Since it's planet conjunction week. David, richard and i planned to go tuas for a nice observation session. Weather did not look convincing at ard 4pm+, but later on at ard 5.30pm it looks somehow ok, thus the trip went on.
David went around picking us up. 7 of us were present initially, david, richard low, acc, hendry, me, the c8, and the portaball. Later in the night chris and andrew(tachyon) joined us.
We went to the usual spot. On the way, we spotted venus and david was concentrating more on venus than the road x.x
We slowly set up our scopes. Since acc is there, i managed clear most of my doubts on the setting up of the portaball.
After setting up the scope, we pointed to venus and mercury. At 160x, both mercury and venus can be seen in the same field of view. Venus is pretty much full and looks like a ball(we use the term full moon, do we use the term full venus?). Mercury on the other hand, was more of a crescent.
After looking at them for a while, i moved on the saturn. Since saturn is very near the horizon, the air turbulence cause it to be wavering inside my eyepiece. Maybe we have to wait till next year to see it again.
Having wasted so much time on the 3 planets, the skies starts to darken. david left us at tuas since he has to go home to eat dinner. So the 4 of us were stranded there.
We decided to move on to some deep skies stuff. Since our human goto(richard) is there, we went straight on to some of the stuff near carina. Eta was nice, esp with the filter(cheapo lpr). We could make out some of the dark lanes inside eta easily. Took down a few other misc star cluster ard carina area and moved on to crux.
Jewel box is easy, we spend some time here to compare the views thru the c8 and the portaball. Not a very gd thing to do, since the waiting list for the portaball is quite long. One tends to get aroused easily and start making some purchases.
Went on to Jupiter for awhile, looks kinda good, but no major feature spotted. No GRS, etc etc.
Went for some of the nicer stuff in centaurus. Omega was nice, with all the stars nicely resolved with my 30mm LE. I tried centuarus A(ngc 5128) but did not managed to hit it. acc tried and got it easily. We wasted some time here as well, drooling at the view.
Took down a few more objects in scorpius, mainly m4,6,7,80, ngc6231, ngc 6281. I still feel that m6 is very impressive in the portaball.
Went down to sagi, took down m54, which isn't very hard. tried m70, but missed, got m69 instead. Decided to go for m22 and m28, which were quite easy. m22 was quite impressive too. It was easy to resolve m22 with the portaball. I could make out lots of tiny little stars glittering inside m22. Took down m8 as well. Pop in the filter and the neb just becomes bigger and more noticeable.
At ard 8+ andrew arrived. Andrew was busy setting up his sphinx with the orion 100ed. Not much luck for him. Clouds started coming in. We decided to leave him alone and went back to the portaball.
Chris came not long later, bringing the clouds with him. acc decided to gif up and went off. We spend some time chit chatting. Since david have dump us there, we decided to auction off his c8. Highest bidder was chris, with a whopping $0.35 bid. U should have seen the smile on his face as he walk off with the c8 set up, complete with the fork mount.
We wanted to pack up since it was overcast. David came back not long later, together with the gd skies. The area around centaurus started to clear up. We went back for some more obbing. We were playing ard with david's binoviewer. I think i'll leave it to richard to tell u about how he left his drool all over the c8.
Skies continue to clear up, milky way was visible. We went for jupiter. I have taken a peep at jupiter earlier on, no major feature seen. But this time round, we notice a black spot near the SEB of jupiter. We took turns to look. I think chris owe me $20, richard owe me $15, david owe me $15 and hendry owe me $20 for the views. It's merely $5 per minute of observation. Quite cheap eh?
Since the weather is so gd, chris came over and played with the scope. While trying to find m7, he found a nice little gobular cluster just beside G scorpius. If anyone noes wat's the ngc number for it, do tell me.
i decided to go for ophiuchus. m107 was easy target. i took down m19 as well. Richard came over, took a look and nudge the scope a little, m62 was found. Hendry went on to find m10, i took over later and found m9. He grab the scope and found m14. I went further up and took down IC 4665.
