give up much to the orthos other than the slightly warmish colors. Even the 5mm X-Cel was much better in this aspect! I also prefer to use this on its own without the barlow...fantastic high powered eyepiece.

Orion 2x Shorty Plus Barlow lens (1.25”, Japan): This is the deluxe 3 element APO version from Orion. Also found under the Celestron and Vixen brand as the Ultima barlow, this has been touted to be the best shorty barlow available in the market offering a full 27mm FOV and color free views. Personally after comparing the Shorty and Shorty Plus Barlow, I could not detect any difference in views. Both appear to give the same nice sharp contrasty views. I noted however that the Shorty Plus seem to give slightly more magnification than the Shorty. Contrast and color correction seemed similar to the Shorty to my untrained eyes.

DGM Optics VHT (Very High Throughput) and NPB (Narrow Passband Filter) 1.25". As the filters received rave reviews by Phil Harrington in a rather recent Astronomy writeup and both 1.25" filters were on sale, I decided to bite the bullet and see how well they perform. I could always sell my Lumicon UHC filter off if these two worked out well. After discount, I paid even less for both these filters than the Lumicon. Anyway to cut a long story short these filters are stupendous. They come in very nice round plastic filter cases that snap shut and both filters complement each other very well. The VHT filter is a mid-band filter (as opposed to broadband according to Dan McShane, the owner of DGM Optics) and it gives a very nice balance between bright stars (does not dim them as much and star colors are very natural) and nebulosity. I suspected this filter to be more than just broadband because I could make out a lot of delicate structural detail in M42's wings with this filter and was proven correct when Dan sent me that e mail. As for the NPB filter, this filter gives very high contrasty views (more contrasty than my Lumicon UHC). The background was significantly darker and I could make out added detail in M42's wings and Tarantula Nebula's swirls. Eta Carina was an awesome sight with the filter in with its dark lanes running everywhere in the 10" f/5 dob. My one gripe with the NPB is that stars take on an unnatural hue due to some color bleed reminiscent of the UHC filter. Overall both are great filters at budget prices.


Ex Equipment review:

6mm UWA (1.25”, 66 degree FOV, China): My third most used ep and one that I usually grab with the 32mm Super Plossl and the 9mm UWA. Big eye lens and tremendous eye relieve. Gives about 250x with the barlow in the C6 and this is my “globular cluster” buster. Also very good for smallish planetaries. Sharp to the edges (courtesy of its barlowed formula). My gripe with this ep is its baffling. This seems to be the worst among the UWA (Expanse) series in terms of baffling. It throws up a very large flare when a bright object is just outside its FOV and has extensive flaring on the moon and planets, obscuring detail. Highly not recommended for bright objects but brilliant for deep sky.

15mm UWA (1.25”, 66 degree FOV, China): This is my favourite ep for panning and for some “serious” study with the Orion 80ST. It is noticeably sharper to the edges than the 20mm Orion Expanse and gives a much darker background (and brighter objects due to the scale) at 27x. It still has pretty good eye relieve though not nearly as good as the 32mm Super Plossl and the 20mm Expanse. I have to get in close to see the whole FOV. This one probably has the shortest eye relieve of the whole Expanse series but the better ones in this series with regards to edge of field correction and flaring. Nice multicoated eye lens for all in this series.

5 mm Celestron X-Cel (1.25”, 55 degree FOV, China): My planet, globular and planetary buster ep. This one only gets out when the seeing is perfect (for 300x with the barlow). Less than perfect seeing and this ep with not focus sharply (which happens all too often). Has a huge eye lens and superb 20mm of eye relieve. Very nice fully multi coated optics as well. Also a barlowed formula and as such is sharp right to the edges. Very well baffled and there is very minimal flaring. In comparison to the 6mm UWA, it is light years ahead. Bright objects also appear more neutral toned in comparison to the 6mm UWA (probably due to its color correcting ED lenses). During moments of good seeing, globular clusters are plain awe inspiring. Resolves Omega and 47 Tuc brilliantly (as is M13 and M5!).

