by Jay Freeman
Desperately seeking photons at the end of a soggy month, I took Gillian, my Astro-Physics 10-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain, to the parking lot for the Dinosaur Point boat-launch site on California's San Luis Reservoir, on February 27, 2001. A four-day Moon lit the sky, and I had work the next day, but it was clear! The weather cooperated further with temperatures in the high 40s (F), little wind, no dew, and good transparency over much of the sky, particularly in the areas I was viewing, near the south horizon.
I had brought the AP-10 hoping for good seeing, but it was not to be. Jupiter was very wobbly when I lined up my finders on it, and although Castor was split wide open at 309x, the diffraction patterns of its two bright components were both blurs, even though the star was near the zenith. Procyon and Sirius showed no hint of separation.
Notwithstanding, I had plenty of galaxies to look at, and by that time the Moon had set, so the sky was quite dark. My perusal of Millennium Star Atlas had worked its way around to 10 to 12 hours right ascension, from 27 to 39 degrees south declination, in Antlia and Hydra. I surveyed nearby parts of the sky nearly a year ago, in preparation for an article on the ghost constellation, "Felis", for Sky & Telescope. For that work, I had used Harvey, my Celestron 14, but his feminine companion does nearly as well with deep-sky targets: Many Millennium galaxies took patience to discover, but I found all the ones I looked for, mostly at 93x (40 mm Vernonscope Erfle).
Of particular note was the area of Abell S 636, a cluster of galaxies near 10:30 -35 19.4, more or less centered on NGC 3268. Strewn over an area not much more than a degree wide are more than a dozen galaxies well within range of the AP-10, and I expect that Harvey might reveal some more. None were bright enough to show much detail, and several required averted vision and persistence to see, but a rich cluster of galaxies is thrilling, and this is a nice one.
I continue impressed with Gillian as a deep-sky telescope, and it helps that it is notably quicker and easier to set up than Harvey. Not only is the optical tube lighter, but also there are fewer pieces to deal with. I only need two counterweights for the AP-10, and do not have to mess with the interface piece I built to go between Harvey's OTA and the dovetail plate of the Losmandy G-11.
I had brought another instrument, my Orion 25x100 binocular. Despite my best intentions, I manage to use this monster moderately well hand-held, or at least, propped on the door tops or roof rack of my car. (Maybe I should try hand-holding a Vixen 125 mm binocular -- just kidding.) On this night, I completed my Messier survey with it. It was fun going through the heart of the Virgo galaxy cluster with this instrument -- all the Messier galaxies there were extremely easy with it. I could see others as well, but I was tired and lazy -- I did not start with the binocular until after I had put the AP-10 to bed -- and so did not take time to identify them all.