Small scope shootout.....it is becoming a habit

Hahaha as the title says I think I have a problem. I like small scopes and I love doing shootouts. Maybe it all stemmed from my love of testing out equipment and the joys of using simple uncomplicated scopes. I, for one, have always been an advocate of the KISS principle, be it in life, work and hobbies. All my scopes are easy to use. I did away with my EQ mount when I got the chance (and even when I was using the EQ mount, I would use it in alt-az mode!). The closest I have gotten to a semi complicated "scope" is my Celestron NexStar 102GT, but even then it is not that difficult to use. All my other scopes are mounted on either alt-az mounts or dobsonian mounts. Simple easy and effective. Just carry it out, downstairs or whatever, plop it on the lawn and away you go. No messing around with setting circles, polar aligning and all that mystical mumbo jumbo.

Which brings me to my small scopes. I love small scopes. They may not give you the deepest views of deep sky, or the brightest views under light drenched skies. But what they lack in size, they more than make up for it in heart. Also they literally scream at you to use them when the night is dark and clear, even when you are super tired after a days work! I have seen my fair share of small scopes over the years. Hell I started with a scope some people would scoff at, my Celestron Cometron CO40 (40mm f/20 refractor from a bygone era), but I persevered and look where I am today! Scopes I have gone through include my Cometron CO40 (which I still have!), a couple of 60mm scopes (both long (Kasai orange tube f/5) and short focal lengths (Cometron CO60, Meade 60mm, and one dud Japanese 60mm f/11, a 70mm scope (Celestron Powerseeker), 76mm reflectors (two f/9.3's, a blue tubed Explorer and a Orion Spaceprobe 3, featured here and two f/4's, a Celestron Firstscope and an Orion Funscope), a 80mm Orion ST, a 90mm "dud" ST, my Orion SkyScanner  reflector 100mm (featured here in the shootout), two 102mm refractors (my Celestron NexStar 102GT and a Synta blue tubed f/5) and three 4.5" reflectors (Meade 114mm bird-jones OTA and two Orion StarBlast (a dob and a imaging OTA). I don't regard anything above 4.5" as small so I have excluded my Celestron/Vixen C6 and the Celestron Powerseeker 127mm reflector. So yes I love small scopes.

So why shootouts. Shootouts are good as I love visual observing and I also like to push my scopes to their theoretical limit, both in terms of deep sky and also lunar and planetary. I generally find that if a scope somehow lacks optically, then everything else suffers. If I am going to be dealing with smaller apertures, I want the scopes to perform as well as they can be for their given aperture. Also shootouts brings out the deficiencies in scopes that otherwise would go unnoticed. Plus it is so much fun putting scopes head to head. So who are the contenders tonight? Well well seeing how well the Orion Spaceprobe 3 performed the last time it went head to head with a 70mm refractor, I though I would put it side by side with one of my current most used scopes, my Orion SkyScanner 100mm. The SkyScanner is a great scope and a terrific value (even though it has gone up in price and it is not as cheap as it is used to be). It comes with everything right out of the box, effective eyepieces, a good red dot finder and a totally robust mini one arm dobsonian mount! All one needs is a sturdy table or a stable photo tripod. I usually use mine on my Orion Paragon HDF2 mount. It is the perfect grab and go setup as everything can be carried with one hand, and it breaks down into smaller pieces for travel.

Now the Spaceprobe 3. While it may not be as small when broken down, it is still plenty portable, Just collapse the tripod after removing the triangular accesssory tray and you are good to go. Plus it is so light it can be carried with one hand. Orion even sells a carry bag for it, although I think you have to seperate the tripod from the OTA, which is annoying as there are no captive screws. I just carry the whole thing and plop in in the back of my car/van. So yes I can carry both scopes, down two flights of stairs and into my playground observatory in suburbia...easy peasy no probs. selecting objects for the shootout was easy too since it is winter and there are so many bright DSO's that are visible from light polluted skies! I chose similar objects from the last shootout, and threw some new ones in too. Here is my breakdown and verdict:

• M42, the Orion Nebula: an obvious test. Views with the Spaceprobe was again very contrasty. Nice dark velvety skies made the nebula stand out. The SkyScanner's background was noticeably greyer, even with the NPB filter in place.....BUT, the SkyScanner went deeper, revealing more of the outer wings than the SpaceProbe. Although I liked the views in the SpaceProbe, I prefered the image the SkyScanner threw up. +1 SkyScanner.
• M78, reflection nebula in Orion: this a harder one as it is moderately faint under light polluted skies. Still it is doable. M78 was visible in the SkyScanner wihout much effort. My notes read faint though. Still once I found it, I could hold it. This was not the case for the SpaceProbe. Much harder to hold, needed the OTA to be tapped and jiggled to be visible with averted vision. Notes read borderline visible. +1 SkyScanner.
• M45, the Pleiades cluster: Both threw up great bright views that were not very different in appearance. I prefered the view in the SpaceProbe due to its better contrast and flatter field (i.e. next to no coma). Coma was annoying in the SkyScanner, even after I used my better eyepieces, which improved the views. +1 SpaceProbe.
• Perseus double cluster: Both scope gave great views. Again the flatter FOV of the SpaceProbe gave a more aestetically pleasing view. However more of its dimmer suns were visible with the SkyScanner, even with coma. I preferred the deeper views offered up by the SkyScanner. +1 SkyScanner.
• Auriga Clusters M36, 38, 37: Same as above. Better shallow contrasty views in the SpaceProbe, but more stars visible with the SkyScanner. Preffered view SkyScanner. +1 SkyScanner.
• M31, the Andromeda Galaxy: Since the great galaxy was lower in the skies, the views weren't the best. But I had to have a galaxy in the field testing  for completeness. Again contrast was great in the SpaceProbe, BUT the SkyScanner just went deeper and M32 was easier to see, and the core of M31 was visibly brighter. +1 for the SkyScanner.
• Jupiter: The SpaceProbe beat the pants off the SkyScanner in this respect. No contest at all. High power images fell down above 100x for the SkyScanner, but the SpaceProbe just keep on soaking in the power. Very nice contrasty views of Jupiter and abundant detail in the belts at high mag when the seeing steadied. I am still amazed how much detail there is to see on Jupiter with this scope. +1 SpaceProbe.
• The waxing moon: Again the SpaceProbe kicked ass, as in SkyScanner ass. No contest here. The terminator region was a nice neutral color and the shadows were razor sharp and dark! Again high power was a non issue for the SpaceProbe. +1 SpaceProbe.