Orion 2x Shorty Barlow lens (1.25”, Taiwan): This is not Orion’s deluxe APO version. Its cheap and it serves the purpose. The previous owner blacked the lens edges and darkened the inner tube. Baffling now seems superb and I detect no ghosting with all my ep’s. The lenses seem to be multicoated. Not threaded for filters and it does not have the full 27mm field but gives up very little (if at all..I know I could not detect any difference) in comparison to the Shorty Plus.

Baader Moon and Skyglow filter (1.25”, Neodymium): A do it all filter for planets , the moon and hopefully DSO’s as well. I had to find a replacement for my “green” moon filter. As it is made of neodymium, other than cutting down some light, it also serves to isolate the RGB lines and as a result, the colors are more neutral. The moon looks distinctly greyish (rather than yellowish) in the 80ST and looks much like the views in my C6. It is also supposed to block some light pollution although I can’t really see an improvement (well maybe a little bit on M8 and M27). I eventually sold this filter as I find that I can still tolerate some chromatic abberation and hence was not really using it much.

Orion SkyGlow filter (0.965”, Japan): My first light pollution rejection filter. Definitely a marked improvement in bright emission nebula and planetaries from the suburbs, although the UHC showed heaps more subtle details and nebulosity. Also enhances the views of reflection nebula’s although not by much. What I did find is that it also improves the views of Jupiter and it does not cast weird shades of green as the UHC does. I eventually got rid of this filter due to its lack of use (plus it being in the 0.965’ size) although I still sometimes miss it.

Lumicon UHC filter (1.25”): How did I ever live before getting this. My most used accessory after the 32mm Super Plossl. This filter improves the views of bright emission nebula and planetaries incredibly (even in the small 80ST!). From my mag 5’ish suburban skies, M42 sprouts wings and tendrils, M8 occupies a large space with its dark lagoon etches into its nebulosity, the Trifid’s (M20) dark lanes are prominent and the Helix Nebula’s dark center is very visible. The Dumbbell Nebula appears almost photographic in appearance. From a dark sky in the 80ST, the whole Veil Nebula is visible as ghostly wisps and the North American Nebula sticks out. And handheld I can see the Rosetta Nebula....cool! My gripe with this one (seems like I have heaps of gripes!) is that its thread is very shallow and this does not work well with some ep’s (no grip at all!). Also there is some color bleed so stars appear unnatural in color.

11mm Chinese UWA (1.25”, 80 degree FOV. China): Got this out of curiosity. The FOV was huge but eye relieve was extremely short, the eye cups were not pliable (could not stay folded down) and it just does not go with short focal length scopes. Sold it in a jiffy as both my scopes were of a short focal length. The FOV was sharp only at the very center and was noticeably unsharp 30% out from the center.

20mm Guan Sheng Super Plossl (1.25”, 52 degree FOV, Taiwan): Fully coated and it has a nice metal body with knurling for grip, rubber eyeguards and came threaded for filters. The first of my higher quality eyepieces (note that all the Super Plossl eyepieces came from Guan Sheng-GS in Taiwan). A step above the Kellner’s that came with the scope. My most used eyepiece then. Perfect plossl with images sharp right to the edges. The only problem with this was its tighter eye relieve. Could not see the entire FOV with my eyeglasses on. Ended up selling this.

32mm Guan Sheng Super Plossl (1.25”, 52 degree FOV, Taiwan): I use this eyepiece the most among all the eyepieces’s in my collection (in the C6 at least and before the 24.5mm Meade SWA came along and spoilt me with the wider FOV). It offer’s a nice flat field almost free of aberrations and is sharp to the edges (well maybe some slight coma in the C6 at 23x but you had to look very very hard) even without the 2x Shorty barlow in place. From my mag 5’ish suburban skies 23x gives a very grey background. I prefer to use it at 47x with the Orion 2x Shorty barlow as the skies are markedly darker and the image scale is a little more pleasing. Eye relieve is very comfortable and I can see the whole FOV without any problems with kidney beaning. Also has the added bonus of being fully multicoated with a nice metal body, a knurl’s finger grip and is threaded for filters.

