Yesterday I finally recharged my Harbor Freight battery/power pack after almost a year of inactivity (for use with my NexStar GT mount), after reading Jim’s (Juno 16) article in which he used his NexStar 130 SLT to observe double stars. Previously I made the mistake of not recharging my Celestron Power Tank on a regular basis, mainly because I avoided any
GOTO observing for 5 years.
Tonight was forecast to be clear, so I mounted my C90Mak on the NexStar GT – I’ve never used these two together before. I wanted to see how the Mak performed on
DSOs in urban skies.
The NexStar GT is a more basic version of the SLT – there is no auxiliary port, no power switch, and no internal battery housing.
A variety of magnifications were used (39x, 62.5x, 73.5x, 139x):
o) Moon – stunning at 39x and 73.5x
o) M41
o) M67 - dim
o) M44
o)
NGC 2362 – pushed this one all the way to 139x
o) M35 – beautiful at 39x, even in urban skies
o) M48
o) M50
o) CMa 145 or h3945 – the Winter Albireo; pretty double (blue and yellow/gold)
o)
NGC 2392 – the Eskimo Nebula; easy to spot even with 39x and without a filter (I used a broadband UHC filter on this as well)
A fun session overall – lasted a little over an hour.
Back in 2014, I “discovered” planetary nebula
IC 2149 (Constellation = Aur; V = 10.6; Size = 15"x10") at a darker sky site with the C90Mak. The only time this scope did any “serious” astronomy work.
Scopes: Reflectors, refractors, and 1 catadioptric. Ranging in aperture from 50mm to 150mm.
