Selene and Mercury meet Jeff and APhrOdite

by Jeff Gortatowsky


On the 26th of January 1999 5 packages and a envelope arrived from the UYS Southeast to my abode in Southern California. The aggregation of the total contents of these packages, when assembled, became a reasonable facsimile of an AstroPhysics Starrier 130 EDT f/8 on a Losmandy GMT German equatorial mount. These top of the line Christen triplet apochromat refractors are much sought after and the dance cards of telescopes currently being built by AstroPhysics are filled far into the future. So I was thrilled when showing a little e-kindness to a very nice gentleman and fellow amateur astronomer got me the opportunity to purchase this superb instrument at a price below what the market would have borne.

Of course regardless of the age of the telescope, so long as the owner is new, the telescope gods will be not be denied. On January 28th 1999 my first attempt to take APhrOdite out to feast on ancient photons was essentially ruined by high cloudiness. Of course not until I had arrived at my observing site, some 2 hours from my home, did the weather turn against me. It then preceed to rain the following day. Quite a feat for Southern California which had been in a bit of a drought. This shows just how angry the telescopes gods can be! LOL!

Last Friday, February 4th 1999, the gods took some measure of pity on me and made the clouds appear before I left home and therefore sparing me the three quarters tank of gas. Saturday they kept me guessing, taunting me, clear now, no cloudy, now clear again, now cloudy. I took my wife shopping and dining instead. Take "that" telescope gods! This brings us to Sunday February 6th. The day dawned crystal clear. A glance at the L.A. NWS satellite maps promised it *should* stay clear. "Praise be the telescope gods." As I drove I15 south towards Temecula CA I kept a wary eye on the clouds moving northward skirting the coastline. Yet ahead, looking directly ahead towards Palomar mountain I could see nothing but clear cobalt blue sky.

As I pulled up to my observing site, the clouds had spread white tendrils inland making a type of "washboard" texture. Blue, white, blue, white. The landscape itself began taking on a orange hue as So bid farewell for the day and horizon became hues Crayola has yet to duplicate. The wind, my companion some 9 days before was back to welcome me with chilly gusts.

For those that have not tried it assembling the Losmandy GM8 goes pretty much like this. Attach the pier extension to the tripod (I just leave this on all the time), place the equatorial head on the pier extension and use three thumb screws to secure it in place. The mount came with hex head bolts for this, it was my idea to replace them with thumb screws. Now screw the declination counterweight shaft into the declination. I then leveled the tripod extending the legs about 6 inches as this is a refractor and at zenith the eyepiece gets a bit low. In fact one thing to remember about a refractor is the eyepiece goes from very high to pretty low! 8) Okay slide on the two 7 pound counterweights, and then slide the dovetail plate with the 5.5 inch rings attached onto the saddle on the top of mount. Connect the RA and DEC cords from the control panel to the motors, make sure the mount is turned off and plug the 12v DC converter in. It sounds like alot, but it takes all of 6 or 7 minutes in practice.

With the GM8 setup I took the APO and set her into the cradle rings. Although fairly light, one is mindful of just what these things cost when hefting them into the rings. Looking skyward I could see clearings and clouds. No sign what kind of night it was going to be. I took a bag of tire chains, quite heavy, and plopped it in the middle of the Losmandy tripod spreader hoping to increase the mass and decrease the wind induced vibrations. As the night went on I would find it had helped, but only somewhat. The big APO is just too much for this mount with any significant wind. Yes, I know extending the legs is a mistake as well, but the alternative is to hunch over alot. The real alternative is to sell the GM8 and schlep a G11 around... 8)

I had brought my wife's APS camera along and shot 14 snapshots with APhrOdite posing and looking her photogenic best in the fading daylight. I'll post them when they are developed. I think you'll enjoy seeing her and the site.

As the sun fell into horizon the most emaciated young moon seemed to hang it's shingle on a fairly bright star just to it's southwest. Surely a sign from the telescope gods that they had spared me?? What an awesome sight! But what star??? I turned to my trusty planetarium, a Dell laptop, and brought up Starry Night Pro, my choice for a planetarium program. Star! That's no star it's the elusive fleet footed messenger himself Mercury. Mercury was accompanying this 1.4 day old Luna on down towards the horizon. Almost as if leading the way. Though not acclimated to the temperature outside the her carry case, I had to swing the APO to the horizon and see what could be seen. I popped in the 12mm Nagler T4 and took a gander. Mercury presented a tiny gibbous disk that roiled in the thick atmosphere. APO or not, the view was very colorful! No detail could be made out of course. But I was pleased the first target of the night was such an elusive quarry!

