Here is my first light report, kind of long and poorly written.
I finally got to have first light today with the new 1.3x corrector from Seibert Optics
that allows me to use my Denkmeier standard binoviewer with the Coronado PST. I did not
perform any scientific analysis of light loss or measure the change in FOV or try to
estimate the actual change in magnification because I prefer to leave the technical
reviews to those with more proficiency than I. With that said, I can sum up my
non-technical review with one word....WOW! I've been cursed with a love of binoviewers
for well over a year now and simply cannot stand mono-viewing any more for any extended length
of time. The only exception was the PST because I would rather view H-Alpha with one eye than
not view H-Alpha at all.
The corrector consists of 2 well machined metal parts, the corrector itself and an extension
tube. The corrector didn't thread all the way into the hollow nose piece of my binoveiewer
so I had to mail the hollow nose piece to Harry so he could re-thread it. This was not a
surprise to me as we had already discussed the possibility of it not threading correctly prior
to my placing the order and I decided to see if it would work as is, which unfortunately for me
it didn't. Harry did his thing (free of charge, except for me paying shipping one way to him)
he then mailed it back within 2 days of receiving it, and the corrector fit perfectly.
On with the show...
My Setup - PST, Orion AZ3 mount, Denkmeier standard binoviewer, and for first light I only used
2 sets of Orion Hightlight plossl's (20mm and 26mm) and a single 15mm Celestron Omni plossl.
I first found and centered the sun using my 15mm plossl just to get a good idea of what features
were visible so I could detect the loss of any detail when I put in the binoviewer. There were
several tiny prominences, one fairly dark and several fairly faint filaments...beautiful. I
tossed the single eyepiece aside
and grabbed the binoviewer/corrector/extension tube combo
and plunked it down in the focuser with my set of 26mm plossls...ta da...there was the sun and
it was almost in focus. I didn't have to tweak the tuning at all just a little turn of the
focus knob and BAM...H-Alpha-bino-viewing-nirvana. This was just like my first time viewing
the moon with a binoviewer and just as impressive. The sun looked huge and all the detail was
there that was visible in my single eyepiece. I actually noticed a very faint prominence in the
binoviewer that I didn't notice in the single eyepiece at first, however, it was visible when I
switched back to the single eyepiece. I switched back to the binoveiwer and replaced the 26mm
plossl's with the 20mm's. This was not a dramatic difference in magnification but it told me
that the atmosphere couldn't handle anything else, the sun was boiling and focus was a little
soft, the detail was there just not as crisp as before. Overall, I am completely impressed with
this new corrector and thoroughly excited to finally be able to use my PST with 2 eyes without
making any warranty voiding modifications. A couple of interesting things to note here is
that balance was an issue with the AZ3 mount but I simply slid the PST all the way to the end of
the 1/4 - 20 adapter and the problem was solved. Another thing that I thought was strange was
that I had to move my head further away from the binoviewer a little more than I do when viewing
at night or the image would black out. Does this have something to do with pupil dilation? It
also seemed to me that the sweet spot got bigger with the binoviewer but that could be the whole
illusion with the sun looking bigger and more three dimensional...need some more testing to confirm.
There's not much else to say really except my neighbors are probably laughing at me again for giggling to myself
like a little girl while outside playing with strange looking toys
.
