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Re: (IAAC) New
Bill,
I also have the Celestron 4.5" reflector (EQ mount), so here are my
experiences:
1. As far as DS objects, I have had quite a bit of luck finding things
with it. I have seen the following Glob Clusters: M13, M15, M2. Since I
got the scope in the late summer, I was not able to get good views of M10
and M12. Right now is not the best time to see Globs, but M15 and M2 are
readily visible from my back yard (Dayton, OH, lat 39.75). What you can
expect to see depends on how dark your skies are. In my back yard, M15 and
M2 are just blobs with bright centers (definitely NOT a star, tho). M15 is
very easy to find, between Epsilon Pegasus and gamma Delphinus. M2 is very
easy to find from M15, hold the RA constant and reduce the Dec. It is
similar in size and detail to M15 (at least to my untrained eye). I was
able to go to a dark site about 2 months ago and was able to break out
individual stars in M13, but only after the scope had cooled.
Other items that i have been able to see from the back yard are M92, M57
(ring nebula), M27 (Dumbell Neb), M29, M39, M34, M31, M56, perseus double
cluster, M42, and M1 (singularly unimpressive) just to name a few. I have
never been able to see the North American Neb, and until my neighbor cuts
down his huge trees in his back yard, I won't see any of the wonders in
Saggitarius or Scorpio (drat!). I haven't found M103 or M52 yet, but i am
almost positive I can. As far as double stars, I was easily able to split
epsilon Lyra into 2 stars, but from the back yard, i could not split each of
those into their pairs. As for planets, Jupiter's bands (and 4 moons) are
easily visible, and just last week, I was finally able to see the Cassini
division in Saturn's ring from my back yard.
Since I have only had the scope a short time, I have only been able to take
it to a true dark sky location once. And what i saw there impressed me.
Once the scope truly cooled down, the views of saturn and Jupiter rivaled
the 8" SCTs (in clarity) that were there. I was easily able to watch the
shadow of one of Jupiter's moons cross the planet. I was very pleasantly
surprised. As for DS objects, I was able to easily identify M110 and M32
(neighbors to M31) and even M33 (although I must admit that all the galaxies
were only blobs and little/no detail was discernable).
As for magnification, I have the standard 25mm and 10mm EPs supplied by
Celestron and I have purchased a 7.5mm (121x) celestron ultima EP and the 2x
Barlow. I am able to double the 10mm EP easily (to 180x) , but when i
double the 7.5mm EP (240x), i have a difficult time getting the combination
in focus. And even then, a light breeze sends whatever i am looking at all
over the field of view. The tripod is definitely not a selling point for
this scope. All of the objects I listed above were seen through the two
eyepieces that came with the scope. My current setup is to attach the 10 mm
to the barlow and leave it, giving me 36x, 121x, and 180x.
By the way, one of the most impressive sights i have seen is the Pleadies
using the 25mm EP. It literally fills the view!!! WOW!!!
Feel free to drop me a line if you want more information.
Dean Petters
dpetters@mindspring.com
-----Original Message-----
From: free@auhs.edu <free@auhs.edu>
To: netastrocatalog-announce@latrade.com
<netastrocatalog-announce@latrade.com>
Date: Monday, November 30, 1998 11:24 AM
Subject: Re: (IAAC) New
Hey Gang,
Being new to the list I've been encouraged by the postings and
have had my appetite whetted to do some DS observing. I've got some
questions however.
#1 I only have a 4.5" celestron reflector and it seems that most
of what you guys see is done on at least 6" scopes. What can I possibly
hope to see with my 4.5"er? Specifically I once saw a globular star
cluster on somebodyelse's big Dobsonian and wonder if I could locate one
on my scope. Where would one be for me living in Philadelphia area, 40
degrees lat? I know the Pleides is an open cluster, right?, but I want
to observe those closed ones.
#2 I presently have 2 eyepieces that came with the scope that are
36 and 91 times magnification. How high can I actually go in
magnification on my 4.5" scope before I am exceeding it's ability to
accurately depict DS objects. The reason i ask is partly because most of
the postings I read have you guys reporting magnifications of mid 100's to
200's plus.
Thanks for your help,
Bill from Philly
William M. Free
FREE@auhs.edu
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