I recently returned from a trip to West Texas where 14 folks had the opportunity to view through the 82" Otto Struve Cassegrain at the McDonald Observatory. I must say it was very impressive to see this huge research telescope equipped with a 2" diagonal and eyepiece. Most all the work done today is spectrographic in nature.
We looked at the following DSO's; M42 - The nebular structure was three dimensional in appearance and the six trapezium stars filled the FOV; NGC 2261, Hubble's Variable Nebula' which was clear and seen as in photos; NGC 2506 which filled the FOV with close packed globules; NGC 2392 "Eskimo Nebula" again filling the FOV with the bright 'face' the distinctive ring of gas with a purplish hue and the outer ring; M104 "Sombrero Galaxy" which was edge-to-edge in the eyepiece being split across by the dark dust ring; and M3 a bright GC with only the center core visible.
As we were leaving the dome I noted that we had used 27 mm TelVue and 50 mm Takahashi eyepieces and a 'no name' diagonal. Hey, with 82" of mirror the diagonal performed just fine.
We looked at the following DSO's; M42 - The nebular structure was three dimensional in appearance and the six trapezium stars filled the FOV; NGC 2261, Hubble's Variable Nebula' which was clear and seen as in photos; NGC 2506 which filled the FOV with close packed globules; NGC 2392 "Eskimo Nebula" again filling the FOV with the bright 'face' the distinctive ring of gas with a purplish hue and the outer ring; M104 "Sombrero Galaxy" which was edge-to-edge in the eyepiece being split across by the dark dust ring; and M3 a bright GC with only the center core visible.
As we were leaving the dome I noted that we had used 27 mm TelVue and 50 mm Takahashi eyepieces and a 'no name' diagonal. Hey, with 82" of mirror the diagonal performed just fine.