And the verdict, while I liked the SpaceProbe, if I had to choose just the one grab and go scope, I will still go for my SkyScanner. Its just goes deeper for deep sky, which is my fave past time (and the views are visibly brighter for most DSO's I looked at). I love looking at the moon and the planets, don't get me wrong. But there are heaps more to see with a bigger aperture and deep sky. I hate coma, but I have come to live with it, as all my scopes are fast scopes, and I have eyepieces that can deal with this, to some extent. When it comes to contrast, I guess I could flock my SkyScanner at some stage. It would probably still not look as contrasty as the SpaceProbe since the mirror is a hell lot closer to the mouth of the OTA. One thing to note though, I love the SpaceProbe mount. It is just so stable and easy to use, even more so than my dob mount. As I mentioned in my previous shootout, this mount is a joy to use. For instance I timed the mount and how long its damping time was. Took a whole 3 seconds after a sharp rap. By contrast, my SkyScanner on the Paragon mount took longer to settle. Will have to try the dob mount a picnic table the next time.

So yes we have come to the end of another epic showdown. depending on your observing habits, you could go either way. I am a dyed in the wool deep sky fanatic and would take bright deep sky views over super clear and contrasty views of solar system objects anyday. Your  preference might differ. that's what makes our hobby so special. Everyone is different. You make the choice......

Its the end of the year...time for....astro resolutions!

Well folks its that time of the year again. Time for renewal, time for change, time to dust off whatever you had good intentions at the start of the year to do, or finish and never got round to doing. Its funny how time flies past after making a to do list and discovering you have not even accomplished a single thing to check off that list. Its time to make good. What better time right?

I must admit that I did accomplish some of the things I set out to do, maybe not to my best ability, but I tried very hard. Last year I made a pact to myself to observe more (which I did since I discovered Solstice Canyon in Malibu, almost every new moon when the weather cooperated...and I did 4 runs out of the 6 to Pinos...good record), to get my 10" dob out to dark sky sites (which I did on two occasions to Mount Pinos thanks to our new Mazda5!), to sketch new objects (which I also did, although not as many as I would have liked, but still I did), to try to spread the joys of stargazing (which I did through friends and via selling beginner scopes on the internet), to try out more scopes (which I also did), to write more on my blog (which I tried to at every opportunity I got) and to dabble in astrophotography (which I did through afocal methods, wide field and also CCD camming).

So what's in it for me this coming new year. Lets see the list looks pretty similar to last years list, but I want to do MORE MORE and still MORE. I am going to break it down into points so I can really check off this list of TO DO's:

• Get my 10" out at every available opportunity, not just for runs to Pinos. That means using it at the mouth of Solstice Canyon Park.
• Plan my observing runs better. That means reading more and making list of objects to look at. No more random hopping around .
• Sketch at least 5 new objects at every session I get at Solstice Canyon (and Pinos in season). No excuses now since I have a tracking GOTO mount.
• Do more scope review articles and shootouts if time and money allows.
• Try out a SCT or Mak....if the opportunity arises and does not overstretch my budget.
• Look out for more good scope deals (got some excellent deals this year from Costco, Orion and Walmart!).
• Blog more (which I have been diligently doing anyways...its fun to be able to share my experiences with other like minded people).
• Use all my scopes equally....also hard when you have faves. And my current fave scope is my Celestron 102GT for the ease of finding stuff, plus it helps me sketch as it tracks..I need to use my C6 more frequently!
• Get my Meade DSI I color to work properly. No excuses anymore as I can use my Celestron 102GT for short exposures for stacking and I now have a Orion 0.5x focal reducer...have to get cracking on that one. I am still pretty much a visual observer by nature and it is really hard for me to get into the imaging mode when all I want to do is look and drink in views.
• Most importantly NOT avoid the moon but observe it, and the planets as well and not just DSO's!

Seems like that is it for the time being. I will probably be adding on to this list as time goes and when some crazy cockamamie scheme comes up in my delusional mind. Till then have fun, have a great holiday and clear dark skies......if I don't blog again before the year ends that is ;)

Small beginners scope shoot-out 8th of December 2012

Its funny how things sometimes don't turn out the way you want it to. My plan for tonight was to just take it easy and do some nice semi dark sky observing from my usual site at Solstice Canyon in Malibu. I had with me my Celestron NexStar 102GT and my new old stock Orion 76mm 3 SpaceProbe. I had plans to do a small scope shootout between the latter and the Celestron Powerseeker 70mm refractor, seeing how both have very similar apertures. However I deemed tonight to not be that night. Weather reports had the skies down as clear all night. But seeing how the weather has been so iffy the last couple of nights, especially with the marine layer and all, I was not holding out for a long observing session. But I did not intend for it to end the way it did either. I got to my site at about 10pm and hiked into the park, only to find that Terry was not there. No biggie. I will just set up and get some observing done myself. As it turns out I only managed 1 hour before the fog rolled in. The air was very moist and the OTA's were all drenched in dew. Geeze only managed to look at M42 and M31and its companion galaxies. So much for semi dark sky observing. After beating a hasty retreat and getting back on the road, I noticed the fog lifting as I drove away from Malibu. Turns out I should have just stayed at home!

