Posts Made By: Mark Visser

Burgess 102f6 Observing Report
Date: April 23, 2003, Time: 9-11pm, Temp: 40 F 5C, Location: Chatham, Ont Canada, Skies: Mag 3-4,
Scope: Burgess 1026f6, Mount: Skywatcher AZ/3 mount, Eyepieces: Celestron Eyepiece Kit… 32mm, 15mm, 9mm, 6mm, 4mm….Filters: Orion Skyglow filter.
Light Pollution: Moderate .. I live in the heart of a city with a population of 40,000. This is where I do 99% of my observing so this is where I wanted to test from.
Orion Nebula
32mm: Some Nebula… Very pretty.. set up nicely in background.
15mm: 4 stars easily seen in centre….More nebulae and whispy
9mm: Nebulae filled the eyepiece nicely.
6mm: Sky glow filter was really working well… Lots of whisp….. I would have like to hang here for a while longer but chose to move on. No unwanted color was detectible.
Hyades
32mm: This was very nice.. various stars showed their color well! I wanted to see a nice wide cluster as this is what this scope is supposed to excel at…. It didn’t disappoint !! I didn’t bother to use any smaller eyepieces as this is a large open cluster best seen as just that.
Saturn
32mm: 1 moon and Saturn was just a blob…. No color fringing
15mm: Tiny smidge of color.. Rings were showing.
9 mm: Very Crisp… Could detect one band on the planet… Rings more defined but still no Cassini Division…. ( am I mistaken or is the Cassini division harder to see with any scope now?)
6 mm: Still Very Crisp. Could detect Cassini Division. Some color out of focus but virtually none in focus.
4mm: Detected cap on planet. Still no color to speak of.
Alphard in Hydra
I chose this star to do a star test on…. Could only use 6mm as could only defocus one way while using the 4mm:
It star tested quite well… I think I detected that it was just a wee bit our of collimation… Other than that the rings were very even on both sides of focus… No sign of pinched optics or anything strange like that but there was some color only out of focus
Jupiter
32mm: Just a blob and 4 moons. Two looked like they were on top of each other.
15mm: 2 bands & caps….. no color detectable
9mm: More detail in bands… light purple halo… and I do mean light:
6mm: Color started to show a little more but still had to pay attention to see it. Jupitor was still fairly crisp and didn’t mush out.
4mm: Color was noticable but not objectionable.. ( this is a test to am being picky ). Lots of detail… Again I wanted to hang around here for a while and did!!
I looked at a couple of other open star clusters such as the beehive…. This scope really does excel at nice wide views…. It’s funny that we always want to test it on planets.

Part 2 is on next page

Mark V

Comparisons:
Orion 120 long tube: The Orion had color and lots of it… The Burgess 102f6 beats it hands down !!
Orion st80: Again no comparison…… Way to much color in the st80… the Burgess 102f6 beats it hands down!
Orion 102mak: Athough there was no color the image was not as clean… it could be that the mak was not collimated… However the 102f6 had a much wider field of view so it was much easier to find things and performed just as well on the planets.
Skywatcher 8inch dob: Well Sorry but the dob blew it away as it should……Funny I never noticed those diffraction spikes before!!

All in all this is one great scope.... Far Far less color than any other scope in it's price range!!!

Mark V

I saw these in the June issue of the Astronomy Magazine.. I know these are new but does anyone have any further information on these..... They are listed at 89.00

Thanks

Mark V

Does anyone know the difference if any between the 10" synta mirror or the 10" guan sheng... Is there any??

I just keep hearing reference to them but nothing specific as far as differences..

Example Orion switched to Synta on their Orion Xt's but prior to that they were using Guan Sheng..

Any advantage to one over the other??

Thanks

Mark Visser

What would be a good eyepiece in the 6mm range.. I'm looking for good eyerelief and wideangle.... I would be willing to spend around 70 for a used one and would be using it with a 10" dob primarily but also would be using it with a 102 f6 refractor... I have a 4.5 and 6mm from the Celestron eyepiece set but find the eye relief not that great in this range.

Thanks

Mark V

I remember seeing a filter slide you could mount on a dob but don't recall where..

Any ideas??

any help would be appreciated... ( homemade ideas included)

Thanks

Mark V

Hi

I currently have the Celestron Ultima Barlow... I was wondering if it was worth the upgrade to a televue 2.5x barlow... or even if it is an upgrade??

Which is better??

Thanks

Mark V

When the pen starts to put on more grease than it takes off then it's time to trash it!! Heh HEH...



Mark V

I've heard lots about cool down time but what about warm up time?? Say like moving a dob from an air conditioned house to the great hot/muggy outdoors??

Does it heat up faster than it cools down??


Mark V

Hi all, I'm hoping you can help me out..

I star tested my 10" dob the other night and it was showing a lot of Air turbulance ( different than tube currents) with a lot of jagged edges ( not round ).. They don't have the typical pinched effect either.

I then star tested my Orion St 80 on the same star.. It showed nice circles..

1. is this because the 10" shows Air turbulance easier??


I'm hoping my mirrors aren't rough... but can't really tell as the star tests for both look almost identical..


Any help would be appreciated..

Thanks

Mark V