Telescope Reviews: Bresser 8x56, first light, with Sky Window

Hello folks,

I thought this might be usefull. Yes it is an equipment test, but it also concerns deep-sky observing. So here it goes.

Finally a clear night came up in Belgium on monday this week. This would be the first opportunity to test the Bresser on my brand new Sky Window (with excel mirror upgrade, manufacturer is Trico corp). I'd put the Sky Window (SW) on the ETX heavy duty tripod. This sturdy set-up allowed me to turn the SW about 15° in either way. I had prepared a few mirrored findercharts to locate some objects. First of all there was this weird problem of merging the images of both eyes. I must point out that I wear glasses and that I have no experience with bino's at all. This merging issue slowly solved itself after about 15 minutes, but sometimes reappeared again. I guess my eyes need more training with bino viewing. My technique for finding objects consisted of 1) viewing allong the bino's in the mirror to locate a bright star, 2) turning the mirror until the star was in sight in the bino. Fairly simple but it worked.

I started with Auriga, M37, M36, M38, IC 410 and NGC 1907. All nicely in one field. What a view! This is the most relaxed way of widefield stargazing I had ever witnessed. Too bad they were too far from zenith. The nelm was about mag 5.
Next came Melotte 20, then the double cluster in Perseus. It's a splendid perspective, the field containing the double cluster together with Stock 2! How nice and rather difficult with a comon telescope.
Up I went to Gemini. M35 was a brilliant cluster, nicely resolved, in the company of the looser Collinder 89.
Then I turned the bino's to M44 and M67. M44 is perfect for bino viewing. M67 is a glowing patch with one brighter star at its following end. There was some mottling visible, and I presumed a small chain of stars was visible in the cluster. To be checked under better conditions.
The Lion was the next in row. Time for some extra-galactic challenges. M66 was easy to locate, but difficult to see. I saw a small blob of light. M65 was not visible at all. Then I went for NGC 2903. Bingo! An N-S elongated patch of light with a slightly brighter center. It was fun to trace the borders of this galaxy.
Meanwhile the Bear showed up high overhead, so I aimed for M81-M82. I always need some time to find the right place of that duo. M81 showed up clearly like a softly glowing patch, while M82 appeared rather faintly. The cigar shape was much to my surprise clearly present though! Very fascinating to look at.
M101 is another one that is easy to locate. But still only a very faint central part of the galaxy was visible.
M51 on the contrary was obvious, sharply bordered and a little elongated. I could not distinct any of the two cores.
Cor Caroli was the next stop. M94 showed like a small path. So did M63.
I ended my session with a return to a few galactic objects. Melotte 111 IS the binocular showpiece. Magnificent view in the bino's.
The final destination of the night was M53, a soft glow with a slichtly brighter core.

During the entire binocular session of about 2 hours, I had no craned neck, no trembling hands, no shacky views, totaly no stress, thanks to the Sky Window. And the day after, I did not feel like being run over by a car. I was afraid that the mirrored view would disorientate me. But I only needed the charts to confirm the position of M66, compared to the invisible M65.

There are some arguments against the use of the miror, because of the loss of light. I believe it is not that bad at all. Shacky images and painfull muscles account for more loss of light in my opinion.

There is this risk of fogging up the mirror. Which did'nt. When I brought back inside the equipment, I forgot to cover up the optics. The bino's and the frame started to fog up immediately. But the mirror did not. According to the manufacturer, the mirror is fog resistant.

A minor flaw : the knobs to turn the mirror are too small for my taste. Larger knobs would allow for a more precise tilting of the mirror. I plan to modify this myself.

My conclusion of the night : Bino's are fascinating, and I need to drive to darker skies. After all, the Sky Window is a very portable solution. From a sketchers point of view, the Sky Window allows a 'normal' sketchers position while viewing up. Weather permitting, a few sketches are on their way!

Clear skies,

--------------------
Rony

My Astronomical Sketches

My Binocular Sketches

Callibrate your Monitor with this little strip.

Edited by rodelaet (04/04/08 05:26 PM)