It was 11.30pm by the time I got home. Seeing how the skies were clear, I decided to do what I had planned to do in the first place anyway, have a small scope shootout. I had recently acquired four small scopes (two Orion FunScopes) on my trip to NorCal over Thanksgiving. The two I was going to put head to head was the Orion SpaceProbe 3 and the Celestron Powerseeker 70mm. Its amazing what you can get for so little money these days. I remember back in the day I could not even afford a 60mm alt-az refractor with its pathetic 0.965" accessories. For less that a hundred greenbacks, one can get a fully functional telescope these days. All one has to do is be careful where you buy them from. Most scopes in these price range have fairly decent optics capable of opening up newbies to the wonders of stargazing. The bugbear of these scopes has always been their substandard accessories and totally inadequate mounts. Both these scopes had most things in the right place, decent optics, a okay if not fantastic alt az mount (which is easier to master and makes more sense on small scopes such as these...I do NOT recommend EQ mounts for beginners since it takes a while to get used to its motions) and some serviceable accessories.

The SpaceProbe 3 came with 25mm and 10mm Orion Explorer II 3 element eyepieces which looked to be fully coated and a pathetic 5x24 stoppered down finder (I got this scope on clearance as they were cleaning out their warehouse......for a crazy price so who can refuse?), a collimation cap, a short screwdriver for collimation and the primary mirror was center spotted (nice touch Orion!). The 70mm Powerseeker I purchased brand new. Also a fantastic Black Friday price. Scope came with an alt az mount not unlike the one on the Orion, but I noticed the legs were of a much thinner stamped aluminum. Unlike the Orion, this scope came with the preferred red dot finder (similar to the Orion EzFinder II), a plus point, an erect image diagonal, plastic Ramsden and HM eyepieces (20mm, 10mm and 6mm from memory) and a dinky plastic tubed 3x barlow. Other than the finder, everything else was a setback from the accessories that came with the Orion. Also the optics on these only seemed coated. I guess with a rather long focal length, this scope should perform okay.

As they say, the scope is only as good as the mount that holds it. This rings true, whether it be for advanced scopes costing thousands of dollars, or beginner scopes. The main problem with "departmental store" junk scopes has always decent to great optics mounted on junky tripods that quiver like jello when rapped. Both these scopes had similar looking mounts. But this is where the similarity ends. The Orion SpaceProbe had a really nice alt az mount that was a joy to use. The slow mo knob for altazimuth worked very well and I found myself thinking I was using a dob mount at times. The Sky and Telescope reviews for this scope had the same conclusion. The Powerseeker alt az mount looked similar to the SpaceProbe, on the surface. However the tripod legs and metal tripod head were of a lighter variety and not as stable. Vibrations took a hell longer to dampen down as opposed to the SpaceProbe 3.

With both the scopes setup, I was ready to roll. Its nice how light these scopes are. I managed to carry both of them downstairs easily. They also have adjustable tripods so they should accomodate kids (and kidults ;) of all heights. Plonking them down was easy enough. After getting the Powerseeker's finderscope aligned using Sirius, I set out to compare and contrast the scopes. Getting the right magnification to match both scopes was easy too as both had the same 700mm focal length. It was also fortuitious that the Spaceprobe 3 came with a 25mm Explorer II eyepiece to match my lowest power eyepiece, my Meade 24.5mm SWA. From the get go, I decided to use my Orion Dielectric diagonal on the Powerseeker to allow it to reach its maximum potential. I had four objects in mind for testing, Sirius A for star testing; M45, the Pleiades for star testing and flatness of field and coma, M42, the Orion Nebula to measure light throughput and finally the king of planets Jupiter and its four moons for clarity, sharpness and contrast. Summarised below are my findings:

Sirius A: Nice airy rings from the Spaceprobe 3. Star focused down to a nice point, with difrraction spikes visible. Powerseeker showed astigmatism and pinched optics. Would not focus down to a point. Pattern's on both sides of focus not symmetrical.
M45, the Pleiades: Same case as the above. Powerseeker had a flatter field of view and next to no coma. Field was not as flat in the SpaceProbe 3, but nevertheless views were outstanding. Probably due to its long focal length, coma was almost absent. I though I could detect some blurring towards the edges but that could be just me.
M42, The Orion Nebula: SpaceProbe 3 threw up brighter views, despite having a central obstruction. Contrast was also a tad higher on the Spaceprobe 3. This is funny as I expected the refractor to beat it hands down in this respect. Orion's wings were made even more apparent when I used the NPB filter in both the scopes.
Jupiter: No contest here. SpaceProbe wins hands down. This is surprising too as I expected the refractor to do well in this respect. Must have been the pinched optics or something (see below for details). The planetary disk was super sharp in my 6mm Radian, giving a magnification of 117x. Since Jupiter's opposition was just last weekend, the planet exhibited a huge disc with abundant detail. In addition to the two main equatorial bands, I detected at least two other thinner bands, as well as ruffling in the bands. The views were reminiscent of the 102GT and C6, although with slightly less resolution. I don't remember my firstscope, the navy blue 76mm Explorer alt az giving such good planetary views. Must have been the collimation.

