This is a log of my 1st 2 nights with my new toy, an I3 light enhancement eyepiece from Collins Electronics. The logs are kind of raw, mainly they are a comparison of the I3 to regular eyepiece(s). I would recommend anyone not familiar with the I3 to check out these websites for some background before proceeding.
http://www.ceoptics.com/
http://www.CloudyNights.com/ (2 reviews on it)
My initial conclusions: 10-20 years from now I bet this type of device is as common as filters & CCD devices are today. I personally think this initial version is awsome. It's a high price tag, but the ability to add this sort of light gathering power, WITHOUT taking up extra space in the back of my car is worth it. If you like hunting faint fuzzies, especially smaller fuzzies like distant galaxies, then this is for you. You may not think you want or need it, but I predict within 10 years you'll have one.
Sorry, but for some reason this application of technology appeals to me enourmously, enough that I forked over the $$$. I want everyone to buy more of them, so that I(we) can have access to future improved and less costly versions. 8) [when you buy one mention my name.]
The reviews above cover alot of basics that I skip below here. This is a sort of survey for myself about what objects the I3 does well on, and not so well on. One the the reviews touch on is that anything the I3 shows, even if it doesn't "enhance" what can be seen, it is easier to look at because it's lit. So, there is always alot less eye strain with the I3.
equipment: 16" f/4.5 dob, 35mm parks eyepiece, 14mm meade ultra wide (both are close to parfocal with the I3 thus easier switching) I3 with 25mm & 15mm eyepiece attachments. parks broadband filter, lumicon OIII & H-beta filters
Started off at M42. I had some trouble with the 2nd focusing step of using the I3. So I didnt really get a good comparison on M42 of I3 performance. I do remember seeing several faint stars in the nebulosity that I dont think I saw with regular eyepiece. I was only trying the 25mm I3 eyepiece and could only see 4 trapezium stars with both I3 & 35mm parks.
Next I moved on to try and see the Horsehead and/or Flame nebula. Did not have any luck with Horsehead. As I studied the region with the I3 & the H-beta filter attached I was pleasantly surprised to see the Flame. The I3 reverses the field again (so everything is re-reversed, to the "true" orientation). Anyway, the Flame stood out very nicely with the I3. I could just make out the Flame with regular eyepiece, but it was much brighter with more features with the I3.
Next I moved on to M79, globular cluster in Lepus. With my 35mm Parks, M79 is a small cloud of nebulosity. It is bright enough to find, but unresolved. My 14mm ultrawide resolves M79 a little bit on the outskirts but the core is still nebulous. The view with the I3/25mm is astounding. Almost all of M79 resolved a halo of stars around a small, partly resolved core. Later I return to M79 with the I3/15mm, there isnt that much difference between the I3/25mm & I3/15mm, a little more resolution.
I move on to M31, which I can see naked eye tonight. Just like the I3 documentation says, the core of M31 is brighter, but not the spiral arms. Its possible they are fainter. M32 & M110 visible in both regular & I3.
Next we find M33. Pretty much the same story here, I3 shows less spiral structure, but brighter core. I3 does highlight a little "globulo" of nebulosity on the outskirts of M33 though, almost like it has a little satellite galaxy. The globulo is next to a star.
I just read the OMeara M33 description, I think it is possible this nebulous region that the I3 showed is NGC 604, a large HII region in M33. I think this might make sense, since the I3 amplifies HII well. (gotta reread the docs on this.)
At this point I see that the dipper is up and decide to try out the I3 on a planetary, M97. As I move down to M97 from beta UM I can see M108 also. M108 appears as a very faint gash in my normal eyepiece, the I3 amplifies it so that its much easier to see there seems to be a small core (or star) in the center. I will hafta study M108 more some night with the I3, give the I3/15mm a shot.
M97 is very faint in regular eyepieces. Even with the parks broadband filter. I think some clouds were starting to move in. I think it was brighter when I last viewed it. This is the I3s one failure of the night, I am totally unable to see the Owl with it. I am surprised by this, will hafta research this, and try again. I used the park broadband w/ I3 but not the OIII filter.
I decide to check out M81/M82 while I am in the area. They look good in the 35mm, not the best ever, but not the worst. Using the I3/25mm M81 is brighter, with less spiral nebulosity (as usual). M82 is stunning though. The dark rift cutting thru M82 is as clear as in photographs, unmistakable. I think I even try the I3/15mm at this point, but now the clouds are moving into this area. I get a chance to give a final check with a regular eyepiece, and I do manage(imagine) to get a glimpse of the dark lane in M82(?)
