I was at the National Seashore Park on the end of Cape Cod one morning to watch the Sun rise out of the water. And a White-Tail Deer walked out of the scrub wilds there and walked right up to me. He leaned down to sniff me so I extended my hand - open & palm-up - and I touched his nose. Cold and wet. Lovely creature!

We both watched the Sunrise together, then parted ways. I wondered if I should should mention this to my friends' back then. But did. They were quite surprised, but didn't doubt me. They knew I had a strange way with animals.

 

Came with a nice case!



My 2" Baader Amici fits nicely into the nice case.



Nicely matches the AZ5, which really helps my OCD lol. I can handle the diddy scope on the AZ5 with 2" accessories. The 19mm Luminos was a bit more noticeable weight-wise, but the Baader Hyperions are pretty easy. Daylight trial show a crystal clear and sharp view, with no discernible CA except very faintly at the extreme edge of field. Crayford is very smooth with two speeds. The 36mm Hyperion will give 11.6x for 6 arc degrees TFOV and a 6.2mm exit pupil. I tried 2" and 1.25" diagonals and every EP I tried focused without the need of an extension tube. All I need now are stars!

 

That's a real beauty! And a REAL case, too!

I'll surely be awaiting 'first-light' report on that little beauty.

Cool!

 

Thanks Dave. The case is good, the foam bits inside don't look like they'd last long, but I was really surprised how easy I can use 2" accessories with the Evostar diddy scope on the AZ5. Unless my physiotherapy is improving lol. The weather here might get better around Wednesday. It's quite warm here but cloudy. So I doubt it will be seeing anything tonight.

 

It's a little beauty @Mak the Night, I agree. Congratulations. Glad to hear it's good on CA too.

 

Thanks, it looks like it will be really good. It's all swings and roundabouts between the ST80 and ED72. I can more easily use 2" accessories on the ED72 and it has better glass, but the ST80 is 8mm bigger.

 

8mm is not that much.. do you already see a difference during daytime observation?

 

It's difficult to say, the Evo is slower at f/5.8 so FOV's will be different.

 

I'd doubt daytime observations would be evident between the 72mm & 80mm. The real difference would be in resolution of finer details. At least this would be my quasi-educated guesstimate.

Such testing should take awhile. Which should keep Mak occupied for some time. Cats can sleep snug and soundly for the unforeseen future!

 

Which should keep Mak occupied for some time. Cats can sleep snug and soundly for the unforeseen future!

lol

 

At 23:30, 05/09/18, 2018 BST the ED72 was all set up. I had no dew control apart from a flexible dew shield as an extension to the Evostar’s own integral shield. There was light cloud and the transparency was below average with humidity at around 80%. A 2“ Baader Amici was in the focuser together with a 36mm Baader Hyperion Aspheric giving 11.6x and 6 arc degrees of TFOV.



First light target was Albireo, and the two stars looked like beautiful coloured jewels hanging in space. So far, so good. Next up was the Veil Nebula with a 2“ ES broadband OIII filter. This was one of the best views of the Veil this year and it’s nice to use the 2“ EP’s. I had no problems with balance or weight distribution and even rotating the diagonal wasn’t a problem, especially as the ED72 has no compression ring. I spent some time in the Summer Triangle (without the OIII). I had some stunning views.



It's so rich in the entire region.



I turned my attention to Cassiopeia and Perseus and all of the rich open clusters around the region. At around 00:36 while I was scanning around Triangulum for NGC 752, and maybe a peek at the faint Pinwheel Galaxy, I saw what appeared to be a formation of a dozen or so artificial satellites travelling towards the south. My guess; a squadron of Zeta Reticulan attack cruisers lol.



Eventually I decided to give the 19mm Celestron Luminos a spin. This 2“ EP weighs about a metric tonne and is very shiny. The Double Cluster looked very good on axis at 22.1x and the avian astigmatism was way near the edge of field. I thought the f/5.8 of the Evostar might have ameliorated the seagulls, but they’re still there. Undaunted, I had a good re-sweep of much of what I’d observed earlier with the Aspheric, and found that the Luminos isn’t a terribly unmanageable eyepiece on the ED72, but I think I’ll take something else out next time that's lighter than a Citroen.



