TheSkySearchers

I stuck my head outside Sunday night and decided and the half moon was insanely bright. The thoughts of doing any deep sky stuff was immediately shelves. So i drug the ten inch out and grabbed the eyepieces and settled on the moon and decided to see just how much power i could throw at it. I started with a 11mm and worked down to a 4.5 which got me to 277x. I noticed throughout the process that the images was very steady, the seeing was good for a change. I added a 2x focal extender to the 4.5 for 555x and it came to focus just fine. I spent a little bit running up and down the terminator looking at the mountains and valleys. The image was very good, everything was nice and sharp.

I figured i would give Jupiter a go but the moon was just blowing it away, but it was worth noting that the image remained the same as i worked thru the eyepieces.

I ended the night with the Orion Nebula. I backed out to my 20mm/80 degree eyepiece and brought it to focus. I remembered why i used to use that eyepiece so much. I worked down to the 6.8mm and finally to the 4.5mm. I noted that the 4.5 was just a little too much as i was unable to get the nebula to a good focus, it was close but no cigar. The best image overall was my 9/100 at about 140x, it is hard to beat a 100 degree fov with the nebula in the middle of it.

Unfortunately i had to wrap early as i had to get up at 4am the next morning. Has anyone else noticed that your clearest nights are always a night where the moon is really bright and you have to get up early?

Mike Q wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 10:22 am Has anyone else noticed that your clearest nights are always a night where the moon is really bright and you have to get up early?

Sod's Law.

Graeme

Nice session! Not often you can push to 555x!! Lots to see on old Luna at that magnification.

Dave

Nice report on the high magnifications Mike. If you can use it successfully with good seeing on the moon and planets it is a real benefit. Also, congratulations on winning today's VROD award!

Nice evening and congrats on the VROD Mike! Did you use any filters on the Moon?

Congratulations on the VROD!

congrat on the vrod , thx .

Bigzmey wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 8:18 pm Nice evening and congrats on the VROD Mike! Did you use any filters on the Moon?

No but i should have lol. I was lazy and left my filter case in the house. What a dummy

helicon wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 4:27 pm Nice report on the high magnifications Mike. If you can use it successfully with good seeing on the moon and planets it is a real benefit. Also, congratulations on winning today's VROD award!

I can throw mag at the moon pretty much anytime i want. The planets ... Not so much. If i had grabbed my filter case i would have been tempted to put the variable polarized filter in and go for it, but i was lazy. In the last two years i have been to 300 a couple of times and 450 once. Saturn at 450x is pretty darn good

Thanks all. A VROD was the furthest thing from my mind when i posted that

Unitron48 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 20, 2024 12:08 pm Nice session! Not often you can push to 555x!! Lots to see on old Luna at that magnification.

Dave

And congrats on your VROD!

Dave