5" f/12 and Traveller meet at outreach event

Started by mirfak, 04/13/2015 02:10PM
Posted 04/13/2015 02:10PM Opening Post
Saturday evening at Great Meadow Park in Faquier County, Virginia. I had my 5" f/12 set up, the guy next to me had a black Traveler. (Just above the yellow case)

The Traveller gave up nothing to the larger scope on Jupiter; both scope had been sitting in hot cars, each had a two hour ride. The temps dropped quickly from 70's to 40's after sunset. The rapid cooling of the 4" was evident. Jupiter showed way more detail than I expected from a 4" scope.

I did a comparison of low power eyepices in the 5". A Takahashi 50mm LE (50* AFOV) vs a Celestron 34mm Axiom (70* AFOV). The true field was almost identical. The larger exit pupil of the 50 showed my eye's astigmatism, but not objectionable. The 34 had some slight edge aberration. So it was a tie. Orion's sword fit comfortably in the FOV.

The owner of the Traveller lent me an original Televue 55mm Plossl, which performed just as well, to further complicate things.

We were both pleased to show lots Jupiter, M42, and several other things to the public. It was a good turnout.

Later I got serious and used the 21 Ethos. This eyepice seems perfectly suited to the 5". Everything is crisp and sharp and jumps out at the viewer. I showed people NGC 2264, the Chrstmas Tree cluster, NGC 2261 Hind's Variable Nebula, the Tau Canis Cluster, M44, M35, NGC 2392, then back to Jupiter for the shadow transit.
In all it was an enjoyable night, and a pleasure to meet a fellow AP owner.

Attached Image:

mirfak's attachment for post 59297
Posted 04/13/2015 09:49PM #1
Thank you for your post. Interesting comparisons.

Roland Christen