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[tomhole]

Well, tonight was a clear night. I was viewing from my driveway with moderate light pollution. Naked eye LM was 3.8, seeing was a 2 out of 5. I was using the 25mm Sirius plossls that came with my Orion scopes. The 10mm plossls were unusable, eye relief was too short. Scope was my XT10 1200mm f/4.7 on an equatorial platform. Binos were Denkmeier standards with 1 1/4" OCS. Also used a televue 2x barlow, and 2.5 and 5x powermates with the binos.


First target was the moon. Definitely a wow factor here. I had the 3D effect and the views were much more pleasing with the binos. Neighbor took a quick look and without any coaching made a comment about how it looked 3D.

I did some more experimentation with the powermates. The 2.5x powermate seems to give 2.5x. I compared the 25mm ep in just the 2.5x powermate and then in the bino with the 2.5x powermate and could see the same amount of the moon. The 5x powermate did increase the magnification with the binos vs just the 5x powermate and the 25mm ep. Didn't figure out how much, though. I would guess 6x-7x. I tried all my configurations, 1.2x OCS, 2.5x powermate, 4x (with the 2x barlow) and with the 5x powermate. All of them were easy to merge and gave a wonderful 3Dish view. Advantage, binos.

Jupiter was up next. I viewed it cyclops with my standard 10.5mm Pentax and 14mm Meade UWA and various barlows/powermates to get a good idea of what I could see with one eye. 200x was about the limit due to the seeing. I then switched to the binos. Best view was with OCS in 3x mode (144x). It was more comfortable viewing with two eyes, but I could not see any more detail than cyclops mode. I was comfortable, but not wowed. The moon was about 1 degree above Jupiter so there was a lot of stray light getting in. Regardless, the only difference I saw between cyclops and bino was comfort. This was evident when I compared the bino view with the 2.5x powermate to the 25mm in the 2.5x powermate in cyclops mode. Same magnification, same detail. Better seeing may have had more of a wow factor. Advantage: binos for comfort, tie for views.

I tried Saturn real quick before it went below the trees, but I was too late.

Next stop was my current favorite globular cluster, M3. I love looking at this through the Meade 14mm UWA. I went cyclops first and went right to 429x (14mm w/ 5x powermate). What a great site. The Meade at this power was able to frame the entire cluster. Many resolved stars and a bright center core. In went the bino. I used the 25mm ep's on the 2.5x powermate and also on the OCS in 3x mode. This gave me between 120 and 144x. I compared it to my expanse 9mm in cyclops mode at 133x. The cyclops view through the expanse was pretty boring. Not many resolved stars, just kindof a smudge, light gray background. The view through the binos was more comfortable, but not any more impressive. The view through the 14mm at 86x showed more detail and I've already covered the Meade's view at 429x. Pushing the 9mm up in cyclops mode was not helpful. Pushing the binos up with the 5x powermate (estimating 300x) resulted in a lighter gray smudge on a darker background. Since the view through the cyclops Expanse and the binos was the same, I guess this is a tie. I would have loved to see what a pair of the Meade UWAs would have looked like in the bino, but they are huge.

That was it for the night. First impression was very comfortable, but not as much wow as I had expected. The target set was limited and the seeing was not great. The 25mm plossls are not terrible ep's. They are average in cyclops mode and look to be average in binos as well. I'll have to head out to the local club's star party this weekend and see if I can bum a pair of better ep's.

I'll keep giving them a workout and get them to a star party as well. So far, they can stay.

Clear skies,

Tom

[tomhole]

Don,

Yeah, I'm hoping tonight will clear up so I can give them another try.

I was unable to make the Astronomy Day star party at our local club. My friend called me up and needed a DJ (one of my other hobbies) for his wedding up in D.C., so I helped him out. I was going to head down to La Plata afterwards, but it didn't finish up until 2300 or so. It was cloudy or raining all night, so I didn't miss any observing. I did miss a chance to meet John Dobson, though.

Clear skies,

Tom