Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Orion 100ED first light

It's not exactly the first light, but it's definitely the first light in the conventional sense. The first light received was on the sun via H-alpha filter set, and white light in Herschel wedge. This time, it's under the night sky! Sad to say it's under my urban home sky only.

Transparency is low like 3/10, and there is only under 5 naked eye stars. I pulled out my Gitzo G106 (!!!) with my Unistar Light to mount this long OTA! Given the light weight of this OTA, this mount handles it well at least at the low power which I've tested. I only tested with my 40mm Pentax SMC XL.

I've to lock the focuser a little bit more than usual with a 2" mirror diagonal and that Pentax, otherwise it will slip slowly downward. Therefore, I guess I ain't going to cut the OTA for binoviewer unless I plan to change the focuser as well.

The view through the eyepiece is superb! At f/9, the Pentax performs extremely well and the field is very flat indeed. No need to re-focus for even the stars close to the field stop. Stars are absolutely pinpoint, the contrast is very high. If you ever view through an SCT, you will know refractor stars are far finer! And I don't recall seeing so many stars in a "random field of view" from inside my home. On quick scanning, you see no star, but once you stop, the stars pop into view!

I can't wait to bring it to darker sky!

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