Clouds started to come in. I decided to find my last object, m57, which i'm pretty bad in. Roughly pointing to lyra, i managed to find it by accident. I guess that's the last object for the night. We started packing up and going back to the car. Session ended.
~MooEy~
Observation Report 28/6/05
-
acc
- Administrator
- Posts: 2577
- Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2003 11:15 pm
- Favourite scope: Mag1 Instruments 12.5" Portaball
Thanks David for giving us a ride to the observing area. It was an exciting ride as David kept getting distracted by the clear skies and the jet trails + venus that MooEy were pointing out 
Last night's seeing was amazingly good, and a tremendous amount of details was seen on Jupiter with the P8. The skies at Tuas were also sufficiently dark to show 10-20 dim stars around the Jewel Box that I don't recall seeing from Dempsey. The Eta. Carinae nebulae was fabulous too, especially after MooEy put on a neb filter. Nebulosity 3x the size of the FOV in a 32mm ep was easily visible. And Omega Centauri was fabulous through the binoviewer on David's C8. I am going to miss these southern jewels when I return to the US.
It was a great observing session with some nice company; too bad I had to leave early to go makan more local food on my to-eat checklist....
Last night's seeing was amazingly good, and a tremendous amount of details was seen on Jupiter with the P8. The skies at Tuas were also sufficiently dark to show 10-20 dim stars around the Jewel Box that I don't recall seeing from Dempsey. The Eta. Carinae nebulae was fabulous too, especially after MooEy put on a neb filter. Nebulosity 3x the size of the FOV in a 32mm ep was easily visible. And Omega Centauri was fabulous through the binoviewer on David's C8. I am going to miss these southern jewels when I return to the US.
It was a great observing session with some nice company; too bad I had to leave early to go makan more local food on my to-eat checklist....
We do it in the dark...
Portaball 12.5"
Takahashi Mewlon 210
William Optics 110ED
...and all night long!
Portaball 12.5"
Takahashi Mewlon 210
William Optics 110ED
...and all night long!
Mooey,
The glob beside G Scorpius is:
Globular Cluster
NGC 6441 GCL 78
Constellation: Scorpius
Dimension: 7.8'x 7.8'
Magnitude: 7.40
Surface Brightness: 11.60
Description: vB,pL,R,vgmbM
I didn't know there was a glob right beside the sting of scorpius. It was quite bright and tight, and looked a little red am I right? Or was that due to stray light?
Anyway, the description reads:
very Bright, pretty Large, Round, but does anyone know what vgmbM means?
It seems to say 'very gradually much brighter (in the) Middle'? ?
List of the abbrevations used in the NGC and IC descriptions: http://www.seds.org/~spider/ngc/des.html
The glob beside G Scorpius is:
Globular Cluster
NGC 6441 GCL 78
Constellation: Scorpius
Dimension: 7.8'x 7.8'
Magnitude: 7.40
Surface Brightness: 11.60
Description: vB,pL,R,vgmbM
I didn't know there was a glob right beside the sting of scorpius. It was quite bright and tight, and looked a little red am I right? Or was that due to stray light?
Anyway, the description reads:
very Bright, pretty Large, Round, but does anyone know what vgmbM means?
It seems to say 'very gradually much brighter (in the) Middle'? ?
List of the abbrevations used in the NGC and IC descriptions: http://www.seds.org/~spider/ngc/des.html
err.... i was not drooling over the c8, ...or the binoviewer. However, I did say that i may drool over the portaball, and that the black shroud may then come in handy for wiping....We were playing ard with david's binoviewer. I think i'll leave it to richard to tell u about how he left his drool all over the c8.
anyway, since Mooey hinted to me to say something about the binoviewer: last night was my first extended usage of David's burgess binoviewer through his c8 and my initial impressions are that the visual effect is quite spectacular, as the viewed star cluster seems to stand out (with the effect of depth) in front of the background and the apparent field of view seems to be enlarged. One great 'magical' effect which I hightlighted to David and Mooey was to try this: Look at Omega Centauri (or other bright globular cluster) with the binoviewer while cupping your palms around the two eyepieces. After 30 seconds or more, you will see the globular cluster slowly gaining in size and becoming 'denser' as more and more faint stars become visible due to our eye's gain in dark adaptation. This is perhaps a very nice 'magical optical illusion' to show and impress your friends.
