Astraea Rising (Zoomy Fun)

[Nightspore]

 

It's finally stopped raining ...

 

It was around 20:40 BST by the time I had set-up on Tuesday the 9th. This was my first session this April. Which tells you a lot about the weather! It was fairly clear but the jet stream and therefore the overall seeing wasn’t really on my side. Either way, I was out with a scope under some stars, which has to be good, right? The main two decisions were what scope and eyepieces I would deploy. The former was easy; the 72ED Evostar was perfect as it was lightweight and small enough to be practical. It was a nice aperture size with no discernible difference from my 80ED. It also gets more use annually than any of my other scopes. I was slightly tempted by the Titchy Sixty (Altair 60EDF rev2) but decided variety was the (scary) spice of life.

 

 

The EP’s were another thing altogether. Ideally I would elect for a nice spread from a 0.5mm exit pupil (140x) to about a 4mm (17.5x). I have about ten thousand eyepieces, and that’s no exaggeration lol. So, I’d whittled it down to: TV 3-6mm Nagler zoom (no-brainer), a 13mm Nagler, a 24mm Panoptic and a 32mm Takahashi Abbe Orthoscopic or 32mm TV Plossl. After a deep Taoist meditation session (actually a Margherita Pizza) I then decided to go with just three eyepieces (and a Barlow) for reasons of simplicity. The Nagler zoom plus a 19mm TV Panoptic and the Takahashi. These are much easier to utilise and use with my disability, although the Tele Vue Barlow wasn’t actually used on the night, I’ve discovered it works very well with the 19mm Panoptic. The 19mm is a pretty lightweight and compact eyepiece. Combined with the TV 2x it displays no astigmatism or vignetting whatsoever. It was like they were made for each other! I also decided to return to the 1.25” EverBrite diagonal after using the 1.25” Baader BBHS prism for a while. The BBHS clicklock can accidentally unthread the Panoptic barrel and does my head in with ‘twist to focus’ zoom eyepieces. So the plain, but well made and designed, TV thumb screw works better for me. I like the petite and compact Tak’ 32mm as it is a bit sui generis. Crystal clear with unrivalled optical acuity and contrast with a distinctly comfortable eye relief and placement.

 

 

Possibly due to the deep placement of the eye lens within the housing. Altogether; I have a zoom with a range of 70x to 140x, a widefield with around 22x and an orthoscopic giving about 13x with a decent three arc degrees of field (I think). All three eyepieces can be easily carried in bolt cases in my jacket pockets. I like easy.

 

 

The first target was naturally the setting twilight Jupiter. At 13° altitude, or thereabouts, I wasn’t expecting much. I could see Europa and Ganymede close to each other, with Callisto on the opposite side of the planet. Anything higher than around 80-90x though and I lost Jovian surface definition. The TV zoom is great for planetary observing as changing magnification is slightly easier than falling off a log (or tripping over the Vixen tripod legs). M42 was just too much to resist and it beckoned the Nagler zoom. Although low, the nebula was quite beautiful at up to 90x. The Trapezium stars were quite striking up to 140x. Having ‘zoomy’ fun I split  Castor and Algieba, found the Spring Albireo then turned my attention to a low Cassiopeia. Iota Cass was as impressive as usual. The great thing about Cassiopeia being circumpolar is that it’s always visible for me. Eta Cass (Achird) was not that easy to split at first, possibly due to overall seeing. 

 

 

Eventually it was time for the Takahashi orthoscopic. The Serpent Cluster (Orion’s Belt) was still visible, even as Orion was disappearing. The Tak’ gave a beautifully clear view of the Pleiades and even some of Berenice’s Hair. Berenice is definitely better with a 2” Baader Aspheric due to the fact I can see so much more of her barnet. The Baader doesn’t out-contrast the Takahashi however. The view through the orthoscopic was quite exquisite. Finally I split Polaris with the zoom, not so easy at first, but actually dropping the magnification to around 80-90x helped. Not forgetting the Polaris ‘Engagement Ring’ with the Takahashi.

 

 

The Pleiades and the Beehive were both very good with the Panoptic and the ortho’. I pondered on whether I could realistically just use the Panoptic and ditch the Takahashi. Sometimes, with short tube refractors, you do really appreciate a low (anything between 10-15x) magnification though. I could see Virgo or Astraea rising, supposedly the last immortal to abandon the Earth. She spans the 150th-180th degree of the Zodiac. Virgo is also related to Inanna (Venus) and to Demeter, both goddesses of the harvest (I haven’t even got to the Ancient Egyptians yet). So, she gets around. I can just about ‘see’ her now as she follows the lion across the night sky. Sometimes I really can see why our ancestors took solace in the night sky. These colossal yet strangely predictable figures make the universe a friendly familiar place. I wish I could claim the same for those pesky Zeta Reticulans. Luckily (I’m with Fermi on this) I don’t believe in aliens. I had a good two hours and I enjoyed the session. 

 

 

Here comes the rain again …

Edited April 10 by Nightspore

[GazAstro]

Good to see some action ! glad you got out  for a while.

[Nightspore]

7 hours ago, GazAstro said:

Good to see some action ! glad you got out  for a while.

 

Thanks, I'm not overly optimistic though. In complete darkness is good, but not with rain ...