Dinosaur Point, 2009.04.18

Jay Reynolds Freeman

I spent some deep-sky time reviewing galaxies in Virgo and Coma Berenices, generally using a magnification of 103x (8mm Brandon or a Vixen Lanthanum 8-24 mm zoom eyepiece set at the high-magnification end of its range -- the zoom feature of the latter is very useful for quickly backing off to a larger field for finding things or for orientation). I started with old friend and favorite NGC 4565 -- the dark lane, central lens and star-like core of this magnificent edge-on spiral were all easily visible -- then moved on to the area of Markarian's chain. The "smile face" at the heart of the Virgo cluster was prominent -- this is the pattern of galaxies (should we call it a galaxterism, like asterism?) comprising M84, M86, and NGC 4387 and 4388: With the right orientation, the two Messier galaxies are the eyes, the long edge-on view of NGC 4388 is the mouth, and NGC 4387, somewhat fainter, makes a nice nose. Moving out the chain, I was delighted to find not only that all of the NGC galaxies that I regard as part of the chain were visible, but also that they were easy. For the sake of being definite, I will say that I logged NGC 4435, 4438, 4458, 4461, 4473, 4479, 4477, 4446, 4447, 4459, 4468 and 4474. I also noticed NGC 4402, just north of M86. Perhaps it is a cynically raised eyebrow for the smile face.

I had fun with some double stars. Gamma Virginis has been widening recently -- it was an easy split at 216x (Pentax SMC-ED 3.8 mm Orthoscopic), even while the seeing was soft, and epsilon Bootis was clearly resolved even at 103x. A few doubles in Corona Borealis were rather more of a mixed bag, all at 216x. Gamma was what I would describe as a contact figure-eight, with the two central portions of the Airy discs merging; it was much less well resolved than gamma Virginis. The close pair of eta was unresolved, though I suspected an elongation at times. Zeta was easy at 103x.

Saturn had been soft early in the evening, but a later view through a nearby 10.5-inch Maksutov/Newtonian with Intes optics demonstrated that the seeing had cleaned up, so I made haste to reacquire it. At 216x the view was gorgeous, with the planet's pale disc showing several faint bands and four moons visible -- Rhea and Titan on one side of the planet, Tethys and Dione on the other. Someone was reporting a fifth moon, presumably Enceladus, closer in, in a larger telescope, but I could not see it, even with higher magnification (2.8 mm Takahashi Orthoscopic, 292x) and with the disc and most of the rings carefully moved out of the eyepiece field. The view was in any case spectacular, and drew quite a line of fellow observers.

The Gran Turismo is new enough that many have not seen one. The instrument is of course extremely compact, almost a cartoon caricature of a telescope. While we were observing I would occasionally hold up my hands by the tube to show how short it is with the dewcap retracted and the long, fat focuser moved fully forward. I had it mounted on a Losmandy G-11, which is more than enough for it, even in windy conditions. I had been wondering whether my eyepieces would perform well with as fast an instrument as f/6.3 and one with more than enough optical quality to demonstrate any eyepiece faults, but the Brandons and the Vixen zoom were all fine.

I also told the story of how I managed to get a Gran Turismo from the first production run without even being on the wait list, much less having been there for a decade or more. Back when Roland announced the new, highly portable version of the 130, the Astro-Physics folks were asking on the mailing list for suggestions for names for it, and I was in fact the first person to suggest "Gran Turismo". (It seemed a logical successor to "Traveler", and I knew that Roland was into hot cars.) I had in fact almost forgotten that I had made the suggestion, and since two of my AP OTAs bracket the 130 (I have a six-inch f/8 pre-EDT triplet and a Brandon 98 -- yes, 98, but that is another story) I was indeed not on the wait list for the 130s. So when Marge called me last summer and said that in view of the fact that I had submitted the winning name, would I like to go to the head of the line and get a chance to buy one right away?

I was expecting at most a baseball cap, but it would have been unacceptably rude to turn her down ...

So after picking myself up off the floor, I placed the order, and I am not disappointed. The Gran Turismo is a prominent high point on the curve of visual performance versus portability, and I expect mine will get used a lot.

Someone asked if I was going to do a custom paint job on the Gran Turismo OTA. Readers of my postings may recall that I have a dayglow-red Vixen 55 mm fluorite, and a dayglow-orange Celestron 8 that I sometimes refer to as "Celestron Classic", and that my Brandon 98 is pearlescent pink with gold trim, decorated specifically to look like something that would be at home in the drawing room of a very expensive 19th-century bordello, so the question was not entirely out of line.

Maybe pin-stripes ...

If anyone would like to see some images of my setup for this instrument, as I write these words I have a few pictures of telescopes, including the Gran Turismo and a more traditional refractor, on the "Telescopes" page of my personal web site, whose home page URL is http://web.mac.com/Jay_Reynolds_Freeman.

-- Jay Reynolds Freeman