25mm Guan Sheng Super Plossl (1.25”, 52 degree FOV, Taiwan): This is one of the two 1.25" ep's that came with the 10" GS dob. Its a surprisingly nice ep with fully multicoated lenses (very evenly coated under inspection), knurled rubber grips, pliable rubber eye cups and even safety undercuts to prevent any mishaps (GS makes the best low cost astro equipment in my opinion). I had it checked out and compared with some of my current ep's and while the FOV was a very restrictive 52 degrees, I was astonished by the contrast and sharpness of the ep's. GS sure makes very good ep's for the price they change. However I decided to sell it off as I have been spoilt by my wider angle ep's.

9mm Guan Sheng Super Plossl (1.25”, 52 degree FOV, Taiwan): This is one the other ep that came with the 10" GS dob. Like the 25mm Plossl, it is also a nice ep with fully multicoated lenses, pliable rubber eye cups and even safety undercuts to prevent any mishaps. The only thing different about this ep was the lack of knurled rubber grips. Contrast and sharpness was very good as well but the tiny eye lens was very discouraging to eyeglass users like me. Ended up selling this as well.

12.5mm Guan Sheng Super Plossl (1.25”, 52 degree FOV, Taiwan): Fully coated with magnesium fluoride and also very sharp right to the edges. Came with nice pliable rubber eye cups and knurling on the barrel. Also threaded for filters (standard thread which was good). Very good medium powered ep and gave great views of Omega Centauri, 47 Tucana and the larger southern globs. However extremely tight in the eye relieve department. Sold this off.

6mm Celestron SMA (0.965”, China): Very sharp and well corrected ep. Too bad eye relieve was non existant and it was in the 0.965” format. Fully coated with a nice metal body and threaded for filters. Noticeably brighter than the 8mm Celestron HM ep probably due to the age of the ep and the coatings. Sold this as well.

25mm Celestron Kellner (0.965”, Japan): Very old ep now but still very good. Seldom used due to its 0.965” size. Kept this for sentimental reasons. Fully coated with a nice metal body and threaded for filters but no rubber eye guards. Gave very good low powered views of some of the larger Messiers and mated very well with my now defunct 0.965" Orion SkyGlow filter (threaded for filters) and very well built by todays standards. Was also used on my 3" and 6" equatorial scopes for testing.

8mm Celestron HM (0.965”, Japan): Served its purpose in the early and mid 80’s as my planetary ep. Eye relieve was non existent and it was not even as sharp as the 6mm Celestron SMA. Also fully coated. But it did show me Saturn's rings, Jupiter's two main equatorial belts and 4 moons and polar ice caps and surface markings on Mars at opposition in the mid 80’s so it can’t be all that bad. Threaded for filters and built much more solidly than the current crop of 0.965" eyepieces coming out of China.

25mm Kellner, 9mm Kellner and 6mm Kellner (1.25”, China): These were the original ep’s that came with the 6” E-Bay’ish catadioptric. Used the 25mm Kellner heaps (good eye relieve although the FOV was very limited….probably around 50 degrees). All of them came fully coated with nice uniform blue magnesium fluoride. No rubber fold down eye guards or knurling on the barrel though. I did not get to fully test out the other two smaller focal lengths due to the Cat’s limited resolving power and sharpness due to the built in barlow so I cannot really comment on the quality of these eyepieces. All I can say was that the eye relieve on these were minisicule. Also the threads were not standard and as a result I could not screw on any of my filters. Was only workable with the green “moon” filter that came with the scope. Sold them as well.