Posts Made By: Magnus Ahrling

Dmitri!
Thanks for lettings us know `bout your adventures down in El Salvador.
Nice obs. report, as always.
Must be Great for a fellow Swede to experience the Southern Sky and, above all, leave the horrible observing conditions we have up here in the Scandinavian climate :S
The Oberwerk 15X70 sound impressive....

/Magnus

Dmitri!

Your obs report is so captivating that it makes me wanna go out with my refractors in -15C and 10m/" wind!
Glad you at last had a clear night.
Please let us know from your next night under the stars.

/Magnus

Dmitri!

Thanks for your very intressting "South American" report. Brazilian barbecue and observing Southern Skies with a Carl Zeiss 50 cm Cassegrein. Must be "heaven"(oops!) for an observer from up here 57 degrees N.
Please let us know moore when your travelling or "just" observing home from Gothenburg....
Ah well, Good Luck with the Coal Sack and Barnard galaxy:-)and your Karkoschka survey is finished!

/Magnus

Thanks for sharing your experience from La Palma, esp. your globular observations.
Globulars outside our galaxy....can`t wait to read moore `bout it
Hope you got lot of energy to survive the coming Scandinavian autumn Skies.

/Magnus

Thank you Inge and Dmitri for all your interessting observing reports from La Palma.
Very kind of you
It`s been a pleasure to read!

Magnus A.

Ivan!

Very nice image of Mars. A beuty to look at!

Magnus

Oh dear, eyepice solarfilter. Are they still avaiable :C Never use such a thing. The sunheat will easely make them crack and an ever so slightly solarbeam will damage your retina and cause blindness on your "observing eye"
You must have a safe Solarfilter that blocks the sunlight before it enters the optical path; that is a filter that fits over the front of your scope. This is not an advice what solerfilter to get for your Astroscan, just a WARNING: don`t use any kind of eypiece solarfilter!!!!!
For my Solar observing with my ST80 I use a Baader filter in a cell that fits safely on the dewshield.

Happy Solar Observing,
Magnus

A friend of mine has the Celestron 120mm OMNI, which he bought as his first scope in January this year. Sorry to say he is not happy with it. Too much CA and the CG-4 is far too underdimensioned for that heavy and front heavy OTA. When balancing the OTA the eyepiece often gets in an impossible low position for comfortable observing. I agree with him, if I was to buy an OMNI refractor kit I would go for the lighter 102mm instead.
I have observed with the 120mm OTA on my CG-5 and then it it works qute fine and I find the optics as good as you can expect from an 120mm f/8,3 ackromat and the CA was not an issue to me. Saturn was nice with cassini division at ansae and some bandings on the globe. Little green hazy but nothing serius. Stars came to pinpoint images and and snapfocus. But bare in mind I only used it twice! My friend bought a 72mm WO and a 6" f/5 GSO Newtonian and he is now a happy observer.
So i think the optics is fine in the 120mm OTA but the "120mm OMNI Kit" is a nightmare to use.

-Magnus

To me it has been a quite intressting thread to read, though also meaningless. I have an 8"f/6 Orion Optics UK with Strehl 0.982 and rms 0.021 wave according to Zygo test. I really do not know exactly what this figures means and I am not sure I care so much.
The one & only thing I care about is that I am very pleased what this Newtonian delivers: crisp and snap on focus airydiscs up to 411X when seeing is good.
And the scope is very easy to collimate.
Sure there are better mirrors out there but I love my scope and the sky it can show me.

All the Best & Clear Skies,
Magnus

Dmitri!

Thanks for a nice observing report from Southern Skies
Amazing what a little binocular and keen eyes can do.
Hmm M45 vs IC 2602 0-1, intressting!

-Magnus