Hi everyone,
This morning was my first light with my new Televue NP-101 in South Florida. The seeing was a little better than average, about a 6. I used it on my Celestron CG-5 mount. I started off with Vega as I just had to know right off the bat how good the color correction was on this scope. Needless to say, I was very impressed. I was extremely hard pressed to see any blue around Vega regardless of magnification!! I tried the new 3 to 6mm Nagler Zoom and did not see any color at all. The 3mm zoom yields 90 - 180x on this scope and I did not see any color at all, regardless of magnification with this eyepiece. I then put in my 2.5x Powermate and could barely see a smidgeon of false color at the maximum power which is 450x. I had to look for it and it was not easy to see. Also, the star test on the scope was perfect. I can definitely say that this scope passed the false color test without flying colors!!
Next, I moved to the double-double and obtained a very nice view, splitting it easily at 90x with the Nagler Zoom. After trying the Nagler Zoom, I wanted to try my new 24mm Panoptic which yields 23x and about a 3 degree FOV. I saw the Pleiades rising over my house and turned to them. What a sight!! The entire cluster was beautifully framed right in the middle of this eyepiece. No false color on any of the stars. It was just a beautiful widefield view.
Next, I turned to Mars and was amazed at how sharp it was at 180x. Mars just snapped right into focus. The south (I think it is the south) Polar Cap was huge and easily visible as were several dark markings on the planet. I do not know which markings on Mars that I saw as I was mainly concerned with testing the scope this morning but the markings were easily visible and fairly distinct. Mars had a very pretty red/orange color to it and was easy to focus on. I then added my 2.5 Powermate and viewed Mars at the 5mm setting (270X) and did not see any image breakdown. The image finally started to go a little soft at the 4mm setting (and Powermate) at 338x! I did not expect to be able to use such high powers on Mars with a 4” scope! I look forward to viewing Mars with this scope for the next several months during this terrific opposition.
I did not notice any false color on the edge of the moon at all as I viewed it rising over the roof of my house.
To summarize, this scope really impressed me with its optics as well as its mechanics. The focuser is extremely smooth, the scope is built like a tank, and I love the satin like finish to the dewcap, focuser, and diagonal. This scope looks as nice as it performs. As for performance, the complete lack of false color was extremely impressive and all of the objects I viewed snapped right into focus. The star test was perfect and the images were beautiful.
Clear skies,
Jeff
This morning was my first light with my new Televue NP-101 in South Florida. The seeing was a little better than average, about a 6. I used it on my Celestron CG-5 mount. I started off with Vega as I just had to know right off the bat how good the color correction was on this scope. Needless to say, I was very impressed. I was extremely hard pressed to see any blue around Vega regardless of magnification!! I tried the new 3 to 6mm Nagler Zoom and did not see any color at all. The 3mm zoom yields 90 - 180x on this scope and I did not see any color at all, regardless of magnification with this eyepiece. I then put in my 2.5x Powermate and could barely see a smidgeon of false color at the maximum power which is 450x. I had to look for it and it was not easy to see. Also, the star test on the scope was perfect. I can definitely say that this scope passed the false color test without flying colors!!
Next, I moved to the double-double and obtained a very nice view, splitting it easily at 90x with the Nagler Zoom. After trying the Nagler Zoom, I wanted to try my new 24mm Panoptic which yields 23x and about a 3 degree FOV. I saw the Pleiades rising over my house and turned to them. What a sight!! The entire cluster was beautifully framed right in the middle of this eyepiece. No false color on any of the stars. It was just a beautiful widefield view.
Next, I turned to Mars and was amazed at how sharp it was at 180x. Mars just snapped right into focus. The south (I think it is the south) Polar Cap was huge and easily visible as were several dark markings on the planet. I do not know which markings on Mars that I saw as I was mainly concerned with testing the scope this morning but the markings were easily visible and fairly distinct. Mars had a very pretty red/orange color to it and was easy to focus on. I then added my 2.5 Powermate and viewed Mars at the 5mm setting (270X) and did not see any image breakdown. The image finally started to go a little soft at the 4mm setting (and Powermate) at 338x! I did not expect to be able to use such high powers on Mars with a 4” scope! I look forward to viewing Mars with this scope for the next several months during this terrific opposition.
I did not notice any false color on the edge of the moon at all as I viewed it rising over the roof of my house.
To summarize, this scope really impressed me with its optics as well as its mechanics. The focuser is extremely smooth, the scope is built like a tank, and I love the satin like finish to the dewcap, focuser, and diagonal. This scope looks as nice as it performs. As for performance, the complete lack of false color was extremely impressive and all of the objects I viewed snapped right into focus. The star test was perfect and the images were beautiful.
Clear skies,
Jeff