As Leo is rising I notice this naked eye nebulosity off of the lions head inside this little triangle of stars. I am curious, and use the binoculars, and see a nice/big open cluster. When I point the scope over here, I realize that its the Beehive, M44. I am entertained I didnt realize what it was at 1st. Beehive isnt such a good target for anything but the widest field eyepieces, and while the I3/25mm is acceptable, it isn't ultra wide enough.
I want to try out I3 on a nice open cluster, and since M46/47 is up and in the clear, I quickly get them in view. I use the nearest Puppis star to hop from today, instead of the line up from Canis Major. I can see the little planetary in M46 with my 35mm. When I use the I3 I can still see the planetary, woohoo! I was worried after M97 that planetaries might not work in I3. In regular eyepieces the little planetary has more of a solid appearance, though faint. In the I3 it appears more like an outline, though there is the added bonus of a little star in the middle! I doubt its the planetary's star, after all we are in the middle of an open cluster and the I3 brings out ALOT of stars, all the time. But maybe it was the planetary's star... I3 brings out alot more stars in M46, in fact anywhere you look with it, it brings out LOTS more stars. I think I tried the broadband filter here, and I dont remember any improvement seeing the M46 planetary w/ I3.
I didnt check out M47 or its surrounding clusters with I3 cause I wanted to return to M79 at this point.
I quickly looked at Saturn and Jupiter, thinking this would be my last of the night. (NOT using I3 of course) Saturn had 3 moons lined up to its right (west). Jupiter had 3 on the right, and 1 left. The views were not so good, dew maybe.
I realized that it'd be a good test to try and see M1 with the I3. So my last object of the night, I tracked down M1. Once I found the right location M1 popped into view in my 35mm, much easier to see than when I tried several months back and it was low in the sky. I used the 14mm also, there was some asymmetry apparent. The I3 worked well on M1, brightening its glow, but not showing anymore detail. I even tried the I3/15mm, slightly bigger but didnt notice any more details. I3 brought out lots more stars in the area though. I3 brings out extra stars everywhere like a champ.
Some more I3 specific notes. at times I noticed a small fuzzyness in the center of the view on the I3/25mm. It moved with the scope, and I now think that this might have been scattered light from my secondary. It would make sense. I dont remember seeing it with the 15mm, but I didnt use that alot. I also noticed a small black spec at times, I saw this on both the 25mm & 15mm I3 eyepieces. I think this might be a piece of dirt somewhere. On 1 of my mirrors, or maybe on 1 of the internal pieces of the I3. I will try to give my secondary a dusting sometime.
I had some trouble trying to use the secondary focuser on the I3 when I was looking at M42. I gave up futzing with it after awhile though, cause I was able to get sharp enough views, I think it just has a wide range where its in focus on the image plate.
There is a sort of "porthole" affect where the edge images show a "roundness" and sometimes coma. I am not sure if this is because of the Naglers, or the I3 flat image plate combination with the Naglers. It was more noticeable in the 15mm Nagler attachment.
James Turley was with me at the beginning.
I showed him M79 in the I3 just as he was thinking about packing up for the night, he ended up staying for another 2 hours while we hunted down some faint fuzzies.
Since the I3 works so well on globular clusters we decided to try and find a faint one Jim knew about. NGC 2419 (Intergalactic Wanderer) Even with James digital setting circles we had a very difficult time finding it. So difficult we gave up temporarily and found the nearby NGC 2683 to double check the setting circles were configured.
We found NGC 2683 with little difficulty, and the I3 enhanced the view of it very nicely. Its a nice edge on galaxy, and the view thru the I3 showed nice lengthwise nebulosity. Having verified the digital finder was configured correctly, we returned to hunting for NGC2419. At this point we noticed that the digital finder had different coordinates than in the Night Sky Observers Guide. So we tried punching in the coordinates manually (they were just a little off). We were searching for a nearby asterism of 3 stars with a regular (wider field) eyepiece before using the I3. We were still not having any luck, we thought we were right on spot (but no asterism) so we popped in the I3 out of desperation just to see if something would show. We were ready to give up, I decided to give it 1 more shot with the I3 in and started searching around the area 1 last time. voila! I found it. Not only was the coordinates on the finder wrong, but the picture of the asterism we were working from didnt clearly show that 1 of the stars was a double. I doubt I would have found the globular cluster without the I3 though, in a regular eyepiece it is extremely faint in Jims C8. With the I3 it is nicely enhanced, and was easier to find & see. It was alot of fun finding it.