The slats in the cloudy washboard pattern began to fade and the clouds stretched out to contrail like thin lines. There were too be sure, larger hazy patches, but as long as I picked and chose my targets carefully I could avoid them. Sirius, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Capella, Procyon, Castor, they all scintillated to beat the band. Or maybe I should say to the wind! Seeing was maybe a 4 early in the evening gradually making it to 6. Transparency was pretty good where ever the high altitude clouds were not. Call it a 6. With my eyesight limiting magnitude is tough to judge but early in the evening I could make out M36, M37, and M38, and then later in the evening I could see M67 naked eye.

So it was time to make the APO earn her keep. I had a laundry list of M's, NGC's, and doubles I wanted to get to know full well I'd be lucky to get to 10% of them. That's how it always goes, my planning eyes are always bigger than my observing stomach. So I bet you think I started with Jupiter or Saturn right? After all, is there any one item it should excel on? And you'd be right. But I realized my first views of both would likely be ruined by the awful seeing. Why not wait for a better night? And so I did. Messier 38 got the honors.

Using my choice for an altas, Sky Map Pro 6, we tracked down: NGC 1907, NGC 1931, M36, KING 8 (the most difficult DSO for the night), M37, M1, M45, STF8 (Alcyone), M42, M43, NGC1977, NGC869 and 889 the double cluster, M78, Split Rigel (Beta Orionis), M46, M47, NGC 2423, M93, M50, M48, M67, M44, M41, M35, NGC 2158, Split Castor (Alpha Geminorum), Split Delta Geminorum, Did not split Eta Geminorum.

Lessons for the night. This 5.1 inch telescope is no 18 inch dob. Lets face it. No telescope is above the laws of physics. So lets put that to rest right now. An XT8 (8 inch dob), which costs 1/10th what I paid, makes a brighter image. For example, M46 in my opinion is one of the night sky's most excellent clusters because of the presence of the 11th magnitude planetary nebula NGC2438. Yet at 33x (31mm Nagler) the planetary was invisible. I thought I had the wrong cluster (M47 is nearby). But no, it was the right cluster, the finder showed that. When I went to 47x I just noticed the little puff ball on the northern edge of the cluster. Going to 65x made a gorgeous view. But, wow! What a difference! In the 18 inch the planetary leaps out and grabs you! What a difference a foot makes! LOL! That said...

What an incredible instrument! The focus SNAPS in a crispness you must experience to believe. I mean given the seeing, I rate it at 4 or 5 early in the evening, rarely was there EVER a doubt where the APhrOdite focused. "BAM!" as Emerald would say. Everything leaps into focus. My observing buddy kept saying over and over again, "The stars are little tiny points!".

Even though seeing was pretty bad, the APO separated Rigel easily. I have never bothered much with double stars. I can see that's going to change. LOL! No, splitting Rigel is no big deal, but the two components vary in magnitude a bit. They are a wide 9.5" pair, but the primary is magnitude 0.1 and secondary is magnitude 6.8!

Delta Geminorum is just as easy/hard at magnitudes 3.5 and 8.2 separated by 6.8 arc seconds and I split that sucker too! Not to shabby in the early morning 5 or 6 seeing. IIRC that's a ~97x difference is brightness (2.5^5 is that correct?)

However Eta Geminorum would not split at 1.4 arc seconds and magnitude 3.3 and 8.8! LOL! No problem there!? 8)

To paraphrase the last U.S. Presidential election, "It's the contrast stupid!" The APO puts up a deep, dark, background that lets you see all the 5.1 inch aperture can deliver. If I could describe it I'd say: "The optics get out of your way, leaving you with the object and your soul." Flowery? Perhaps. But true. Viewing the double cluster in the 31mm Nagler's 2.3 degree field of view may not be as wonderful as a night on the town with my wife, it is not, but it's the next best thing. 8)

Here's another lesson learned: Always put away your eyepieces! Either in the case or in a holder. I swiped my arm across the observing table and knock the 31mm Nagler onto the concrete pad. Ouch is right! =:^0 You have NO idea what that feels like. No glass was damaged but the barrel is dented. It's on it's way to the TeleVue emergency room as I write this. 8( Estimated at $60 damage. It could have been worse.

Well I hope you enjoyed this report as much as I enjoyed observing with my new toy to produce it. Sorry it's so long but I promised the former owner a report. This scope won't replace my 18 inch LITEBOX dobsonian, but it's not being sold anytime soon either. There is something to be said for the views through a finely crafted instrument such as these high end APOs. The views have an aesthetic quality that is hard to put into words.