Due to the substandard performance of the Powerseeker, I decided to tinker with it in the daytime to see what could be causing its poor performance. Every refractor I have encountered so far has been good off the bat, with the exception of a crazily stoppered down 60mm Japanese scope (JUNK) and the 90mm ST plastic piece of junk I got from Hong Kong. Looking down the business end of the scope , I could see that there was indeed a plastic retaining ring holding down the air spaced achromatic lens. I loosened this, held the OTA upright and gave it a few raps to make sure the objective sat properly in place. I also checked it collimation and found it a little off. The main problem is the plastic focuser drawtube. There is too much play in it when one racks in and out. This is indeed a problem. I wonder if one could wrap some sort of tape around the drawtube to reduce the "play"(Addentum: There are two small set screws at the top of the focuser that can be used to shim the drawtube to remove the slop. Will give that a go and give you guys an update). That is a real bummer as I was all ready to embrace the 70mm Powerseeker as the new entry level 60mm scopes of the past. Celestron will have to work out the kinks and probably have better QC if this scope is to be a contender. Maybe I am being too harsh, but at that price point, there are better alternatives to this scope.

In conclusion, the Orion SpaceProbe 3 came out tops and I can heartily recommend it as a beginner scope. As it has a long focal length, it will give brilliant sharp views of solar system objects, something that beginners usually gravitate to when starting. The accessories that come with it is sufficient that one does not feel the need to get additional accessories. Also it has a rather sturdy mount and is height adjustable to it can appeal to kids of all ages, putting the eyepiece at just the right height to avoid bending and kneeling. 76mm gathers more light than the defacto beginners scope, the 60mm refractor, so one can start to hunt down some of the brighter DSO. While the FunScope is a great bargain and can be an introduction to the hobby, I personally feel that this scope will be used longer since it provides a good range of magnification. The FunScope is only good for low powered views, and from experience, anything above 50x magnification becomes blurry, no matter how well you collimate the optics. Its just the nature of the beast when you have such a short focal length spherical mirror. It is a good introduction, spur of the moment scope you want to break out when seeing is not optimal. By contrast, the SpaceProbe 3, with its almost diffraction limited optics can be brought out and used as a serious observing scope. I disagree with many that small scopes cannot be used as a serious deep sky scope. With dark enough skies and persistence, I don't think you can exhaust all there is to see with such a scope.

Small scope shootout from Solstice Canyon, Malibu, 10th of Nov 2012

This has probably been in the works for a while now. I have not done a side by side shootout between two similar aperture scopes for some time. Seeing how my small'ish scopes have continued to "breed", I felt this was as good a time as any. These two scopes also compliment each other very well as I can use one of them to take quick peeks, whilst the other goes on it merry electronic way, whirling and clicking as it searches out its quarry. The two scopes I am referring to are my Orion SkyScanner 100mm and Celestron NexStar 102GT. One is a newtonian refractor, and the other a long focal length doublet achromat. Its funny how one equates to a 100mm reflector as being a small beginner scope, while a 102mm refractor is regarded as a serious intermediate scope. I have also not had such a "big" refractor in my arsenal, since selling both my short tube scopes back in oz (Orion 80ST and Synta 102mm f/5). I also briefly owned a really dodgy chinese made "plastic" tubed 90mm ST, which I obtained from Hong Kong some years ago that was great for terrestrial views but terrible for night sky views.

 

Anyways I have had the Celestron NexStar 102GT for more than a month now and have had time to work out all its idiosyncracies and  kinks. There were issues with getting the GOTO to work properly, optimizing the visual views, etc etc. See my last blog post about this. The GOTO now works really nicely and battery life seems to be very good despite what a lot of people have mentioned, so much so I don't feel the need to get a Celestron Power Tank (well I did consider getting a cigarette lighter power cable). I also noted that it was pretty cold that night, maybe not as cold as Pinos on my previous trip. The batteries and the GOTO did not fail me this time. Thank goodness.

I arrived at my semi rural Solstice Canyon site at a little past 10.30pm and set up my scopes side by side (literally). My Orion SkyScanner found itself perched on its usual mount, the Orion Paragon photo tripod. Setting up the 102GT was much easier. Just slide the dovetail of the OTA into the groove of the fork mount, plug in the hand controller and the power source and there ya go. I tried to replicate similar FOV and magnification's for both scopes since the the SkyScanner has about half the focal length of the 102GT (400mm versus 1000mm) by using my lowest powered ep, the 13mm Orion Stratus in the SkyScanner for 31x magnification and the 24.5mm Meade SWA for 41x. I then proceeded to hit several DSO's over the course of three hours. Familliar objects were easy, whilst with harder ones, I tried to copy the starhop the GOTO used.

Started off with showcase objects such as M42, the Orion Nebula, M45, the Pleiades, M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, M33, the Triangulum pinwheel galaxy, M76, the Little Dumbbell Nebula, NGC 2392, the Eskimo Nebula, NGC 7662, the Blue Snowball Nebula, M1, the Crab Nebula, M78, Orion reflection nebula, M79, Lepus Globular as well as some open clusters such as M35 (Gemini), M36/37/38 (Auriga), NGC 869/884 (Perseus) Double Cluster. Later in the night I decided to trawl the galaxy rich Fornax/Eridanus region for southern galaxies. It was fun to once again visit NGC 1365, 1300, 1316 among others. Here are my eyepiece impressions of all objects:

