Last updated: 10 February 2003
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Last updated: 10 February 2003 |
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Subject: New report on LXD55 6" Refractor Sent: Thursday, February 6, 2003 05:41:27 From: Dimitris Rakopoulos (liquid@mediaone.gr) On 29/1/2003 I had the chance to try my LXD55 6" on the field (after several days with bad weather). The sky was clystal clear due to extreme cold (1 degree Celcius) so I choose a dark location to test the scope and the new Sirius Optics Minus Violet filter. I setup the scope and did a fairly good autostar alignment. I must admin that it preferable to align Polaris without the counterweights on the mount because will them the mount is too difficult to move. The primary goal of my session was to check the quality of Sirius Optics minus violet filter. I choose 3 easy targets. First of all, Jupiter, then Saturn and then Sirius. Sirius was the object I noticed weird spikes coming out of the actual star. I can't explain it otherwise but the whole view seemed weird. On Jupiter, I used the standard 26mm eyepiece for a moderate magnification. Then I adapted the MV filter. Different view! Jupiter was more well-formed and it seemed to have more detail on it. I didn't try any other magnification. I prefered to use my 6.7mm eyepiece on Saturn instead because it was on a darker part of the sky. After finding Saturn with the Autostar (still impresses me cause I know that my assignment is not that good) I tried my 26mm eyepiece without the MV filter. The objected seems more clear than Jupiter (it was higher in the sky). Then, on to my 6.7mm eyepiece. After seing the object for 3-4 minutes I quickly added the MV filter. Once again, the view was much better. Let me explain myself. Even the first I used the LXD I noticed that Saturn and Jupiter are not crystal clear. They were somewhat a bit not well-formed. It seemed that the outer part of the object was not sharp enough. The MV filter does that for both planets. On Saturn, the outline is almost perfect I now I can see more detail on the planet. I get a more 3dimentional view of it. After adapting the MV filter, I added a barlow 2x to get a 360x view of the planet. Absolutely perfect. The view was a bit dimmer than without the barlow but the MV does the job of making the field of view sharp and clear. Totally satisfied. Then, on to Sirius. Before I even applied the MV filter I noticed that I could minimize this "spikes effect" to minimum by trying to focus a bit better. I spent a minute more to focus correctly and the results was quite satisfactory. The MV just made things even better. The "spikes" were totally gone. There were a couple of people with me that night and they all agreed. There was a difference. So, Sirius Optics MV filter does the job. (So, thank you Mr. Nomikos for a great present on my birthday) Then, I tried some deep sky objects. The Great Orion nebulae was excellent as always. I'm dying to try it with my new Wide Field adapter by Apogee. Same goes fon Pleides, too. Imanaged to see Andomeda galaxy in the Southern horizon before it set. A bit fuzzy if you take under account the fact that the lights of the city were just below. Then, The Double Cluster. One of my favourites! I absutely love it. Here comes a list of some of the Messiers I observed. M35, M36, M37, M38, M42, M44, M45. Then, I opened the folder Open/Star cluster of the autostat and observed almost all of them. I focuced on Perseus, Orion, Auriga, Taurus, Canis Major. The brilliant thing about this part of the tour was that I was using quiet slew and all the objects were quite slow. So, I could move from object to object very easily with my eye on the eyepiece. I could see the telescope scan the sky and during that scan I could see all the objects that were there. In many occasions, the telescope passed the desired objects and then right on the autostar got the telescope back to the correct position. It was like I was finding something new on the sky and then I actually got the chance to see it without the scope moving. I observed all deep sky objects with my favourite 40mm eyepiece. Perfect eye relief, great field of view, very bright, low magnification. I think the next time I will use my new Wide Field Adapter to check them all out. So, till the next report. Best regards and clear skies. Btw, the weather in Athens is awful. Be good, Dimitris Rakopoulos liquid@mediaone.gr Athens, Greece
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