Last night brought first-light to my Starmaster 12.5" EL. Although this f/5 'scope actually takes up more room in my Jeep than its 14.5" f/4.3 bigger brother (the truss/secondary cage assembly lays across the back seat - and just fits! - while the stacked rocker and mirror box assemblies ride in the front passenger seat), the 'scope assembles/disassembles in just a few minutes' time. The 14.5", although relatively quick to set up for a full-blown truss-tube Dob mount, still takes much more time.
The 'scope arrived in four boxes on Friday evening, and I assembled - and even laser-collimated - the 'scope in my living room that evening, just to make certain everything was fine mechanically. In my living room, as I moved the 'scope from vertical to near horizontal, I did notice that the laser dot on the center of the primary would shift slightly, but would still remain within the collimation circle. (Jon/Bruce: Have you noticed this as well with your new ELs?) Of course, I wondered if this would have any affect on the 'scope's optical performance, and figured Saturday night would be a great chance to test the instrument.
Although I didn't arrive at Dino Point until 7:45pm, it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces last night. Quite a turn out! The EL assembled in just a couple of minute's time, and the only collimation change I had to make was a tweak to the primary. Even with the *extremely* rough ride in the Jeep, the secondary hadn't budged; a good sign. First-light came with an early-evening view of Jupiter, using a 14mm Radian/Paracorr combination (130x). Ol' Jove was really dancing away, and the view was certainly less than pleasing. Others were grumbling about their own 'scopes' views of Jupiter as well, so I breathed a sigh of relief that my optics weren't to blame.
Unfortunately, the seeing last night didn't allow me to adequately test the EL's performance. As others have noted, the seeing was pretty soft. For most of the evening I used a 17mm Nagler/Paracorr combination (107x). The Paracorr effectively makes the 'scope's f-ratio an f/5.75. I wanted to try splitting a number of double-stars, but only looked at Castor. Even with bloated stars, the split was easy.
I spent most of the evening in Virgo, using The Night Sky Observer's Guide as my reference. I first wandered through the Markarian Chain, running from M84 through NGC 4477. After this little venture, I was faithful to the NSOG <grin>, hitting just over 40 more items in Virgo. I also wandered a bit through Leo, verifying that I could detect NGC 3187 with the EL. I finished up the night hitting many old favorites in various areas of the sky, concluding with M51 and M3 in Canes Venatici. My thanks to Jay Freeman et al. for pointing out the location of that LINEAR comet (what was the designation?) early in the evening, a real visual treat! And those Lyrid meteors were just what the photon-doctor ordered. :)
As far as my likes/dislikes for the 12.5" EL:
Likes...
Dislikes...
Granted, these are pretty minor dislikes. Overall, the 'scope is a gem! A great night for first-light!