Back to being a paperweight then for the Luminos! I returned to the Hyperion for a butcher’s hook at a rising Pleiades. I really searched for the Pinwheel, and kept finding a beautiful Andromeda Galaxy, but I think the Moon was creating problems. I couldn’t yet see it but with the transparency (although improved slightly) still average I didn’t stand much chance. I turned back to a low Summer Triangle around 02:00 and decided to try the Double Double. I split the first pair at 60x with a 7mm Sky-Watcher UWA. When attempting to use a Barlow with the 7mm UWA to see all four stars I discovered that I couldn’t achieve focus. I automatically tried the extension tube, because that really helps with in-focus problems doh! As I was pondering this it was about 02:30 the Altair RDF had dewed (the objective was completely dew free) and I was well knackered, so I decided to call it a night. The ED72 is as easy to take down as to set-up, and just as everything was safely packed up, it dawned on me that I shouldn’t have taken the 1.25“ diagonal out of the case earlier (as I didn’t think I’d need it). There is enough space for it and the 2“ diagonal in the Evostar case. Daylight tests on Thursday proved that the in-focus problems were because of the 2“ diagonal’s overall size. A 4mm UWA and a 3.2mm StarGuider focused easily in a 1.25“ diagonal. In fact, I haven’t had recourse to use any extension tube size as every eyepiece focuses eventually, depending on the diagonal size.

 

Looks to be a winner all-way-round!

 

Yeah, I'm really happy about using 2" stuff again.

 

Great repport Mak, i enjoyed reading it very much.. wondering about the Cassiopeia clusters especially. You setup is cool, I think that's the right word and you can use 2" eyepieces too, that's great. 6 degrees with the 36mm aspheric.. that's really low power

The great 72mm Evostar!



@Dave In Vermont I had a fight with the cat in my picture today.. the bastard, sprayed my premium speakers with anal glands liquid. I love these speakers has much has my telescope and eyepieces.. I threw the cat outside for the first time in 4 years.. it remained on the deck although.

Damn bad karma.. good new after 1 hour of cleaning carefully the speaker.. everything looks ok.. no more smell and sound is still perfect... It's a miracle...

 

Nebs - I hope you two have made up. Odd he'd feel compelled to mark your speakers as his territory like that. It could be he loves the music you play! Seriously!

 

I don't know but I went @Mak the Night crazy against him. And pulled his hair by the back of the neck, he was complaining about that

But he came to see me this morning has usual.. and was rubbing on me has usual.. went eating.. then he did something odd for the first time, vomited it's food in front of me....

Like you said perhaps he thought the spraying was a love mark.. and I attacked him so he is confused now.

 

I may try the 31mm Aspheric next.

 

I may try the 31mm Aspheric next.

Sure, you should try it, what about the panoptics? 19mm and 24mm they should be incredible too. Do you use these aspherics often @Mak the Night? I think it's the first time I see you talk about them.

 

Tell him you love him with your eyes - the way I told you before on how to speak 'Cat' as you may recall. And no more will be said on the matter. They're very understanding. And there should be no more spraying inside the house.

Mak - how is the stock focuser on that great little beast? It looks to be a 10:1 dual-focuser, yes?


p.s. - My new replacement GSO 23A Filter finally rolled in. No word as to why it vanished in the 'tracking' for 3 days. But it finally re-appeared. The Post-Office here in the USA has been having a melt-down as of late.

 

I will do that in a couple of minutes @Dave In Vermont, with the cat, look at him in the eye and tell about my love ((;

@Mak the Night and @Dave In Vermont if you have some targets for me, i will probably do astronomy tonight.. if you have a suggestion.. My main theme will be dark nebulae,, but not only that.