Posts Made By: Larry Citro

Hi,

Last night I was looking at double stars with my orange tube C8 and my Pronto mounted side by side. The seeing was very good (7 to 8) and I took time to collimate the C8 at 600x.

I’m not a big time double star observer, but I decided to observe some of the doubles which were listed in James Mullaney’s article in the July issue of Sky and Telescope.

The C8 did outperform the Pronto in some respects. I was able to split Antares at 666x with it and see a second diffraction disk at the 274 degree position in moments of better seeing. It was hopeless in the Proto.

What amazed me is on the brighter pairs (down to mag 7 or 8) the Pronto gave views just as pleasing and sometimes better because of the lack of a bright first diffraction ring then the C8. Izar for instance at and the double double were equally pleaing in both scopes.

V Sco the C8 split the brighter closer pair (mag 4.3 and 5.3 , 1.3 “ ) at 400x while the Pronto did elongate them at 210x. Both scopes split the dimmer wider pair ( mag 6.6 and 7.2, 2.4” separation).

As far as the color of the doubles, the C8 displayed them with greater intensity but false color was not an here issue for me with the Pronto.

On the moon at 210x & 250x the views between the Pronto anc C8 differed .. the c8 the winner.. better resolution, no false color on the limbs ...yes it is present in the Pronto but not obtrusive. But the pronto threw up a very respectable view. The moon itself was of course dimmer and slightly more yellow in color in the Pronto.

The Pronto takes a lot of knocks because it’s not an apo, but IMHO it makes a fine scope for viewing the brighter doubles with separations as close as 1.3”. For wide field viewing at 15 to 30x it makes a great lightweight quick look scope on it Panoramic mount.

I think I’ll keep it for a while.

Clear skies,


Larry Citro

hi,

Here's a H alpha image of m8 taken with a Televue Genesis
SDF 90 minutes (18x5) processed in MaximDl and PaintshopPro v7.

clear skies,

Larry Citro

hi,

When you leave your backyard ( mine has a lim mag of 5 ) and bring it to a really dark sky site. Just came back from a trip to central Vermont site which has lim mag of 6 to 6.5 at the zenith and I was using my C8 ... it acted like my 12.5" does in my backyard. Can't beat those really dark skies.

I was looking a m13 and decided to hop over to ngc 6207 the small galaxy (3x1 min mag 11.6 SB 12.8 according to the Night Sky Observers Guide ) and it was very easy to see and much brighter then I have ever seen at home with my 8".

My Pronto gave magnificent views of m8, m20, m17 , m16 and m11 and the Veil nebula. The nebulosity surrounding m16 was EASY to see, ... at home I a need a filter to see the nebulosity as it is low on my horizon and in the direction of some light pollution.

Aperture makes a difference but dark skies are the key to great observing.. gotta get to them more often. A very strong argument for owning realativly portable scopes. I had the C8 mounnted on a Losmandy G8 tripod and a Universal
Astronomics Unistar. It worked quite well.

clear skies,

Larry Citro

hi,

I picked up my truss conversion done by Rob Teeter last night. It has a f5 Discovery mirror which has very fine optics. The workmanship is outstanding and I'm tickeled pink with it. Now for a clear night to use it..

clear skies,

Larry Citro

hi all,

Just wondering what we all have bought/sold on Astromart this year. Do we use it or just window shop ? As far I am concerned it's a great venue to buy or sell. This year I sold a ST7E and a ST8E on astromart, something I would have had great difficulty doing if it wasn't for this service.

Thanks Herb,

clear skies,


Larry Citro

Hi all,

Here's an image of m103 in Casseopeia taken with a Televue Genesis SDF and a ST10XME. It's a RGB image with 6:6:6 minutes exposure and a artificial Lum made from the rgb images. Click on the image to see a larger version.

link: http://www.starryforge.com/m103LRGB.html

Thanks for looking.


clear skies,

Larry Citro

Hi All,

Here's an image of the Pacman nebula, ngc281 in Cassiopeia. It was taken with a Televue Genesis SDF at f5 and a ST10XME camera. It's a RRGB 60:15:15:15 minutes and processed in MaximDL ver 4 and PaintshopPro ver 7.

comments welcomed


clear skies,

Larry Citro

Hi All,

Here's an image of the gibbous moon taken with a Schuler H-alpha filter. Taken with a Televue Genesis SDF af f5 and a ST10XME camera. A single .1 second exposure.

link: http://starryforge.com/st10images/GibbousMoonHAweb


clear skies,

Larry Citro

Hi all,

I imaged this with a Televue Gensis SDF and a ST10XME. It's a mix of 45 minutes H alpha and 1 hour of red images.

link: http://starryforge.com/st10images/cederblad214avg.jpg

image resized to 1024 x 768

comment welcomed


clear skies,

Larry Citro

Hi all,

Here's an image of m13 taken with a Vixen VCL200 at F6 using an AP .67 focal reducer and a SBIG ST10XME. 6min x4 exposures. Clouds rolled in before I could get the color images, so that will be for another night. Processed in MaximDl 3 and PaintshopPro ver7.

link: http://starryforge.com/st10images/M13AVGweb.jpg

comments welcomed

clear skies,

Larry Citro