Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

Friday evening at the LAAS site was a real treat. Excellent transparency with very good seeing(running 500+ on Saturn)combined for exceptional views of the galaxies of springtime.
My sky quality meter was showing 21.67 at the zenith and that's probably around tops for Lockwood Valley. I had my paracorr in place with a 14mm ES 100 degree eyepiece in my 16" f4.5 dob and I could easily discern 13.5 magnitude galaxies without difficulty. Both the 14mm ES eyepiece and my 10mm Ethos showed structure and mottling in a number of brighter galaxies so I decided to pan the Virgo cluster(s). Verdict: panning Virgo with a 100 degree moderate focal length eyepiece in a reasonably sized dob is something you've just got to experience under dark sky conditions. The extra amount of apparent field of view in seeing cluster after cluster of galaxies in Virgo is definitely worth the price of admission. The eyepiece is well corrected and although you see some minor coma with a paracorr near an edge of a field of view in a fast dob, the extra amount of AFOV enables the observer to take in so much more compared to lessor fields in more conventional eyepieces. The ES 14mm is comfortable to use and it's not a problem to take in the field of view without craning your neck in order to do so.
If you've got a decent sized dob and access to dark skies, load up a 14mm 100 degree ES or an Ethos equivalent and blast thru Virgo. You're in for a real treat!...

It would be a good choice. Celestron sells a 25mm ELUX plossl variant as standard for "widefield" views with with its Nexstar Se 8" operating at F10. The F6.3 focal reducer works well and the views with a nebular filter on the Lagoon and similar objects should be pleasing.

Lou,
Here are some review that may be of help:
http://www.astromart.com/articles/article.asp?article_id=359
and:
http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=2761

Sounds great. Where is it? It's been described as "coming soon" on the ES website, seemingly forever. Maybe they're taking a cue from Meade. Anybody know anything about it?
I'd thought I'd try stimulating a little discussion in the forum(s) since they appear even less active than usual...

Allan Staib said:

I have restored an older Celestron Super C8Plus and want to make the most out of its capability. I have a set of the Meade 1.25 inch 4000 series eyepieces and filters but see 2inch is also an option with this scope. I want to buy a couple of higher end eyepieces to use with the C8. I would appreciate any suggestions on the 2 inch vs the 1.25 inch and which 2 higher end eyepieces would be a good choice. Thanks for reading this post and for any suggestions!

Allan Staib

I'd suggest a 30mm es 2" eyepiece or the 2" 31mm nagler, with an edge to the nagler. You could go with either the 24mm panoptic in the 1.25" mode or with the 24mm es in the 2" mode. Be prepared for a big heavy eyepiece with either the es 30mm or the nagler 31mm.

I've been trying to get in some eyepiece time for awhile now but the weather hasn't cooperated. I finally got several hours in on Monday evening in front of my home and that means suburban skies replete with Christmas lights augmenting the street lighting. So, I naturally popped open the filter cases and went to work. Limiting magnitude in my 16" F4.5 dob was roughly around 12 and I could pull in some of the brighter galaxies in Pegasus and Perseus. Skies were fairly transparent with a light breeze keeping the moisture and the dew out of the air but impacting the seeing a bit at 3/5. I could use my baader 9mm orthoscopic eyepiece to good advantage on Jupiter but the 5mm Zhumell planetary was a bit of a stretch. Floyd Blue and I concur that the badder 9mm ortho gave the best rendition of the ruddy colors on Jupiter in previous tests and I confirmed those findings again last night. I'm not sure if the baader genuine orthoscopic eyepiece is still available as I heard it was being discontinued but I highly recommend it and I was able to get one before the prices really shot up on it.
Since the great Orion nebula is a frequent target of visual observers/imagers, I thought I'd report on my experiences with various visual filters in my collection.
First, without any filters, the E and F stars in the trapezium were discernible in my 10mm Ethos and paracorr combination despite the ambient lighting and less than optimum position of the constellation. From the start, I continue to be impressed with the performance of the 1.25" Astrotech broadband filter. I previously reported its usefulness in observing some galaxies and I found I could barely continue to observe the E and F stars while observing more of the nebulosity despite ambient lighting. If Orion had been riding higher or if I were in a dark sky location such as the LAAS site in Lockwood Valley, I have no doubt the stars would be visible whereas competing filters kill the stars and that's usually taken to be a certainty with these types of filters. I felt the astrotech did as least as well as the Orion broadband filter in enhancing the nebulosity but still emitted more starlight. The downside of the astrotech filter? They've been unavailable or discontinued by vendors for almost a year now. Additionally, I'm not sure of the QC of these filters and some may be better than others. I doubt if they're individually inspected as a mass produced item.
The Zhumell ultra high contrast filter was quite respectable, running perhaps a bit behind the Orion model but is available at much less cost.
My favorite filter for viewing the nebulosity of the great Orion nebula has got to be the Lumicon O111 filter. In addition to enhancing the outlying regions, it turns the nebula into a milky white overflowing bowl in a 30mm widefield eyepiece. I find the latter to be quite breathtaking and I never tire of seeing it. The Zhumell and Orion(baader) O111s do well, too but I'd give the clear edge to the Lumicon.
Filter up!

