Well, my wife saw the big cardboard box on the porch, so quickly I told her (with a red face) that it was another new telescope. "How long are you gonna keep this one?", she asked...
A fair question, seeing that as of late, I had been swapping telescopes like most backyard astronomers swap eyepieces, and I told her that this was the last one for awhile...I don't think she believed me...
I just had a few hours under a clear suburban sky with my new Starblast EQ, and here is what I found...
First, eyepiece choice is important! It loves my Russell 36mm Hybrid (mild coma just at the edge), but hates my Meade 20mm superwide (china), which shows extreme coma just 50% out of center, but a circle-T 20mm erfle works wonderful, as does a GSO 8mm wide angle! The rest of my eyepieces are Sirius Plossls, in 12.5, 10, and 7.5mm, which work well also.
I use an Orion 3x barlow (Long!), but it is perfect for this scope, the only eyepiece that has trouble with it is the supplied 6mm Expanse.
The scope shows alot more stars than my old optically excellent(REALLY excellent!) ETX-125, and the Cygnus region is just fantastic in this scope, a real starblast! (my apologies!)
This little scope splits Albiero at just 12.5x, and shows a wonderful star field with it, and M57 jumps out at me even at 22.5x, donut hole, and all!
I went searching for my favorite deep-sky sight, the little carbon star T-Lyra, and it was easy to pick it's red hue amid the surrounding white stars, and with the included 15mm expanse, it was Hugely RED!!I was never quite able to catch this star with my ETX-125, probably due to the smaller FOV...I tried E lyra next, and found that I needed 108x for a clean, double split on this night. I then aimed at the moon, and found 3 craterlets on Plato at 168x, and I still had a nice image at 180x! Not to bad for an f/4 system!!
After owning 2 ETX's (a 90, and a 125), an XT-8, along with a home-built 96mm f/3.1 refractor, and 2 sets of binoculars, I think I finally found a telescope that works well for my special observing habits! I needed a telescope that would show nice views of the moon and planets, and also show acceptable deep-sky views from my backyard. I also wanted to see all of Brocchi's cluster (really beautiful at 22.5x!) and the seven sisters in a single FOV! Most importantly, I needed a telescope that was highly portable, and I am pleased to report that I can lift and carry the Starblast EQ with one hand!!
Once I get the grease out of the focuser and tighten the tripod up (it can be shaky at 100x-plus powers!)I think I'll have finally found a telescope that I can live with for a very long time!
I think my wife will be relieved...
CB