The eye-relief is quite comfortable even when viewed while wearing spectacles, though the two ocular distance have to be carefully adjusted by each individual person, otherwise you may experience blackout through one eyepiece, as i initially did. The image brightness was subtly perceived to be slightly dimmer as compared to viewing through a single eyepiece, especially when viewing dim objects, and it is quite obvious when one takes out the binoviewer, remove the two eyepieces and view through it at the distant landscape. It seems to me that the image was not very sharp (not as much as I would have like it to be) throughout the field, on axis or at the edge. In fact, when I tried to individually focus each eyepiece, I noticed that when I achieved best focus on one eyepiece (best focus that was already not very sharp), I was not able to achieve best focus on the other eyepiece! (Did anyone else faced this problem?) My view of Jupiter through the binoviewer was also affected by some flare and ghosting, which somewhat diminished the image contrast initially enchanced by the binoviewer. I did not test and check whether it was due to the eyepiece (we did not have another matched pair of eyepieces) or the telescope (didn't dare to try on the portaball due to its weight, and the Orion 100ED had gone home).
Nevertheless, the experience and the effect of viewing through the binoviewer is fantastic, and I feel that the burgess binoviewer is certainly value for money. Now I can understand why some people had enjoyed observing through it for an hour or more. Hmmm... very tempting to consider adding this to my wish list....
-
Airconvent
- Super Moderator
- Posts: 5804
- Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 11:49 pm
- Location: United Federation of the Planets
More common problem than you think! From the many posts from other Forums, the causes can be many:rlow wrote:In fact, when I tried to individually focus each eyepiece, I noticed that when I achieved best focus on one eyepiece (best focus that was already not very sharp), I was not able to achieve best focus on the other eyepiece! (Did anyone else faced this problem?)
1. Astigmatism. Use specs or get the Denke with individual diopter adjustments.
2. EP to EP focal plane variations - you have to focus each EP individually first by pulling it in and out of the EP slot.
3. Axis variations of both EPs. Use the 3 set screws of the 'C' model to center the axis to your eye.
Cheers!
[80% Steve, 20% Alfred] ------- Probability of Clear Skies = (Age of newest equipment in days) / [(Number of observers) * (Total Aperture of all telescopes present in mm)]
-
acc
- Administrator
- Posts: 2577
- Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2003 11:15 pm
- Favourite scope: Mag1 Instruments 12.5" Portaball
The burgess has individual helical ep focusers, and using those, I could achieve a sharp focus for both eyes on my reflector. IMO, images on SCTs are a bit soft at high mag, with or w/o binoviewers.rlow wrote:It seems to me that the image was not very sharp (not as much as I would have like it to be) throughout the field, on axis or at the edge. In fact, when I tried to individually focus each eyepiece, I noticed that when I achieved best focus on one eyepiece (best focus that was already not very sharp), I was not able to achieve best focus on the other eyepiece! (Did anyone else faced this problem?)
We do it in the dark...
Portaball 12.5"
Takahashi Mewlon 210
William Optics 110ED
...and all night long!
Portaball 12.5"
Takahashi Mewlon 210
William Optics 110ED
...and all night long!
i was spending too much time with my new toy, did not really get much chance to look thru the binoviewer. however i did see jupiter thru the c8 + binoviewer. the views are definately gd, esp when using 2 eyes there's alot less strain. i could make out alot of details on jupiter, even at the low magnification of roughly 130x. i believe further usage of the binoviewer will show us more.
~MooEy~
~MooEy~