Chilly night tonight, but did get some observing in. Tonight, it was a battle of two what I consider modern classics, though they were both made in 1989. Scope 1 tonight was the “new” Questar Seven on a modern Crux 170HD mount. Scope 2 was my Takahashi FCT-125 on a DM-6 mount. Started both on the moon, with both yielding beautiful contrast and not a hint of color along the moons periphery. I was using Questar Brandon’s in the Seven and ZAO-1’s in the Tak. M42 was just as beautiful in both scopes with clear knots in the nebulosity. The Tak kept right up with the big Questar. The Trapezium showed the e star in the Tak, but I couldn’t see the f star tonight. At first, the Questar was only showing 4 stars in the Trapezium. Went in and got warm and then came back out. Put the Questar back on the Trapezium, and there they were, both e and f stars as nice little pinpoints of light. Much happier. Spent some more time on M42 with the seven. Then popped down to Sirius with both scopes. Not a trace of false color in either scope.
i had the Televue Apollo 11 in a 2” diagonal on the axial port of the Questar. Sirius showed a lot of false colors and was pretty ugly. Went back to the Brandon 24mm with barlow and no false color. The Apollo 11 is one of favorite eyepieces and I have never been disappointed with it until tonight. It just doesn’t like the Questar. I tried it without the diagonal and the view was the same. Oh well, it shines in my other scopes. Just need to remember to not use it with the Questar.
Overall a fun night comparing two pretty amazing and very different classics.