M42 (Orion Nebula) Nice looking. Outer tendrils more obvious without the NPB filter in place when looking through the refractor. Wider FOV in SkyScanner made for a more asthetically pleasing views, but with NPB in place.
M45 (Pleiades) Cleaner looking stars in the refractor but once again the SkyScanner threw up a nicer wide FOV view
M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) More contrasty views of the galaxy's dust lane in the refractor, but I liked the wide FOV views given by the SkyScanner as it showed the full expanse of the galaxy
M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) The wider FOV tended to concentrate the galaxy better, but the refractor threw up very contrasty views at its lowest magnification
M76 (Little Dumbbell Nebula) Both scopes gave better views of this smaller object, although the refractor again wins out with its more contrasty views
NGC2392 (Eskimo Nebula) Its a running trend here. Small objects requiring magnification do better in the refractor. Its amazing how little if any false color there is on these objects. I can start to make out the dual ring nature, which is way more obvious in my 10".
NGC7662 (Blue Snowball) Again views in refractor wins here. Little internal detail is visible though. Small planetaries are best viewed at ridiculous magnifications in big scopes, such as my 10"
M1 (Crab Nebula) Again the refractor wins out. The nebula just seemed more defined with "harder" edges
M78 Much like the crab nebula, the edges just seem more defined in the refractor. Maybe I have to flock my SkyScanner.
All galaxies appeared better in the refractor, probably due to its superior contrast. The background was just darker in the refractor. I am wondering if flocking the SkyScanner OTA would level the playing field.
Larger open clusters looked prettier in the SkyScanner, if one ignores the seagulls cause by coma closer to the edges of the FOV. Smaller open clusters looked very pretty in the refractor, again due to its superior contrast.

So in conclusion, planetary views are heaps better in the refractor. I also found that the refractor can be pushed to higher magnifications with minimal image breakdown, in comparison to the SkyScanner. I generally found the images optimal at about 100x magnification for the SkyScanner. In that aspect, the refractor threw up nice and more contrasty images of small planetary nebulae and planets. Brightness between both scopes was on par, and detail in objects was just a tad better in the refractor. I am not sure if this is due to the unobstructed aperture of the refractor, or its superior contrast, since viewing DSO's is all about the contrast between the sky and the object in question. The other thing that was annoying in the reflector that was absent in the refractor was the size of the sweet spot where the field remained aberration free. With the short focal length reflector, the off axis coma was annoying as anything that was not in the center of the FOV was distorted (i.e. hard if you were trying to sweep up some planetary nebula as you could not distinguish the stars from the planetary nebula). So which scope would I choose. This is a hard one as both scopes compliment each other so well. Both fill a roll, even when used in tandem. The big plus is both scopes are light and can be carried in one sitting when using my Orion carry bag. I rather carry these two scopes than the C6 by itself on the Vixen Porta, my previously most used scope. That says a lot. The Orion SkyScanner is a great waiting for the GOTO, super duper quick wide field scope. And speaking of wide field, the SkyScanner is an excellent panning scope. This is something I cannot do with the longer focal length 102GT refractor. Also using the dob mount is pure joy when panning. The GOTO mount cannot be used for panning as it can only move manually in altazimuth.

So what's up next? I think I am getting shootout fever. I recently purchased some small scopes over the Thanksgiving/Black Friday period and I am hoping to pan some of these scopes off to newbies with the hopes of igniting their passions for stargazing. The two interesting scopes that will go head to head include a Orion 3 inch SpaceProbe which I got for a good price on clearance from the Cupertino Orion store, and also a 70mm Celestron Powerseeker I got off Walmart. And when the dust finally settles, I will pit my most used scope to date, my Celestron/Vixen C6 on Vixen PortaMount against my Celestron 102GT. I am sure the GT will hold its own in terms of planetary and lunar views. DSO's might be more of a stretch...stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i.e. photos taken by Terry Nakazono on a different observing run. We were only there from 11pm to about 2am.

My first GOTO scope....a Celestron/Costco NexStar 102GT

 The accidental discovery

This was totally unanticipated and was never in the works, well sort of, but not this way. One Friday evening, like we always do after having dinner, we would just go to our nearby Costco warehouse to window shop and get the usual stuff, such as groceries, clothes, etc. I usually walk my lil girl around, either in the trolley basket, or by foot. To keep the lil one entertained, I would usually bring her to the toy section. In that same alley, Costco also stocks electronics such as synthesizers, keyboards, electronic drums, you know the usual budget fare (well not everything is cheap though). This time round, whilst perusing the aisles, I chanced upon a gleaming grey scope on a GOTO mount. From its one arm fork mount visage, I immediately recognized it as Celestron's beginner NexStar series scope. From its rather fat OTA, I made it out to be at least a 4" scope. I was right! But from experience, I knew they were selling NexStar's in this size that were short tubes (i.e. 500mm or f/5 scopes). I have had in the past "briefly" owned such a beast of an OTA, after having such a blast with my Orion 80ST. While an achromat, the f/5 80mm scope was a pretty decent performer at high magnifications. There was of course the warm hues from the glass being achromatic, but the color was well controlled. There was no purple haze, or multi-colored neon lights hiding behind the moon. The planets look really nice and sharp, after using similar sized newtonians. It was not so much the sharpness, but more the contrast. Refractors just have superior contrast. Objects are usually framed by nice dark background. Its bigger brother, the 102mm f/5 was totally different animal though. For one the OTA was heaps heavier, making its use on a photo tripod unbearable. Color was also very apparent on every bright object, washing out minute detail. Needless to say I did not hold on to the OTA very long.

So I was really happy to find that this particular NexStar came with a longer focal length, two times the focal length of its short tube brethren. Clocking in at a nice 1000mm, this scope had a f/10 focal length. That translates to better color correction, sharper images and less edge of field distortion. Looking down the working end of the scope, I noted the nice green, purple coatings on the achromatic objective lens. There was minimal reflections coming off the objective indicating good multi-coatings for less light loss. Also I did not see a baffle directly behind the objective. Lesser quality scopes tend to have their full aperture stoppered down to minimize aberrations. Other accessories that came with the scope include a nice red dot finder, not so different from those Orion Ezy Finder's found on most of their beginner scopes. I used to scorn at these zero magnification pointers, but ever since using one that came on my Orion StarBlast, I have grown to appreciate them. While the glass is tinted and you cannot see anything but the brightest stuff through them, they are very intuitive to use, especially if your instrument is a wide field one. Getting the object of study in the ballpark, you can then pan around to find it. I guess by itself, the red dot pointer would be a poor  choice for a scope of this focal length. However since this was a GOTO scope, this finder made more sense. It also cuts down on the weight of the OTA, so the already inadequate mount would have better damping characteristics. The OTA also has a very nice focuser with metal focuser knobs (which is lined with rubber for a better grip).

This package comes with a nice foam lined plastic container with a five eyepieces set, a 20mm, 12.5mm, 10mm, 6mm and 4mm eyepiece. Unfortunately, the quality of the eyepieces leaves a lot to be desired. While they are the preferred 1.25" barrel size eyepieces, the optical design of these eyepieces are not in sync with times. They are of the Huygens and Symmetrical Ramsden designs that used to come with scopes of the 60's and 70's. These designs employ two lens elements to give very narrow field of views, very poor color correction and ridiculously tight eye relieve. While these eyepieces are okay for longer focal length scopes, they are very poor performers in faster scopes. I guess they would be okay for this OTA, but I could not use them as I need my glasses on when observing. Well this set would make a great upgrade set for a small long focal length refractor using a hybrid 0.965" to 1.25" diagonal. The other accessory this package came with was a correct image 45 degree prism telescope diagonal. While fine for terrestrial views, I found that its performance was less than starry (pun intended) under the night sky. This diagonal was firstly a prism diagonal. Testing it under the stars showed that it was letting less light through. Also the star images were not as sharp or as contrasty. I ended up replacing this with a Orion 1.25" dielectric star diagonal, and this greatly improved the views of night time celestial bodies. Jupiter looked surprisingly crisp, with abundant detail. More on this later.

The mount itself was very intuitive to setup. I like it how Celestron scopes now come with a very well written instruction manuals, as well as a pictorial quick setup guide (for dummies lol!). All one needs to do is look through the quick setup guide quickly, and one is ready to start assembling the scope. This was the same for the 127mm Celestron Powerseeker I obtained a couple of years ago in oz. Seeing how this was my first motorized/computerized mount, I was keen to get it setup so I could play around with it. The mount came in two pieces (not counting the accessory tray which is very easy to put on, the battery holder and the NexStar hand controller). All one needs to do is to unfold the three tripod legs, align the fork arm assembly base to the top of the tripod in the tripod mounting platform, and then attach  the assembly onto the tripod by threading the coupling screw into the hole at the bottom of the fork arm assembly. And wala the mount it ready. All one needs to do now put the accessory tray in place by aligning the tabs and then turning it till it clicks in place, plugging in the NexStar hand controller and then putting 8AA batteries into the battery pack and plugging that in. My gripe with the mount was firstly it was not adequate to handle a OTA this long. Celestron did try to remedy this by adding tubular legs to the tripod. However this was still not enough. They probably should have provided the mount with 2" tubular legs! To get the mount to dampen down quicker, one could possibly hang weights off the middle of the mount to weight it down, or use specialized vibration damping pads. Also this mount lacks an on/off switch. To turn off the mount, one would have to physically unplug the "external" battery pack (yup unlike its more expensive cousins, this NexStar does not have an enclosed battery holder) from the fork arm. Not so cool in my opinion!!!!

Under the Stars

Here comes the litmus test. I was keen to get the scope under the stars to firstly test out NexStar's three star alignment I have read so much about (sic) and how well the scope tracks.  Was also keen to check out how good the scope optics were and if the longer focal length made a difference in terms of chromatic aberration and contrast. First night out was under indifferent Los Angeles skies. Tried the three star alignment. Big FAIL. Did not try any of the other alignment procedures so spent the night checking out the optics. Looks at a couple of bright open clusters and Jupiter. My thoughts were meh...okay views...not great. Color correction was surprisingly good. It was on par with the Orion 80ST if not better. Okay views turned to great views when I replaced the correct image diagonal with a Orion Dielectric star diagonal. Images were wayyy sharper and brighter. Jupiter revealed a level of belt detail that rivaled my 6" Celestron/Vixen f/5 newtonian. All that you have read about the crummy correct image diagonal is true. This is one of the field things that needs replacing if all you want to do is look at stars. Open clusters looked gorgeous with the pitch black background thrown up by the refractor's superior contrast (and this from light polluted skies no less) . I spent quite a bit of time on M45, the Pleiades and the double cluster in Perseus.

Did not get the GOTO working till Terry stumbled on the two star align and got it to work. It seems that the three star align only works from pitch black skies (personal communication from Terry while testing his Costco scope out from the All Arizona Star party). Two star align works just fine from light polluted skies. The trick to get the GOTO to work properly is to make sure you get the location, date, and time as close to perfect as possible. Also make sure your mount is level (check the bubble level). Most important thing however is the batteries. they have to be fresh and not affected by the cold (as I found out when I was at Mount Pinos....GOTO refused to work!). Also when centering the alignment stars, always use high mag and defocus the stars to get them as dead center as you can. Trust me when it comes down to centering DSO's in the ep's, it really helps to get the alignment stars as close to the center as possible for accurate GOTO. I also found from personal experience that the NexStar align favour some stars over others. Not sure if it is just the placement of the alignment stars or something else. Once aligned, NexStar can place the object pretty close to the center, if not the center of the FOV. Have not tested to see how long the tracking motors can keep the object centered, but from my short forays, it seems to do a pretty nifty job.

The Verdict?

