11668 replies to this topic

[oldmanastro]

Another clear night yesterday with a seeing of about 7 due to a northerly wind. I had Scruffy (Celestar 8) out in no time. First visual target was Saturn. Four satellites were visible at 300x plus atmospheric belts. The rings are thinner now but the Cassini division could be discerned. Using the camera and on screen the atmospheric effects were more evident. Only one imaging session came out rather well. Uranus was easy to spot. It looked nice at 300x as a very blue ball, a result of methane in it's atmosphere. The image of Uranus was the best possible this night. Next was Jupiter. I had to wait for some scattered clouds to disperse. The visual appearance was great with several belts and a lot of activity in the equatorial zone. The GRS was leaving the scene. Even visually the colors were apparent. By this time the turbulence was subsiding a bit and Jupiter was climbing high. Eventually and much later it would pass almost right across the zenith. The image shows the equatorial zone activity and the GRS peeking as it goes. Scruffy did well but is in need of a corrector and primary cleanup. The primary has many fungal spots on it. I was wondering if the newer Celestron SCTs are as good optically as this one or if there's a lot of variability. Last night the Orion Nebula was very good with a 20mm Plossl and the Trapezium was showing six stars. The last collimation that Scruffy went through happened two years ago. It has been holding better than I expected and when I mean collimation it means star collimated at 400x.

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[cavedweller]

Prominences of Sun through the Ha scope at Griffith Observatory.

[docwilkins]

No photos but I decided to compare my Takahashi 102 classic with my Vixen 90L on Jupiter last night north of Pasadena, CA. I am a member of the venerable Sidewalk Astronomers led by Jane Houston Jones of What's Up fame. We do lots of outreach and I've settled on my 90L on a Custom 90L tripod holding the Polaris because I can set up in 5 minutes with the screw on counterweight. It's also so long I don't need a ladder for the kids. The 102 is crazy beautiful on Saturn and Jupiter is fine as well but it's much heavier with the Super Polaris than my 90L setup. So, last night I wanted to see what I'm missing by keeping the Tak at home and relying on the 90 for outreach. Of course the finder bumped into something (or more likely a kid grabbed it when I wasn't looking over on Myrtle in Monrovia) so I had to align her on the moon and then find Jupiter at x86 and then Jupiter. There was some turbulence but the bands and colors were nice. Moons nice, too. I then set up the Tak and...I couldn't tell the difference! It was brighter but the 90L was putting up a fight. I've seen Jupiter from nice scopes (Mak 7, Mewlon 210, Sharpstar 140) and these old scopes really speak well about handmade history. I'd say the best views of Saturn and Jupiter so far is the Sharpstar 140 but the Meade Mak was so beautiful too.

[oldmanastro]

Wound up using 3 old scopes last night:  1958 Questar, 1983 130SL, & 1970s Carton 101.  Of the 3, the Q is the most enjoyable.  Everything is right there.  Crazy light, yet stable enough for high-power.  At about 150x, both the old Mak & newer Newt gave comparable views of Saturn in near-perfect seeing.  Q has better contrast.  130SL is brighter.  I tried my newest eyepieces in the Q, but settled on the Vixen LV 10.  Took breaks with the Carton.  A largish light RFT is a great old scope to have at hand.  Next week the Moon won't be a factor at prime time, and I'm thankful for that.

When they said the Questar was an observatory in a box, they were not far from the truth. Everything is right there including high quality.

[deSitter]

No photos but I decided to compare my Takahashi 102 classic with my Vixen 90L on Jupiter last night north of Pasadena, CA. I am a member of the venerable Sidewalk Astronomers led by Jane Houston Jones of What's Up fame. We do lots of outreach and I've settled on my 90L on a Custom 90L tripod holding the Polaris because I can set up in 5 minutes with the screw on counterweight. It's also so long I don't need a ladder for the kids. The 102 is crazy beautiful on Saturn and Jupiter is fine as well but it's much heavier with the Super Polaris than my 90L setup. So, last night I wanted to see what I'm missing by keeping the Tak at home and relying on the 90 for outreach. Of course the finder bumped into something (or more likely a kid grabbed it when I wasn't looking over on Myrtle in Monrovia) so I had to align her on the moon and then find Jupiter at x86 and then Jupiter. There was some turbulence but the bands and colors were nice. Moons nice, too. I then set up the Tak and...I couldn't tell the difference! It was brighter but the 90L was putting up a fight. I've seen Jupiter from nice scopes (Mak 7, Mewlon 210, Sharpstar 140) and these old scopes really speak well about handmade history. I'd say the best views of Saturn and Jupiter so far is the Sharpstar 140 but the Meade Mak was so beautiful too.

I have an Astro-Optical 90/1400mm (Sears 6345) and it performs on a par with any 4" scope. Only head/head could you see the advantage of the extra 12mm, and you'd have to look hard for it. But what a difference in ease of handling!

 

I just picked up a ETX105 with superb optics and a head/head against the AO is planned.

 

-drl

[Terra Nova]

My report of last night wasn’t with a classic telescope, but just with my now, quite classic, eyes (upgraded a few years ago with toric replacement lenses following cataract removal).

 

It rained yesterday morning early and was unusually warm. The clouds began to break up and the sun came out around noon. that afternoon, I had an early dinner with my friend at her house and then later (around 4), we took her dog to the dog park to play with his canine friends.The sun was brilliant and not a cloud was to be seen anywhere in the cobalt blue sky. Around sunset (no around 5:30 here now), quite impromptu, we met her brother and his wife for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. Leaving the bar later, the temperature started dropping really fast under crystal clear nighttime skies. Venus, shining brightly, hung low in the west in setting Sagittarius. I took my friend home and stayed a bit, and then around 9 or so, I went out to my car to go home.

 

Where she lives (a large senior community), it’s like a big beautiful campus and all the buildings are arranged around a huge circle. With a giant circular quad in the middle. Where I park, it’s a short walk out onto the quad where there’s a great view of the sky in all directions, so I took a few minutes to go out and look up. Jupiter was high in the east and blazing away, and lower, Gemini and Mars was just coming up. Saturn, to the south had culminated. That evening I'd seen four of the five naked-eye planets, and the moon, arrayed from east to west along the horizon to horizon arc of the ecliptic. Despite the rising gibbous moon, the Pleiades sparkled and I could count all seven of the sisters.Looking at the Big Dipper, I could make out both Mizar and Alchor. It would have been a great night for viewing except for three things, I didn’t have a telescope or binoculars with me, it was quite damp and chilly and I had been dressed for the warm, sunny afternoon, a telescope or binoculars would have been soaked in minutes. Sadly tho, it would have been amazing seeing as the sky was exceedingly clear and stable above the shallow ground fog.

 

When I got to my car, it was COVERED in heavy dew, sopping wet like it had been in a pouring rain. By then, fog hung thick over the ground to a depth of about two or three feet. It was like in a horror movie; very cool! (I like horror movies!) Driving home, the fog became thicker and was blowing across the road in billowing waves, (I live quite close to the River/waterfront).  When I got to bed, the moon was well up and shining brightly in my bedroom window. I got up and made coffee around 7:30 this morning, and the fog was so thick, I couldn’t even see across the road! Now everything is under thick overcast. Snow flurries are expected late tonight and early tomorrow morning. Oh well. At least there was last night!

 

The moral of my story is, no matter what the weather as long as it’s clear, even if you don't have an instrument, take time to walk outside, pause, look up, and behold the wonder and majesty that is the night sky. You’ll be glad you did. I always am. Of course I’m preaching to the choir here.

Edited by Terra Nova, 21 November 2024 - 07:52 AM.

[docwilkins]

I have an Astro-Optical 90/1400mm (Sears 6345) and it performs on a par with any 4" scope. Only head/head could you see the advantage of the extra 12mm, and you'd have to look hard for it. But what a difference in ease of handling!

 

I just picked up a ETX105 with superb optics and a head/head against the AO is planned.

 

-drl

I had a Mayflower 60 and it was amazing. I gave it to a friend's son who is on the spectrum. I got it at the beginning of Covid lockdown in LA for like 50 dollars from a caretaker of the deceased owner. It looked God awful but it was fun cleaning it up and what a surprise it was at first light.
 

[docwilkins]

Tonight I'll set up the 90L and the Sharpstar 140. The latter is so heavy it only works  on my Vixen SXD2 or the Paramount MyT. I'll have a good laugh if I can't tell the difference in quality given the difference in price!

