Mersing Expedition (May 26-28th 2006) Registration

Tachyon · Post by **Tachyon** » Tue May 30, 2006 9:07 am

Yes! Thanks to CC's Portaball, I have seen the BEST visual image of M51 ever! It was like 'WOW!' I can still remember someone exclaiming 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' while looking at it... Heh!

ariefm71 · Post by **ariefm71** » Tue May 30, 2006 9:26 am

Surprisingly, the 8" Mewlon held its own against the Portaball, especially on brighter objects. I was the one shouting "wow! wow! wow!" when looking at omega centauri from rlow's mewlon

The view was exactly like this: http://www.singastro.org/viewtopic.php?t=3030 (second pic)

wucheeyiun · Post by **wucheeyiun** » Tue May 30, 2006 9:52 am

Yes, i also saw Omega Centauri from Singapore last couple days, it is quite close to jupiter ( about 8 fingers to the south), frankly mewlon 210 is quite good.
The stars in Singapore are not that dense but you can tell...like vincent kee's video camera....

rlow · Post by **rlow** » Tue May 30, 2006 10:19 am

Surprisingly, the 8" Mewlon held its own against the Portaball, especially on brighter objects. I was the one shouting "wow! wow! wow!" when looking at omega centauri from rlow's mewlon

To expand on Arief's comments, my perception is that the images viewed thru the Portaball are brighter and have more resolution (more detailed) than the Mewlon 210. The Mewlon has very good sharpness and contrast, giving a darker sky background when viewing images, hence brighter objects like Omega Centauri have a 3-D effect, and could look almost as good in the Mewlon as in the bigger Newtonian scopes at the same magnification. The good contrast also helps in viewing nebulous objects like galaxies as their edges are clearly seen and do not just fading into the sky background. Overall, the Mewlon gives very pleasing views.

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Tue May 30, 2006 11:44 am

The darker sky background is probably due to the smaller exit pupil the Mewlon produces due to its long f ratio. The 12.5 inch should give brighter image as the mirror is larger and the background may not be that dark because of its bigger exit pupil (as it is f/5) and hence collecting more light but also background noise at the same time. I think when the magnification is pumped up with the same exit pupil as the Mewlon; ignoring the difference in magnifaction but having the same exit pupil size, the 12.5 inch would give better image with more detail and contrast (due to the same darkness in background). That's my guess.

Anyway, my scope has arrived and I am still fixing it up. Sort of jet lag from the overseas trip so do things rather slow and quite carelessly. Hopefully I can set it up in a few days and test the optics especially yesterday night was clear. Mechanically the scope is very good, one finger motion to move the scope and no stickiness at all.

Post by **acc** » Tue May 30, 2006 8:33 pm

Yang Beng do write about your first light!

cheers
cc

ariefm71 · Post by **ariefm71** » Tue May 30, 2006 11:33 pm

yang beng, may we know roughly how much was shipping cost for the scope?

cheers,
arief

Canopus Lim · Post by **Canopus Lim** » Wed May 31, 2006 8:51 am

Arief,
The shipping, crating and handling charge is about S$1000. That does not include GST. The GST will amount to a few hundred depending on the price of the thing you are shipping.

Post by **Airconvent** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 2:27 am

strange..so many people went, yet up till now no pictures and no detailed report ... :roll: