After several days of PM rain this evening the skies were somewhat clear. I grabbed my 4" f/10 TAL-100 on gem and tried out my newly acquired 30mm Widescan II. I had tried it on my 10" f/6 dob when I first received the eyepiece and was pleased. I makes a really nice wide field finder!! I was concerned that it may not reach focus on the refractor but it does easily. The views of the moon were spectacular, nice and contrasty. Even near the edge of the 84* fov the image was acceptably sharp. I centered Plato and put in a 6mm Orion Expanse that I have for evaluation. Sharpness was ok, even good, but the kidney beaning was horrible and there seemed to be a lot of lateral color at the edges. I concentrated on the central area and tried to see any craterlets inside Plato. You know, the ones everyone talks about if the seeing and optics allow. Well.... no joy. I was only working at 167x with the 6mm and had nothing more powerful. Any comments on how much power is necessary to glimpse these objects??
Walt
Walt