[CHASLX200]

Another clear night yesterday with a seeing of about 7 due to a northerly wind. I had Scruffy (Celestar 8) out in no time. First visual target was Saturn. Four satellites were visible at 300x plus atmospheric belts. The rings are thinner now but the Cassini division could be discerned. Using the camera and on screen the atmospheric effects were more evident. Only one imaging session came out rather well. Uranus was easy to spot. It looked nice at 300x as a very blue ball, a result of methane in it's atmosphere. The image of Uranus was the best possible this night. Next was Jupiter. I had to wait for some scattered clouds to disperse. The visual appearance was great with several belts and a lot of activity in the equatorial zone. The GRS was leaving the scene. Even visually the colors were apparent. By this time the turbulence was subsiding a bit and Jupiter was climbing high. Eventually and much later it would pass almost right across the zenith. The image shows the equatorial zone activity and the GRS peeking as it goes. Scruffy did well but is in need of a corrector and primary cleanup. The primary has many fungal spots on it. I was wondering if the newer Celestron SCTs are as good optically as this one or if there's a lot of variability. Last night the Orion Nebula was very good with a 20mm Plossl and the Trapezium was showing six stars. The last collimation that Scruffy went through happened two years ago. It has been holding better than I expected and when I mean collimation it means star collimated at 400x.

Darn close to what i see in my 826 at 450x  if i stand back 5ft. from my monitor.

[vineyard]

After a long time, I set up my Televue 102iis in BV configuration last night just to take a look at Jupiter.  It was v nice - best views were w 9mm Delites.

 

Out of curiosity, I also set up my APM BT70s side-by-side, and compared 18.2mm in the TV vs 9mm in the BT (so about 44-48x in both).  The Televue trounced the BTs for quality of image.  Jupiter was a joy.  Although the BTs did have a noticeably wider FOV.  Horses for courses I guess.

[vineyard]

A serendipitously nice session last night - the BV'd TV102iis mounted side-by-side with an STF Mirage 7" in mono.  This time I put RKE 28mms in the refractor, and alternated between 18.2mm and 9mmm Delites in the Mak.

 

Started w Jupiter and then went wandering, before ending via M45 on M36, 37, 38.

 

Jupiter was looking lovely in both scopes.  GRS and a moon transit - although I could only see the transit properly while imaging.

 

The BV'd RKEs worked v well - nice big FOV.  Tempted me to just push the scope off Jupiter and go for a wander - very nice viewing in the RKEs of star fields and large clusters (M45 squeezed in nicely).  And then as the clouds were coming in, a quick jaunt through those three Messiers in Auriga, as well as IC405.  Nebula obv not to be seen (but the distinctive star patterns there.  It was nice seeing the clusters in close-up with the STF7 and the 9mm running at 200x.

Edited by vineyard, 22 November 2024 - 06:08 PM.

[docwilkins]

Tonight I'll set up the 90L and the Sharpstar 140. The latter is so heavy it only works on my Vixen SXD2 or the Paramount MyT. I'll have a good laugh if I can't tell the difference in quality given the difference in price!

Seeing was off and on when I looked at Saturn last night. The test is hard since I have the Vixen on a Polaris with no motor and the length of the 90L means I couldn't adjust Dec and look at the image at the same time. I'll add another slow motion control. Anyhow, aside from huge brightness advantages, the 90L was about as clear as the 140. Now, one factor is eyepiece quality. The 90L had some decent oculars from Agena Astro but I had a pricey 5.5mm Scientific Explorer on the 140. Also, no fine focus on the 90L. So, given that the 90L was a proud second place. When seeing cleared the 140 was amazing and showed razor-sharp ring structure. At 10 or so I turned to Jupiter and the difference was substantial. The 90L was clearly a doublet even when in focus whereas no false color was evident in the 140 triple. But the outline of the planet was lovely in the 90L too. It just showed that 50 years or so of progress had occurred. Back to the eyepieces. I stuck an Agena 1.25 in the Sharpstar and the quality difference was immediate and obvious. 500 bucks vs 80 or so, right? This of course opens up the possibility that a quality 1.25 might change the results...

