Hey Folks,
As some of you know, recently I purchased a Discovery 10 inch F5.6 dob, our "biggest" scope before this is a 6 inch.
Last night we had clear and steady skies and I finally got to test drive the 10 inch on the moon. The moon always looks good in scopes, and I have seen lot's of detail in our other scopes, but I have never had moon observations cause my jaw to drop. I could not believe how awesome it looks in this scope!
I was dying to try looking at something like this as I finally was able to do a decent star test on the scope last weekend and the optics seem to be very well corrected. What ever small differences there are between the inside and outside of focus images, would require VERY steady seeing to detect it.
But back to the moon last night, I started at 56x, took a peek, fried my retina and decided I better use a moon filter at this low power, the moon looked great. I could tell there was tiny detail just waiting for me to up the power to see. So I moved straight up to 258X, and WOW oh man, it was incredible! The tiny craterlets were uncountable! Rills, incredible detail in the crater walls, etc. I have heard people say "It felt like I was hovering above the surface" but I have never felt like that myself until now. It honestly felt like I was hang-gliding 5 miles above, (well jet pack maybe, hang gliding can be tough without an atmosphere)! Then I decided to really test things, I put the barlow in and doubled the power, 516X, and the image was still crisp! Craters would fill the FOV, I could see some detail in the smaller craterlets, it was literally breathtaking!
I think I might actually "get into" lunar observing now, I'm super pumped to get a good look at Mars too!
Take care and clear skies!
Ron
As some of you know, recently I purchased a Discovery 10 inch F5.6 dob, our "biggest" scope before this is a 6 inch.
Last night we had clear and steady skies and I finally got to test drive the 10 inch on the moon. The moon always looks good in scopes, and I have seen lot's of detail in our other scopes, but I have never had moon observations cause my jaw to drop. I could not believe how awesome it looks in this scope!
I was dying to try looking at something like this as I finally was able to do a decent star test on the scope last weekend and the optics seem to be very well corrected. What ever small differences there are between the inside and outside of focus images, would require VERY steady seeing to detect it.
But back to the moon last night, I started at 56x, took a peek, fried my retina and decided I better use a moon filter at this low power, the moon looked great. I could tell there was tiny detail just waiting for me to up the power to see. So I moved straight up to 258X, and WOW oh man, it was incredible! The tiny craterlets were uncountable! Rills, incredible detail in the crater walls, etc. I have heard people say "It felt like I was hovering above the surface" but I have never felt like that myself until now. It honestly felt like I was hang-gliding 5 miles above, (well jet pack maybe, hang gliding can be tough without an atmosphere)! Then I decided to really test things, I put the barlow in and doubled the power, 516X, and the image was still crisp! Craters would fill the FOV, I could see some detail in the smaller craterlets, it was literally breathtaking!
I think I might actually "get into" lunar observing now, I'm super pumped to get a good look at Mars too!
Take care and clear skies!
Ron
