First Proper session with the scope 5th Jan 2008

Finally, after what has seemed like weeks or months since Christmas, I looked out the window last night at about 2100 to discover that the clouds had parted and made way for some nice clear skies. Well, I quickly grabbed a fleece, coat and a pair of boots a chair and my little Konus and got out there. First thing, the Konus is mounted on a 30 year old camera tripod, so I wasn't quite sure how much wobble I was gonna get. All in all, the tripod did quite a good job at damping vibrations, even using the 6.5 ep on Mars, the focus wobble was suppressed in about 3 seconds so it's working well.

I went for the usual suspects to get a test on the scope. So I kicked off with the Pleiades. A really nice view through the 20mm ep. Then I had a look at Andromeda M31 for a while, and I could see a little more fuzz than with my bins. I then swung around and had a look at Mars. I could see a tiny little ball with the 6.5mm ep. Whilst there was no detail, it was still a WOW!! I saw the first bit of CA on Mars also, but only when I wasn't lined up on the ep properly.

Then, as I was in the area, I had a look at M35, M36 and M38. It was here I discovered that the finder scope had become misaligned whilst I was using it (the tube and mountings are all plastic), I have an RDF on order from FLO but it's not arrived yet. Still, I gave up with finder, and sighted by eye and wandered till I found what I was looking for after this.

I found m42 and had a good long look at this. Nice white cloud. I spent quite some time looking here as this is the first time I've seen so much of it. The scope, despite its aperture not being that much bigger than my bins, just grabs that much more light.

I then moved on, passing Mirfak and having a look at the association, it just fitted in the 20mm ep. Took me a while to figure out that I had found it, as I'd forgotten that it was reveresed in the ep of a scope DOH!!!

I went from here to the double cluster, and had a good long look with the 20mm ep. It was here I discovered the differences in the ep's that were delivered with the scope, and the ep's I bought from second hand. No contest, the Konus ep's are plossls, but they just don't provide the same views...

I then just meandered along the Milky Way, marveling at the sheer numbers of pin points of light that the scope was able to show me that the bins didn't.

Now, I may have done this in the wrong order, but I remembered, as the cold was beginning to seep into my toes, about something called a star test. So I lined up the scope on Polaris, and defocused both in an out. I couldn't detect any abnormalities in the blur that showed up on either side, so I guess this means the optics are reasonable. I tried this with both the 20 and 6.5mm ep's. I then had a look at the engagemnt ring, back to the Pleaides for a final look, and ran for warmth.

All in all a really enjoyable nights viewing, and nice to be able to give the scope a workout.