[oldmanastro]

This is from two nights ago. I had one of the most transparent skies of the year. At first I did some planetary imaging with one of my modern scopes but then I took out the C102 (Clammy). By the time Clammy was out Saturn was already low on the western horizon. Jupiter was high up in the sky. The view at 166x was very sharp with six belts showing. There was minimal if any CA at this magnification. I took a couple of images, one with and one without my Baader APO filter. You can tell which image was done using the filter. There was a lot of detail for a 102mm f/10 telescope. These are processed images from 5000 frames each but anyway no matter how much you process bad images the result will never be good. In this case the result indicates that individual images were pretty sharp. 

After Jupiter I went on a tour of my favorite Orion objects including M42, Zeta and Eta Orionis, Rigel . In Gemini I visited Castor and M35. The extra clear and dark skies provided a rich view of the cluster. The double cluster in Perseus was impressive in a wide field 20mm eyepiece. Clammy really delivered. 

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[davidmcgo]

Had the former Meade 826* out last night on my DM6 mount to check out Jupiter.  Temps were dropping fast and the forecast was for high humidity so the vintage Celestron collection stayed inside comfy and dry like all cats prefer.

 

Seeing was pretty good with moments of perfect, the insulated tube walls and cooling fan really make this incarnation of the Meade shine.  Jupiter had the Great Red Spot transiting and a later evening shadow and moon transit by Io.  I started off with my Takahashi Orthos but as small and light as they are they cooled to the point of fogging from my eyes within the first 40 minutes or so, and Indecided to bring out the Meade RG Orthos I got from my friend’s estate along with a superb C11 fork mount orange tube.  The RG 10.5 and 7mm are phenomenally sharp and low scatter, really vivid and natural colors to the cloud belts.  But the seeing was too good for that low of a power so I spent most of the time with a volcano top original 4.8mm Nagler.  250x really sharp and free of distortion so I could put Jupiter all the way to edge of field and let it drift in.  Saw tons of detail in the white swirls and eddies in the SEB following the GRS, and the S edge of the belt was scalloped as well.  There was a lot of complex detail in the NEB too, whenever the seeing would snap I’d see another level of stuff smaller than what my eyes fixed on the previous snap.  Without a drive the Nagler was better that the smaller field Orthos, but in this old original 4.8 the coatings aren’t fabulous and there is a spot or two somewhere inside that give a wired effect when Jupiter cross, may be a bubble in the glass somewhere but the freedom from lateral chromatic aberration and rectilinear distortion compared to the T6s makes it a favorite.  

 

Saturn was great, rings seem a bit dimmer than the globe now and Tethys I think was hovering right under the ring really close heading for a transit.  I was not able to see it in transit but even broke out a 4mm University Optics zebra toportho trying.

 

Ended the evening watching Io’s shadow and then the moon itself cross onto the disk.  I was surprised how well it stood out like a little pearl in front of the SEB.

 

Went back out at 4am with the Takahashi FC100DC and the vintage Takahashi MC 0.965 Orthos and in spite of a ring of fog all around the horizon and some turbulent skies was able to get the Napa and Syrtis Major on Mars and nice views of the Moon, almost getting to sunset on the Straight Wall and Clavius and the Appenines.

 

Dave

 

*Former 826 means the primary mirror is original.  It is so perfect in a star test and smooth that I remounted the mirror in a Hastings tube with Protostar flocked air spaced liner and secondary holder, Quartz 1.52” secondary, Feathertouch focuser, and a Blacknoise maglev fan for cooling.  Parallax rings, and a Losmandy dovetail plate and nice powder coat finish and a few handles round it out. The pot metal Meade secondary holder wasn’t stable and drove me a bit batty hence the upgrade.  Here is a picture of how it looks.

 

Edited by davidmcgo, 23 November 2024 - 04:29 PM.

[deSitter]

Had the former Meade 826* out last night on my DM6 mount to check out Jupiter.  Temps were dropping fast and the forecast was for high humidity so the vintage Celestron collection stayed inside comfy and dry like all cats prefer.

