Telescope Reviews: ETX-80 second light (night)

Not sure if I should post this here or in the observing area, but seeing that I'm still giving this scope its trial runs, I'll post it here.

Tonight the conditions were much improved from last time. Seeing conditions were average, with visibility of stars down to mag 4. Dewing was light. For this occasion, I traveled to a nearby park to escape the deluge of porch lights. I had dark skies to the East and South, with moderate skyglow to the North and heavy to the West. Skyglow from there was enough that I could see what I was doing without the need for a flashlight (i.e., setup of scope, switching eyepieces, etc.)

First target was M81. I was skeptical if I'd be able to pull it out due to the poor contrast, but there they were! Both M81 and M82 were in the same field of view using the 26mm eyepiece. I switched to the 9.7 and I could just barely fit both into the same FOV. I could also clearly make out the difference in shape of the two, but could not resolve detail. In darker skies these should be quite a treat.

Next up was M57...I left the 9.7EP in the scope and commanded the little ETX to take me there. To my surprise, there it was...already centered! I could clearly make out the disk of the nebula...and could even make out the donut shape (i.e., that it was a ring and not a disk...although I don't remember if it was the 9.7EP by itself or if I used the barlow).

On to some star clusters...I headed for M13. Very nice, appeared fairly large (much larger then the globulars I looked at in my previous session). Best eyepiece here seemed to be the 9.7. I tried the 6.4, but it dims the image too much for my tastes.

Next I decided to try some random observing...I slewed the telescope in the direction of Sagittarius and had a look. Looking right back at me was a star cluster...I used the identify option of the Autostar and it reported that I was looking at M7...nice, but the effect is lessened when your sky is gray and not black

. Onward...I slewed over to a random patch of milkyway and after a moment hit upon another cluster...used the identify feature again and learned it was M11. It looked much better this time! (I had observed it in my prior session, but dewing had spoiled the view). This time I was able to use a bit of magnification on it. With the 6.4EP I was able to resolve several stars, but it was dimmed quite a bit. The 26EP with barlow and the 9.7EP afforded good compromises.

For my final stops, I decided to try a few double stars. I attempted Rasalgethi, but simply could not split the pair, even with the 6.4EP. Next was Sadr...allegedly a wide double...perhaps too wide? I did notice a very red, somewhat dim star in the same FOV as Sadr...carbon star perhaps?

Sadr was not impressive, I spent more time looking at that tiny red star.

Onward to Epsilon Lyrae...I could split it into two, but could not split the pairs into 4...no suprise there, but I gave it a try. Finally to Albireo...always a favorite and a nice way to end the session.

The total session was just under 2 hours and after I'd already packed the telescope into the car I saw that Jupiter was up and shining brightly

(maybe next tiem).

Some things I learned this time around: The dew shield (an Astrozap flexible shield) works nicely under lighter dewing conditions. The scope body and tripod had a light coating of dew but the objective remained nice and clear. The parfocal eyepieces are nice! It was handy being able to pop in and out and only needing a 3 or 4 partial turns of the focuser to adjust. The 6.4EP will get limited use, but it does have its place. I would not suggest getting any EP with a shorter focal length. Finally, the Meade go continues to impress! I would never have expected it to be dead on target with the 9.7EP still in place. My one complaint is that the tracking is a bit less accurate at higher power...in observing Epsilon Lyrae with the 6.4 installed and the barlow in place, I had to make frequent adjustments to keep them in the FOV (but remember...I still haven't trained the motors, so I don't really fault the scope here).

Overall...another successful observing session!
Craig