Back with ma' pencil

Yesterday the weather was fair enough to let me explore the ds again. Even though seeing and transparency weren't perfect, I was able to skecth up the Ring Nebula in Lyra. This is my second sketch overall. I edited it (contrast, brightness) a bit with Photoshop but it's still pretty close to the original sketch I made. In this way it's more visible on-screen. Because it has been a long time since I last had been out with my scope, there is hundreds of easy objects still unobserved and unsketched. I hope that the weather will stay good and clear so that I could set my eye behind the eyepiece ASAP.

Winter Wonderland

Bye bye dark skies. No more nights with the Milky Way anymore because last night the snow really whirled about. Although this can be just one 'still-meltable-layer' but it's there and the light pollution problem is back here, too. I guess I have to invest in a new filter.

Moon vs DS

Yesterday I got out again after a long, long waiting. I think I have hatred for clouds. I had planned to aim my 10" towards Ursa Major. Suprisingly, I couldn't find M81 (mag. 6) neither M82. I also tried M51(mag. 8,4), the Whirpool Galaxy, and M101. I found none. Oh yeah, Moon was on it's 84%. How stupid was I? Anyway, M57 (mag. 9) was stunning, it was located near to the zenith so the disturbance of the Moon was reduced. Only M31 was bright enough to reveal itself to me via 15x70 binocular but that was about it. Although the Pleiades made my day when the night went on. I also caught a bit of lunar surface on my memory stick as you can see. Let's see what I will come up with next time when there is no Moon interfereing. Oscar, out.

L'assemblage de la longue vue

Now to the assembly part. I've already told you how quickly I got my order. Honestly, I wasn't reserved to get my hands on this so fast. However, once I got the sms from the shipping company that my package had been received, I couldn't be more happier. I will now give you a brief tour around the assembly part avec des images.

[Fig 1.] The boxes where the scope and the mount where shipped in were kind of big but so far I haven't have any problems storing the 'contents'.

[Fig 2.] At the moment of imaging I had assembled the mount and the carrying handle was about to get attached. It almost doesn't spin around even on the teflon surface if there is no load on, but once the 10" (12,5 kgs) was put down on it, it spun around really well. The tension control handle on the side is also a good addition.

[Fig 3.] Now that the telescope has been lifted on the mount it looks massive! With this combination you finally can be able to see something.

Hands on, 1st and 2nd light

Now that I have had a few observing sessions I can share with you about the telescope. The first night I got out with it was really bad, the seeing was very low and the stars were all bumpy. I was able to find M31 and the double-star Mizar (ζ Ursae Majoris), but that was about it. Also, I couldn't believe the finder scope sucked that much, it was even worse than the one on a RET-45 - which I've been able to test (it wasn't really a pleasure) - but then I noticed that the lens was all covered in frost. Ohh, what a relief. I have to make dew cap for that, so I won't get that kind of shocks again.

The next night I got out with it was pretty much perfect. I spotted M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra, and it really was visible and pretty large too. The tube's resolution is crazy. Messier 13 in Hercules is stunning as well. The Mercedes sign is clearly visible and you can see thousands of separate stars which is quite impressive. You can't describe the feeling which you get when you actually see something so far away. It's kind of spooky and exiting to 'look back' in time 25 000 years ago, which is the time it takes from light to travel here.

The telescope has performed perfectly well for the few nights I've been observing with it. The stars have been incredibly sharp even though the collimation has been nothing but correct. Generally speaking, I think that I have got what I thought I'm going to get and I have been really happy. I really do recommend this scope and I haven't even been close to it's limits. In fact, I still use the 10mm and 25 mm eyepieces that come with it and the results have been great. I've also taken a bunch of pictures of Jupiter, and I'm planning on going for the Moon. The Celestron Omni barlow I ordered with the scope was out of stock in Villen Kello, so I'm going to get that later on.

Telescope arrived!

I finally got my new telescope! I expected I would get it at least no sooner than in the beginning of December, but presumably the store I bought it from had products ready for shipping. I will give you a brief tour on the telescope later on when I have gotten a bit more experience with it. I will give you a bit of appetiser. And I sure can tell you that the scope and it's mirror are HUGE!

First real observation for this season

Yesterday the weather got a bit better and I obviously got under the dark skies with my binocular. My main object was Messier 27, the Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula. After I had observed it for a while I decided to sketch it up and so I did. Despite the Moon was still on it's 93%, I found the nebula relatively bright. Other DS-objects I hunted were M71 in Sagitta, M13 in Hercules and the twin galaxies M81 and M82 in Ursa Major. I succeeded to find all but M82 being so faint and "thin". But that all will change when I get my 10". It's gonna be a long jump from the 15x70 binoculars to a 254mm telescope..