This has got to be one of the hottest deals in the telescope world right now. For the price, one could do far worse than purchasing this scope. In the price range, other good buys for beginners include Orion's battery of beginner scopes (70mm Explorer, Orion SkyScanner table top scope, Orion StarBlast 4.5 on either mini dob or EQ mount). This scope is, however a full fledged GOTO scope with tracking. Although I usually scorn at the idea of recommending a GOTO scope to a beginner (I myself am a "dyed in the wool hardcore" starhopper), this would make a great first telescope, when presented together with a good beginners book such as "Turn Left at Orion". Although the accessories are not the best, they are enough to allow newbies to gain access into the observing world of visual astronomy. If one is resourceful enough, one could also do some basic astrophotography with this setup, seeing how the GOTO works pretty spot on, and tracking seems to be pretty good. But more on this in a later post. Till then do yourself a favour and go out and buy one, if you have not already done so. remember that you can only get this special price at Costco. This scope sells for more than $200 on e Bay!

Last Pinos run for the year...and a solo adventure too.....kewl 13th October 2012

I had to get out. I just had to. This would be the last trip to my fully dark-dark sky site, before winter sets in and it gets too cold, with snow, blah blah blah. Anyways I also had another reason to get out there.....to test out my new Celestron/Costco 102GT scope. I have had issues with the GOTO (which will be covered in detail in an upcoming review of this very same scope!) so I was hoping that would stay away. Anyways had the car packed and I was ready to bolt at about 7pm! I had with me my trusty 10" f/5 GS dob (its second dark sky run way up here in the northern hemisphere) and my Celestron/Costco NexStar 102GT. Its amazing how light the whole GOTO setup is, way lighter than my Celestron/Vixen C6 and Vixen Porta Mount. This scope also fit in my Orion carry case really well and I had no problems zipping the whole case up. Got to love good, light and portable setups. I was also hoping to shoot (no pun intended!) for some DSO shots with my Meade DSI, which up until now has not logged any imaging time due to backfocus issues with all my short focal length newts. Hopefully this longer focal length refractor would solve my focusing issues.

The drive there was pretty uneventful. Traffic was nice and light at this hour and I had just added new movie soundtracks to my iTouch. Blasting the music while driving is definately recommended as I got pumped just listening to my playlist. My new fave new tracks include Transformer Prime and the new Batman Rises theme song. Got to love Brian Tyler and Hans Zimmer!!! Music really makes for a good companion whilst driving on the road and flying solo. I was in pretty high spirits, right up to when I got closer to my exit. Where did all this fog come from!!!!!! OMG I was freaking out. I had to get gas and a drink so I stopped at my usual gas station. But man oh man was the fog was thick. As I filled my car up, thoughts were racing through my head...should I turn back, should I head to Malibu, should I just give up and go home? Thankfully I decided to press on. As I drove towards the summit, the fog lifted. Whew. I ended up pulling over at the very same spot Terry and I found the last time we were there. I did not feel like driving all the way up to the summit. This was a much shorter drive, plus I get a un-obscured views of the southern sky. No pine trees to block my view!!!!! The only drawback to this site is the frequent passing cars and their pesky headlights. Well I was just glad to be out there ;)

First order of the night for me was testing out the new GOTO scope and to see if I can get the DSI to work with it. After unpacking the car (in a hurry too as I was keen to get stuff underway). Got the dob out first and checked its collimation. Then turned on my wifey's PC laptop, unpacked and set up the NexStar, connected the handset and the battery pack. This is when the frustration started to kick in. Did the two star alignment, as usual. NexStar read alignment success. Used the GOTO....big FAIL. It was slewing to the wrong spot every time. I realigned the GOTO, selecting different alignment stars this time.....NexStar read alignment fail. Tried auto two star alignment...FAIL, 3 star alignment FAIL. Dammit. At this point I was getting really pissed off. I have read that the batteries had to be fresh to get he GOTO to work properly. Since I had done about 2 1/2 hours on the 8 Duracell AA batteries, I figure it would still have some way to go (some sites on the internet state that 8 AA batteries can last up to 10 hours...I was being more conservative and cut that time in a half). Well that was not the case. Looking back I was wondering if the cold had anything to do with this. It was cold that night. Got down to about 0 degrees Celcius! Will have to test the batteries again when I get home to a warmer climate!

Not wanting to waste anymore time (the center of our milky way was long gone by then, even when I pulled up to the observing site ), I decided to do what I do best, manual star-hopping and visual observing. I was keen to at least sketch one new object tonight, and check out some other DSO's that I have not seen for a while (or not at all). Got good views of the usual suspects. Started off with a tour of the summer planetaries. First stop was M57, the ring nebula. Then turned to M27, the dumbbell nebula. With the 10" extra resolving power, I got excellent views of NGC 6826, the blinking planetary in Cygnus. Internal detail easily visible at 208x with the 6mm Radian. Also looked at M76, the little dumbbell in Perseus, a bipolar planetary. It is interesting to note that from a lower elevation, the DGM NPB filter made these nebulae stand out better. This was the same case for the Veil Nebula in Cygnus and the Helix Nebula in Aquarius. Speaking of the Helix Nebula, this is the first time I am seeing it from northern skies, and with my 10" no less. The views were pretty spiffy, with whispy detail visible in the nebula with the NPB filter in place.

Also looked at some pretty open clusters, the most outstanding being the double cluster in Perseus and M45, the Pleiades. Scrutinized some galaxies too, such larger galaxies as M31/32, the Andromeda Galaxy, M33, the great spiral in Triangulum, M76 in Pisces, M77 and its surrounds in Cetus and finally, I looked at NGC 253, the Silver Coin galaxy in Sculptor. This remains my fave southern galaxy after the LMC and SMC. The views were heaps better from dark skies. Mottling was very evident in the 10" and the spiral structure was evident (not as evident as from oz, but heaps better than from say Malibu). Wanted to give NGC 55 in Sculptor a go, but this was hidden behind a hill when I went for it. Oh and yes I sketched NGC 772 in Aries the ram. Not much detail visible.

