Third Light, Unitron Model 142
Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 3:25 am
July 20, 2019
Had my third light on the Unitron. What about your first and second lights?
Got my first light in on Friday, 12 July. Had some nice views of Jupiter, the Moon, and Albireo. Also got a fun lunar image with the Unitron here: viewtopic.php?f=67&t=1739
I’d also set out the SV102T on the AVX. It was interesting to contrast the newer and older scopes with each other.
Second light came on Wednesday, 17 July. I was hoping to try for some doubles with the old scope. Dew was fierce. After a brief look at Jupiter and several eyepieces fogging over, I packed up.
Last night (third light) I was again hoping for some doubles. The finder scope on the Unitron is great, but being a straight-through finder, I thought it might be fun to see if I could mount theOTA on my Twilight II mount along side the ST80 and use the ST80 as a finder. Problem was, I didn’t have any rings small enough to fit the OTA . I ended up pulling the rings and dovetail off the C80, wrapping the Unitron in a hand towel, and enclosing the rings around that. Not quite as snug as I would have liked, but secure enough for safety.
While this worked well enough, I didn’t quite have the altitude synced between both scopes. Actually, the Unitron sagged just enough in the loose rings to make the FOV about one FOV lower than the ST80. A little frustrating.
I watched Jupiter a while. I kept a 32mm Plössl in the ST80, and with the Unitron I used an old 26mm Celestron Halloween Plössl, a 12.5mm Coulter Volcano top ortho, a 15mm Plössl, and my KK 18mm ortho.
Seeing wasn’t the best. Jupiter would be sharp one second and fuzzy the next. I did see nicely contrasted equatorial belts with the 12.5mm. Nary a hint ofCA .
Saturn provided a similar view. A hint of the Cassini division and Titan was on display.
I tried to locate globular cluster M4. While it was readily available in the ST80, I just couldn’t manage to get the Unitron on the glob. That made me stop.
I kicked off an imaging sequence on the nearby SV102T, and then grabbed my 11×70 binoculars and sat back in my chair. Nabbed M4, M22, M20, M17, M81, M82, M57, the Coathanger, Albireo, and some other random things.
Once the Moon made an appearance, I kept the Unitron trained on Luna for the remainder of the evening. Excellent and sharp views of the lunar surface, even with the 12.5mm. I should have pushed it further with a 9mm, but I didn’t. The view is quality and high definition during moments of steady seeing. Lots of bad air last night.
The humidity ramped up considerably and when the temperature met the dewpoint, I closed up shop on the visual portion of the evening.
The Twilight II experiment with the Unitron was fun, but I think I prefer this scope mounting on its original equatorial mount and tripod. Far more stable that way. That mount and tripod are quite robust and solid as a rock. So is the Twilight II, but the older mount is better suited for the longerOTA .
Anyway, that was my night last night with the Unitron. I really like this scope and am proud to have it. Hoping to get my good doubles session in soon. Just been too stressed out lately to get my head in the proper frame of mind.
All I’ve got. Peace and clear skies friends.
Had my third light on the Unitron. What about your first and second lights?
Got my first light in on Friday, 12 July. Had some nice views of Jupiter, the Moon, and Albireo. Also got a fun lunar image with the Unitron here: viewtopic.php?f=67&t=1739
I’d also set out the SV102T on the AVX. It was interesting to contrast the newer and older scopes with each other.
Last night (third light) I was again hoping for some doubles. The finder scope on the Unitron is great, but being a straight-through finder, I thought it might be fun to see if I could mount the
I watched Jupiter a while. I kept a 32mm Plössl in the ST80, and with the Unitron I used an old 26mm Celestron Halloween Plössl, a 12.5mm Coulter Volcano top ortho, a 15mm Plössl, and my KK 18mm ortho.
Seeing wasn’t the best. Jupiter would be sharp one second and fuzzy the next. I did see nicely contrasted equatorial belts with the 12.5mm. Nary a hint of
Saturn provided a similar view. A hint of the Cassini division and Titan was on display.
I tried to locate globular cluster M4. While it was readily available in the ST80, I just couldn’t manage to get the Unitron on the glob. That made me stop.
I kicked off an imaging sequence on the nearby SV102T, and then grabbed my 11×70 binoculars and sat back in my chair. Nabbed M4, M22, M20, M17, M81, M82, M57, the Coathanger, Albireo, and some other random things.
Once the Moon made an appearance, I kept the Unitron trained on Luna for the remainder of the evening. Excellent and sharp views of the lunar surface, even with the 12.5mm. I should have pushed it further with a 9mm, but I didn’t. The view is quality and high definition during moments of steady seeing. Lots of bad air last night.
The humidity ramped up considerably and when the temperature met the dewpoint, I closed up shop on the visual portion of the evening.
The Twilight II experiment with the Unitron was fun, but I think I prefer this scope mounting on its original equatorial mount and tripod. Far more stable that way. That mount and tripod are quite robust and solid as a rock. So is the Twilight II, but the older mount is better suited for the longer
Anyway, that was my night last night with the Unitron. I really like this scope and am proud to have it. Hoping to get my good doubles session in soon. Just been too stressed out lately to get my head in the proper frame of mind.
All I’ve got. Peace and clear skies friends.
Sorting out accessories and tweaking mounts for the new scope is fun (at least for me