Orion Starblast 4.5 first observation

Gary · Post by **Gary** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 12:43 pm

@Orly. Was obing Jupiter while the sky was still dark blue. It was definitely much sharper early in the evening. Saw GRS in my mak127 with binoviewer. Close one eye, GRS disappears. Open both, it reappears again. LOL

cloud_cover · Post by **cloud_cover** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 2:15 pm

Missed Jupiter as didn't get set up till midnight!
Saw Sirius

Mainly played around with Orion, quite disappointed Flame Neb is completely invisible even with a Lumicon Deep Sky

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 2:56 pm

Gary wrote:@rlow: You may want to list your telescope sales separately instead of lumping them together. People (esp newcomers) are more likely to browse through the list at the main Buy and Sell subfrom before clicking on anything of interest.

Btw, I guess yours is no ordinary 3mm eyepiece. From now on, you cannot sell any 80 APO higher then your Starblast price. LOL.

@Gary:

I know you are trying to be helpful, but it doesn't make sense for me to post 63 individual sale posts. You may chose to do otherwise, that's up to you. If no one appreciates the value of the starblast, no problem as I can keep it.

And while I did compare starblast & 80mm apo side-by-side, hence I could state that the planetary image through the starblast was slightly better, in my opinion. However I would not go to the extent to agree that the value of the 80mm apo is below that of the starblast. Yes, I know you are trying to make a joke of it, but it ain't funny and it is incorrect, so kindly do it at your own expense, not on others.

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:32 pm

Hey everyone, thanks for the advices and tips. I will do some reading again and hopefully on a better night, be prepared with to view again. lol

andeelym · Post by **andeelym** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 12:32 am

cloud_cover wrote:Andy - If I'm not wrong, the starblast is an f/4 scope for a focal length of 450mm
Hence a 6mm is 450/6=75x. A 2x Barlow will result in 150x, which is arguably doable with the starblast.

Shirox: The starblast is a reflector and hence needs to be collimated or else the views will not be sharp no matter what you do. Assuming Chris sold you servicable equipment (I'm sure he did), its unlikely the issue was with the eyepieces. Was Jupiter tack sharp with the 20mm or also a little fuzzy? If fuzzy then the 6mm will magnify this effect even more.

Do describe your fuzzy image a little more: Was it out of focus, mis-shappen or seems to be jumping/moving around?

Oops... yes, you are absolutely correct... next time I should not be posting at 3am in the morning... sleepiness really did a number on me... [smilie=beaten.gif]

guangwei · Post by **guangwei** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 4:15 am

I think you should get a better eyepiece in my opinion. Starblast is my first scope, small nice and offers good quality and i think i also experience using the eps that they gave, it was not really good. I once tried on the pleiades using the normal eps that they gave and there was alot of coma.. but when i changed it to another better ep, the view was perfectly great.. maybe it was not well collimated..? ^^

cloud_cover · Post by **cloud_cover** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 8:12 am

Guangwei --> The Starblast is an f/4 reflector. As such it will inherently have coma (being a fast reflector) so collimation was not the issue, at least as far as coma goes. At any rate, changing EPs will also not solve a collimation issue, since that needs to be solved by, well, collimating the optics.

Not too sure which EPs shirox got from Chris though.

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Tue Dec 28, 2010 11:15 am

i got a 20mm meade super plossi and a 6mm ep that looks like it came with the scope.
Most likely i will collimate the optic first and get a better ep for the high power

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Sat Jan 08, 2011 10:25 pm

Hi guys,
need your help again.
today's sky was good so i set up my scope at home and pointed at Jupiter.
Yea!!!! I saw jupiter and a few moons!!! was so happy.
I did it with the 20mm plossl and after which with a 2 x TV barlow, i can vividly see the bands of gas cloud on the giant.

As i switch to my 6mm without barlow, my focuser was at max and i can feel that its abit blur.
Add on the barlow with 6mm, totally cannot focus cos already at max.

May i ask do it need anything or is there such a thing like focus extender or something?

shirox · Post by **shirox** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:45 pm

whoo hoo! saw jupiter's rings and its moon today!
Can see the cloud bands too! looks like tonight is good