 

Seeing was pretty good with moments of perfect, the insulated tube walls and cooling fan really make this incarnation of the Meade shine.  Jupiter had the Great Red Spot transiting and a later evening shadow and moon transit by Io.  I started off with my Takahashi Orthos but as small and light as they are they cooled to the point of fogging from my eyes within the first 40 minutes or so, and Indecided to bring out the Meade RG Orthos I got from my friend’s estate along with a superb C11 fork mount orange tube.  The RG 10.5 and 7mm are phenomenally sharp and low scatter, really vivid and natural colors to the cloud belts.  But the seeing was too good for that low of a power so I spent most of the time with a volcano top original 4.8mm Nagler.  250x really sharp and free of distortion so I could put Jupiter all the way to edge of field and let it drift in.  Saw tons of detail in the white swirls and eddies in the SEB following the GRS, and the S edge of the belt was scalloped as well.  There was a lot of complex detail in the NEB too, whenever the seeing would snap I’d see another level of stuff smaller than what my eyes fixed on the previous snap.  Without a drive the Nagler was better that the smaller field Orthos, but in this old original 4.8 the coatings aren’t fabulous and there is a spot or two somewhere inside that give a wired effect when Jupiter cross, may be a bubble in the glass somewhere but the freedom from lateral chromatic aberration and rectilinear distortion compared to the T6s makes it a favorite.  

 

Saturn was great, rings seem a bit dimmer that the globe now and Tethys I think was hovering right under the ring really close heading for a transit.  I was not able to see it in transit but even broke out a 4mm University Optics zebra toportho trying.

 

Ended the evening watching Io’s shadow and then the moon itself cross onto the disk.  I was surprised how well it stood out like a little pearl in front of the SEB.

 

Went back out at 4am with the Takahashi FC100DC and the vintage Takahashi MC 0.965 Orthos and in spite of a ring of fog all around the horizon and some turbulent skies was able to get the Napa and Syrtis Major on Mars and nice views of the Moon, almost getting to sunset on the Straight Wall and Clavius and the Appenines.

 

Dave

 

*Former 826 means the primary mirror is original.  It is so perfect in a star test and smooth that I remounted the mirror in a Hastings tube with Protostar flocked air spaced liner and secondary holder, Quartz 1.52” secondary, Feathertouch focuser, and a Blacknoise maglev fan for cooling.  Parallax rings, and a Losmandy dovetail plate and nice powder coat finish and a few handles round it out. The pot metal Meade secondary holder wasn’t stable and drove me a bit batty hence the upgrade.  Here is a picture of how it looks.

 

IMG_1230.jpeg

I keep eyepieces in my pocket under such conditions.

 

Another glowing Meade mirror report. I'm wanting an 826!

 

Beautiful job on the scope! Looks like the Meade 8x50 finder - mine is really good.

 

-drl

Edited by deSitter, 23 November 2024 - 04:31 PM.

[davidmcgo]

I got the 826 tube used from Joe Sunseri back around 2004 or so and his description of Jupiter details he saw with it swayed me to buy it.  I was seeing the Pup almost nightly with it back in the 2004-2005 time frame when the separation was a lot less.  The scope had black power coated end rings and I think was later 1980s made, I remember a run being advertised shortly before the Starfinders came out.  Definitely worth snagging one.

 

Dave

I keep eyepieces in my pocket under such conditions.

 

Another glowing Meade mirror report. I'm wanting an 826!

 

-drl

Edited by davidmcgo, 23 November 2024 - 04:44 PM.

[rcwolpert]

For the first time in months we had a beautiful, clear night, 63°, no wind. Just had to take out the Questar. I still had to contend with all community lights, but Venus and Saturn were easy targets. Saturn was gorgeous. Crystal clear image on this near perfect night. Spent a long time enjoying the view with the Questar.

[deSitter]

First serious light with the ETX105.

 

Saw Venus through the tree limbs. Nice start.

 

Went to Altair to check the tracking and pointing. Check.

 

Went to zeta Aquarii to check the collimation and optics. Easy pass. Magnificent double in the center of the Water Jar. Perfect double Airy pattern.

 

Looked at in/out and made mental notes. Comparison to Aberrator suggests about 1/5th wave correction. That's probably as good as possible for an all-spherical f/14 105mm spot Mak. Very happy.

 

Finished up with Saturn. Rings are getting dim. Saw some cloud features, Cassini division, ring shadow on the ball, ball shadow on the back rings, Titan, Rhea. Smoke in the air darkened the view so I came in.

 

Big success. A fine addition to the family and it will get a lot of use starting with the occultation of Spica on Wednesday morning!

 

-drl

[Idaho_Skies]

I really enjoyed some small, old school refractor time tonight, observing Jupiter with my Monolux 4380 and my Jaegers 80mm f/15.

