by Joe Fragola
Part 2 - First Light!!
When Orion Telescopes & Binoculars called to tell me my scope had arrived, it had been 3 months, 12 days, and 3 hours 30 minutes since I had placed my order for the XT10 (not that I was keeping close track of how long I had been waiting or anything). After a night of fog on Thursday, 7/19 sky conditions improved the next night. There was a bit of fog to the SSW that covered part of the tail of Scorpius, but never advanced any further. Mars and Antares were in the clear. The rest of the sky was also in the clear, so I was able to align/focus the finder and get first light on Friday July 20!!
My goals for the night were short and simple - view some easy objects that I could find without charts and compare views to those I had seen while using an XT8 “loaner scope”. Please bear in mind that my observing location was from my driveway in Silicon Valley. Here are the handful of objects I viewed during “First Light Night”.
| Observer | Joe Fragola |
|---|---|
| Date/Time | 07/20/01 9:30pm – 11:25pm PDT |
| Location | San Jose, CA (37.2562° N 121.8898° W) |
| Temp | low to mid 60s |
| Telescope | 10" (1250mm) Orion SkyQuest XT10 Dobsonian (f/5) |
| Eyepieces and magnification |
Orion 2x Shorty-Plus Barlow
7.5mm Plossl (167x) 9mm Plossl (139x) 12.5mm Plossl (100x) 20mm Plossl (63x) 25mm Plossl (50x) |
| Filters | None |
| M4 | It wasn't completely dark yet, but not counting Antares which I used to do my finder scope alignment and focusing, the first light object was M4 - the globular cluster about one degree to the west of Antares. I used the 25mm eyepiece (50x) and the globular looked pretty good. I could see that the stars weren’t as densely packed as those in M13, but the sky wasn't completely dark yet. |
|---|---|
| Mars | I decided to look at Mars next. No details were seen using the 25mm (50x) and 9mm (139x), separately and also using the 2x Barlow (100x and 278x, respectively). Using the XT8 about a month ago I was able to see some dark markings on the Red Planet using the 9mm eyepiece. Since the global dust storm hit, the views have been basically featureless. My eyes aren’t trained to see subtle details yet, so if there was a hint of a polar cap visible, I missed it. |
| M57 | On to the Ring Nebula next. The planetary nebula was a faint, grayish-colored smoke ring viewed through the 25mm eyepiece (50x). Using the 9mm with the 2x Barlow (magnification of 278x) you could make out the contrast between the nebula and the darker hole in the center easily. The XT8 did not show the center hole as easily as the XT10 did. |
| Albireo | I’ve nicknamed this gem of a double the “Cub Scout double star” due to the fact that the colors of the two components are gold and blue which are the two colors that make up a Cub Scout’s uniform. The nickname is a cheap way of getting an extra “cool” comment or two out of the couple of Cub Scout groups I’ve done star parties for using the XT8. The XT10 showed the pair very clearly, but as I recall the view was not obviously superior in the XT10 versus the XT8. |
| 61 Cygni | I had noted this double star from another observing report I had read recently, so I decided to take a look. This double is attractive because both components are orange in color. When I started looking at double star lists for candidates to observe, I checked two main properties - separation and color of the component stars. While it’s cool to contemplate the physics of a double star system, when I actually look I don’t want to see two plain white stars - I want colors! |
| Gamma Delphini | OK, so this one was not as colorful as the first two doubles, but was very easy to locate. The component star colors for Gamma Del are listed as yellow and green, but I saw a yellow primary and a pale bluish colored companion. This pair did have further appeal - the fainter double star, Struve 2725 was in the same field. Two doubles for the price of locating one!! |
| M13 | Located almost directly overhead this time of year, M13 provided a good back break.....er, stretching exercise. One of the best objects of the night was the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. I found myself murmuring “This is a good one” several times. It was spectacular! With the XT8, it was harder to resolve any of the central stars. But the XT10 showed them really well....very sparkly and impressive. |
Overall, I'm very pleased with the performance of the XT10. I can honestly say hat it was worth the wait. The star images are sharp and there's no distortion at the edges of any of the fields of view. Right now I’m content with becoming familiar with my new scope and viewing a variety of brighter, easy to find objects. I’m not worrying about collimating the scope right now, but I’ll want to get to that soon. I realize that I need to work on improving a number of things such as training my eye to become more sensitive to subtle features, planning a more efficient and organized observing program when I go out, and developing a format for an observing logbook.