11 replies to this topic

[Gavster]

After what seems like months of clouds in the UK, at last this evening we got some proper clear skies.

It gave me the opportunity to have a play with my new ovni-m night vision monocular coupled with my 16 inch dob. Previously I’ve only been able to observe afocally with my pvs-14 so it’s nice to have the extra flexibility to do prime which the ovni-m has.

Some great views tonight. Interestingly prime does seem to give nicer phone photos than afocal, less aberrations and reflections.

Here’s some quick phone shots from this evening with the ovni-m/dob setup. In order, 1) Horsehead 2) Flame 3) Monkeyhead and 4) sharpless 254/255/257 (the wind was causing some issues, hence some of the images show distorted stars)

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Edited by Gavster, 13 December 2020 - 03:47 PM.

[a__l]

Gavster, What's your omni-m variant?

[Mazerski]

Terrific photos - well done. Amazing.

[PEterW]

Gavsters variant is rather good. How do these compare to the eye view?
Peter

[Gavster]

Gavsters variant is rather good. How do these compare to the eye view?
Peter

For visual observing of  nebulae I preferred the 67mm afocal approach to the ovni-m in prime 26mm mode. With heavy 3nm ha filtering the extra light gathered by the afocal approach made a big difference and gave great views (although transparency could have been better). In prime mode, the live views weren't as good as the images and I needed to move up to a 5nm to get a brighter view as the 3nm was too dim.

[Second Time Around]

Gavin, as you know I have an OVNI-M so can use both prime focus and afocal. I've now bought a 55mm Televue Plossl and am waiting for the 67mm converter to arrive.

When and on what objects would you use prime focus?

Thanks.

[Gavster]

Gavin, as you know I have an OVNI-M so can use both prime focus and afocal. I've now bought a 55mm Televue Plossl and am waiting for the 67mm converter to arrive.

When and on what objects would you use prime focus?

Thanks.

I do think prime focus benefits from less glass so if I wanted more magnification on an object and didn’t want to change scope then I can see prime being beneficial here. Also on non nebulae objects like globulars and galaxies, the extra scale prime gives would be useful I think.

[Gavster]

I also meant to mention I tried a 0.75x rc reducer expecting it to be rubbish but actually it worked really well with the 67mm plossl and paracorr giving an effective speed of f1.3. Some vignetting but the very bright views made it a good option imo.

[Second Time Around]

Clusters are my favourite objects so that's good to know. Many thanks.

BTW, "your" 72mm is working very well on the sun.

[chemisted]

Clusters are my favourite objects so that's good to know. Many thanks.
 

Your 10" will be smashing on globulars and don't be afraid to power up with a 2X barlow.  If you haven't already read it you might want to track down my article on viewing globular clusters with an image intensifier and a 10" reflector:   Seeing Through the Dust by Ed Mihelich, Sky & Telescope, 2017, July issue, p 57.

[Second Time Around]

Your 10" will be smashing on globulars and don't be afraid to power up with a 2X barlow.  If you haven't already read it you might want to track down my article on viewing globular clusters with an image intensifier and a 10" reflector:   Seeing Through the Dust by Ed Mihelich, Sky & Telescope, 2017, July issue, p 57.

Many thanks, Ed!

[Jeff Morgan]

Nice images Gavster! As usual they are excellent, wind or no.

 

Your 10" will be smashing on globulars and don't be afraid to power up with a 2X barlow.  If you haven't already read it you might want to track down my article on viewing globular clusters with an image intensifier and a 10" reflector:   Seeing Through the Dust by Ed Mihelich, Sky & Telescope, 2017, July issue, p 57.

 

I have also found many nebula benefit from more magnification. Especially planetary nebula. Let surface brightness be your guide.

 

There appears to be a lot of angst about running up the power when using NV. Just like conventional eyepieces, I like to try several magnifications on many objects - even nebula.