I usually expect good results from the Jaegers, which I built from parts back in the early 1980s.  For three and a half decades it has ridden on my Vixen Super Polaris mount.  Tonight the air was amazingly still in Southern Idaho, and the views of Jupiter just "popped".  The great red spot was there and the NEB showed quite a bit of variation at 100x.  Good contrast on the NNTB and SSTB as well (I baffled the Jaegers VERY well).

I then turned the early '60s Monolux 4380 on Jupiter.  It was mounted on a Twilight 1, since the original equatorial takes a long time to set up correctly.  I was quite surprised to see almost exactly as much detail in a 60mm as I did in the 80mm.  Crisp, high contrast image at 75x (I am hampered visually by early cataracts and going much above 1x per mm aperture does not work very well anymore).  Almost all of the features I could see in the 80mm were also visible in the 60mm Monolux.

It made me very happy taking out such a modest instruments instead of their "big brothers" tonight. It was just "fun", like it used to be in my youth when I had a great time every clear night with a beat up third-hand Tasco 60mm held together with glue and friction tape.  Looking forward to giving these two refractors some more sky time this winter, perhaps near first quarter moon in December.

 

Thanks for reading .  And many thanks to jragsdale for encouraging my ownership of the Monolux 60mm, it is cherished.

Edited by Idaho_Skies, 25 November 2024 - 01:59 AM.

[bshay]

The skies finally cleared a bit here on the Pacific Coast tonight, so I set up my Celestron Firstscope 80 and checked out Jupiter.  What an impressive little telescope!  

[jragsdale]

Thanks for reading .  And many thanks to jragsdale for encouraging my ownership of the Monolux 60mm, it is cherished.

I'm glad that little scope is still seeing light!

 

Funny you and I both took out a 60mm and 80mm scope last night to view Jupiter. I also had great views with a Bushnell Sky Chief Jr and Alvan Clark Type T, both with a 5mm Vixen ortho.

[jragsdale]

The skies finally cleared a bit here on the Pacific Coast tonight, so I set up my Celestron Firstscope 80 and checked out Jupiter.  What an impressive little telescope!  

Those are one of my favorite scopes. I've had several and they all end up with friends and family.

[Idaho_Skies]

The skies finally cleared a bit here on the Pacific Coast tonight, so I set up my Celestron Firstscope 80 and checked out Jupiter.  What an impressive little telescope!  

Yes I agree.  I have a Vixen era Firstscope 80 along with it's larger sibling, a Vixen made SP C90 refractor.  Both have been a lot of fun to use, with excellent optics.  They have been my favorite grab and go scopes for the last couple of years, taking very little effort to set up. 

As I have said elsewhere the Alt/Az mount Firstscope 80 is not only excellent optically, but the simple Alt/Az mount makes it ideal for outreach.  Kids seem to naturally understand how it works and how to point it.

I always enjoy hearing from people who have used these nice little refractors; they are quite underrated (so long as folks have reasonable expectations). 

Edited by Idaho_Skies, 25 November 2024 - 07:02 PM.

[deSitter]

Yes I agree.  I have a Vixen era Firstscope 80 along with it's larger sibling, a Vixen made SP C90 refractor.  Both have been a lot of fun to use, with excellent optics.  They have been my favorite grab and go scopes for the last couple of years, taking very little effort to set up. 

As I have said elsewhere the Alt/Az mount Firstscope 80 is not only excellent optically, but the simple Alt/Az mount makes it ideal for outreach.  Kids seem to naturally understand how it works and how to point it.

I always enjoy hearing from people who have used these nice little refractors; they are quite underrated (so long as folks have reasonable expectations). 

I was going to use my ETX105 for tomorrow's occulation of Spica, but think instead I'll use my Celestron C80/Vixen 80M Custom. $10 at Goodwill for pickup only. Absolutely excellent instant scope.

 

-drl

[ccaissie]

Loaded the OTA onto the heavy mount of our 1958 8" F/8 Treckerscope at 9:00 p.m. last night to catch the Great Red Spot transit.  Seeing was not great, but I used an ORION 12.5 and 7.5mm Plossl to reveal the Red Spot right on the terminator.   Io was approaching the Eastern limb, as were the clouds...1//2 hour with Saturn, Jupiter and M42.  Recently spray-silvered mirror is good in the red end of the spectrum, the Salmon-colored wing in M42 was obvious.