As Jim packed up I went off to study M97 again. I wanted to see if using the OIII filter would improve the I3s view of it, 2 nights before the I3 didnt even show M97, while a regular eyepiece could see it. With a regular eyepiece, the OIII filter enhances M97 significantly. With the I3 & OIII filter, M97 is visible but not very impressive. M97 and the I3 just dont mesh together.
Since I was in the area I stopped by M108 again also. M108 is nicely enhanced by the I3. I think there must be a star right in the path to M108 though. Either that or there is a tiny little core in the middle of the length of (M108) nebulosity. Omeara draws a star right in the middle, so methinks it was star.
I next moved on to M33 to check out that little globulo of nebulosity I had seen 2 nights ago. I am quite sure this little feature is NGC604, I showed it to Jim just before he left. Despite the edge on nature of M33, the I3 does show some hints of spiral structure, well maybe the "spiral" part is my brain filling in the missing pieces that I know are there, but there is at least some structure present.
Next, I decided to look at the Rosette Nebula. I hoped that the HII emissions of the Rosette would play to the I3s strength (of picking up HII emissions). I could detect just hints of the Rosette surrounding open cluster NGC 2244. I need a bigger eyepiece to fit the whole Rosette area, my 35mm was close, but not quite. I tried all 3 filters I had (UHC, OIII, H-Beta) All of them enhanced the regular eyepiece view. The OIII(I think) enhanced the Rosette significantly.
The I3 under performed when compared to the regular eyepiece with regards to the Rosette. I tried all the filters, and got some improvement, but still the Rosette showed up better in the regular eyepiece. The I3 shows more stars in NGC 2244 of course, it just seems to lose the contrast(?) needed to show the Rosette.
Since I was in the area I checked out NGC 2264, the Xmas Tree Cluster. There is an emission Nebula associated with this also, that I thought the I3 might be able to bring out. I wasnt able to the nebulosity associated with the xmas tree in either the I3 nor regular eyepieces. I did get a pleasant surprise though when I was nudging around the area of the xmas tree with the I3 in place... I DISCOVERED A COMET!
Actually I recognized it as Hubbles Variable Nebula from pictures, but it was still pleasant to stumble across it. Turns out the I3 enhanced this(NGC 2261) emission and reflection nebula quite nicely. It looked just like its picture(s) with the I3, a nice, bright, little comet. I could see it clearly in a normal eyepiece, but the view with the I3 was much nicer.
The southern horizon was looking very good for Montebello so I tried to find something in there to take advantage of this rarity. The only thing I could find to check out was M93. Another open cluster in Puppis south of M46/M47. M93 is bright enough that it doesnt need the enhancement of the I3 to be pleasing. While I3 shows more stars in the open cluster, the view from a normal eyepiece is more "lively". Open clusters show faint colors I think, that the brain/eye doesnt consciously detect and the I3 view is monochrome (green). Also you lose any "dimension" with the I3.
Later I returned to this area, and tried M46 again with and without the I3. Unlike M97, the I3 shows the planetary in M46 very nicely. I would describe it as a step brighter than the view thru a regular eyepiece. An OIII filter improves the I3 view (as well as the regular view.) But the I3 also enhances the stars that would normally be dimmed by the OIII filter, so its a really good combination on M46.
With Leo out of the light dome, I quickly rooted out the M65/M66/NGC3628 galaxy grouping. I actually stumbled upon NGC3628 1st, which was much different than when I looked at this group (at an earlier date) thru the light pollution dome. Previously I could only make out M65/M66 and no NGC3628. Tonight all 3 looked really good in my 35mm, all 3 just barely fitting into the view. The I3 view was even better, really spectacular. I3 showed NGC3628s dust lane splitting it lengthwise. I could see a definite asymetry in M66, where it has it's "cow lick" spiral structure.
As a parting shot I tried to check out M51, which was just clearing the light dome. Really on the outskirts still. In regular eyepiece it appeared as 2 faint fuzzies next 2 each other, almost like eyes. There was a hint of nebulosity surrounding 1 of them. With the I3 the faint nebulosity increased, it actually looked like "rings" of nebulosity around the 1 core lapping up onto the other "core" (actually the M51 satellite). I will check this out further when I can get a less light polluted view.
My curfew was up at this point, so I packed up (20 minutes) and took off...