What's your most memorable view at the eyepiece for the year?
For me, it was the image of one of Jupiter's moons emerging from the limb wherein a half of the moon could be clearly seen arising on the limb in a Zhumell 5mm planetary eyepiece in my 16" dob.
Now that the year is nearly done and a combination of weather and advancing moon phases makes further observations less likely, I thought it might be interesting to note what amateurs might consider their best view of the year. Any nominations?

Er, ah, make that in front of my house as Mt Pinos was snowed-over.
NEVERTHELESS...
Saturday (1-12)saw awesome seeing and transparency, even better than the forecast from the clear sky clock, with only one unforeseen problem, that of clouds rolling in at 11:00pm. I was able to view from 6-11, booted and suited as if I were up on Pinos as the temperature dipped to 27 degrees. Mt Pinos was probably more like 10 degrees or thereabouts. Now to the eyepiece observing report:
First up, the obligatory observation of M42: 14mm ES 100 eyepiece in my 16" dob, paracorr in place, nebulosity filling the field and the E and F stars of the trapezium shinning steadily like tiny needle points. Power up to the 10mm Ethos and pop in the 0111 and, wow!, mega nebulosity everywhere! Power down to the 30mm ES 82 AFOV eyepiece and O111 in place and milky white nebulosity overflowing the field. Powered back up to the 10mm Ethos, popped in a astrotech broadband filter, and the the E and F stars could still be seen while simultaneously enhancing the contrast of the great nebula of Orion. Nice views!
Jupiter: Virtually the only eyepiece utilized was the 5mm Z planetary eyepiece, even less focal length when you factor in the paracorr, and bands and belts everywhere with the only let-down being the absence of a transit of one of Jupiter's moons. I did notice quite a bit of flare from Jupiter with the image just outside the field of view but nothing on-axis. Still, no complaints given the higher power and the amount of detail visible.
I find the 14mm ES 100 AFOV ideal to view DSOs as it provides an immense field along with enough power to darken field in order to enhance the contrast while making it easier to find objects with my DSCs. I then power of with my 10mm Ethos to get an even better view if the seeing permits. But last night the seeing and transparency was so good I could even pick up IC objects! I was able to view objects in Puppis sitting low in the polluted muck of Santa Clarita (yuck!) with my scope nearly horizontal. To do it, I used a Lumicon 0111 filter with the ES 14mm and I was able to get NGC 2438(next to M46)I also picked out at magnitude 11! I mean I got right into the wavelength with the 0111 and pulled out of the muck. Talk about Floyd Blue specs and pushing the envelope...
I also plucked out planetary nebula NGC 2440 in Puppis with the aforementioned combo but it's less of a challenge at magnitude 9.4.
I bagged a couple of galaxies in Leo which is beginning its springtime sprint into the winter skies and the astrotech broadband filter helped a bit here. Ditto for M81 and M82. I believe I could see a bit more detail with the broadband filter in conjunction with my 10mm Ethos on M82 but either view was decent with excellent seeing and transparency.
I tried but failed to detect NGC 1491, a fan-tailed emission nebula in Perseus. I didn't use my 0111 filter or UHC for this one and I read later that it responds well to either so that was my mistake.
I hit several more galaxies and planetaries and had no trouble seeing nebulosity around the Pleiades with an O111 in my 14 ES.
Filter up, guys!

It might help to know what kind of scope you're using. Depending on the eyepiece(ie if it were a 2") or if the holder were a 1.25"/2" unit, you could probably unscrew the barlow lens from the barlow and screw it on the either the eyepiece or onto the diagonal holder itself. Most GSO barlows are made to accommodate the latter methods of mounting the barlow lens. I doubt if a correct image prism would change anything.
Alternately, this might work:
http://www.scopestuff.com/ss_npea.htm
But no guarantees...

Neil,
That depends what you're comparing them on. Presumably, you mean planetary viewing but that could also mean double star observing. Having owned both, the baader remains and the Tak LE is gone. Jupiter shows color rendition to the max in the baader and less so in other oculars. I'd stick with the BGOs...