As the night progressed, it got colder and colder. The wind chill did not help either. I was getting chilled to the bone and the winds keep up its buffeting of my monks hood. I was kinda glad the GOTO did not work. It would have been impossible to keep the images from jumping around. Ended the night....and my Pinos run for 2012 with a gorgeous view of M42, the great nebula in Orion. Never get tired of looking at its green/subtle pastle colored visage at low mag in the 10". I actually prefer the views of M42 from a dark sky site without the NPB filter screwed in. My plans for the next few months would probably be focused on getting some imaging down from my light polluted playground as I attempt to master my GOTO scope and Meade DSI CCD camera. I might take an occasional trip out to Malibu but we will see what happens. The call of dark skies can be pretty hard to ignore......

Mini Reports: Dark sky getaway 8th (Mount Pinos) and 15th of September (Solstice Canyon, Malibu)2012

I am going to lump two reports into one post so bear with me. It has been about a month since my last dark sky visit due to my recent trip home to Malaysia/Singapore. I did do some stargazing while I was back there with my trusty Celestron Cometron CO40 and my nephews Celestron Powerseeker 127mm OTA on photo tripod. Seeing how we just collected our new Mazda5 minivan, I decided it was time to give my 10" some dark sky time. It has been more than 2 years since this scope has seen ancient DSO starlight. In fact in the 2 years or so I have been in LA, the scope has only been out twice under indifferent light polluted skies. Needless to say I was itching to let my 10" stretch its DSO chops once again. So after taking three trips down two flights of stairs, the 10" was ready to make its pilgrimage to Mount Pinos. The targets.......the centre of our milky way, as well as some northern skies goodies it has never had the opportunity to catch. Terry my observing buddy came with me on this trip. He had with him a new set of observing gear. Gone is the SkyScanner and Manfrotto tripod. In its place a spanking new Orion StarBlast 4.5" on Vixen MiniPorta. He purchased a Orion StarBlast 4.5 EQ. We left pretty late as I went factory outlet shopping that very day. Since it was late, we decided to just find a spot somewhere along the way up to Pinos (closer to Lockwood Valley). One advantage of this site was the unobscured southern sky, allowing up full view of the southern sky goodies. We arrived at that site just after 10pm. The centre of our home galaxy was still visible, so after unloading the scopes (I had with me my trusty 10" GS dob, and my cute blue tubed 60mm 80's Meade refractor (Its second Pinos run).

First up nebulae M8, M20, M17, M16. All were awesome in the 10" with my 24.5mm Meade SWA with DGM NPB filter despite their lower elevation. I could not frame both M8, the lagoon and M20, the trifid in the same filed of view. Using my lowest mag ep, a 24.5mm SWA Meade, I could only manage 51x, the downside of a larger scope with a longer focal length. M8 appeared mottled, with its nebulosity punctuated by dark nebulae and the lagoon lane stood out boldly. M20, the trifid showed its dark lanes easily. I then perused globular alley, starting with the grand daddy of the Sagittarius clusters, M22, then moved onto M28, M55 and M54, M70, M69. After scrutinizing what Sagittarius had to offer, both at low mag and at higher mag, I moved onto Scutum and its riches, focusing particularly on M11, the wild duck cluster. I then turned my attention on some of the other summer wonders such as M57, the ring nebula, M27, the dumbbell nebula, North American Nebula and Veil Nebula. Then it hit me....I really really miss my 10". The Veil was as intricate as a photograph, showing braided structure with the 24.5mm eyepiece and the DGM NPB filter. The North American and Pelican were viewed in portions due to the longer focal length of the dob, but was nevertheless detailed. I also looked at some other objects that I had not looked at in recent times such as M2 and NGC 7009 (Saturn Nebula) in Aquarius and NGC 7662 in Andromeda. Now this is where aperture starts to make its presence felt. I could push the magnification wayyyy up to between 200 and 400x (my max magnification in this scope with the 6mm Radian and Orion Shorty Plus 2x barlow) without light loss. Internal detail was abundantly obvious in these smaller planetary nebulae. I also looked at the little dumbbell (M76) for the first time with so much aperture. Even M57 showed more (variation in intensity in the ring) and M27 too on a football appearance with the "hollow" areas filling out with nebulosity. I love planetary nebulae!!!! They are just so fun to look at if you have sufficient aperture to make them look different.....

Other objects viewed that night include M31 and its companions (also could not fit this in the FOV so I had to pan around), M33, the double cluster in Perseus and two new objects Terry pointed out in Cepheus, NGC 6946 (galaxy) and NGC 6939 (open cluster). Did my first sketch in ages! Now I am raring to sketch even more objects! Final objects of the night include M45 (the Pleiades), M42 (the Orion Nebula) and good old Jupiter. It was a great night all in all. My only gripe was that they closed the 405 freeway on my home stretch and we had to take a detour...sheesh!!!!!

Malibu run

Okie this is going to be ultra short since I basically looked at similar stuff, just with less aperture. I had with me my C6 6" f/5 newt on Vixen Porta Mount. I just had to get out there, and seeing how it was the new moon weekend (yup I jumped the gun with Pinos and went there during the last quarter moon that rose pretty late at about 1.30am). Also Malibu has not had the best weather for stargazing in months (last trip there was in May!!!!!!!!!), thanks to the marine layer. The only new DSO's I looked at included Sculptor galaxies NGC 55 and NGC 253. These two were my staple galaxy diet from down under. Both appeared a pale reflection of their former glories. With their lower elevation this was expected. Still its nice to know that I still have access to some of my fave southern sky friends. Not much detail in these. Will have to check them out when I go to Pinos this weekend with my 10", weather permitting of course. So yes here is my report...up next Pinos take four for this year.....and a scope review of my all new Celestron/ Costco 102 NexStar GT....an amazing scope for the price!!! Stay tuned!!!!!