Blessed with the rare clear sky last night, I took out the 6" Dob and finally did some observing. With it being in the high 20's, I didn't bother to use the Intelliscope Computer, just decided to pan around a bit and see what I can see.
M42 - Wonderful as usual. I'm so impressed by this 6" and its ability to provide tight stars and contrasty views. My 8" SCT is collecting dust.
Trapezium - with an 18MM SWA Meade 4000, all 6 stars, thats A,B,C,D,E, and F visible. WOW is all I can say.
M41 - Nice OC. Visible in my 6x30 RACI finder
M47 - Nicer then M41 IMO. I like the diamond star formation about middle of cluster
M46 - A favorite OC because of NGC 2438 PN. With my not so very dark site, it was visible but I really wish to catch it when I'm at a truely dark site. Surprised me how nice it was, gosh I love the tight pin-point images of this Dob.
Waited a few hours for Leo to rise higher and of course had to visit Saturn for the first time in a very long time.
Saturn - With the 18MM (68x), disk was small but still could decern some detail, and the rings were edge on and thus closed and formed a line right across the face. Pumped the power up using a barlow (138x), and the image was fantastic. I could barely see a hint of the widening of the bands on either side of the planet, cool effect. Definetly could see some cloud details, a whitish wide area just center of planet and right above the rings. Now decided to pump up power by using my 6mm Ortho (~200x), and the view did not dissapoint. Atmospheric conditions were more prevenant with this EP, but when the seeing permitted, sharp views were very rewarding. Now I could see that there were some suttle color variations on the surface of the planet. Feeling adventurous, I decided to barlow the 6mm, and go for 400x, thats right 400x. Now my 8" SCT could never really give me nice views above 200x and only once did I view higher than
this with the 339x that this 6mm provided. In fact the last time I pushed
to this power was 2002 Cathedral Gorge Star Party, and fancy that my
target was Saturn. So with this 6" dob, I thought this high of magnication would provide nothing but mush. However I was encouraged by the very crisp view with the 6mm was giving at 200x, so I thought I would try more. My jaw dropped. I was shocked to have a very dim, but still detailed view of Saturn wisking by in the very narrow field of view. I did prefer the 200x image better, it was brighter, but the simple fact that this scope could take that kind of power and still provide a view that you could observe details and use, astounded me and reassured me that this scope was indeed a winner.
M42 - Wonderful as usual. I'm so impressed by this 6" and its ability to provide tight stars and contrasty views. My 8" SCT is collecting dust.
Trapezium - with an 18MM SWA Meade 4000, all 6 stars, thats A,B,C,D,E, and F visible. WOW is all I can say.
M41 - Nice OC. Visible in my 6x30 RACI finder
M47 - Nicer then M41 IMO. I like the diamond star formation about middle of cluster
M46 - A favorite OC because of NGC 2438 PN. With my not so very dark site, it was visible but I really wish to catch it when I'm at a truely dark site. Surprised me how nice it was, gosh I love the tight pin-point images of this Dob.
Waited a few hours for Leo to rise higher and of course had to visit Saturn for the first time in a very long time.
Saturn - With the 18MM (68x), disk was small but still could decern some detail, and the rings were edge on and thus closed and formed a line right across the face. Pumped the power up using a barlow (138x), and the image was fantastic. I could barely see a hint of the widening of the bands on either side of the planet, cool effect. Definetly could see some cloud details, a whitish wide area just center of planet and right above the rings. Now decided to pump up power by using my 6mm Ortho (~200x), and the view did not dissapoint. Atmospheric conditions were more prevenant with this EP, but when the seeing permitted, sharp views were very rewarding. Now I could see that there were some suttle color variations on the surface of the planet. Feeling adventurous, I decided to barlow the 6mm, and go for 400x, thats right 400x. Now my 8" SCT could never really give me nice views above 200x and only once did I view higher than
this with the 339x that this 6mm provided. In fact the last time I pushed
to this power was 2002 Cathedral Gorge Star Party, and fancy that my
target was Saturn. So with this 6" dob, I thought this high of magnication would provide nothing but mush. However I was encouraged by the very crisp view with the 6mm was giving at 200x, so I thought I would try more. My jaw dropped. I was shocked to have a very dim, but still detailed view of Saturn wisking by in the very narrow field of view. I did prefer the 200x image better, it was brighter, but the simple fact that this scope could take that kind of power and still provide a view that you could observe details and use, astounded me and reassured me that this scope was indeed a winner.
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