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asaint
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/25/03
Posts: 2094
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Hi all,
Well, the skies cleared after 5 day of clouds and rain and I was delighted to get a short observing session in. Since I needed to get up early, I had 1 hour before I would have to pack things up.
Last week I broke out of my "summer observing hibernation" by tackling a 100 double star list. Unlike many astronomers, my observing goes into hibernation in the summer. I'm an early to bed, early to rise person and just can't seem to stay up that late.
I'm never in a hurry when working on a list. It matters little to me how long it takes to accomplish - it's the journey not the destination that has always fascinated me about astronomy. Hence, I dawdle my way along, chasing doubles, being sidetracked by popular objects in each constellation.
I setup my ETX-125 on it's #884 field tripod in my front yard. I took along my Hands on optics STardust observing chair, 4 eyepieces, Sky atlas 2000 and my list.
It should be noted that I've never used the GOTO features on my ETX. I simply prefer to find stuff myself. The RA finder in conjunction with my Rigel finder makes finding stuff a pretty easy job.
A neighbor wandered over and wanted to look at Mars. I was happy to show him but warned him that this early in the evening, Mars would show little detail. Best view with a 16mm UO Super Erfle at 112x showed the polar cap and dark mottlings on the rest of the planet. A poor showing but he seemed impressed.
This left me with 45 minuts of double star observing. Here's what I found;
Alpha Ursa Minoris (Polaris - real wide double)
Zeta Ursa Majoris
Alpha Herculis (real pretty double)
Kappa Herculis
Epsilon Pegasi
All were real easy doubles and looked very nice in the ETX.
Well, time ran out and I packed my stuff up. Overall, a nice, short observing session.
Allister
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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Allister, this week has been my best since the close approach of mars.The extreme heat and humidity here in the ozarks has made for months of poor viewing. I've been useing a russian binoviewer in the ext with a pair of russell 19mm wide angle eyepieces. Viewing the last three nights have been exceedingly clear. land mass was defined as good as looking at a map, and the now smallish polar cap was also cristal. hope your getting similar views in your 125. ps. the darker coating on the lomo bino seems to vastly improve contrast especially when you have a lot of glare from your brighter objects.I also have a celestron viewer which has a lighter coating and is good for brighter dso but the russian won the contrast contest on mars.
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asaint
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/25/03
Posts: 2094
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Hey gfh,
A binoviewer on an ETX-125? I never thought of using one on an ETX. For some reason the apertue of the 125mm seemed a bit small for binoviewing use.
Now that I think about it, I've always been impressed with a binoviewer on the moon. Given it's such a bright object, it should work just fine on the ETX.
Do you have any balance problems? Seems like that might be a bit heavy for the DEC axis.
I havn't stayed up late enough to get any real good looks at Mars. Since I need to get up early to catch some constellations for my double star list, I'll catch Mars at the same time.
Allister
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Anonymous
Unregistered
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the bino will work just fine in your ext,but some better than others.....its a very personal call what one considers the right aperture to use a bino.....i guess it depends on your eye perception. If I went by reviews alone i'd never have bought and used one,and in an effort to eliminate weight I have sold off my large scopes.Both my celestron & lomo bino will come to focus without a barlow, but because of lighter coatings the celestron is useable on almost anything!!! I use this with my stellarvue short tube and a set of 32mm's for milky way star sweeping. I've compared this in a side by side to my 100mm binos.....YES,some light loss but not enough that i'd stop using set up.I dont leave the binos in the ext when using the motors....I switch out the eyepiece for the bino after centering,I never gave the weight issue a thought Allister,it was just too clumsey for me to use it that way.
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